Re: Patrol vs. the Cave Dudes

--- Control Robot <cqin@ee.ualberta.ca> wrote:
> One of the weaknesses of the historical Byzantine
> army was that it often
> depended on the quality of the leader.  Under good
> leaders they excelled,
> but poor leaders could wreck the army in a
> generation, to the point where
> military readiness became a joke.  

Yeah, most especially that drooling inbred incompetent
joke of a brother that Basil II left the Empire to.

Of course
> factional infighting was also a
> problem.  If I had a nickel every time some
> Byzantine campaign against
> "barbarians" stalled because some Anatolian noble
> rebelled... :)  Of course

Heh.  Or worse, some Norman mercenary decided the
paycheck wasn't enough, he'd rather take a chunk of
Cilicia.

> On the battlefield, this could mean that you can
> have your armies fighting
> alongside NRE forces against other NRE factions in a
> civil war.  

Havn't had a full-blown civil war (yet) but things got
real shaky after the RH killed an Emperor in battle. 
There actually was a short firefight in the Imperial
palace (the legitemate Emperor personally leading
Varangian against Fleet Marines loyal to an admiral). 
There was also an incident in the same war where a
Spanish mercenary company brought in to garisson
Hellas after we deployed their thematics mutinied and
siezed the planet.  There was also a rebellion by a
corps commander that was stepped on by a demonstration
from the Fleet and a show of force by the Tagmata.

Maybe NAC
> units (or covertly-supported mercenaries) and some
> noble's boukellari fight
> it out with Thematic or even Tagmatic troops?

That's far more likely.

John

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