Dust & Tears Campaign - Game 3

After the battle at Marmistra the remaining party made good progress and the Port of Alexandra came into sight, when the dice let them down and an encounter was triggered

Stripped of a number of their heavy cavalry this encounter might be more challenging within only one unit of Knights.

The pilgrims edged forwards one unit of Elite Knights, accompanied by 2 Spear units, 2 missile units, a warrior unit and 1 skirmisher screen.

8 Arab blinds were spread across the table, the Christian mission to cross the wadi with as much of the party as they could. To the front of the party Arab forces appeared, light cavalry blocked the advance of the Christian forces.

The Arabs rushed forwards showering the skirmishers, felling 3 of their number, they scuttled backwards.

Warriors charged the Christian line but were counted by the knights who pushed them backwards, the fanatics are great in attack but not so good in defence.

The Arab forces fell backwards, driven further backwards by a volley of crossbow bolts who took out a number of Arab archers who struggled to match them for accuracy.

The Christian blood lust was up and having dispatched the warriors followed up crashing into the Arab cavalry. The way to the wadi crossing was open.

More Arabs appeared on the far side of the wadi. A greater push is going to be needed.

A tough fight and a number of Christians fell before they could break the Arab defenders.

As the Arab defenders fled, the Christians took stock, adjusting for losses, the Pilgrims pressed on.

1 Knight Unit, 1 Warrior Unit, 2 Missile Units, 1 Skirmish Unit, 1 Spear Unit.

Outremer - Christian Missile Units

What comes first, the painting or the gaming?

Sometimes you need to keep the games going, to drive the painting on. Only a few more Crusader Units left before the decks are clear. 

12 Crossbow Men, with a number in white smocks to show their commitment to the cause.

Next up 12 Archers from Fire Forge Games, these go together really well and are quick to paint.

Dropped into Warbases Midgard movement trays to keep the units together.

Now for the next outing as the march to Jerusalem continues.

Lion Rampant - Scenario 7 Hold on Tight.

Lion Rampant is one of those rule sets that always seems to give a great result as the turns swing from one side to the other and so it proved recently 

48 Points aside split into 2 factions each. we play through Scenario 7 in the book - Hold on Tight in this case a dried up well in the middle of nowhere, they definitely cant be enough water for all of the combatants in this encounter.

The Muslim forces had the numbers with a whole wing of cavalry whilst the Christians took the less numerous route choosing a balanced force with Elite Knights in each force. 

Opting for a quick land grab the Arab horse sett off towards the Christian lines, one of the two heavy cavalry units had the bloodthirsty trait, my hope would that take down one of the Christian Knight units to 50%, making them susceptible to the bow armed light cavalry.

The templars were drilled and motivated and made short work of the Arab heavy cavalry, who failed to get them below 50%, however whilst they were tided down the Arab cavalry were able to hit the Christian Crossbows, battering them them for a turn. Confidence was high in the Muslim ranks... but casualties were mounting...

On the right flank the Templars had reached the Arab lines and were carving through the lightly armed spearmen driving them backwards from the well. The remaining Arab cavalry were too few in number to stop the assault. 

The Christian heavies marched forward and the well was in their control and there was nothing that the remaining Arab defenders could do to shift them.

It was going so well in the beginning for the Arab forces pinning the Christian forces on their start line, I should have pulled back and hit them with more archery fire rather than a death charge into the mass foot ranks... who knew that light cavalry would come off second best against heavily armoured foot.

Great fun and the Christian pilgrimage presses on to Jerusalem. 

Next time 

Saladin & the last of the Arab Cavalry.

A break in the rain, long enough to varnish these - Yes the last of the Arab cavalry for the Crusades. Please no mounted troops for a while.... :-)

Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub - Recapturer of Jerusalem in 1187

Cast in metal from Gripping Beast it took a little but of cleaning up, but he is quite imposing and perfect for a General figure with Lion Rampant.

The last Arab cavalry. In the paint queue for a year and now complete, I think 16 units might be too many but lets see when they take to the table in the coming weeks.

Now back to the Chinese.

Charge !!!! - Back to the Crusades...

The Chinese have taken a bit of a back seat lots of prep done and the foundations to make them ready for the finer detail in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile as we turn into February and prompted by, one of my gaming group launching a monthly painting challenge with the theme for the month of Charge!!!!

Yet another unit of cavalry for the Outremer project....

Rather worryingly these fine fellows were first under coated in last January. So the perfect excuse to get them table ready....

Great castings from Footsore and some extra Arab Heavy Cavalry for Saladin's army.

As with pervious units shield decals from Little Big Man Studio's so much easier and look so much better than had painted.

One more cavalry unit to go... before all of the Arab forces are finally complete....

Babbage in the Crusades - First outing.

Games have been hard to come by of late.... but with festivities nearly upon us a well earned break and a chance to get some painting in and who knows perhaps some additional projects.... If I made the nice list :-)

I did manage to give the Babbage rules a run out and with the aid of the secret wargamers friend made a few slight revisions.

A follow on game with the Dust and Tears campaign which saw the remaining Crusaders looking to advance across the table defeating any Arab forces along the way. The Christians started in the right hand corner with the orange dots representing possible Arab forces. 

The skirmishers and light units moved forwards and triggered a number of Arab units giving the Christians a chance to order their lines ahead of any Arab assault.

Massed archery hopes to slow the Muslim advance and the hordes of light cavalry.

The Arab infantry faired no better from the Archers and Crossbows lightly armed spearmen held the line but were losing men at a rapid rate.

The Crusader Warriors came forward sensing a gap in the Arab line.

A clash in the centre of the table as the fanatic swordsmen met the Arab Spearmen.

As the Arabs fell back they were set upon by the elite Knights. Another defending unit wiped from the table.

The Christians were not having everything their own way, they were losing valuable troops, half the Knights were killed or wounded alongside a number of warriors. This would make the next encounter a challenge.

All in all not a bad first outing.

Skirmishers really prove there worth flushing out the various hot spots... The ability for Arab units to disappear and reappear on the flanks or ahead of the advancing Christian forces made it quite a challenge and force the Christians push against the known units to restrict the likelihood of them coming back elsewhere. The Christians need to think about sticking together as being out numbered and isolated will make the Arabs more aggressive.

More next year I am sure....

Thinking about the Christmas break - This was quite a shock - Dust, Tears & Dice: Dispatched from the Front XXXIV - Twixmas Projects

Two of the Arab cavalry units are still on the paint table - Can I get them done before New Years Day?

Best cancel all visitors :-)

November output - Back to the Crusades - Fire Forge - Spearmen

November.... Pressure is on to get the last of the Crusaders done before the end of the year... Ideally Christmas - so 47 nights to finish the Crusader project.... And paint everything in the draw.

After the mixed bag last month this month it's all desert....

Another unit of 12 spearmen for Lion Rampant with a mix of Crusader Shields and traditional feudal shields.

I dropped them into a Midgard base to give them some uniformity on the table. 

The recent Men who Would be King games got be thinking about adapting the Mr Babbage rules for the Crusaders with the Arabs controlled by the dice. With a number of long commutes this week I might try and flesh these out.

Next up you guessed it more Christians.....

The original Dust Tears & Dice - Outremer Campaign - Turn 1

I was reflecting on where the original title of the blog came from. Back in 2011 when I kicked this blog off I had an interest in the British in the Sudan and the Crusades with a plan to run an online campaign at our local club - Ironically neither of these projects every made the table top or blog, roll on 14 years and the Crusades finally makes the table top and the Dust & Tears Campaign finally lands on the blog.

In the Cry Havoc supplement - Outremer in the back of the rule book was a very useful scenario generation system which it allows you to generate and follow a group of 'Pilgrims' as they travel from Antioch in the North to see wondrous sites of the Holy Land in the South.

I adopted the table to Lion Rampant to give me the potential force map up for each Pilgrim party, the idea being each party will set off in the top left hand corner and attempt to reach Jerusalem, as each party runs out of troops or money they are likely to have to stop to await further pilgrim parties to bolster their number culminating in larger games. (driving me to paint the rest of the plastic and metal.)

Lucky me I rolled on the chart and my first party is a Knight & Retainers I adapted the table to model the forces available within Lion Rampant ignoring the 24 point limit and basing it on unit types as the scenario dictates.

Each Hex on the map is 20 miles roughly one days travel. Each time the party enters a hex on a roll of 50% or less and an encounter occurs. More on the type of encounter in future posts.

No more than 20 miles on the road and a small cluster of buildings emerge out of the heat haze, horsemen ride out of the village to confront the party of travellers.

It's easy to get carried away in the first encounter with the following forces available on the first encounter, 3 Knights, 1 Heavy Cavalry, 1 Light Cavalry, 2 Spear Units, 2 Warriors, 2 Missile & 1 Skirmish unit. The Christian forces heavily outnumbering the Moslem defenders felt pretty confident in winning the engagement and sacking the village for potential loot and valuables to fund their onward march.

The Christian forces had enough for 2 commanders with circa 24 points in each wing. The Christian cavalry forces swept left to be countered by the Moslem light cavalry clouds of arrows peppered the heavily armoured Knights.

With a wild charges of the Christian Knights drove back the light cavalry who fired off their bows in a skirmish move dropping back out of charge range, but occasionally the Knights caught them before they could evade and the defenders were put to the sword.

In the centre the pilgrim foot advanced into the centre of the field. The aggressive warriors were ready for the fight.

The Moslem archers were unable to slow the charging warriors, they left off a single volley before the Christians advanced.

The first unit of Warriors crashed into the unarmoured missile men.

The archers fell backwards to be replaced by a wall of spears only for the warriors to charge again. The Warriors continued to win each melee but their numbers were thinning.

With the infantry pinned to the front the Moslem cavalry were unable to find a gap in the Christian lines and the boxed in with the mounted knights driving home their advantage.

The Moslems took flight leaving the small settlement in the hands of the Christians.

Losses 1 Light Cavalry & 1 Warrior Unit.

But already the loss of the sole light cavalry unit and one of the warriors might prove telling.

The Pilgrim's press on - 3 Knights, 1 Heavy Cavalry, 2 Spear Units, 1 Warriors, 2 Missile & 1 Skirmish unit. 

Next up Turn two and an overview of the Arab force generation together with details on upkeep and the hiring of mercenaries.