About time these two armies got into a fight...to be fought using WMA & WMMA, 10mm figures from Pendraken; battlelines are drawn:
Right - fought with help from Isaac (aged 5) who took Salah-ah-Din's command; he won the roll for first turn and immediately advanced his cavalry on both flanks:
The main body of the army stayed put though - their commander didn't seem particularly worried, it must be said:
In response, I got the Sergeants moving on my left flank to within striking range of the Turkish horse archers; Isaac reacted and the forces engaged - two swift rounds of combat and the Crusaders had the best of it:
End of the first turn looked like this:
On the left flank, some careful tactics from Isaac (did I mention that he's 5?) brought the cavalry first to the crest of the hill in order to shoot with this archers and then, selecting targets carefully, brought them charging into the Crusader lines:
This got quite bloody, quickly...with casualties on both sides - ended up looking like this - Isaac (5yr tactician) not wanting to withdraw his cavalry to be within the charge arc of the knights...
On the right flank, battle was joined again - with a fairly decisive result in favour of the Crusaders who fell back to consolidate on the hill:
In the centre, Salah-ah-Din finally got his infantry moving, the left brigade moving up past the rocky outcrop...
(we paused overnight for this one...)
Isaac's interest didn't *quite* hold out today - he wanted to have these on his side as well...
You'll see him playing with these on a table corner later on...
Right - off we go:
We left this with Salah-ah-Din having moved his infantry forwards and split some of the cohesion of his army:
In the Crusaders turn, the right flank took the fight to the somewhat isolated units that were playing dodge-the-knights:
...with largely expected results:
On the left flank, the Sergeants failed to move off the hill, whilst in the centre the Crusader infantry repositioned themselves to face the threat better:
In the next turn, the Horse Archers and Faris on the right flank charged towards the sergeants who reacted and they engaged:
The results weren't pretty...
The spearmen in the right-centre advanced further - but then stalled, leaving the centre looking a bit ragged:
Over on the left flank, the combat was brutal:
In the Crusader turn, the infantry charged up the hill into the archers - who were clearly spooked by this bravery and missed with their shooting as the Crusaders closed:
The Crusaders really got their act together now and pressed their advantage fiercely - the knights joining the fray with a vengeance, supported by infantry to both flanks:
Not to be left out, the Sergeants on the left continued their charge into the archers:
This was the critical point of the battle - both forces enjoined:
The fighting was fierce, with no quarter given by either side - combat ebbed and flowed, but the Crusaders gained the upper hand as the knights rode down the front-ranking units of spearmen:
They clattered on into the next ranks:
The Crusader infantry on the left was pushed back - but with the Sergeants rampaging through the archers, things looked bleak for Salah-ah-Din:
...who was left with no option but to withdraw:
To the victor, the spoils...
What a great game - I'd forgotten how much I love Warmaster Ancients, and this was a really enjoyable battle - lots of ebb and flow and then crunching, decisive combat for the endgame. Superb - and (if I do say so myself) this looked top-notch on the table...a real bonus that Isaac enjoyed this (at times!) and 'got' some of the key core mechanics. I'll let him off for wanting to introduce some giant undead into the mix - he is only five, after all
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April 25, 2024, 09:16:59 AM
May 25, 2010, 11:29:52 PM
