Crusader - Post Traumatic Stress

Dave K and myself, keeping things fresh in the mind had another, slightly impromptu, game of Crusader this week with a start on the forces of Aragon and Jaime the Conqueror to get a feel for the forces.

Another game where we both tried something a bit different, me trying out the Berber tactic of lining up archers in the back rank of spearmen in big chunky units and a few more light cavalry using amended army lists taking out the little errors and Dave with a huge chunk of Heavy Cavalry but just with spear (no lance). 

We both played it a bit cagey with the light cavalry skirmishing back and forth on the Berber left flank and a small (and rules illegal) unit of skirmishers managing to see off a unit of light cavalry and the Berbers getting the better in the cavalry skirmish too.

On the other flank there was a bit more jockeying for position and no one wanting to comit and end up in the open.

The Infantry centre's stayed pretty static with the Berber infantry edging forward and shooting at the Christian skirmishing bowmen and not achieving much.

I then saw the best opportunity I had to deal with Daves' cavalry (thinking then that he had lance and I didn't want him to get the charge/counter charge bonus) I charged my Hasham Guard cavalry at his Noble skirmishing types who fled and revealed the Heavy cavalry, who were 'surprised' and couldn't counter charge.

Now I knew the likely odds of success were poor but it was my best shot. I was unfortuntely right about the odds with 8 rolls needing 9's or 10's versus 12 roll's need 5's + I was really on to a hiding to nothing. And bang, I lost a stand and a bit against the HC loosing a stand (lucky that the Guard Cavalry unit was upgraded to veterans) the unit broke due to the combat resolution. On Dave's turn he charged my light cavalry had to get out the way and the automatic response for my guard cavalry was to evade which took them off the table.

I think both myself and Dave both realised pretty much at the same time a slight issue with the rules here. With Daves large Heavy Cavalry unit and the rule mechanism of completing a units whole move to completion including melee/morale results before the next unit, there was nothing on the table that could effectively fight such a large unit of knights. The knights may eventually be worn down but it would take at least half the enemy to do so.

To prove the point I tried charging the cavalry with a nearby infantry unit which outnumbered the cavalry but with similar dice needed the result was much the same. I've also noted (remembering from when we had played the rules a couple of years ago) that the use of the massed archery rules is not very affective use of points. It does give the otherwise vulnerable spearmen an effective response to light cavalry which would otherwise harass and wear them down) but it ties up a lot of points in a 50% less effective group. Archers were marginally more expensive than the spear but halved their attacks in the back rank and so couldn't do much to any serious opposition. Shooting seemed to be pretty ineffective generally usually needing 9's or 10's even when point blank, so I'm not sure about the slightly more expensive points values.

Though the unit of Heavy Cavalry was legal as far as the rules are concerned (8 stands for cavalry and 12 stands for infantry being the maximum sizes), we both thought that such units should effectively be limited to 3 or four stands (though the rules state that the minimum size for a unit should be four, mainly that for less stands the staying power of most unit types in three stands or less is practically nil, again as we found out in this game).

For post game dissection, I've come to the conclusion that as with most 'quick play' rules Crusader have a pretty small window of operations, and though the mechanics are simple and indeed quick, they really lend themselves only to a set piece scenario or set piece battle where the forces are drawn up in matched unit sizes etc. Otherwise all you need to do is have one really big unit of your best guys and charge!

Though still not finished with the Crusader rules,I'm going to give War and Conquest a go for the Malaga campaign by way of experiment and see if they might give a more naturally balanced game.

All in all it's fun going through this investigation and we haven't even started the campaign yet. 

Crusader Rules Refreshed!

Well after last weeks taster, a re-introduction to the Crusader Rule set, myself and Dave K set up for another game this time to see if we could get a whole game done in a night and put to good use the bits and bobs learnt from last week (while still fresh in the mind).

The army list were the same as last week with my Berbers vs Daves' Andalucians in a 3000pt match. With the initiative going to me, I decided to let Dave go first.

Dave had changed his deployment a bit from last time having learnt a few lessons and his first line was made up of most of his cavalry with his infantry following, and so his cavalry advanced but this time he had his general firmly holding his impetuous types in check until it was time to go. I also had a general advance, most units advancing as quickly as they could to minimize the time my exposed infantry would be exposed to Daves shooting.

The Cabelleros charge the Black Guard

The second round was one of the expected advance/shoot/run away from the Andalucian Jinetes both of which did rather well in the casualty causing front on my Berber and mercenary spear. And then at the end of his move (cause if you lose a combat you lose the initiative and your turn ends) Dave launched his knightly types (sans general) at my Black Guard. The Black Guard, with the aid of a pretty nifty general attached, made short work of the knights who promptly broke and galloped away from the fray but had managed to make a significant dent in the Guard before legging it.

The Andalucians pour in the fire on the advancing Berbers

I promptly followed up this small siccess and in my turn once again had a general advance, with the Guard charging at the retreating knights (no chance to catch them but it pushed them further to the rear and if they failed to rally the following turn may have legged it off the table). My return fire from two units of detached archers, two units of Berber Cavalry and a unit of skirmishers failed to make any headway however, only managing to cause a solitary casulaty on Daves skirmishing light infantry on his flank.

The next couple of turns proved to be much as the second turn with Dave cutting down the numbers of my infantry with his untouchable (but very accurate Jinetes) and his archers took a few more casualties off my guard as they re-formed to face the new threat. His knights did rally behind the woods but they had been taken out the fight for all intents and purposes (but their services proved to not be required in any event). My Berber Cavalry seemed to be unable to harm his Andalucian Nobles who, after a quick exchange of missile fire charged my cavalry and easily broke the first unit and then the following turn broke the second unit. His untouched infantry then charged home my depleted infantry units both of which broke.

My Guard Infantry at last charged his annoying archer unit and though at half strength easily broke them sending them running, the archers managed to take a casualty in return which was enough to drop the Guards to one stand which meant automatic dispersal. My Guard cavalry acting in reserve chased off one of his Jinete units and put a noticeable dent in one of his infantry units while my archer units continued un-inspiring nibbling at anything they could see. The Tribal Skirmishers and Daves Light Infantry continued to skirmish with each other over the wood to little affect though both units by the end had last a stand, with the Tribal types beginning to get the upper hand due to higher starting numbers.

The End Game - Still fight in the Berbers but it
doesn't look good for them.

By turn 5 or 6, (I lost count), all the routing Berbers units had rallied (bar the Mercenaries) but they were still on the table. My Berber cavalry units both rallied and promptly managed a couple of casualties forcing the Nobles to retreat. Both of Daves Infantry Units were at half strength or so (He hadn't taken off the stands as the bases were a bit large so the above picture looks slightly more busy than it should) but his cavalry force was still largely intact (if a couple of dents beginning to appear) but pretty scattered and the skirmishing in the woods very much a side show in regards the main event.

My forces were however pretty much out of luck, with all the units (bar the skirmishers and Guard Cavalry) at about half strength but in much dsarray, so even though most of my units were technically not destroyed or routed off the table it was an obvious victory to Dave.

So all in all an interesting game and one which certainly achieved it's aim in getting to refresh the rules in our minds and got a game to a conclusion (or very nearly anyway).

Daves' extraodinary luck with his dice (even he thought so) made a big difference to the eventual outcome, but also his tactics were pretty good with every unit getting into the action and the tactics he used I thought were very in keeping historically with the jintes screening his infantry until the right moment for his infantry to charge.

The game proved to be pretty quickly done too with a later start and a couple of welcome interruptions (in the form of the local press interviewing Dave and taking a couple of pictures as they were doing a feature on the club following the FDWC involvement at the NMS Viking exhibition at the weekend (Do you want to know more; Check out the Falkirk Herald soon for full story and pics) meaning a bit of a delay to the game but we still managed to get the game played out so proving it's 'quick play' tag and that we had picked up the rules sufficiently to get through a game with minimal rules checking or clarification.

The game though slightly one sided (due to Daves' un-characteristic good dice rolling) proved to be an enjoyable one and had lots of to-ing and fro-ing which gave the feel of the period nicely and though quick play produced a reasonably good 'feel'. Certainly lots of movement and change which I like.

Our next game, while the rules are still fresh in our minds' will be next month some time but with Dave playing the Aragonese, to see how they fare in a mini-preparation for the Majorca campaign thing. 

Crusader Rules Refresher

This weeks game was a quick refresher of the Crusader Rule set from Mark Sims of Crusader Miniatures and Publishing.

We have used the rules in the past and all who played them seemed to like them all told, but the whims of fate and new shinier rules (mainly Impetus) moved the interest away, so we hadn't used them for a couple of years. I however have been keen to use them again, mainly to refresh my memory of the rules and see if they would be suitable for use in the forth coming mini-campaign 'Conquest of Majorca'.

So Dave K and myself sat down earlier this week and we dusted off the rules and plumped for a 3000pt a piece barney just to refresh ourselves with the rules, with my Berbers taking on Daves' Andalucians.

The game went slowly at first, but we soon started to pick up the niceties and foibles of the rules.  With the rules and age addled memories beginning to kick in we began to remember the issues we had with the Rules which were few, but the army lists for the armies being the main  problem with a few of the stats being silly like formed troops with Javelins they couldn't use as Javelins.

The game went interestingly with Daves' Impetuous knights careening across the table in round one and pushing back in disarray a unit of Berber spear and destroying a unit of archers. And then being forced to retreat back across the table and to be caught by the avenging Guard Cavalry. The rest of the forces were just beginning to jockey for position.

We were really only starting to get the swing of things when we ran out of time, so a 'proper' game has been organised for next week to keep things fresh in the mind to have a proper test of the rules, and the army lists tweeked slightly to take out the 'silly factor'. Will keep you posted on the results.

Crusader Club Game

Just had another recent game of Crusader using my Berbers, with club member Dave K on our Club night this week.


Ended in another victory for the Berbers but not without some close moments. Really like the Crusader Rules and have always enjoyed the games I have played using these rules. As with most fast play rules, there are always situations where the rules appear silly or annoyingly won't let you do what you want to do but all in all a recommended set for anyone playing Ancient/Dark Age/Medieval games.

The picture above is of our Crusader game at the end of August, a narrow victory to the Berbers but only because of running out of time on the club night.