Report of a game last night, myself vs John Hickman, Ayubbid vs Later Crusader.

I have a complaint to make. This game ended with an entirely historical result, despite my best attempts to arrange otherwise. What are we doing playing a game that is not only fun but gives good historical results?

Brief outline. Saladin invaded, at 5 am in Spring, so we had a few night moves, half with no moon, so no great advantage really. John put a large BUA at the front of his left flank, and a large marsh near his baseline on his right flank, so narrowing the battlefield, with other non-relevant terrain around.

This being about my 3rd game of 1.1/2.0, I'd not really taken on board the changes, and wanted to try things out.

Deployment was as follows: My left, opposite the marsh, had
Saladin, Cv S, 7 Cv O, 6 Reg Cv S, 2 Irr LH O, 4 Wb F, 5 Irr Ax O,
Centre 12 Reg Bw O, 4 Reg Cv O, 4 Hde F, Reg Cv S SG
Right 12 Irr LH S, 6 Irr Cv O, SG Reg Cv S.

John's army (roughly)
Right flank Richard's command 10 Irr Sp I, 6 Irr Kn O, Brill CinC
Centre 8? Irr Bw X Reg Kn S SG (Hospitaller)
Left flank, Templars, 6 reg Sp O, 2 reg Kn S, 4 Reg LH S, Reg Kn SG

I rejigged my list at the last minute - it was an old one with Kn O in it, and that seemed ahistorical,so I dropped them and used whatever was in the box, so it might not add up properly.


In the dark, while the Crusaders were drinking beer, the Ayubbids crept forward. I though that the Bw X, in one rank, I could beat with two ranks of Bw O. Both of these commands were lowest dice on each.

On My left, I got the Wb/Ax combination opposite his Sp, who initially the Wb went through, but one heroic, and surrounded,  Sp I on his right flank, resting on the marsh, held out for the next 6 bounds, stopping me getting round that flank. John detached one Kn to chew through the Ax plus Wb, which they did, although eventually being surrounded by my Cv that had ridden across the front of the marsh. Honours were about even here, although I eventually broke this command, despatching enough Sp and two knights. Richard was eventually taken huimself, after having ridden down some Cv S, which contributed to breaking my army in the end.

The centre decided things. In an entirely historical fashion, the Bw X crossbows shot my bow to pieces. John did try charging with them at one stage, but they needn't have bothered - they did more casualties shooting. We decided Saladin rolled lots of 1's at Arsuf, which in my defence I did here.

On my right, the double-ranked LH S got in to contact with his Sp, and with some Cv on either flank, his LH and the Kn who rode through the LH screen. John eventually ground me down here. I did have a couple of goes at hie Templar SG with double overlaps by LH S, but nothing came of this, and I was eventually ground down.

My army eventually broke, but I was within 1 ME of breaking the Crusader army, and Richard was presumably carried off the battlefield injured by his victorious forces.

A great game, could have gone either way, probably would have ended up about 15-10 to Richard if we'd counted up the points properly.

and John Adds

Another cracking and uncannily historical game of DBMM for me.

So, how to run the Crusaders?

"Although able to charge through most enemy cavalry, Crusader knights were vulnerable to being surrounded and picked off in detail by horse archers if they charged too rashly." – Book 4 Early Crusaders

"The Crusaders tended to win when their infantry supported their Knights, and lose when they didn't."

"The Crusaders advanced with a thin line of crossbowmen in front of the Knights"

"The Crusader crossbowmen advanced to clear the way for their foot sergeants."

So after spending 130AP (yikes!) on Generals for Richard's 3rd Crusade army, what's the cunning plan?

I put all the Bw(X) in a command under the Hospitalier Sub-general, who would deploy in a single line up front. The other commands would go rear right, and rear left, with the Knights behind the Crossbowmen, Spears and terrain guarding the flanks and the Turcoooles as a reserve.

Ironically I was helped in keeping to this plan by the night attack as it avoided any chance of me coming out of my box ;-)

In the centre, De Nablus (with the low Pip dice allocation) fared somewhat better than he did historically, and even made his impetuous charge, although this time to chase fleeing Ayyubids. The Shooting between the BwX and BwO was theoretically in the latter's favour, but not by much. The BwO were 2 deep, but because I was wider, on the ends it was 2v2 and in the middle, they need a 5/6-1 to kill me, and I needed a 6-1 to kill them. Fortunately the Ayyubids managed to roll a lot of the requisite 1's.

On my right, Richard (with the middle pip allocation) spent most of the game holding his Knights whilst his Sp(I) took a pummelling.  I let a couple of Knight elements peel of to attack, but they were "picked off in detail".
I used my first Brilliant stroke to double pip and patch up the rapidly appearing holes, and the second for Richard to charge in personally and ride down a CvS. Considering how close the battle was, this might have been just enough.

On my left, the Templars fared somewhat better. With the high pip allocation, they were able to position themselves as needed, even with their general in combat. It was interesting to see the frontal interaction between the double ranked LhS and the Sp.

Here's my list:

                          Later Crusader
Notes:
Year: 3rd Crusade 1191AD
Army List Book: 4
Army List Number: 17
Home Climate: Warm
Aggression Factor: 3
Terrain: S, L, Rv, DH, SH, GH, RF, M, Rd, O, BUAf.

Stratagems:

Concealed command if invading and brilliant stroke

Type    Trng    No. Description

1 Richard I the Lionheart
Kn(S)   Reg G     1 Brilliant C-in-C
Kn(O)   Irr       5 Knights and sergeants
Sp(I)   Irr      10 Foot sergeants
Bg(O)   Irr       1 Camp
Bg(S)   Reg       1 Standard Wagon
EEs: 24.0
Disheartened (>6)     =  6.5
Broken       (>8)     =  8.5
Shattered    (>12)    = 12.5

2 Garnier de Nablus
Kn(S)   Reg G     1 Hospitalier Sub-general
Bw(X)   Irr      12 Foot Crossbowmen                          6
Bg(O)   Irr       2 Camp
EEs: 18.0
Disheartened (>4.5)   =  5
Broken       (>6)     =  6.5
Shattered    (>9)     =  9.5

3 Robert de Sable
Kn(S)   Reg G     1 Templar sub-general
Kn(S)   Reg       3 Military Order Knights
LH(S)   Reg       4 Turcopoles of military orders
Sp(O)   Reg       8 Military Order Foot sergeants
Bg(O)   Irr       2 Camp                                       4
EEs: 24.0
Disheartened (>6)     =  6.5
Broken       (>8)     =  8.5
Shattered    (>12)    = 12.5

4 Army Baggage
Bg(S)   Reg       1 Standard Wagon
Bg(O)   Irr       5 Camp
EEs: 9.0
Disheartened (>2.25)   =  2.5
Broken       (>3)      =  3.5
Shattered    (>4.5)    =  5.0

Army EEs:  75.0    Defeat Lvl: (>37.5) = 38