What to choose

[BlackPrince]

I am about to go back to the army I love -Later Crusader with FoG I gave using it in DBM it might have been my skill level rather than the rules (a poor tradesman and so forth). So I put together a Free company army for DBM having lots of Bd O, which to me seem one of the best troop types in DBM. Before giving up on DBM completely. I have now played 10 or so games with my Free Company army and I like what I see with FoG. I am going to start rebuilding my Later Crusader army my big question is as the army has no LF what terrain do I pick when setting up the table?

1. My first thought is to max out the rough terrain to limit my hanging flanks but my opponent can get they LF and MF into it and there is not much I can do about it.

2. Go with minimal terrain to stop the LF and MF getting into terrain where I can not stop them but risk being surrounded by enemy cav extra?

What is the consensus for small armies with no LF or MF lots of terrain and what type or no terrain except for hill or two?

Keith

[eldiablito]

Hello,

take all this advice with HUGE grains of salt as I've only won 2 games ever;
I sorta think that the crusaders win with their knightly charge. The crossbows and spear are there to help on the flanks. Now crossbows are scary against cav and defensive, armored spear have a hard time doing anything except growl at the enemy (although, if you can "encourage" the enemy to charge you then you'll do great).

So, the best stuff to protect your flanks are cavalry and light horse. Fortunately, the Syrian States and Bedouin allies do a good job at just that! In an ideal world, you'll have a rough terrain (or even better, impassible) on one side for your crossbows, the spears close behind if things go sour and up to 4 BGs of light horse with a couple BGs of shooting cavalry to protect your exposed flank. Unfortunately, the few times I get to drop an impassible piece down, my opponent gets to drop lots of nasty difficult or rough terrain for their numerous BGs of light and medium foot.

my better opponents tell me to do a Syrian State with crusader ally instead... Maybe I'll try that out somedaywhen I can afford ANOTHER army.

[BlackPrince]

Your opponents could be right, even though I have started ordering the Crusader figures. I had looked at using Syrian States allies with my Crusader army and had even worked out some army lists. It is not the same to have a Syrian States army with Crusader allies as Crusaders with allies. I had not looked a the Bedouin list until now I would have thought with 13 BGs the Crusader would have performed better, even if it has only one party trick thump the other guy with your heavily armoured knights.

Thanks for the tips
Keith