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.

Richard I Personnel Bodyguard - Third Crusade

Just missing the November deadline as the weather was crap to varnish.

Bored of the white and having quite a cluster of foot knights, I opted for a small unit of foot knights to act as a personnel bodyguard for Richard I

Are they accurate, did they really fight at the battle of Acre or Arsuf in this level of plate and chain. I am sure others have a view, but they give me an option on the field of battle.

These 'Chamber Knights' will compliment the Knights Templar.

Battle models from Fire Forge games - They will fight as Elite Foot under the Lion Rampant rules.

December is upon us....The gaming table is under pressure from the rest of the house to turn it into a storage unit as Christmas descends on the house... Perhaps one or two games if I am lucky.

Crusader Spearmen - Fire Forge Games.

Another unit off the production line for Outremer and Lion Rampant.

I figured this time around I will make these more of a templar feel to break up the formations for the Christian forces or should I need to separate out regulars vs veterans.

All figures from Fire Forge games.

Still got a few more units to put together over the coming weeks but these fine fellows should hit the table very soon.

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.....

Dust & Tears Campaign - Game 2 - A Knights Tale.

Slow progress for the Pilgrim party, having to advanced 40 miles the column reaches the outskirts of Marmistra when they they encountered an enemy raiding party.

The raiders were seeking loot and the camel train was a suitable target, a random roll provided the Saracens raiders with 7 units appearing at random points on the table fortunately for the attackers many of them appeared at what was the Christians one o'clock.

The Christians decided to put their Knights to the front with their foot troops surrounding the camel train.

It did not take long for the Arab forces to lose a degree of control, Islamic Warriors charged forward only to countered by a heavy spear unit, who knew they had to go after the warriors before they could charge in.... Christian luck held as the Warriors failed to counter charge.

Surprisingly the heavy spears were forced to fall back.

However this brief encounter opened the way for a unit of Knights to charge in and batter the unarmoured attackers their religious fervour no match for a heavy lance.

As the Christian Elite and Heavy Cavalry moped up the troops on the flanks, the main Islamic forces had formed up in the centre. A whole bunch of lightly armed spearman. The Christian cavalry had no choice but to launch a wild charge into the massed ranks.

The opening encounter saw the only Heavy Infantry forced backwards but the Knights lost one of the their number. The Arabs cheered any Christian fallen was a victory in this uneven battle.

Knights could not help themselves and raced forwards into the remaining spearmen.

The spearmen fell in droves but one by one the knights fell from the saddle.

Finally the Knights reached the enemy leader and sent him running from the field. A rather one sided victory but it had been expensive and once the Christians had regrouped their cavalry was a shadow of it's former self. The Christians pressed on.

The forces remaining.

1 Knight Unit.

2 Spearmen Units

1 Warrior Units

2 Missile Units

1 Skirmish Unit.

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.

Enter the Christian Horde.

These fine fellows have been on the paint table for a couple of weeks, a random collection of Footsore, Wargames Atlantic and Perry's Miniatures all part of the getting stuff done project.

It's looking like April will be another month of Crusading, a mix of Spear, Crossbow and Levy to complete a number of units for the Crusader project bringing the figure counts up to 12 and 6 for Lion Rampant and removing the need for casualty markers.

I seem to have increased the volume of figures on the go in recent years, it used to be no more than 12 at any one time, but now I find myself working through between 24-30 which take longer but there is something quite satisfying about finishing a large batch. This mob enable me to come a number of units.

Skirmish Unit - Christian Bow, I had 4 of these already the two additional Plastic Wargames Atlantic archers will complete the unit.

Light or Heavy Spear a mix of of Footsore metal and plastic a perfect match the only difference being the spears, the metal with the deadly metal pins verses the denser plastic ones from Atlantic. I might consider swapping one or the other out at some point.

Closely followed by their bulkier Perry breatharian, the Perry Figures were not a good match compared to the Footsore Spearmen in the same unit so they now get their own unit.

The Christian Levy get their ranks fleshed unit bringing them up to 12 figures, one of the levy even managed to get their hands on a large shield. Not sure it will really help when you look at their stats.

Finally an additional Skirmish Crossbow unit from the Perry Twins, these can be a stand alone unit or combine with the other Skirmishers to make a full unit of 12. Let's see if they can keep the mounted horses at bay.

Plenty more still to do before the plastic mountain is conquered but some good progress over the past week or so, an hour and a half an evening certainly made the painting process far easier than a whole days session.

Next up mounted sergeants.