My Khazars were formed up in three commands, with the centre made up of 4 Burtas (Cav(O), and half a dozen LHF, thee Left by The Khagan, 6 Royal Cav(S), and 4 LHF, and the Right by 6 more Royal Cav(O), and more LHF. I also hired an Alan Ally, with 6 Knights and 5 LHS. The Abbasids disposed of a huge wodge of Spearmen (about 24 I think), 6 Warbands (double-based), 4 or 6 Auxilia/Hillmen, 6 or 7 LHO, 10 or 12 Bowmen, and about 16 Cav - all Ordinary I believe.
The terrain was pretty flat, as you can imagine given two cavalry armies - there was a river drifting down the right flank, with a village on the banks near my delpoyment, and a gentle rise on the other side of the river in the Abbasid deployment area. As we were resisting the vicious Muslim incursions :-), we deployed first, placing the Burtas and skirmishers in the centre. After some debate I decided not to place a command across the river, for fear of it being uncrossable (in reasonable time anyway), so I placed the Alans on the extreme left, with my own Command between them and the centre, and the rest of the Royal cavalry beside the stream. The Abbasid Spear filled the middle of his deployment, with his right made up of the Caliph Muhammed al-Bruce, a large chunk of Cavalry deployed in depth, supported by the Bow, and a small independant command of LH. His left was made up of Warband & Auxilia (on the rise), supported by the rest of his cavalry.
My basic plan was to skirmish with the spears, face off his Cavalry on the left, and try to use the Alans to crunch the extreme end of his line, then turn on the Cavalry in support. His initial plan was (I think) to pin me to the base with a few LH, then bring up the Spear and squeeze me off the board, relying on covering the flank of the spears with his cavalry.
The battle started with a couple of Abbasid Light Cav, hidden among the Spear, dashing across the table, in an attempt to pin the Khazars back. Unfortunately they forgot the speed of the Khazar Light Horse, so in their turn, they were surrounded and crushed, while the Khazars streamed across the field. The Abbasids then approached cautiously, making sure that the cavalry maintained dressing with the Spearmen. I thought better of my first decision, and sent the bulk of the Right hand cavalry, with supporting Light Horse, across what turned out to be a small stream, not too difficult to cross. To cover this, I switched the bulk of the Burta command to the Right, leaving only a desultory few Light Horse to cover the spearmen..
The Abbasid Light Horse initially came forward on the extreme Left, then decided that the Alan Light Horse were too much for them, so retired, eventually to behind the centre of the spears. The Alans, much emboldened, then plunged onto the exposed archers, having mixed results, but generally breaking up the archer line. Unfortunately, the Alan Nobles, thinking they might miss out on a fight, decided to plunge in also, leading to considerable congestion and confusion, and not a few casualties.
The Abbasid Cavalry on this wing then rolled forward to intervene. They were initially halted by the Alan nobles, who were then reinforced by the bulk of the Royal Cavalry, although I took the precaution of detaching a few to engage the flanking spearmen. A long and somewhat confused melee ensued.
Meanwhile, on the opposite flank, the Il-likhan cavalry splashed across the stream in fine style, only to be held up for inordinate lengths of time by a single group of skirmishers who *would not die* despite several charges from the cavalry (crap dice). The light horse facing the Abbasid left ran down a few stray skirmishers, then withdrew, suffering one or two casualties of their own, while the Abbasids covered the stream with half of the cavalry they had there. At this point, some lamentable pip dice (matched by my own I might add) caused the Abbasid warbands to plunge down off the hill, some wading slowly across the stream, others plunging off in pursuit of the Khazar Light Horse. I sent some Light horse to take advantage of this, on each side of the stream, but some doughty fighting from the warbands prevented their mutual destruction by recoil - twice. The Abbasid spearmen, who had started pivoting on both flanks, breaking into 2 lines, were then released from control by the Caliph, and started madly charging towards both wings.
At this point on the Khazar left, the Alans decided they'd had enough. The remnants of the Alan Light horse fled, although the remaining nobles elected to persist (good PIP dice!) and in the following turn avenged their losses by trapping and slaying the Caliph himself. However, the advent of the impetuous spearmen started pressing back the remaining Royal Cavalry, though not yet to much effect. Unfortunately, a truly lamentable die roll for PIPs on the subsequent turn left the right hand cavalry (across the stream) still wading across, and the remaining Burta's and Light Horse largely bereft of direction, while the control was concentrated on extracting the Khagan's command from under the spears of the Abbasids.
The wise & crafty Abbasid commander of course leapt on this opportunity, driving forward with the Light Horse in the (split) centre), and bringing up the reserve cavalry on the right, to crush the somewhat incautious dispersed Burta command, which fled the field promptly. This led to a general retreat. Final result 2-8 against me, oh well.