Crusades

 Jim's Crusaders v. Chris' Saracens.

As usual the crusader column is marching across the desert towards an oasis only to find a Saladin in the way. 

Saracen horse archers rush forward to start peppering the crusaders as they deploy.  The Saracen heavy cavalry take up positions on the crests of ridges. 

The Crusader cavalry charges up hill at the Saracen cavalry as their foot begins to deploy.  The Saracen horse archers evade & their heavy cavalry countercharges.  The Saracen foot is advancing to support their cavalry.

As cavalry melees rage on both flanks, the unengaged Saracen cavalry charge the head of the Crusader infantry column.

On the left the Crusader cavalry has won their fight but only have one unit left fit to fight.
On the right the Crusader cavalry has defeated the Saracen horse but lost heavily in the process & are now in a ring of archers.
In the centre the Saracen horse has broken thru the first line of Crusader foot & has charge don against the 2nd line.

On the right the lone cavalry unit is trying a desperate charge against the Saracen left, but uphill, outnumbered & bereft of hot dice it's getting nowhere.
On the right, the battered Crusader horse has pulled back behind their foot under a hail of arrows.
In the centre, the Saracen cavalry has run out of steam, but has made a hole in the Crusader line first.

The mass of Saracen foot is now making itself foot & one by one the Crusader units have been melting away.  The Crusaders have now lost more than half their force & fail army morale.

The Crusader plan was to neutralise the enemy horse with their own cavalry while deploying their foot for a final push against the Saracen foot.   The Saracens countered this by using their excess cavalry to disrupt the Crusader foot's deployment & advancing their foot so they could keep the pressure on when their cavalry ran out of steam.  The Crusader foot never got properly organised & got nibbled away by cavalry changes & archery .

WWII in the Desert

Germans: Steve & Mark.
British: Chris & Dale.
15mm figs.  House rules. 

The Brits are coming on from the far end of the table, the Germans from the near end. There are 5 objectives - the village & the 4 ridges that command the road.

The brits deployed their artillery in their rear area & advanced 2 Crusader platoons with trucked infantry support on their right & 1 Crusader, 1 Matilda & 1 bug platoon with trucked infantry support on their left.
The Germans have sent 3 MkIVs forward on their left & 7 MkIIIs forward on their right with trsuke infantry in support.  Infantry & Pak 38s have deployed in the village, artillery in the rear. 

On the far side, the  Brits have taken up reverse slope positions at their end of the ridge & the MkIIIs have advanced to take them on.  So far minor losses to both sides.
On the near flank the MKIVs have retreated in the face of 6:3 odds.

On the near flank the Brits have sent one Crusader platoon to support the far flank while the other has moved to the right to engage the MkIVs from a place out of sight of the Pak 38s in the palm trees.
On the far flank the brits are taking heavy loses & the German infantry have deployed behind their armour & dug in on the objective.

On the near flank the MkIVs have struck back & taken out the Crusaders.
The Germans have also finished off the British armour on the far flank.
The Germans hold 3 of 5 objectives.  The Brits have no armour left.  The Brits concede the battle. 

Wars of the Roses again again

As Dale is in Hobart on hols I rejigged the random deployment scenario for Dale v. Chris so he could sample our rules.

Dale's battles are #1 in the far LH corner & #4 in the near LH corner.
Chris' battles are #3 on the right centre & #2 on the left near the far end.

Dale's #1 has deployed to attack Chris' #2 which has deployed to face then on a ridge.
Chris' #3 is moving towards that combat.
Dale has sent some of #4's cavalry to threaten the flank of Chris' #2, the rest are moving to intercept Chris' #3. 

The terrain has delayed the manoeuvres of #3 & #4 making the fight between #1 & #2 the key event.
The intervention of the cavalry from Dale's  #4 & a converging attack on the far end of the line has given Dale the edge in that fight. 

Only parts of #3 & #4 have been engaged, but the the battle has been decided when Chris' #2 was broken.