Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Crusaders in the desert

As I already had a desert table set up a Crusader battle was a lazy choice for this week's battle.
Chris' Crusaders v. Mark's Muslims.
The Crusaders are on the left. The Arabs have the oasis & the Crusaders need to take it.
On the far flank the Muslims have send forward a cloud of horse archers. On the near flank, the horse archers have fallen back from a charge of Sergeants.  The Christian infantry is advancing slowly in the centre.
On the far flank sergeants have driven the horse archers right back & knights are advancing on the Muslim heavy cavalry on the ridge.  In the centre there is an exchange of bow fire going on.  On the right knights are advancing on the Muslim heavy cavalry on the ridge.
On the left the Muslim horse archers have been driven from the field, but the uphill charge of the knights was met with a shower of hot dice & smashed.
The Christian infantry has moved up preparing to charge in the centre.
On the right the cavalry are engaged, so far indecisively, but some Muslim cavalry are being sent on a flanking manoeuvre.
The initial charge of the Christian archers was supposed to clear out the rabble of Muslim archers for the billmen to get at the main mine behand.  But Oakie was having one of his hot dice nights & the attack failed.  The knights have broken the Muslim heavy cav on the right, but now face horse archers in front & the flanking force behind.
On the left the Sergeants have turned back to attack the Muslim heavy cav on the hill but are making hard work of it.  The Christian billmen have fought their way into the palm grove, but the rest of the Muslim line is holding & Egyptian fanatics are attacking right of centre.  The flank attack has disposed of the knights on the right.
The Sergeants have beaten the Muslim heavy cav on the left but it's too little too late.  The Crusader losses have passed half so they fail their Army Break test.

The Muslims had a good defensive position, used it well, then backed it up with some seriously hot dice in the right places.  An unbeatable combination.

2 comments:

Mutford said...

It is good to see a sand platform for a desert action. Maybe we here in Mutford, Suffolk need to stop using lush green English lawns as battlefields for all periods :)

Gonsalvo said...

A nice big battle where a little luck and perhaps a better battle plan prevailed for the warriors of Islam!