The Anatolian Plains, Abbasid-Byzantine Frontier
Bjorn walked slowly through the drifting ash.
The sprawling agricultural settlement on the outskirts of the Anatolian plains had been reduced to a smoldering graveyard.
The irrigation trenches were choked with debris, and the local Arab peasantry lay scattered among the ruins, casualties of a brutal raid.
Since the Iron Empire's mechanized forces had annihilated the Roman Cataphracts in the valley pass, the surviving Byzantine commanders had drastically altered their strategic approach. The slaughter had cured them of their arrogance.
They now understood, with terrifying clarity, that forming up in dense cavalry wedges to charge entrenched rifled artillery was tantamount to mass suicide.
But the Byzantine officers were seasoned veterans of frontier warfare, and they quickly identified the Iron Empire's one glaring vulnerability: logistics.
