Later Crusaders versus Seljuk Turks Again

Still on a Crusade, Mark B took the Seljuks this time in what was to prove a very exciting game. Played at home this time though and using a different camera angle.

Out scouted and on a very bare field of battle.

There was a patch of difficult ground on the Crusader's right flank,

but it didn't feature in the game and has been trimmed out of the images.

The Crusaders advance while the Seljuks send the Turcoman light cavalry

to sweep round the Crusader's left flank.

And sweep they did, but not without suffering some casualties.

The Ghulums have held back, 

but the Syrian cavalry is heading for the exposed flank.

In one of many "I just need to throw a six" moments,

the Crusaders hit the Syrian cavalry.  

It was a stick which was good for the Crusaders 

as it meant they were safe from Seljuk bow fire. 

In the centre the Crusader advance is proving irresistible.

The Ghulums are now in the fight.

The Turcoman are lining up for some potentially game winning charges

right into the rear of the Crusaders!

One unit of sergeants has been routed,

and the Ghulums are getting the better of the knights.

At least the threat to the rear has been partially countered.

Another unit of sergeants lost.

Both sides are approaching their break points.

However a fresh unit of knights faces off the remaining Turcoman cavalry.

Only Seljuk cavalry remain, all badly degraded.

One is locked in combat with knights and sergeants

and that will decide the battle.

After what must have been at least eight rounds of combat,

the knights finally prevail.

Later Crusaders versus Seljuk Turks

After playing Kingdom of Heaven I was interested to see how the armies would fare in Basic Impetus 2.0.  Dave gracefully agreed to participate in the experiment.  He went Seljuk which gave me an advantage as he is not familiar with handling light cavalry armies.

Not surprisingly the Seljuks won the scouting.

The Crusaders deployed with a wood on their right.

The Seljuks have a low hill 

and what became a graveyard on their right.

The Crusaders advance.

The Crusaders keep coming

and the Seljuks start a skirmish on the Crusader's left flank.

while the Dailami sneak through the wood.

The skirmish didn't go to plan and has become a full-on melee.

The graveyard starts to fill.

Battle has been joined all along the line.

More Seljuks deploy to the graveyard,

however the Crusaders are losing units as well.

The Dailami took out a unit of Crusader sergeants in one mighty blow,

uncovering the Crusader's right flank.

The Crusader knights are very exposed,

but otherwise their army has done well.

A count of the Seljuk dead puts them one short of breaking.

The Crusaders lose one unit of knights, but the other unit comes to the rescue.

At this stage the Crusaders were one unit short of breaking,

but a thundering good charge gave them victory.

Relifed French Infantry Unit

They needed some TLC and one figure needed lower legs and feet, but I think they have come up a treat.  Thanks Carlo!  I only wish I knew the provenance and manufacturer.  I have also used a much smaller casualty cube.

The marching guy needed new body parts,

I probably overdid the tufts.

A few random Austrians,

now deployed as casualty bases.

I'm pretty sure these guys are Essex.

Napoleon's Chicken Marengo

Not really a cookery book or a detailed consideration of the campaign and battle, but an insight into myth making, misinformation, maintenance (and destruction) of power as well as the life of Napoleon.

A fine review can be found here:

https://avonnapoleonicfellowship.blogspot.com/2012/03/fine-dish-but-watch-for-bones.html

I found this book particularly interesting given what we now experience as alternative facts, real facts, mis and dis information and the lies of those seeking power (or trying to retrain it).

A passage in the book I thought was an excellent observation started with myths are useful.  "They can assuage the bitterness of a defeat, or deny it altogether, and foster a sense of solidarity. Yet myths tend to outlive their usefulness, and in the long run, through their mindless repetition, they breed complacency, and deaden rather than inspire the mind."  (Page 213)

How apt for our times.

Turning Point Stalingrad

An old but I consider quite innovative game, proving to be a challenge to know what to do, but that is the essence of a good game at times.

The main challenge is that in committing troops, they are then vulnerable for a number of turns, making them ripe for counterattacks.  Add to that area movement and it can be hard to establish front lines.

The end of the first turn.

End of the second turn, daylight.

Counters have been spread out 

as we had to move the game

and needed a record of what was where.

Pyrrhic Campaign - Turn Three Part One

For the previous Turns and background information please see these posts for Turn One and Two:

https://onesidedminiaturewargamingdiscourse.blogspot.com/2024/04/pyrrhic-campaign-turn-one.html

https://onesidedminiaturewargamingdiscourse.blogspot.com/2024/07/pyrrhic-campaign-turn-two.html

Turn Three sees the Romans reach funding parity with Pyrrhus.  This allowed them to field two standard armies using a Basic Impetus 2.0 adaption.  

The Romans moved first and Consol Uno took his army down the cost and struck at the Greeks at Paistos.  They gave battle.

It was a tricky affair.  The Greeks had won the scouting and had a plan.  The Romans just struck for the Greek centre hoping to destroy it before the Greeks could close on their flanks.  It worked.

The Greek army retreated to Heraclea while the Romans attempted some diplomacy with Paistos becoming neutral.

Pyrrhus and the main Greek army started to move, coming down to Heraclea.

The Carthaginian army moved to besiege Syracuse.

Then Pyrrhus struck at the Romans at Paistos.  The confident Romans gave battle.

To some extent it was a repeat of the first battle, but this time the Greek cavalry deployed on their left wing and wiped out the Roman cavalry.  The Romans took out the centre, but their wings collapsed resulting in a Pyrrhic victory for Pyrrhus who has now lost all his Greek pikemen.

That was as much as we had time for in that session.

GIFs constructed using https://imgflip.com/

A wargamers' guide to the Crusades

This was a book I purchased in April 1984 for $7.95 from Mary Martins in Adelaide.  I have now finished reading it.  I hasten to add I really only started to read it when Richard and I started playing Kingdom of Heaven.

I also have the WRG book Armies and Enemies of the Crusades 1096-1291 which is also by Ian Heath.  Both are more reference books than narratives, although both do a good job of covering the events and conditions of the Crusades.  They certainly hit the wargaming mark and my next job is the have a game of Basic Impetus 2.0 using my figures.  It will be Later Crusaders versus Seljuk Turks.

A future project maybe to do something using the Pyrrhic Campaign mechanics.  Hopefully sooner than in 40 years time!

Only other observation is I wish I still had the SPI Strategy and Tactics magazine game on the Crusades.

Kingdom of Heaven - The Promise of St Louis - The Seventh Crusade - A New Deal

After last week's shocker we bravely tried again.  This time we had a completely different game, a real new deal, but it also brought home how this otherwise excellent game is just too random in its play to be truly a good game in terms of play.

1249

This time the Byzantine fleet lends aid and Louis IX and five units of Crusaders (10 steps) land in Acre.

The Muslims try some diplomacy on Armenia, but fail.

Louis marches on Damascus and calls for it to surrender, which it promptly does!  (At this stage, with just three cards played, the Crusaders are looking at a win).

Two further units of Crusaders arrive in Acre, but the ones in Cyprus who try to sail fail to make it.

Louis moves back to Acre.  The Pope sends support further building the Christian force in the Holy Land.

1250

The Muslim lands are affected by a poor harvest (the effect of which is the player loses one card - they only have 7 per turn/year).

Louis goes to Jerusalem and calls for it to surrender.  It doesn't.  Its Resistance Factor is 4, but traitors in the Christian ranks see this rise to 6.  But sappers and miners quickly reduce the RF to 3.  Then an epidemic breaks out, the Crusaders lose 3 steps and the defenders lose 1.  Battering rams bring the RF down to 1.

An-Nasr Yusuf starts a siege of Damascus (RF=5).

At Jerusalem Louis deploys catapults and the RF falls to zero, but a subsequent assault fails to take it and the RF creeps back up to 1.

At Damascus traitors in the Christian defenders see the RF fall to 2.  Yusuf assaults but it goes badly, and the RF increases to 3.

Back at Jerusalem Louis deploys a siege tower and the RF slips to 0 and the subsequent assault, though bloody, takes the city.

Yusuf calls on the Fortunes of War but is cruelly rewarded by a sortie from the defenders that raises the RF to 4.  The siege is not maintained come winter.

Burgundy and 2 more units of Crusaders land in Acre.

1251

Louis goes to Acre to pick up reinforcements before returning to Jerusalem.

Bad weather delays Muslims and then further delays occur due to aggrieved subordinates before even more heavy rains delays their movement.  They try some diplomacy on Armenia and that fails (gifts presumably got soggy).

Louis moves to Kerak which promptly surrenders.

Yusuf moves to Banyas.

Louis moves back to Acre.

1252

The situation at the start of 1252

Louis moves to Banyas and demands its surrender.  It says no.  RF=3, but it immediately raises to 5 given that there are traitors in the Crusaders ranks (an endless supply it seems).  Sappers and miners are deployed but fail to make a dint in the castle's defences.  A siege tower is constructed (RF=3), but the besiegers supplies are running low (RF=4) and they lose 1 step.  The Crusaders fill in Banyas' moat (RF=3).  A defender's foraging party is ambushed (RF=2).  An assault is launched and Banyas falls.

Meanwhile Armenia is subject to intense diplomacy.  First the Muslims try and fail.  Then the Christians try and also fail.  The Muslims try again, third time lucky, and momentarily succeed until the Christians demonstrate that their gift was really an insult and Armenia stays neutral.

1253

The situation at the start of 1253.

Again, the Muslims suffer from a poor harvest.  They still gather their forces in Aleppo.

Louis goes to Damascus.

More Crusaders arrive in Acre, joining Henry who gathers them up and joins Louis in Damascus.

Christian diplomacy on Armenia fails.

Game ends.

Christian VP 13, Muslim VP 12 which gives the win to the Christians.

New French Infantry Unit

I have had these Old Glory figures since the 1990s and was put off doing anything with them as they were a bit rough.  I have overcome that reluctance and created a unit with an integral casualty/command base.

A good black undercoat performs well to cover up any casting flaws.

I have also been using washes which is something I previously didn't really incorporate as part of my Napoleonic painting style.

This is the classic 16 figure (or as I prefer to think of it: 4 bases)

Napoleon's Battles infantry brigade

(even though it looks like a battalion)

In this formation the casualty maker is well hidden but possibly not so practical...

In march column

And line it is much more accessible.

A fancy square just for completeness and to show off those lovely colourful pompoms.

If look at the light blue pompom base you can see that half the face is obscured.

I thought I could paint it as a scarf but decided to just ignore it.

However, I am now thinking that the casualty base would be best as just a standard infantry base so it can always be in the rear of the unit and therefore readily accessible.

British Casualty Markers

I've had these figures a while and had started to paint them but hadn't really settled on how to use them.  I have now.  They are my new format casualty bases for use with Napoleon's Battles.

The riflemen are Essex and are a restructured base,

(as in an existing 4 figure base that is now two 2 figure bases)

but all the rest are brand new.

The cut off nail is pretending to be a bit of a tree trunk.

And here we have the bases with the casualty marker showing the zero loss.

From this angle they are a bit obvious.

But with standing figures they seem less obvious.

I've since come up with a further refinement, but that will be revealed in a future post.

More Stuff Gone

This is actually a supplementary "passing on" of additional material to that which was let go as recorded in this post: 

https://onesidedminiaturewargamingdiscourse.blogspot.com/2024/03/letting-go.html

A few things, including the wonderful Airfix RHA set.

Can't remember the manufacturer.

It will come to me.

Airfix Washington's Army

Airfix Napoleonic cavalry

Airfix French Infantry

Note the odd experimental conversion.

Airfix French Artillery

Some Airfix British infantry and a few rogues

The orange wheelbarrow from the Airfix Waterloo farm Set.

Mamelukes that I tried to get my daughter interested in painting

Airfix Prussian Landwher

Airfix Old Guard

Scots Grey by... Esci?  Could be HAT or Revel maybe...

A simple Internet search confirms that the manufacturer was Esci.

I'm going to say that applies to the other unattributed figures.