Tours 732 is now available in MP!

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stockwellpete
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Tours 732 is now available in MP!

Post by stockwellpete »

Design notes for Tours
"While Abd ar-Rahman was pursuing Odo, he decided to despoil Tours by destroying its palaces and burning its churches. There he confronted the consul of Austrasia by the name of Charles, a man who, having proved himself to be a warrior from his youth and an expert in things military, had been summoned by Odo. After each side had tormented the other with raids for almost seven days, they finally prepared their battle lines and fought fiercely. The northern peoples remained as immobile as a wall, holding together like a glacier in the cold regions. In the blink of an eye, they annihilated the Arabs with the sword. The people of Austrasia, greater in number of soldiers and formidably armed, killed the king, Abd ar-Rahman, when they found him, striking him on the chest. But suddenly, within sight of the countless tents of the Arabs, the Franks despicably sheathed their swords postponing the fight until the next day since night had fallen during the battle. Rising from their own camp at dawn, the Europeans saw the tents and canopies of the Arabs all arranged just as they had appeared the day before. Not knowing that they were empty and thinking that inside them there were Saracen forces ready for battle, they sent officers to reconnoitre and discovered that all the Ishmaelite troops had left. They had indeed fled silently by night in tight formation, returning to their own country."
Mozarabic Chronicle of 754

There is some recent discussion about whether this battle occurred in 732 or 733.

The size of the two armies is still hotly contested by historians. I am more convinced by lower figures that suggest the Austrasian Frankish army might have been around 20,000 strong with the Umayyads perhaps fielding no more than 30,000.

While this is definitely a hard scenario for the Arab player, both players can expect a long attritional battle.

The result of this battle laid the foundations of the Carolingian Empire and the Frankish domination of Europe for the next century.

Bibliography
Poitiers AD 732 David Nicolle (Osprey 2008)
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