Twice The Fun - Two 25mm Crusades Games

 A beautiful Sunday in Auckland saw five of us plus host Barry giving Barrys venerable 25mm Crusades collections a run out, using rules Barry has created based on some simplified versions of the mechanics we are all used to in Marks homegrown systems.

In game one, Barry, Paul and I took command of the Christian forces - Barry on the left. me in the centre and Paul on the right. 

We were up against Andrew, Mark and Rick, respectively

The Christian centre moves forward.

And the Muslims respond in kind. Each command was the same points level - we basically had two to three units of cavalry, some heavy and medium infantry, and some missile troops. The Muslim cavalry was all bow armed.

A view of my command from Marks perspective - the white Templer Knights were the start of Pauls command to my right.

Muslim light horse archers - Old Glory figures that I actually painted for Barry a few years ago!

The first clash - my heavy cavalry charge Marks mediums. They actually managed to win this melee, which might have been my only success in the first game!

The heavy cavalry disgraced themselves, losing to light horse archers in combat, and fleeing for shelter behind the line of dismounted knights!

The archers charged the foot knights 

Barry and Andrews elite heavy cavalry clashed.

The melee continues but as you can see, the foot knights are coming off worse!

Meanwhile, to my right, Rick had performed one of his trademark cavalry flank movements and appeared on Pauls right!

Barry charged Andrew's commander - command units fight with three dice needing a 4 5 or 6 to get a hit, the other unit only rolls 2 dice but needs a 6 to win. This combat resulted in the Christians being driven off.

A short while later and I have lost my knights and heavy cavalry, and the foot knights have been pushed back by the horse archers!

I think by this stage, the routed black heavy cavalry was the only unit Barry had left. Everything else in the picture above is Muslim!

My foot knights attacked by the mounted elite Muslim warriors!

Paul and Rick were locked in a series of inconclusive melees for several turns, but eventually, Paul won them all! A turn or two later, I literally had no units on the table and Mark had not lost anything, Barry was down to one unit against four or five remaining to Andrew, but on our right, Paul had knocked out four units of Ricks Muslim command, for no loss to his forces. However, it was definitely a win for the Muslim forces, so we stopped there for lunch.

We had lunch, Rick left for an afternoon social engagement, we swapped sides and opponents, so I took on Andrew and Paul faced off against Mark, with Paul and I now commanding Muslim forces. Barry was nonplaying umpire now we were down to five.

My force advances against Andrew - I was planning to use the three bow-armed cavalry units to my advantage. I missed a few photos here for some reason but basically, Andrew moved his cavalry forward quickly and charged, negating the advantage of having bows, and once again my heavy cavalry and elite heavy cavalry were driven from the field in the first few moves - it looked like I was going to have a repeat of my first game experience!

After losing all my best units, I had a desperate gamble, using my horse archers to fire at the armoured infantry to their left then charging said infantry with my archers - and it worked!

The heavy infantry were driven back in disarray!

Having successfully defended with his commander in game one, Andrew knew the risk - but he charged my commander anyway - of course, he managed to get a six, and my caliph departed this life and headed off in search of his 72 virgins! Meanwhile, my combined archers and medium infantry had destroyed the rest of Andrews forces!

The Templer knights to the right and the Christian commander adjacent are all that remains of Andrews command, the other units in this image are all mine.

Meanwhile, to my right, Marks superb dice rolling from game one had deserted him, and Paul was making excellent use of his horse archers to pile pain on the Christian forces!

The end is nigh for the Templers, as the Muslim archers peppered them with arrows.

The Hand of God (TM Diego Maradona 1986) points to the next Christian unit to die a horrible death!

Mark had decided discretion is the better part of valour and was withdrawing his remaining troops from the field

Don't worry Andrew, I know EXACTLY how that feels, after the first game!

So, game two ended in an even more complete victory for the forces of Islam than the first one did!

Great fun, thanks to Barry, with all the players having one win and one loss, bar Paul who won his portion of both battles, and Rick, who left early to avoid a second defeat! Hope you enjoyed the photos and report - please let me know by leaving a comment :)