Pecheneg (III/47)

1. The Devil's Brats

2. Horse-archer and wagon grading

1."The Devil's Brats"

Author: Duncan Head

Proposal:

Delete the following sentence from the list notes:

"Any nation that can inspire the proverb "as stupid as a Pecheneg", yet which can reply to a Byzantine emperor's attempt to set them on the Turks with the polite message that "since the Turks are both numerous and fierce we do not wish to do so, and furthermore, we hope he will be so tactful as never to mention the matter again", has something to be said for it."

Justification:

This gives a picturesque depiction of Pecheneg "pragmatism": unfortunately, it is completely the wrong way round. In the original, it was the "Turks" who politely refused to be set against the formidable Pechenegs!

Constantine Porphyrogenitus' De Administrando Imperii says, in section 8 (p.57 in the Moravscik and Jenkins edition, Dumbarton Oaks 1967):

"For once when the cleric Gabriel was dispatched by Imperial mandate to the Turks and said to them, 'The emperor declares that you are to go and expel the Pechenegs from their place and settle yourselves there (for in former days you used to be settled there yourselves) so that you may be near my imperial majesty, and when I wish, I may send and find you speedily', then all the chief men of the Turks cried aloud with one voice, 'We are not putting ourselves on the track of the Pechenegs, for we cannot fight them, because their country is great and their people are numerous and they are the devil's brats; and do not say this to us again; for we do not like it!'"

Similarly we find in section 3 (p.51):

"The tribe of the Turks, too, trembles greatly at and fears the said Pechenegs, because they have been often defeated by them and brought to the verge of complete annihilation. Therefore the Turks always look on the Pechenegs with dread, and are held in check by them."

The "Turks" (Tourkoi) in question are in fact the Magyars - Constantine always uses "Turks" to denote them. He describes (in s.38, pp171-175) how the Pechenegs expelled the "Turks" in turn from Lebedia and Atelkouzou, presumably the regions the Byzantines wished them to regain. The fleeing "Turks" then in turn expelled the Moravians from their current home - that is, the modern Hungary.

2. Horse-archer and wagon grading

Author: Larry Dunn

Proposal:

Replace:

Horse archers - Irr LH (F) @ 4AP 38-90

with:

Horse archers - all Irr LH (F) @ 4AP or all Irr Lh (S) @ 6AP 38-90

Delete:

Replace all infantry and set-up wagon laager by war wagons - Irr WWg (O) @ 8AP *8-12

In the Notes, replace:

"Any nation that can inspire the proverb "as stupid as a Pecheneg", yet which can reply to a Byzantine emperor's attempt to set them on the Turks with the polite message that "since the Turks are both numerous and fierce we do not wish to do so, and furthermore, we hope he will be so tactful as never to mention the matter again", has something to be said for it. This was typical of a pragmatism that was usually interpreted as an unseemly fixation with self-preservation, but Pechenegs were still commonly found as mercenaries in Byzantine armies, if only because they were freely available. When working on their own account, they would concentrate on encirclement and picking off isolated bodies."

with:

Any nation that can inspire the proverb "as stupid as a Pecheneg", yet which can prompt a response from the Magyars to a Byzantine attempt to set them on the Pechenegs that "we are not putting ourselves on the track of the Pechenegs, for we cannot fight them, because their country is great and their people are numerous and they are the devil's brats; and do not say this to us again; for we do not like it," has something to be said for it. Michael Psellos and the Russian Primary Chronicle both contain accounts of precipitous Pecheneg rushes into close combat, Psellos apparently being sufficiently impressed by their use of the spear to claim it was their sole weapon. Other sources contradict this, asserting instead that the Pechenegs concentrated on encirclement and picking off isolated bodies. Both interpretations have been provided for. Pechenegs were commonly found as mercenaries in Byzantine armies, either because of their combat prowess or because they were freely available."

Delete:

", which may justify classification as a war wagon. War wagons or foot must all be in the same command as all the baggage. The minimum marked * applies only if infantry and set-up wagon laager are replaced by war wagons. Allied contingents drawn from this list need not contain otherwise compulsory foot or war wagons"

Justification:

This revision refers to, and builds upon, some discussion and comments on TNE and adds two troop modifications.

The first is the option to grade the tribesmen as Lh (S). This is supported by several primary accounts, and contradicted by several others, so it seems best to leave it up to the player.

An alternate might be to allow the upgrade of perhaps up to 1/3 of the Lh to (S) (3/8 is more precise, in terms of tribes anyway) as Kangar tribesmen – it may have been the attacks of the Kangar which Psellos and the Russian Primary Chronicle refer to, and which the Magyars were so evidently afraid of. Florin Curta’s Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250 quotes a primary source which describes the Kangar Pecheneg tribes as being “more valiant and noble than the rest.” (If this alternative is chosen instead, the list notes will of course need to be adjusted to explain it.) Players who like lots of rubbishy Pechenegs don’t have to upgrade them.

The second is the deletion of the war wagon upgrade. There seems to be no reference to the war wagons of the Pechenegs as maneuvering in battle, or indeed serving any purpose other than as a static defensive wall, so I suggest removing the war wagon option altogether.