Sunday Game - 25mm Crusaders

 This was a game put together by Barry, using his homebrew rules and entirely his collection of true 25mm figures. I think there were Christians on both sides - the Western crusaders taking on the Byzantines? 

Six of us played, Mark, Barry and yours truly as the Westerners and Rick, Julian and John the Easterners.

Relatively small command - 6-8 units per player - but the game kept us entertained for about 6 hours.

Lots (and lots) of images, so a bit of commitment - please!

I commanded the left flank of two mounted knights, two light horse, one unit of dismounted knights, one unit of dismounted men at arms and one long bow unit

Here they are from another angle

Mark commanded our right flank with the Knights Templar and Hospitallers.

The Byzantine centre, led by Julian

Byzantine right (opposing me) under Ricks command

The table from John and Marks end - Westerners on the left, t'others on the right.

With a cavalry heavy force, Rick commenced one of his famous flank attacks on my position.

John and Mark moved towards each other on the other flank

In the centre, Julians poor command and leadership skills saw a hesitant start (each unit must roll 6 or better on 2 D6 to activate - Julian proved very adept and rolling 2 3 or 4!)

Johns light (?) cavalry charges dismounted men at arms.

Ricks cavalry advance on my position

The slow-moving Byzantine centre

John puts in another cavalry charge

This time, they push the MAA back - I think, they then broke through onto the longbowmen, broke them too, contacted the fleeing MAA and wiped them out!

More of Johns cavalry in action.

Meanwhile, things were getting up close and personal on my flank (blue markers denote the action has been taken)

Barrys mounted knights clash with Byzantine heavy cavalry - green denotes disordered after one round of melee.

The Hospitallers are shaken (yellow marker) in combat with Johns Byzantines

The view of our flank from Ricks POV

Ricks flank march cavalry. Out of view to the right, I had a cheeky unit of mounted archers in the wooded area.

Julians Byzantine infantry plod slowly forwards in the center - is it lunchtime yet?

Close ups of Ricks cavalry

My knights put in a charge and destroyed one of the cataphract units!

But the other cataphracts then destroyed my dismounted knights AND longbowmen - mind the gap!

My favourite moment of the game - javelin armed light cavalry v Byzantine heavies - 5 dice to 7 - 4 5 or 6 to hit - and tah dah below....

Rick rolled one hit, lost by three, and the cataphracts were destroyed - oh dear, 'ow sad, never mind!

The victorious light cavalry daring two more Byzantine heavies to come and have a go if they think they are hard enough!

On the other flank, Mark had weathered the early storm of Byzantine charges and was now pushing them back

Having yelled "yah, boo, sux to be you!" at the Byzantine cataphracts, the light cavalry beat a hasty retreat - while in the top centre, the heavy knights charged into the Byzantines who had destroyed the foot knights and bowmen.

They turned to face - but to no avail - another excellent dice roll and a winning margin of 3 saw these heavies swept from the field too!

My leader (interestingly, my figure - painted as William Wallace about 15 years ago) we are not sure how he managed to end up in Barry's collection (the Minifigs Norman next to him is/was mine, too!)

Things start to unravel for the Byzantines on the other flank

Wait - has that Byzantine infantry moved slightly closer - or is it a figment of my imagination?!

My flank is starting to look a bit ragged

But the knights (upper right near the trees) have destroyed the Byzantines 

Marks Templars and co go over to the offensive.

My force is still holding the line - unfortunately the heavy knights were within range of Byzantine crossbowmen skulking in the woods and kept taking hits from them

Marks continues to push John back

Julian has finally got within range - and started pummelling Barry's infantry with arrows

Nearest the camera is the unit of mounted archers I had previously had sitting in the wood on Ricks flank - more of them anon.....

My knights in black were charged but destroyed the attacking cavalry, but picked up a yellow shaken marker in the process

 

Next turn, they were charged again by a fresh Byzantine unit and destroyed!

Unrecorded for posterity, the Byzantine crossbowmen, having killed off my other unit of knights, incautiously advanced out of the woods, whereupon they were charged and destroyed by the mounted archers!

The two units of cavalry are what remains of Ricks force - the light cavalry archers and men at arms by the wood, all that remains of my command!

In the centre, the larger, heavier Byzantine infantry units could still win the day for the Easterners....

But the battle on the other flank is almost over, with the Western forces in total control.

Barrys heavy knights line up for a charge on Byzantine heavy infantry.

Marks advance has pushed John right back to the Byzantine start line

My horse archers charged a large unit of Byzantine infantry, who passed their test to turn and face......

But the archers rolled another 3-difference victory, and the Byzantines were no more - oh, how we (well I, at least) laughed!

Rick trundles ponderously along our baseline with the intention of taking our centre in the rear, despite being ordered by his CinC to cut diagonally between the woods to support the Byzantine centre!

Barry's men confront Julians in the infantry battle for the centre of the field.

Barrys knights go in at the other end of the centre

Johns light cavalry only just surviving a failed attack on the Templars - because the run away faster than the heavy knights can pursue, they avoided being caught and destroyed!

The Knights v heavy infantry combat from the Byzantine POV

The Byzantine line nearest the camera looking a bit thinned out

The final nail in the coffin - Barrys knights destroyed one unit of heavy infantry and broke through onto the flank of a second - game over!

A vast number of lovely close-up images follow courtesy of John - I can't choose between them so have left them all here - I did incorporate a few into the foregoing narrative. 

Hope you enjoyed the report - it was a really fun game to play, only 6 to 8 units each, but it lasted basically from 10am to 4pm and everyone was involved in the action almost every turn - and, my side won, even if I lost most of my command in the process - the mounted javelin men and archers wiping out Byzantine heavies made it all worthwhile 😊😉😍