The Battle of Jacob's Daughters, 24th August 1179Baldwin IV, King of Jerusalem, gave permission for the Templars to build a castle at an important crossing of the northern River Jordan, at a site known as Jacob's Daughters. This was the best place to cross the river before it ran into the gorges through the Golan Heights, and was used by both Christian and Muslim armies to maneuver in the region.
Saladin, who's armies were occupied in sieges at the time, offered the Templars 100,000 gold coins to stop building and leave the area - they refused.
In July 1179 Saladin began the siege of the part-built castle, and on the August 24th the mine under the west wall brought down a large section of wall and the assault began.
The castle, called Vadum Iacob, was defended by 1000 knights and a further 500 archers and sergeants. 800 were killed during the assault and the last 700 surrendered, placing their hopes in the well known mercy of Saladin. The Saracen leader was somewhat miffed that the Templars had not accepted his earlier bribe, and had all the prisoners executed.
This is a scaled down version of this battle using Lion Rampant. The forces are as shown below, using the generic nomenclature in LR:
Crusaders:1x Foot Men at Arms*
1x Foot Sergeants
2x Expert Archers
Saracens:2x Foot Sergeants*
2x Mounted Men at Arms with Bows
2x Mounted Sergeants with Bows
3x Fierce Foot
1x Archers
The table, with the castle on the top of the hill only approachable up the incline.
The defenders manning the ramparts.
The Saracen army deploys.
The defenders trade arrows with the horse archers down below.
The Saracen infantry move towards the incline.
Taking casualties and out-ranged by the Crusaders warbows, the horse archers withdraw.
The Saracen Fierce Foot (in black) reach the bottom of the incline.
The archers withdraw battered, while other horse archers hide in the dead ground.
The view from the ramparts as the infantry assault advances.
The Saracen infantry overtake the Fierce Foot, kicking down the barricades.
The Hospitaller Knights (sorry, no dismounted Templars!) move round to help the defence.
The Saracens are now in range from the bows on the ramparts.
The Sergeants brace themselves...
...but a counter-attack by the Knights throws the Saracens back.
The Knights are charged by the Fierce Foot, but repulse them also - and then move back towards the castle as arrows slash into the units behind.
The Fierce Foot attack the Sergeants, but are defeated by their tight formation.
With the infantry falling back and the horse archers stranded on the plains the Saracens conceded.
A good game, with lots of back and forth archery to start with and then an intense period of hand-to-hand to conclude the game.
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April 20, 2024, 05:12:54 AM
May 25, 2008, 02:25:09 PM
