Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE

[Wellington]

Nice as always!

The battle in the TV show El Cid lately on Amazon Prime was a absolute disapointment.

[James Morris]

Nice as always!

The battle in the TV show El Cid lately on Amazon Prime was a absolute disapointment.

Cheers!

Most TV/ film battles are disappointing, I think, especially if you know anything about the period (which is most wargamers). I enjoyed the spectacle of the armies and the wide views but, as ever, everyone just runs at each other yelling, people throw down their shields and grapple each other indiscriminately and there’s no real attempt to depict tactics because most viewers don’t care.  But that doesn’t really stop me enjoying the fact that someone’s had a go at filming El Cid, flawed as it may be.

[James Morris]

Tonhel - brief answers to your questions to avoid quoting everything!

Caballeros, caballeros hidalgos and caballeros villanos are all various labels for knights that I used for game purposes in the El Cid WAB book. They’re not exact historical terms.  From memory, the term caballeros villanos appears later on during the Reconquista from when the Christian kingdoms needed more knights to defend the conquered territories - social mobility produced by practical necessity, if you like.  Therefore I felt that caballeros villanos could well be ‘nouveau riche’ and might not have all the equipment and training that you might associate with knights drawn from the established hidalgo noble families.

As regards basing, I would never recommend that you base figures especially for one rules system (especially if that system has some unusual conventions).  You can play Midgard with any figures as long as they can fit on a movement tray (and yes, 120 x 100 mm is likely to stay as a standard cavalry unit, but that’s just a recommendation, not a rule).  I would recommend that you base cavalry on 25x50mm pill/ oval/ rectangular bases as that’s pretty much standard for most systems and then just use movement trays for any unit games you wish to play.

Cheers!

[Tonhel]

Aha, that explains it.

So you could see the Caballeros Villanos as German Ministerialis who were more or less none noble knights.

As I am still thinking about what ruleset to use and don't want individual bases per mini. I think 120 * 60mm for infantry and 120 * 100 mm would look great and could be used for MeG, as that ruleset looks also interesting.

[James Morris]

And a big thank you to everyone who has viewed the blog post and left positive comments here - it’s great to see the love for medieval Spain! It was a great pleasure to see the figures back in action.  Will have to do some more soon. I’ve been looking at other battles from the period to game.

[Atheling]

it’s great to see the love for medieval Spain!

I can't see that ever dying out James - it's just such a colourful period and jam packed with different troop types and potential scenarios.

Kind of whish I hadn't dropped out of the Midgard playtesting now (but at the time it had to be done )

[Tonhel]

And a big thank you to everyone who has viewed the blog post and left positive comments here - it’s great to see the love for medieval Spain! It was a great pleasure to see the figures back in action.  Will have to do some more soon. I’ve been looking at other battles from the period to game.

Looking forward to it! I would love to see even more background about the army / units

[Atheling]

Looking forward to it! I would love to see even more background about the army / units

Do you have access to a copy of James' El Cid WAB supplement Tonhel?

There is a nice background section and some very well balanced army lists for the Almoravids, Almohads, Andalusians, Taifa Kingdoms and Christian Kingdoms in the book which make it a fabulous starting point.

Also, the WAB El Cid army lists transpose nicely into other rule systems.

[Wellington]

El Cid and Age oft Arthur are still my favourite supplements!

[Atheling]

El Cid and Age oft Arthur are still my favourite supplements!

You will find that you're not alone in thinking just that. It was telling and interesting that in the waning years of WAB, that the events that tended to be put on were Age of Arthur or El Cid. With the lists being so well balanced (our club SESWC took part in the extensive playtesting) both books just lend themselves to a campaign type event.

However, we're getting a bit OT (sorry James ) as the thread is concentrating on Midgard, a very promising set of rules

[guitarheroandy]

Inspiring stuff James! I'd love to drag my El Cid models out again at some point soon.
I'm glad the WIP Midgard rules worked well with it too. It seems to be shaping up to be a great little rule set for a number of ancient/medieval and fantasy periods. I'd be very keen to have another bash at it in the not too distant future - Covid willing and all that...