Lets say you are a Byzantine General who is leading his theme,(Army) into battle against the Ottomans.
You make camp beside a canyon, you see the Ottoman camp on the opposite side. They send a courier to you, he tells you that you have no chance against his master, for he is a almost undefeated commander, and tells you to surrender. You must defeat the Ottomans here or they will go on to raid allied villages.
What do you do?
Battles were uncommon in those days and with good reason. Most of the fights that were fought were sieges. Youtube.com
Yes, but still, this is a good test of ones tactical ability.
I need more information that just what is provided here to give a good answer. What is the size (depth, width, length) of the canyon. Can I somehow manage to get their forces into it? What other assets could I use? And so on. There just isn't enough description to be able to compose a decent battle plan.
The Canyon is very long so going around is out, it's quite wide, but their is a bridge in between the two camps, but the Ottomans have it under their control. The canyon is very deep. You have a squad of Greek flamethrower units. You have cavalry, infantry, and ranged units. Altogether you have equal forces with the Ottomans, you can't make out what kind of units they have. There is no visible way to get into the canyon from either side.
However the kind of tactic I have in mind works on all terrains and in almost any situation.
Hmmm so I guess shooting arrows across is out of the question? The cavalry is pretty useless if you can't charge with them so I'd save those for later. The bridge I assume isn't some sketchy one person wide walkway that seems as if it will fall any second and instead it's probably made out of stone? And is wide enough for a caravan... So with no way of making the enemy attack you how do you expect to win? I mean you could try getting them off guard by faking a surrender. That's the best my mind can do at 2:30am:(
Well, you can delay the battle by having your Flame throwers cover the bridge with Greek fire, it would burn for days so the Ottomans wouldn't reclaim the bridge any time soon.
But, that wouldn't win the battle, so here is the Byzantine Tactic that won countless battles.
You would tell the courier to deliver a sealed message to only the enemy commander, this would be very peculiar because usually couriers relay the messages by word, but here's a secretive document for only the commanders eyes? That would warrant investigation. The courier brings the document to one of the commanders underlings, the underling opens it to find that the Byzantines are congratulating the Commander in his recent defection to the Byzantine cause. Undoubtedly this will cause a mutiny, a lot of lower ranking soldiers will join the underling, but the higher ranking ones would stay with the commander. A battle breaks out and the bridge guards are more interested in the hullabaloo in their camp then your forces. Your Cataphracts charge, mow down the gate guards, and decimate the feuding Ottoman forces. This kind of tactic was used by the Byzantines often, they also had fake surrenders, sneak attacks, and skirmishing, (Not the average tactics for a Christian nation wouldn't you say?) :)
Clever, very clever...
Yep, why waste manpower if you can defeat them with a piece of paper. :)
what troops do i have at my command?
Excuse me?
sorry i did not see the top comment i was asking what troops did the byzantine's have. i know now and the question was answered.