Come on guys, have you even MET Nikephoros? You know Nikephoros isn't going to leave his back unguarded, he's left some troops there, enough to hold the mongols until the situation can be assessed and dealt with properly in the event of an invasion.
If he has managed to get 200,000 troops, he could leave somewhere between 25,000 and 50,000 there, and still have a very sizable force, which could be enough to beat back Andronikos, since they have many troops tied down in Spain, and guard duty in Cherson and Azov against the Danes.
It seems as though Egypt might be somehow disloyal or rebellious, we heard some unkind words about the Egyptian despotes a few updates back, I believe. If Egypt merely refuses to mobilize for either Gabriel or Andronikos, that deprives Andronikos of a LOT of troops and the ability to pincer the invaders from the south and north at once and cut them off hopefully. If Egypt actually helps Gabriel, we're probably adding 100,000 more troops to that 100,000-150,000 from Persia, That would outnumber Andronikos' armies in the field 2:1 most likely, when you consider the 75,000+ tied down in Spain, and the 35,000+ in the north, Gabriel would be at a serious advantage unless Andronikos can manage to coerce every Dynatoi he's still got to mobilize troops in defense.
Even then Andronikos would not have an advantage by much, I don't think. However if Egypt stays loyal, and sends those 100,000 to fight Gabriel's 150,000, Andronikos should have at LEAST 150,000 troops I would think in the Anatolian, Balkan, and Levant areas, as well as the Caucasus, and that'd be enough to have a decent advantage for Andronikos. So I feel like Egypt could be the major deciding factor in this war, if Persia has wooed Egypt to them, we could see serious problems, (Could have been so simple as promise of the title of Rigas/Sebastokrator ton Aegyptos or whatever the proper greek is, similar to Konstantinos' title change.) but if
the Egyptians just stay neutral, we're seeing a pretty even battlefield, probably dependent on the skill of the commanders and the troop quality more than sheer amounts of men thrown at the other armies.
And if Egypt helps Andronikos, we could see a large pincer maneuver of some sort, with a near 2:1 numerical advantage, cutting off their supplies and defeating the Persians in good order, OR we could see some sort of disaster wherein the "Lion" proves his worth as a commander yet again, and decimates the forces of his young cousin, regardless of numbers.
However at some point sheer numbers will probably always win a fight, if you've got twice as many dudes, your enemy can only attack half of your men, while you can attack each of their men with two men. Even a GOOD fighter is going to be pretty hard pressed to fight two guys at once and come out alive on the battlefield, fighting isn't exactly like in the video games, if a guy gets to your side and pokes your abdomen/back/anywhere organs are with a spear while you're defending against another guy, you don't have enough hitpoints for two more hits or whatever, you leak your guts everywhere and that's the end for you. It's too bad really, if Gabriel's men had ten hitpoints each, they'd win for sure, it'd be like having over a million soldiers :rofl: