Once again, I am up late, and taking a break from work (dissertation proposal once again... its almost done, I feel I deserve a little break). This won't be an update (I haven't started it yet, it'll probably go up next Thursday or Friday most likely), but I'd like to do some replies, and also tell a bit about what happened at Tell Bashir...
AlexanderPrimus - Once again congratulations! I'll put it bluntly - you were an extremely easy pick for me to nominate. Your AAR is a carefully pieced together wonder (compared to my cumbersome, often haphazard work ). I can only hope you'll keep advising me on music choices for the AAR! (I have several lined up - AP has heard them already)
canonized - Yes, I thought it was time Temujin made his appearance. Officially he was born circa 1162, but a) this is alternate history, 1161 isn't far off, and b) 1162 is an estimate. Sure he won't show up again for a long while, but it was a pleasant aside from events in Europe and the Middle East.
And yes, Zeno does underestimate Basil. While Basil has scruples, he isn't a slouch... as a kid his intrigue score is decent. Its more Basil knows all sorts of ways he can cause trouble, he's just has too many scruples to use many of them. Will that be a fatal flaw? We'll have to see.
VILenin - Kosmas isn't dead! The messenger reported that the Megas Doux barely escaped, one of a precious few. As for Manuel, he is down, he's in horrible pain, but he is definitely not out. At the very least he's getting vengeance on Zeno by staying alive - look for him to try to add to that.
Fulcrumvale - That problem seems to plague the would be usurpers. Zeno's case its not necessarily incapability, but really really bad luck. His double assassination plan failed in that Manuel and Basil are both alive (even if the Emperor is crippled) and he was off by one year on his estimate of when the Turks would come. All of this put together has foiled his plan - he's the Regent, titularly in charge, but his powers are hamstrung by competing factions and the ongoing crisis. If Manuel had died, Zeno could have pulled a John Tzimices or Nikephoros Phokas and claimed co-emperorship with the minor Basil, and pushed the kid aside to rule on his own. If Basil had died, he could have manuevered himself into being heir and co-emperor, pushing Manuel aside. If the Turks hadn't invaded, he would have had a precious year to corral the bureaucracy, the church, and the dynatoi to the point the army's objections might be invalid. Alas for poor Zeno...
kalendaree - Not likely. If the two met when Genghis historically has troops roaming in Armenia and Georgia, the early 1220s, Genghis would be in his early sixties and Basil would be in his late seventies (born in 1147). While Genghis was still capable into old age, it would definitely be a Battle of the Geriatrics.
Enewald - Well, that's all according to Mongolian tradition. I looked up some more stuff on it, some genealogists guess that those features could mean that Temujin's family had Tatar blood. The problem is we don't have any portraits made of Genghis from his lifetime (according to wiki), so we'll never really know.
As for Tell Bashir... see below.
English Patriot - Grim would be an understatement - the Turks now have the keys to Anatolia. We can only hope this wasn't a Manzikert...
RGB - I'd disagree. He's managed to pull a coup on Manuel when no one else could - even if the Emperor's only badly injured, Zeno came far closer than Basiliea could ever hope. It's that events larger than him came together to ruin everything for him... so far.
Tell Bashir is probably the most crushing Roman defeat since Nikephoros I was killed by the Bulgars in the 9th century. Kosmas, being relentlessly chased by two Turkish armies and finding his path of escape blocked, resolved to make a stand on a hill outside the small village of Tell Bashir. The Megas Doux hoped to badly maul the Turks during the day, then slip away with his army that night. By the book, it was about as good of a plan that could be developed in such desperate circumstances - the Romanoi were more heavily armed, man for man, than their opponents. Historically, when the Romanoi stood on the defensive and let the Turks come to them, the odds had been in their favor.
However, Kosmas had not counted on Sultan Sulieman's ability in the field. Unlike the last time the Turks faced the Romans, the Turks were not lead by a leader who felt he only had to bludgeon the Romans to death. Sulieman from the beginning stretched the Roman lines - even as his infantry went forward to skirmish with the Romanoi, his cavalry galloped north. Kosmas was thus forced to keep half his cavalry in reserve to combat this threat. Additionally, Sulieman did not order immediate full scale assaults on the Roman lines like the Turks did at Nineveh - he sent his light troops forward to skirmish with bow and javelin, harassing the Romans, holding them in place, while not wasting his men's lives.
Around noon about 8,000 Turkishn horse completed their circuit around the Roman lines, and Kosmas was forced to charge them with his cavalry reserve to keep them at bay. Once again, the Turks had been instructed to threaten and skirmish, but not fully engage. Thus the last Roman reserves were occupied when Sulieman's infantry genuinely went forward. There were no cavalry to assist the skoutatoi like at Nineveh, and steadily the were forced back. Sulieman concentrated his attacks on the left and the right, forcing Kosmas to draw reinforcements to threatened areas from his center. Around two in the afternoon, four hours after the battle started, Sulieman delivered his coup de grace - 12,000 of his newly reformed heavily armored ghulams smashed into the weakened Roman center.
The Roman army came unhinged. The center gone made both the left and the cavalry reserves suddenly surrounded. Only the Roman cavalry on the extreme right were able to successfully flee. The Turks then fully used their cavalry advantage to run down Roman survivors. The vast majority of Roman losses at Tell Bashir were not killed or wounded - maybe 10,000 suffered such a fate. Most were captured in the pell mell retreat that lasted all through the night - some 24,000 in total. Only Nineveh and Mount Tabor have come close to this sheer decisiveness in the history of the Komnenid Empire. It remains to be seen if this was a shameful blip, or the start of something more horrible...
AlexanderPrimus - Once again congratulations! I'll put it bluntly - you were an extremely easy pick for me to nominate. Your AAR is a carefully pieced together wonder (compared to my cumbersome, often haphazard work ). I can only hope you'll keep advising me on music choices for the AAR! (I have several lined up - AP has heard them already)
canonized - Yes, I thought it was time Temujin made his appearance. Officially he was born circa 1162, but a) this is alternate history, 1161 isn't far off, and b) 1162 is an estimate. Sure he won't show up again for a long while, but it was a pleasant aside from events in Europe and the Middle East.
And yes, Zeno does underestimate Basil. While Basil has scruples, he isn't a slouch... as a kid his intrigue score is decent. Its more Basil knows all sorts of ways he can cause trouble, he's just has too many scruples to use many of them. Will that be a fatal flaw? We'll have to see.
VILenin - Kosmas isn't dead! The messenger reported that the Megas Doux barely escaped, one of a precious few. As for Manuel, he is down, he's in horrible pain, but he is definitely not out. At the very least he's getting vengeance on Zeno by staying alive - look for him to try to add to that.
Fulcrumvale - That problem seems to plague the would be usurpers. Zeno's case its not necessarily incapability, but really really bad luck. His double assassination plan failed in that Manuel and Basil are both alive (even if the Emperor is crippled) and he was off by one year on his estimate of when the Turks would come. All of this put together has foiled his plan - he's the Regent, titularly in charge, but his powers are hamstrung by competing factions and the ongoing crisis. If Manuel had died, Zeno could have pulled a John Tzimices or Nikephoros Phokas and claimed co-emperorship with the minor Basil, and pushed the kid aside to rule on his own. If Basil had died, he could have manuevered himself into being heir and co-emperor, pushing Manuel aside. If the Turks hadn't invaded, he would have had a precious year to corral the bureaucracy, the church, and the dynatoi to the point the army's objections might be invalid. Alas for poor Zeno...
kalendaree - Not likely. If the two met when Genghis historically has troops roaming in Armenia and Georgia, the early 1220s, Genghis would be in his early sixties and Basil would be in his late seventies (born in 1147). While Genghis was still capable into old age, it would definitely be a Battle of the Geriatrics.
Enewald - Well, that's all according to Mongolian tradition. I looked up some more stuff on it, some genealogists guess that those features could mean that Temujin's family had Tatar blood. The problem is we don't have any portraits made of Genghis from his lifetime (according to wiki), so we'll never really know.
As for Tell Bashir... see below.
English Patriot - Grim would be an understatement - the Turks now have the keys to Anatolia. We can only hope this wasn't a Manzikert...
RGB - I'd disagree. He's managed to pull a coup on Manuel when no one else could - even if the Emperor's only badly injured, Zeno came far closer than Basiliea could ever hope. It's that events larger than him came together to ruin everything for him... so far.
======*======
Tell Bashir is probably the most crushing Roman defeat since Nikephoros I was killed by the Bulgars in the 9th century. Kosmas, being relentlessly chased by two Turkish armies and finding his path of escape blocked, resolved to make a stand on a hill outside the small village of Tell Bashir. The Megas Doux hoped to badly maul the Turks during the day, then slip away with his army that night. By the book, it was about as good of a plan that could be developed in such desperate circumstances - the Romanoi were more heavily armed, man for man, than their opponents. Historically, when the Romanoi stood on the defensive and let the Turks come to them, the odds had been in their favor.
However, Kosmas had not counted on Sultan Sulieman's ability in the field. Unlike the last time the Turks faced the Romans, the Turks were not lead by a leader who felt he only had to bludgeon the Romans to death. Sulieman from the beginning stretched the Roman lines - even as his infantry went forward to skirmish with the Romanoi, his cavalry galloped north. Kosmas was thus forced to keep half his cavalry in reserve to combat this threat. Additionally, Sulieman did not order immediate full scale assaults on the Roman lines like the Turks did at Nineveh - he sent his light troops forward to skirmish with bow and javelin, harassing the Romans, holding them in place, while not wasting his men's lives.
Around noon about 8,000 Turkishn horse completed their circuit around the Roman lines, and Kosmas was forced to charge them with his cavalry reserve to keep them at bay. Once again, the Turks had been instructed to threaten and skirmish, but not fully engage. Thus the last Roman reserves were occupied when Sulieman's infantry genuinely went forward. There were no cavalry to assist the skoutatoi like at Nineveh, and steadily the were forced back. Sulieman concentrated his attacks on the left and the right, forcing Kosmas to draw reinforcements to threatened areas from his center. Around two in the afternoon, four hours after the battle started, Sulieman delivered his coup de grace - 12,000 of his newly reformed heavily armored ghulams smashed into the weakened Roman center.
The Roman army came unhinged. The center gone made both the left and the cavalry reserves suddenly surrounded. Only the Roman cavalry on the extreme right were able to successfully flee. The Turks then fully used their cavalry advantage to run down Roman survivors. The vast majority of Roman losses at Tell Bashir were not killed or wounded - maybe 10,000 suffered such a fate. Most were captured in the pell mell retreat that lasted all through the night - some 24,000 in total. Only Nineveh and Mount Tabor have come close to this sheer decisiveness in the history of the Komnenid Empire. It remains to be seen if this was a shameful blip, or the start of something more horrible...