This was, for the time being, the last Hail Caesar battle that we played, after this we’ve continued with Black powder. Unfortunately I didn’t take to many pictures and those that I did were are not all sharp and had only few close-ups.
With this battle our last player joined us, Justin, he quickly felt at home with the rules and applied them well.
We played this game just before Christmas, we thought it a was a good plan to stick with the Christmas feelings and so to play a battle in the "Holy Land" and what better than a crusade.
The armies were divided as follows
Crusaders/Franks:
General with cavalry division - Godfried
de Bouillon (Roland)
Division Hospitalers/ military order of Malta - Fulkes
de Fillaret (Roland)
Division infantry -Baldwin of Bouillon (Abe)
Division cavalry- Bohemond of Toronto (Erik)
Division infantry- Robert II Count of Flanders (Erik)
Division cavalry - Raymond of Toulouse (Sander)
Division Templars - Hugh
de Payens (Sander)
Saracens:
General with infantry division - Yaghi-Siyan (Alex)
Division Cavalry - Kilij Arslan of Rum (Alex)
Division Cavalry - Kerbogha of Mosal (Alex)
Division infantry - Ifthikar Al Dawla of Jerusalem (Justin)
Division Cavalry - Mailik Shah (Justin)
Division Cavalry - Ridwan van Aleppo (Justin)
Division Infantry - Duqaq of Damascus (Joost later Latok)
Division Cavalry - Atabeg Zangi (Joost later Latok)
Division Cavalry - Jussef Zangi (Joost later Latok)
The first turn was for the crusaders, after being blessed by the monks they moved forward, the troops of Robert II moved towards the village. Bishop Adhemar
de La Puy, accompanied by the true cross urged to move forward and Godfrey
de Bouillon gave the order to move forward across the entire front and attack the infidels head-on. This is what they did and across the Centre, the Frankish troops moved forward.
Although the battle had started, Peter the hermit (a monk seated on a donkey) was not yet finished with his blessings, the troops of Raymond of Toulouse and Hugh
de Payens were further encouraged by this religious inspirational sermon and they did not move.
The crusaders move forward
Yaghi-Siyan, leader of the Saracens
The Saracens looked on as the crusaders marched forward. They decided to stay at a distance and to overwhelm the crusaders under a blanket of arrows. The rain of arrows landed in the Frankish formations and several Warriors were killed. Only the Division of Jussef Zangi moved forward and the horse archers fired a few arrows into the side of the infantry of Baldwin
de Bouillon. Despite the great number arrows that landed on the Frankish infantry their casualties were light due to their closed formation and heavy armour.
Raymond of Toulouse (Sander) saw the unit of Jussef Zangi nearby and decided to attack. His knights charged forward and lowered their lances. With the cry "Deus Vult" they on the charged the unit of Jussef Zangi (Joost), Jussef’s entire Division was wiped out to the last man.
Crusader Knights move further forward, Raymond of Toulouse attacks
Raymond van Toulouse has destroyed its opponents
Robert II, count of Flanders (Erik) took the village and Bohemond of Toronto moved behind the village towards the Centre. Godfrey of Bouillon, whom was located in the Centre, now had three Cavalry divisions and thus he had a numerical superiority on his opponents
The Saracens did not move and shot a new salvo of arrows towards the crusaders.
In the Crusaders turn Bishop Adhemar
de la Puy brought the "true cross" further forward, he looked towards Godfrey, pointed to the Saracens a shouted "Christo Et Ecclesia", Godfrey
de Bouillon (Roland) nodded and his cavalry moved forward. Godfrey turned his gaze towards the heavens and screamed: "Caelitus mihi vires", six Cavalry units including Hospitalers charged four units of Mamluks and Bedouins. In a numerical minority the Saracen cavalry was beaten. Lances pierced flesh and the Frankish horses trampled the wounded that fell on the ground. The Centre was firmly in the hands of Godfrey.
Robert II, count of Flanders (Erik) had been ordered to stay in the village with his infantry to make sure the Saracens could not make a flank attack but with the infantry of Ifthikar Al Dawla of Jerusalem (Justin) so close he couldn’t hold his men back. He took three units of Frankish infantry and stormed towards the enemy. He held a unit of archers in the village to prevent the Cavalry of Ridwan of Aleppo (Justin) to make a flank attack. Three Frankish infantry units came in contact with five Saracen units, the first Saracen unit was overrun and wiped out, the remaining four braced and a deadly battle followed.
Godfrey attacks in the centre
Robert II, count of Flanders and Ifthikar Al Dawla of Jerusalem fighting
Hugh
de Payens (Sander) formed his Knights Templar in a close formation on the left flank, at a gallop these armed monks moved towards the horse archers of Atabeg Zangi (Joost), Atabeg had two choices, stand and shoot or pull back, Atabeg fired on the approaching Knights Templar, these remained unharmed. With only a few meters to go they closed their formation, the Knights Templar brought down the lances to optimum height and they cried out with one voice "Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam" and before the troops of Atabeg Zangi could realise their mistake, the templars smashed into the enemy formation that was completely wiped out.
Baldwin of Bouillon (Abe) brought his infantry forward, he split into two "fronts" and attacked Yaghi-Siyan's infantry (Alex).
In the Saracen turn the units of Robert II and Ifthikar fought on and casualties were inflicted on both sides, the horse archers of Ridwan of Aleppo (Justin) started a firefight with the archers that Robert II had left behind in the village. In the Centre the troops of Godfrey (Roland, reinforced with Cavalry from Erik) fought against the remaining cavalry of Kilij Arslan of Rum (Alex reinforced with Cavalry from Justin), they were no match for the majority of crusader knights.
Yaghi-Siyan (Alex) took command of his troops himself. They managed to destroy two Frankish units, this partially because of a flank attack by Kerbogha of Mosal. The left part of the crusaders Centre was about to fall.
The cavalry of Raymond of Toulouse and the Knights Templar from Hugh
de Payens, (Sander) turned around and they attacked the infantry of Duqaq of Damascus (Joost) that were all spread out and with a majority of Cavalry the Crusaders managed to break the Division of Duqaq, Hugh
de Payans gave the order to kill the survivors where they fell. A unit of Hospitilar Knights were killed.
Robert II, count of Flanders (Erik) and Ifthikar Al Dawla of Jerusalem (Justin) fought kept fighting each other, the troops of Ifthikar broke a unit of Robert and the Franks threw their arms into the air, begging for mercy, they would not receive this, the throats of the Frankish survivors were cut open.
The Division of Robert II was heavily battered and two units moved back to the village, the troops of Ifthikar were no better off, they too were severely bloodied, and both divisions were "shaken".
The Cavalry of Ridwan of Aleppo (Justin) charged the unit of archers that Robert II had left behind to guard the flank, the archers launched a volley of arrows and then prepared themselves for the coming attack of the horse archers of Ridwan. A short fight ensued and the Saracens withdrew, the archers had held the flank.
After this turn a crisis in the Muslim camp occurred and Joost was summoned to leave (or he just had to go home to his pregnant wife ... but that sounds less dramatic) but fortunately, Latok just came in after a visit to the Church (How fitting) and he took command of the remnants of the divisions of Joost.
Yaghi-Siyan heavy fighting Baldwin of Bouillon
The Knights Templar of Hugh
de Payens (Sander) however, gave the units of Atabeg Zangi (Latok) no time to recover, they were still reeling from the shock of the first attack and the templars drove them of the table. Raymond of Toulouse moved his Divisions to the centre and attacked the units of Yaghi-Siyan (Alex) in the flank, the hospitilars of Fulkes -the Fillaret (Roland) attacked Yaghi-Siyan Om the other flank and attacked on both flanks Yaghi-Siyan’s division broke.
Godfrey of Bouillon (Roland) decided to attack the flank of Ifthikar Al Dawla of Jerusalem (Justin) but his command was not clear, his troops halted right before they reached Ifthikars flank.
Bohemond of Toronto (Erik) could no longer reach the soft flank of Ifthikar’s division because Godfrey’s units blocked it, he decided to charge a unit away even though he had to move in front of a unit of archers from Ifhikar, it was a gamble that he was prepared to take, they stormed forward but a volley of arrows drove Bohemond back.
The Centre and the left flank were now fully in Frankish hands, on the right flank Ifthikar stood his ground bravely but his divisions were "shaken" or severely weakened. While the divisions of Robert II, count of Flanders slowly rallied and the archers of Robert II held the flank, Cavalry divisions of Bohemond and Godfrey moved towards Ifthikar. Ifhikar knew that he could not stand and he pulled his troops out.
After consuming a “roomboterletter” left behind by Ifthikar (Justin) the crusaders kneeled down before the true cross and were blessed by Bishop Adhemar
de la Puy, the Holy land was preserved, “Dei fortioribus adsunt”.
Nothing like seeing huge battles with fully painted miniatures.
