The two armies deployed as shown below. The Crusaders on the left, the Sassanids on the right. The hill in the centre foreground is steep, occupied by my Bedouin light foot. The two pieces of terrain on my right and left flanks are broken ground ??“ it doesn??™t affect light troops (horse or foot), nor medium foot (like my missile troops) but it will disorder the Sassanid cavalry. The other terrain wasn't relevant to the game.
The Bedouin light horse is on my right flank, looking for a way around the Sassanid line. Failing that they are to tie up some of the heavier cavalry. The centre is occupied by the defensive spearmen and the left flank by the missile troops in the broken ground. The knights are in reserve, looking to go to where the elephants aren??™t. The turcopoles hold my far left flank.
The Sassanids stretch across the table, but are deployed thinly, generally one rank deep. The elephants are in the centre, ready to stampede over any dice that throw low for the Sassanids.
My plan was to hold the flanks as long as possible, to engage with the centre and try and destroy the elephants through numbers/attrition. The knights would try and engage with the Sassanid where ever the opportunity arose ??“ my main problem is they can skirmish if one line deep, and could prove to be difficult to catch.
The situation after the opening moves is as follows:
A turn later I press forward with my Bedouin light horse. The Sassanid cavalry execute an ???oh no you don??™t??? wheel.
On the other flank the Sassanids start to sweep around my flank:
The Christians look at the numbers, check the combat chart, and fall on their knees to pray for a miracle.
Which doesn??™t happen. The bowmen are blown apart from concentrated shooting (spot where the bowmen were!) and the crossbows in the centre background are looking like they??™re rather be guarding the baggage. The turcopoles were disrupted from shooting and are forced to retire. They can be seen just off the right edge of the photo. Can the Christian knights, seen in the centre foreground, save the day?
Meanwhile??¦ back on the other flank??¦
Things are stalemating. Eventually I take out a unit of Sassanid cavalry but lose a unit of spearmen.
Time??™s almost up. We though of declaring a draw, but decide to play one more pair of turns. I throw my two uncommited units of uncommitted knights in ??“ a sure fire plan as I??™ve got a better impact factor. But it turns out that their lances are made of balsa and the Sassanid swords are made of tungsten. The knights throw crap dice (and rethrow crap dice for the quality re-roll). The ???disadvantaged??? Persians all throw wonderful dice and in no time flat all my knights are fleeing the table ??“ a bit like this:
The panic infects the infantry, who also turn and flee. In one bound ??“ game to Mr Handley who played a more sensible game than I did. He concentrated his cavalry (and thus his shooting) where he needed to and steadily pressurised my exposed left flank.
Onto Game 3, where the Crusaders are badly crippled by a lack of a decent plan and enough battery life in the camera to take many photos...
