Kingdom of Heaven - The Fall of the Caliphate

This third scenario was a challenge, or to use Richard's words it "was just weird if you ask me. We
spent most of the game trying to work out what we could do, (usually nothing) and then just passing."  He was the Muslim play while I was the Crusader.

The aim was to get to Egypt to influence the Fatimid civil war.  Very hard for the Muslim player to get there, hard enough for the Christian.  It would take at least three cards to get there which, with only seven cards in total, left precious little to conduct a siege given the forces were roughly equal.

That said we did have two exciting battles and two or three lengthy sieges,

1163 AD 

After receiving Turcopole reinforcements, Amalric I marches to Cairo to support Dirgham's Fatimid faction. 

Shirkuh moves to besiege Tripoli and suffers an epidemic, but it doesn't stop him from constructing a siege tower.

Amalric advances on the Fatimid rebels at Minya, but without Dirgham who has decided to stay in Cairo.  Half of the rebels are routed but the rest take refuge in the castle.  Amalric doesn't have enough strength to conduct a siege and so returns to Cario before going home to Jerusalem.

At Tripoli Shirkuh fills in the moat and conducts two assaults, but Raymond III defeats them both and the siege is broken.

1164 AD

The defences of Tripoli and Kerak are improved.  

Amalric wins a major victory over Shaizar who is attempting to conduct another siege of Tripoli.  His army is obliterated, and he is killed.

After that Amalric goes to Jaffa but nothing else happens.

1165 AD

Amalric decides to go to Egypt again, but the Barons advise against it.

The Muslims try diplomacy with Antioch.  It fails.  They later try with Tripoli and that fails as well.

Ignoring the Barons Amalric goes to Egypt.  It is a long way and he has been delayed so he is not very hopeful.

Nur ad-Din besieges Kerak and an epidemic breaks out in his camp.  With the use of battering rams he conducts an assault, but it fails.

Amalric gets to Minya, but some of his vassals desert on the way. Undaunted he conducts a siege.  He fills in the moat and deploys catapults.  An assault does just enough to get the castle to surrender and the Fatimid civil war is over.  It's not totally clear, but this gives the Christians control of the Fatimids (for the time being - there are events that can change their allegiance).

1166 AD

More Crusaders arrive and the Christians call a truce.

1167 AD

Papal supports increases the forces at Jerusalem.  

Nur ad-Din advances on the holy city and Amalric decides to do battle.  Christian fanatics hold the battle to a 6:4 win in the Muslim's favour, but not Major Victory.  BUT a feigned flight sees the losses shift to 7:3 which gives the Muslims a Major Victory and a devastating pursuit.  Only Amalric escapes to defend Jerusalem.

Card play during the Battle of Jerusalem.

A siege commences, but the besiegers supplies run low.  Nur ad-Din appeals to the fortunes of war and builds siege towers.  He assaults, any result will do, but he rolls a 1.  His supplies continue to run low and then an epidemic breaks out.

1168 AD

After the disappointment of the previous year, the Muslims stay in their camps.

Further commentary by Richard:

This game would have to take the cake in terms of you have absolutely no idea what is going to happen. Today's play was yet another example. I suppose there might have been a lucky die roll to make Antioch neutral and play out for a draw in the last turn if we'd played on. It just doesn't seem to be very satisfying though.

I find the game exasperating. The elements seem well worked out, it is thematically excellent, the siege rules are great, the map, cards and counters are nice ,but somehow it just manages to come down far too much in favour of lucky card draws and/or.... die rolls. Strangely, I don't mind it, just find it very frustrating. At least it's over quickly.

The Battle of Jerusalem

With the accursed Fatimids making treaty with the infidels and handing them control of Cairo and Egypt, only a bold move would alter the outcome of the campaign for the Seljuks.

Sultan Nur Ad Din and his unfortunately named subordinate, Shirkah, sizing up the substantial forces of the Amalric in Jerusalem, hatched a plan to bait the Christians to fight them in a field battle. Guessing
that with a substantial force at Jerusalem and the city available to them as a refuge in the event that things did not go to plan, the Christians would indeed risk coming out to put up a fight. The Sultan's
forces left Damascus and swept across the desert and sure enough, out came the Christians!

...and what a battle it was! Evenly matched, it was all down to the die rolls. Both sides had +2 DRMs thanks to Qadis Motivates Troops in the case of the Muslims and Religious Fanaticism in the case of the
Christians. The Seljuks roll higher and inflicted a serious blow on the Christians with 6 losses to four, not enough for a major victory. The Christians thought they had done enough to stave off the Seljuk horde, but play of Feigned Flight (one less loss to the Muslims and one more loss to the Christians) tipped the battle in favour of  the Sultan Nur Ad Din. The Christians were slaughtered to a man as the Seljuk horsemen pursued the fleeing Christians, cutting them down. Only Amalric managed to escape, in a shameful decampment, leaving his men to their fate. (he is rumoured to have dressed as a slave woman and made his escape on the back of a donkey to Acre).

Without a garrison, it would take but a single hit for Jerusalem to fall to the Seljuks. With cards running low, only a roll of 1 on a D6 would deny the Sultan the crowning glory to this already famous victory. Alas, his men, wearied from severing the heads of the infidels, had lost their heart, stumbling forlornly amongst the parapets of the seemingly doomed city, they failed it inflict a single loss (they couldn't find anyone left to kill, not even the cooks and stable boys were left behind by the Christians). So with that, the campaigning season over the Seljuks melted away into the desert from whence they had come. 

So ended the Battle of Jerusalem - The Seljuks honour as sweet as the cursed name of the fickle Fatimids is bitter.

BZ13 10-11TH C. BYZANTINE THEMATIC KATAPHRAKTOS

For last Xmas my daughter gave me a gift voucher for Tactics and I found some bargains.

Better still I got my act together and painted and based them.  The 20 figures providing a medium and a light cavalry unit for my Basic Impetus Byzantine armies.

The figures are a tad too large to fit 12 to a base (and that equates to four 3 figure standard WRG format bases).

Worse are the bendy spears.  None were actually broken so I didn't need to replace any (as if this had been the case I probably would have done them all). They seem to have straightened out okay, mostly.

Maurikian Byzantine versus Arab Conquest

An historical matched pair of armies from my collection in order to introduce my friend Bruce to the Basic Impetus 2.0 set of rules.  This was very much a training/learning game.

Arabs out scouted, but blessed with good defensive terrain protecting their flanks.

The best thing seemed to be for both sides to use the speed of their light troops

and rapidly engage on the flanks.

Unfortunately, the Byzantine didn't benefit from any beginner's luck

or the magic of the dice we shared.

However, their cavalry charged in!

The centre then largely became a battle of attrition,

the advantage with the Arabs' large units.

Both generals are involved in the heavy fighting in the centre.

But luck was with the Arabs.

Their use of Betrayal swung one combat 

and the Byzantine attempt to use Decisive Initiative was an epic fail.

The Arabs have been mauled but are victorious.

Long Spear in Basic Impetus

In my last game we decided long spear negating mounted impetus bonus did not apply if they were hit in the flank or rear.  At the time I couldn't readily find the relevant rule.

Subsequently I did a search in Edge which invoked Bing and provided the following:

The search results didn't help, but the AI response, seemed definitive.  It just didn't give a reference.

I asked the same question in Google and got unhelpful results.

However, having now read the rules carefully I still couldn't find it.  So, ignoring the search results I went to the forum.

https://impetus.darkbb.com/t1753-unit-with-long-spear-etc-contacted-flank-or-rear#12158

Putting aside any issues with how I constructed the question, what impresses me is how AI got it wrong while sounding so authoritative.  Rather annoying me thinks.

I am so glad that Phil confirmed my reading, and that site administrator/rule's author(s) provided a truly definitive response.

Barbarossa Revisited - GT 8

The turn starts with dry weather everywhere.

Army Group North investing Riga and heading to Daugavpils.

Red line is the Army Group border.

Army Group Centre trying to surround Minsk.

Food Chain Magnate

Played this game with Bruce (who was over from Canberra) and Richard.   First time for Richard and myself and it was great to have someone walk us through the game system. 

Lovely 50's feel to the game.  Game play relatively straightforward, but the options and strategies make it quiet complex.  No two plays would be the same I reckon.

My organisation is at the bottom of the screen along with my wads of cash.

Two 11/39

Finally getting through some projects.  These came with the Pz II and Pz IIs from Gaming Models. They are a bit rough, put come up okay with a paint and remembering on the table top you are not as close to seeing the models as they appear in these images.

Classical Indians versus Sui Dynasty Chinese

My Classical Indian army hasn't seen much action, but this was a chance for them to fight Karl's Sui Chinese.

The Indians won the scouting.

Both sides advance.

The Indian cavalry conduct a superlative charge,

routing the Chinese medium cavalry.

The Chinese pull back their right, 

but push ahead with their left.

The Chinese warbands lay a trap for the Indian chariots.

Meanwhile their heavy cavalry charge.

The Indians pull back on their left

as their infantry struggle with the Chinese on the right.

The Indian infantry are losing the fight.

Can their general with his elephants save the day?

The elephants are too slow to save the infantry...

But they make a grand effort and rout the Chinese infantry 

winning the battle.

Pavese cancel mounted impetus bonus, even for elephants.

Long spear and similar do not apply if it is a flank or rear charge.

The Kingdom of Heaven - Second Crusade The Second Time

This time I was the Seljuk player and Richard the Crusaders.

I tried something different and Zengi blockaded Jocelyn in the castle at Bira.  Zengi struggled to make progress, but after building a siege tower an assault was made.  It failed.  Then he tried filling in the moat, but a second assault also failed.  Zengi goes home.

At the start of Turn two Zengi is assassinated and Nur ad-Din takes over.  He decides to ignore the county of Edessa and goes to Antioch. The Crusaders reinforce the city and a siege begins.  Sappers and miners significantly reduce the fortifications, but the attackers are weakened by "blockade" runner (as it is a port there is no actual blockade).  Battering rams are employed further damaging Antioch's defences.  However, the garrison makes a sortie and inflict a major defeat on the Seljuk besiegers who flee through Manbij angering the Assassins who join the Crusaders (as do the Damascenes around this time).

Turn 3 sees Nur ad-Din gather his forces and head to Edessa and blockade it.  A lengthy siege ensues with siege towers and battering rams being employed.  Trying to distract the Seljuks, Duke Leopold starts a siege of Aleppo, but his supplies run low.  In contrast rats in the garrison of Edessa's food weaken them and an assault is made.  It fails.  Desperate (and down to the last card) another assault is made, it too fails, almost, if there had been anyone left standing in the city's garrison.  The Seljuks capture the city and the necessary VPs to avoid sudden defeat.

The situation around the end of Turn three.

Turn four sees heretics cause unrest in Jerusalem and bad weather delay the arrival of more Crusaders.  They still manage to start a siege of Aleppo, but an epidemic breaks out in their camp and winter ends the turn.

Turn five and disagreements over loot split the Crusaders as they restart their siege of Aleppo. They construct a siege tower, but their supplies are running low. They try an assault and while casualties are caused to both sides, the city holds firm.  Meanwhile the Seljuks try some diplomacy with the Fatimids, but without success.

Turn six and Baldwin leads the Crusaders back to try and capture Aleppo. They suffer losses when the garrison sorties and again find their supplies running low.  They are unable to take the city and the game ends in a draw.

The Crusaders besieging Aleppo.

This game plays well (mostly) and the siege system works well.  However, it is really frustrating if you are dealt a bad hand of cards, and a few things can really turn on lucky die rolls.  But it plays quick once the rules are mastered.

Middle Republican Romans versus Gauls

An historical match up, but Curtis is still learning the rules and his Gallic army is very much a work in progress, so this was very much a practice game for him.

Out scouted, the Romans deployed their wings forward and their centre back.

The Roman wings advance

The Numidian cavalry on the left come off the worse for running down some young Gauls.

But the Gauls covering the wings have a miserable run on Cohesion Tests (fours sixes in a row)

A lone Gallic warband advances to support their right wing.

The much-reduced enemy chariots try to do a last-ditch charge,

while on their other flank their weakened cavalry tries to hide behind the wood.

The chariots got in a lucky hit and left the Roman legion exposed to the newly arrived warband.

The remaining young Gauls refuse to die,

but their cavalry has routed.

The Romans have secured the wings but lost a legion.

The other Gallic warbands are now advancing.

However, the elite Gauls have stayed on the hill.

The battle will be decided by the clash of legion and warband.

The Numidian cavalry had charged the flank of the victorious warband,

but come off badly.

Victory for the legions.

Pz IV and three Pz II

Looks like mummy duck and three baby ducks.

These are from GAMING MODELS 15mm Miniatures 

and are best described as no frills, but admirably do the job.

Their range is extensive so well worth a look for wargaming.