The Deuteros Raid - Combat on the Road

Battle lines drawn.  The Bulgars (green die)
with the initiative roll...

'Correctly anticipating that the Bulgar raiders would make their destructive way towards Deuteros, the defeated Commandant of Hapax gathered his small host, intercepted them on the way. Hard by the Forest of April, where the way narrowed, George Pithikos drew up his line, the peltastoi in ambush in the forest itself; the skoutatoi heavy infantry on the left, and himself with the kavallarioi in the centre. The light horse prokoursatores covered the front of the skoutatoi.

The Bulgars matched the Roman deployment: foot and light horse on the wings; heavy cavalry in the centre.  The Tarkhan Tiercel stood with the heavy horse. Having drawn up their battle array, the Bulgars at once surged forward, all along the line...'
Michael Psellophanes, Byzantiad

So fierce was the Bulgar onset that the protection of the forest availed the peltastoi nothing, and the extra weight of their horse (two units to one) drove in the Byzantine centre with loss. The Byzantine left held, but barely.

The Bulgars successful along the whole front. The 
red counter under the Tarkhan actually represents 
an SP lost to the Byzantine prokoursatores beside him

Having reached the Byzantine base line in just two turns, winning the initiative in both, the Bulgars quickly obtained the victory. Pithikos's command had been contemptuously brushed aside.

This action barely lasted ten minutes, and was all one-way traffic.  The Byzantine losses amounted to 3SP; the Bulgars, none.  The Tarkhan could be well pleased.  The next stop would be Deuteros - a large prosperous village, just ripe for the picking.  But there they were to find a formidable opponent, the Strategos, Yannis Zimiskes with a sizeable army...