The small army of Morea would begin its trek northward, and follow the mountains up towards the city of Karytaina, while on its way there, soldiers would sing songs together, some would converse with each other talking of their wives and children or potential love interests, you'd even have some as well whom would break off from the formation to take a piss in the woods, some even more than that. Morale was high in this small army, and many men talked of the potential riches they could gain while looting as well. Constantine was against this, and so was Domianus, but such is the wishes of the soldiers, denying them of this could dampen morale and even lead some men to betray their army in interest of gaining riches. Such is the cost of war.
After around 3 days of marching, the soldiers would soon arrive to Karytaina and be restocked with supplies while many men got drunk or visited brothels to find pleasure. Constantine would sit inside his tent and then be visited by his friend and commander, Domianus peeks his head in and says,
"Constantine? Ah, there you are! I was wondering where you were!"
"I'm just going over a few notes that the Scholar Plethon had left for me, he told me that the enemy have many soldiers with armor similar to yours my friend, and I'm trying to think of a way to get around this," responds Constantine
"That is quite an issue... do you have reports on how many are armed like this?" questions Domianus
"No idea, we're heading into battle with little information, if they're all completely armored head to toe like you are, I doubt are odds will be looking too good," sighs Constantine
"What I do know from Plethon is that some blunt weaponry will be good against them, that or crossbowmen, but the number of crossbowmen we have are few in number, and the number of heavily armored soldiers to fight against them is limited as well."
Domianus thinks for a bit, and then suggests,
"We may be able to stall them, and engage them one on one, and then use the advantage we do have to bring down their lighter armed soldiers to then focus on the heavily armored ones, what do you think?"
"It's worth a try my friend, I can't say I have any other plans currently, if this were against the Turkish raiders, I'd have an idea, but I won't know until we fight them." speaks the Kephale
The night would carry on and the day would soon rise with the soldiers marching a few hours after daybreak following in their similar routine of singing, marching, and joking around. By around the 2nd in the late afternoon, scouts would ride up towards the vanguard of the column shouting towards the Kephale and his bodyguard,
"Kephale! Kephale! The army of Epirus has been spotted North of us near Gastouni! They number 1,00- no I believe almost 1,600 men strong! They have armored knights alongside them as well!"
Constantine, after hearing the news, raises his sword and shouts,
"THE ENEMY LIES AHEAD, PREPARE FOR BATTLE!"
A loud horn would sound off letting the army of Morea know the enemy is ahead of them, and also informing the enemy of them approaching.
"As discussed earlier! Skoutotai in the middle! Toxotai to the front! Kataphraktoi to the Flank! Domianus, Alexios, and Demetrios, you know what to do!"
In the following minutes, men would rush into formations as commanded by Constantine, with the captains of each unit yelling out commands. Constantine would look at his own force and observe his archers and crossbowmen prepared to engage with enemy skirmishers, and observe the infantry present on his own side which consisted of men in chainmail with shields and spears mostly, while the cavalry held maces and lances while in heavy armor, though when he observed more carefully. Over 800 Kataphraktoi, 400 toxotai, and 800 skoutotai would be fielded in his army.
Constantine would then look over to his enemy's army and immediately notice the heavily armored knights held by the army of Epirus, much more heavily armored than his own cavalry. Though the infantry of the enemy being on similar scale to his own army. He would also notice the enemy having a larger amount of crossbowmen than himself.
"Get me Domianus immediately!" yells Constantine to a bodyguard, who then swiftly rides off to the flanks
Domianus quickly approaches the Kephale on horseback and asks,
"yes my friend? What is it?"
Constantine points out towards the enemy knights present on the field in front of them,
"I don't feel good about this, the enemy cavalry are so heavily armored it will be almost impossible to bring them down! We need to retreat."
Alexios looks at Constantine and responds,
"Sh*t, this is a problem, there's no way we're going to be able to retreat though, if we do it's going to kill our morale, hell, it will be even worse if they decide to attack us while we plan to retreat. I think we should go for the offensive against them however, better that than being the one attacked."
Constantine heeds his advice and sends him off to lead the kataphraktoi once again, and then prepares his army to begin marching against the enemy, both then begin marching towards each other, being just a few hundred meters (a few hundred yards) away. The men would bash their spears against their shields and hurl insults at the enemy, there would be many too who could be seen shaking due to the fear of what's to come with this battle as many were newly trained soldiers who hadn't tasted blood on the field yet. Nervous sweat would drip down the face of the Kephale, in fear of what was to come as he had never faced armored beasts such as these before, they would stretch out infront of the enemy's infantry, like giant monsters prepared to strike down upon their foes.
"TOXOTAI FORWARD!"
"BALESTIERI AVANTI!"
Would be heard from both sides of the battlefield as the skirmishers would come forth, engaging in ranged combat with their enemies, arrows and bolts would fly across the no mans land of the battlefield to strike soldiers down, some being lucky enough to not be shot or saved by their pavise if they had one, others not so lucky finding a bolt caught in their throat following the success of an enemy crossbowmen. Where the Rhomaioi had hoped to see success, it was evident that the enemy crossbowmen were superior and had done well against the archer portion of the toxotai.
"CARICA IL NEMICO!"
Would be heard from across the battlefield alongside the blaring of horns from the enemy's side, sending shivers up the spine of the Rhomaioi men, as they would observe these armored beasts running directly towards their position. The toxotai would immediately run to the rear in fear of what was to come. Demetrios would shout out,
"A WALL, FORM A WALL OF SPEARS, DO NOT FEAR THE ENEMY, FACE THEM AND DESTROY THEM!"
Constantine observing the effect the enemy knights had on his own men, would yell out,
"DOMIANUS, AID THE SKOUTOTAI, CHARGE IN AS WELL."
Though it was already too late as the enemy knights were already at full gallop, their charge couldn't be stopped, death was approaching.