Big Crusade game, Hail Caesar

Ahh yes it was time for another great battle of Hail Caesar. The initial plan was to bring about every miniature we had to the table and Johan, Håkan and I ended with a rather big collection of miniatures on the table. The scenario was first meant to have the Westerners heavily outnumbered and having to block a Saracen breakthrough and being awarded points for units not braking trough but as it turned out I have been all to productive painting Westerners for my medieval Scandinavian project so the different in points wasn´t as big as we thought. So instead we went with the basic "brake enemy army" as the objective.


First some pre game pictures after the deployment.

And we are off. First turn and the attacking Saracens make a good push forward with only some brigades not moving as fast as we wanted.
And the enemy makes some moves in their turn.

My light horse Turcoman horsarchers manages to push an enemy knight unit back with their arrows.
Neat!

Light cavalry swarms the hill and starts to soften up enemy formations.

The westerners moves forward with some knights tanking the lead and some arrows...

The County of Tripoli Officer of the infantry brigade orders his infantry to form a line but with a blunder result on his command dice 3 units of heavy infantry and a small unit of Crusader veterans charges 3 actions right into the Saracen battle line that is forming up, catching it before they are fully prepared.

First line of Saracens are broken or pushed back. My Saharan brigade are now attacked.

In an attempt to move closer to the enemy and start furling javelins in their side the small light cavalry unit from the Saharan brigade blunders on the command roll and instead charges head on into a heavy cavalry unit of mounted sergeants... That was the last time anyone saw the light horses...

The knights have had some casualties because of the swarms of arrows from the light cavalry. A new line is formed to address this.

My Saharans not only managed to break two units of heavy infantry from the County of Tripoli but manages to catch the veteran crusaders in the side.

Duel between two leaders as both of them joins their units in the fight,

I managed to charge his heavy cavalry in the side with my light Turcoman unit, he chose to not act in charge response as you see here as a heavy cavalry unit of Mamluks supported by a Arabic heavy cavalry unit charges them from the front seconds later.
By first charge the enemy in the side I denied him the counter charge option and besides some extra dices from the Turcomans the enemy would also have harder to hit me in the ensuing close combat ( getting a -1 to hit).

Crusader knights charges right into two units of Saracen medium cavalry.

Crusader knights on the opposing flank are after a successfully start finally halted with a great deal of luck. My Saharan spearmen unit againg catches an enemy unit in the side...

The enemy knight unit have broken leaving the men pushing for the hill in a dangerous position of being outflanked.

Enemy mounted crossbowmen are pushed back after some casualties.

My infantry are about to get really smashed here... Two of my units are already shaken and disordered before the combat.

I sent this unit of Turcomans into the forest in an attempt to cross it and then being able outflank the enemy. During the hole game they only manages to get close to the edge of the forest.

And this brigade commander hardy managed to move his troops as this picture can tell. I thing I will have to talk with this commander about why he didn´t sent his troops forward and why he is still standing behind the ruins.


It was a really great game and with lots of fun stuff happening and funny blunder results like my light cavalry unit doing a extremely bad charge right into a heavy cavalry unit or when four of the enemy heavy infantry unit instead of following order charged right into the Saracens....
Deus Vult.
Håkan could just watch as they moved forward without the support of his cavalry.

I think I will have to award the Saharan officer for his brigades performance with some new recruits for him but Im not sure with what.

And finally my Mamluks managed to really shine, with that Turcoman attack in the flank my Mamluks really smashed the enemy center.
So maybe some more Turcomans could be in order also.

Thanks for reading.