Last week we had another game of Hail Caesar using my Crusader collection. The Westerners would be using some of my miniatures intended for a Medieval Scandinavia project but works anyway.
As my collection still is rather small or spread out we used "small" units.
As the armies weren't evenly matched in points we gave the Latin force some ruins to shelter in and a special rule of needed to hold out a number of turns rolling a dice for the game to end after this number of turns, the actual number of turns before they where allowed to roll that dice and the number on that dice have totally escapes me now. And they where given two monk miniatures on foot, any foot units they are joining are given the stubborn rule (reroll one moral dice).
I didn´t take enough of pictures from the battle and this could result in some actions missing between some pictures, sorry for that.
I took the command of the infantry elements of the Crusaders and my ally Håkan had his old Bretonnia miniature commanding the mounted elements.
The opposition was played by Henrik using the Turkic miniatures and Johan the more Arabic miniatures.
The table at the start of the game.
The old Bretonnia model was given command of the mounted units and small unit of archers.
The Saracen force was given the first turn and the whole Turkic brigade blundered resulting in a move to the left.
In this picture the light Turcomans are redeploying after taken some damage from western archery. The western infantry have just left the relatively safety of the ruins to charge to the first Saracens, thinking thats its better to attack the enemy then to be attacked by them next turn.
After some clash of swords the westerners redeploy their forces behind the ruins and trying to protect each others flanks. Heavily outnumbered the awaits the Arabs.
What we also see here is two Mamluk heavy Cavalry formation closing in on the gap in the ruins.
One of the Mamluk heavy cavalry units had smashed its way through the flanks of the western infantry and pushing each unit backwards until catching the last unit in another round of combat in the front instead.
We also see the westerners heavy cavalry formation in the right part of the picture, having moved forward from their initial deployment somewhat rear of my infantry formations.
A better picture to get a grip on all the action.
A unit of westerners medium cavalry smashed its way through a Saracen light infantry and pushed beyond, now almost at the corner of the table and some distance from the action.
A small unit of Saracen light archers took the opportunity to move forward and tries to keep its distance from the earlier mention horsemen.
The westerners heavy cavalry formation are attacking through the ruins and easily pushes the Arabic unit back.
Defensive formation. This archer unit actually managed to inflict such casualties on of the Mamluk units that it was forced move back and kept it out of action for the whole game.
Good shooting I say.
The Mamluk unit continuing in its rampage through the Latin lines. Catching two units in its flank.
Please notice that small unit of medium archers infront of the Mamluks, this is important.
Not only did they survived being charged in the flanks by heavy cavalry they managed to hold the enemy where every other units this far had been pushed aside with casualties. These are some really thought archers.
The Saracen light archer unit is shooting the enemy unit on top of the ruins and a badly formulated order sent the Turkic light cavalry dashing through the table top. Damn those light cavalry units are quick.
The archer unit holding the Mamluks in place are now reinforced with some infantry, finally spelling dome to the cursed Mamluks.
The westerners heavy cavalry are sent to attack the Turkic warband resulting in pushing it back with casualties.
A follow up attack on the Turks meant that their army had taken to many casualties and where broken, resulting in an win for the Crusaders.
Another really fun game of Hail Caesar.
Until next game I think I should reread the rules as some moment in the game had some uncertainty, the terrain should be better defined before battle, how we should treat it and how exactly does it affect the game.
Thanks for all involved.
