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Author Topic: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE  (Read 3116 times)

Offline James Morris

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    • mogsymakes
Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« on: August 01, 2021, 12:56:03 PM »
Yesterday I met up with old chums TWD and Scrivs for a large El Cid era battle, reuniting our 28mm collections of medieval Spanish.  After getting over the hernia caused by lugging metal cavalry armies around (thank god for plastics nowadays) we settled down to fight a scenario based on the Battle of Graus, fought on 8th May 1063 between Zaragoza and Castile and one side and Aragon on the other.  We tried out my own Midgard rules for this period and it worked pretty well, with the battle swinging from one side to the other and exciting single combats.

Here are some picture highlights - you can read a full battle report on the blog here: https://mogsymakes.net/2021/08/01/battle-of-graus-1063-ce-enter-el-cid/

« Last Edit: August 01, 2021, 12:58:05 PM by James Morris »

Offline Atheling

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Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2021, 01:07:01 PM »
Wonderful stuff James, Tom and Scrivs  :-* :-* :-*

One of my favourite theatres of war circa 11CE 8)

Offline Tonhel

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Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2021, 05:47:34 PM »
I really like the full battle report.

What is the difference between the: 1 household caballeros hidalgos (knights), 3 units of caballeros and 1 Andalusian heavy cavalry? Are they all heavy knights with the same stats?

Same as for Aragaon: 2 household knights – caballeros hidalgos and 4 caballeros? Are those all heavy knights with the same stats?

"Although all my Midgard games to date have been played with units on a 12cm frontage, we mostly had pre-existing 16cm movement trays for our El Cid collections (based for WAB), so we used bigger units than usual. Midgard is measured in ‘Spear Throws’ (the width of a base) so that meant we also increased our basic measurement to 16cm for the game."

So a unit for Midgar is a base of 12 cm wide and how deep? And how many figures per base?

Offline James Morris

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Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2021, 06:56:14 PM »
I really like the full battle report.

What is the difference between the: 1 household caballeros hidalgos (knights), 3 units of caballeros and 1 Andalusian heavy cavalry? Are they all heavy knights with the same stats?

Same as for Aragaon: 2 household knights – caballeros hidalgos and 4 caballeros? Are those all heavy knights with the same stats?

"Although all my Midgard games to date have been played with units on a 12cm frontage, we mostly had pre-existing 16cm movement trays for our El Cid collections (based for WAB), so we used bigger units than usual. Midgard is measured in ‘Spear Throws’ (the width of a base) so that meant we also increased our basic measurement to 16cm for the game."

So a unit for Midgar is a base of 12 cm wide and how deep? And how many figures per base?

Glad you enjoyed the report!  To answer your questions...

The knights (caballeros) are fairly standard heavy-charging types with a shock cavalry bonus; the household knights (caballeros hidalgos) are the same but with a higher armour value - a minor difference, but one which saved Sancho's bacon on at least one occasion yesterday.  I'm working on the theory that the kings/ princes would have had the best-armed followers across the army.

The Andalusian heavy cavalry were slightly less fighty than the knights, but had good armour, javelins, and the ability to evade charges as well as a higher move rate - so they could potentially fight the knights toe-to-toe, but are better off shooting off javelins to weaken them before charging.

Every unit in Midgard has the same frontage.  Our standard games have involved 12cm frontages with warriors on 12 x 6 bases with 8-12 minis; skirmishers on 12 x 6 bases with 4-6 models; heavy riders on 12 x 10 bases with 6-8 models; and light riders on 12 x 10 bases with 4  models.  As long as you can easily tell what's what, number of models on a unit base isn't critical.  If you're interested in playtesting, stay in touch as I may be looking for some more playtesters soon.

Offline scotty

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Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2021, 07:20:20 PM »
Superb looking game

Offline valleyboy

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Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2021, 03:45:12 AM »
Lovely figures set off by wonderful terrain - inspirational
I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns. - Winston Churchill

Offline Ragnar

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Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2021, 07:27:17 AM »
Great looking game, James.
Gods, monsters and men,
Will die together in the end.

Online 2010sunburst

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Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2021, 09:00:18 AM »
Fantastic looking game.  The blue on the figures is really eye popping.

Offline Ethelred the Almost Ready

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Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #8 on: August 02, 2021, 09:05:36 AM »
Another great looking game, James. 

Offline Norm

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Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2021, 02:29:18 PM »
What a lovely looking game / table. Really nice to see the bigger figures playing in this sort of space.

Offline joekano

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Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2021, 07:57:11 PM »
Beautiful looking figures and table!  Thanks for sharing!

Chris
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the war room." -President Merkin Muffley
http://majorthomasfoolery.blogspot.com/

Offline RedRowan

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Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #11 on: August 03, 2021, 07:05:17 AM »
That looks great. This is such an interesting period to game.

Steve

Offline pws

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Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #12 on: August 03, 2021, 07:41:46 AM »
NICE!  :-*
Per aspera ad astra
pippoweb.blogspot.it

Offline RichBliss

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  • With Lipbalm-Puce in the Congo
Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #13 on: August 03, 2021, 03:48:38 PM »
Inspirational.  Well done.

Offline Tonhel

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  • Posts: 570
Re: Age of El Cid - Battle of Graus 1063 CE
« Reply #14 on: August 04, 2021, 06:14:10 AM »
Glad you enjoyed the report!  To answer your questions...

The knights (caballeros) are fairly standard heavy-charging types with a shock cavalry bonus; the household knights (caballeros hidalgos) are the same but with a higher armour value - a minor difference, but one which saved Sancho's bacon on at least one occasion yesterday.  I'm working on the theory that the kings/ princes would have had the best-armed followers across the army.
So the other knights could be i.e Caballeros Villanos or not?
Caballeros Hildagos are the best, than regular Caballeros and than Caballeros Villanos? Or couldn't Caballeros Villanos not be equiped with mail?

The Andalusian heavy cavalry were slightly less fighty than the knights, but had good armour, javelins, and the ability to evade charges as well as a higher move rate - so they could potentially fight the knights toe-to-toe, but are better off shooting off javelins to weaken them before charging.
So these could be exactly the same as regular Caballeros, mail and etc.., but could have the option to have javelins?

Every unit in Midgard has the same frontage.  Our standard games have involved 12cm frontages with warriors on 12 x 6 bases with 8-12 minis; skirmishers on 12 x 6 bases with 4-6 models; heavy riders on 12 x 10 bases with 6-8 models; and light riders on 12 x 10 bases with 4  models.  As long as you can easily tell what's what, number of models on a unit base isn't critical.  If you're interested in playtesting, stay in touch as I may be looking for some more playtesters soon.
That's interesting. I am working on a army using only Caballero Miniatures, but as I am slow painter and easly distracted ;) it goes slowy and the fact that I am working on retinues for skirmish and also painting the same mini's for ranked bases makes it even slower. lol Although I am going to use your size requirements for bases. It lookz good :-D. But just to be certain it is 12x10cm?
About playtesting, while I would love it. I will probably manage to have a complete army when you are on version 2 of your ruleset. :D

 

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