Cross & Crescent 1

This was John Graham-Leigh's much anticipated (by me at least) small Crusade themed competition. It was held in a church hall in the village where John lives. By a quirk of fate this competition pitching rival Christian and Muslim armies against each other took place at the same time as the massive anti-war demonstrations against fighting in just the area our armies would have fought. Strange world.

The competition theme had a limited number of armies available, 8 Christian and 8 Muslim all from between 1085AD and 1101AD, they were:

Christian

Komnenan Byzantine
Feudal Spanish (2)
Sicilian (Normans)
Early Crusader, 1096-97
Early Crusader, 1098
Georgian
Cilician Armenian

Muslim

Seljuq Turk, pre 1092
Seljuq Turk, Hamadan
Seljuq Turk, Rum
Syrian
Fatimid Egyptian
Andalusian
Early Muslim North Africa & Sicily (Sicilian)
Fanatic Berber, Murabit

The first round draw was to match each Christian army with the appropriate Muslim one, so the draw was:

Komnenan vs Seljuq, pre 1092
Feudal Spanish vs Murabit
Armenians vs Seljuq, Rum
Crusaders, 1098 vs Fatimid
Crusaders, 1096-97 vs Syrian
Georgians vs Seljuq, Hamadan
Sicilian (Norman) vs Sicilian (Muslim)
Feudal Spanish vs Andalusian

I decided to volunteer for the Syrian army, not fancying any of the Christian ones and thinking that with 3 ally generals and no foot worth talking about it would be great fun and a change from other armies I use (although it has some affinity with the Dynastic Bedouins). IMO it is the second worst Muslim army available with only the Hamadan Seljuqs being worse as they also only have allies but don't have the useful foreign ones that the Syrians can take.

My army was:

C-in-C
Cv(O) Irr G 1 General 17.0
Cv(S) Reg 5 Ghulams 50.0
Cv(O) Irr 4 Other Syrian Cavalry 28.0
LH(S) Irr 3 Turkomans 21.0
LH(O) Irr 5 Bedouin Arab Cavalry 25.0
Hd(O) Irr 7 Ahdath 7.0
Bg(I) Irr 8 Baggage 0.0
Cmd Elts: 33 EEs: 21.5 Dem.Lvl: 7.5 Subtotal: 148.0

Ally General
Cv(O) Irr A 1 General 12.0
Cv(S) Reg 1 Ghulam 10.0
Cv(O) Irr 3 Other Syrian Cavalry 21.0
LH(S) Irr 3 Turkomans 21.0
LH(O) Irr 7 Bedouin Arab Cavalry 35.0
Hd(O) Irr 7 Ahdath 7.0
Cmd Elts: 22 EEs: 18.5 Dem.Lvl: 6.5 Subtotal: 106.0

Turkoman Ally General
LH(S) Irr A 1 General 12.0
LH(S) Irr 6 Turkomans 42.0
Cmd Elts: 7 EEs: 7.0 Dem.Lvl: 3.0 Subtotal: 54.0

Armenian Ally General
Kn(F) Irr A 1 General 14.0
Kn(F) Irr 5 Armenian Cavalry 45.0
Ax(O) Irr 5 Armenian Foot 15.0
Bw(O) Irr 4 Armenian Archers 16.0
Ps(O) Irr 1 Armenian Archers 2.0
Cmd Elts: 16 EEs: 15.5 Dem.Lvl: 5.5 Subtotal: 92.0

Army Elts: 78 EEs: 62.5 Defeat Lvl: 31.5

My first round opponent was Roger Gregory with the Crusaders which he fielded as a 3 command army so we didn't quite have the 6 allies possible on the field. Roger invaded, with no weather, down a Rv which he placed about 18" in. I placed a BUA, 2 roads and a piece of scrub which had no real effect on the game. Roger deployed the following from my right to left: Ally: 8 Irr Kn(F) inc. general, 6 Irr Bw(I), 12 Irr Sp(I), 9 Irr Ps(O); C-in-C: 4 Irr Kn(F) inc. general, 14 Irr Sp(I), 6 Irr Ps(O); Ally: 8 Irr Kn(F), 6 Irr Bw(I), 12 Irr Sp(I), 9 Irr Ps(O). He had his Kn out in front in one long line backed with the Ps supported Sp with Bw on the wings. I deployed (from my right) Turkoman, Armenian, C-in-C and Syrian. I had LH up front with the heavier mounted well back, with the Armenian Kn practically on the base edge. Rogers allies both played but my Armenian ally decided to wait and see what would happen - I think he heard me call them "expendable Christians" :-) The game proceeded in historical style with my LH falling back in front of his Kn whilst attacking them from the flanks and breaking them up with a couple of suicide single LH charges. At the same time my Turkoman sent some LH round Roger's rear, bypassing a few Ps left to guard the Rv and looted the baggage. The various Cv deployed to meet any remaining solid groups of Kn at angles to their advance. I broke Roger's right when the command's general was killed in a zone of death and the Armenians joined in at last. After that it was a bit of mopping up really and I broke his army on total losses after about 2.5 hours. The only Cv that fought was the Syrian ally who attacked the end of a Sp(I) line with supports to get 2 overlaps and bounced off. 10-0.  The first round results gave 6 Muslim victories, 1 Christian and 1 draw.

The second round pitches me against Andy Claxton who is using Murabit and who dealt Martin van Tol's Feudal Spanish a nasty 10-0 in round 1. I'm again invaded (well another Ag 4 opponent) with no weather and Andy chooses Rd + steep hills. The hills land with 2 on the centre line one on each flank, one on my centre base edge, one on Andy's and the last hill in Andy's centre away from the edge which he places in front of his other hill. I again place 2 roads and a piece of roaky going which lands in the centre near Andy's 2 hills. Andy deploys in the wider 2/3 of the field but still basically between hills that I cannot contest. His army is (from my right) C-in-C: 1 Cv(O) gen, 6 Irr Cm(S), 5 Irr LH(O), 8 Reg Sp(O), 4 Reg Ps(O), 4 Irr Bw(I), 3 Irr Ax(I); Sub: 1 Reg Cv(O) gen, 8 Reg Sp(O), 4 Reg Ps(O), 4 Irr Bw(I), 4 Irr LH(O), 4 Irr Ax(I); Sub: 1 Reg Cv(O), 12 Reg Sp(I), 6 Reg Ps(O), 4 Irr Ps(O), 5 Irr Ax(I), 1 Irr LH(O). Andy has his Sp up front with mounted held back supporting and Ax and Ps in the hills covering his right I deploy (from my right) Turkoman, Syrian, C-in-C and Armenian with LH up front and heavier mounted back. As you may expect this wasn't the greatest game in the world and after 2 hours it was clear that Andy didn't feel he could come out and I couldn't get in so we called it a day to avoid prolonging the agony. For the record the Syrian was unrelaible in this game but rolled a 6 after about 6 bounds, not that it really mattered. 5-5, just one of those games.

A pleasant evening was then spent with food, beer and convivial company.

The third game relegated me to table 2 and a meeting with Dave Morrison's Fatimid Egyptian. I am again invaded, however, there is a chance of rain which is to my advantage. Dave chose to place no invader terrain. I thought about BUA plus Rds again to keep the table open but decided on 2 H(G) to see if I might get an ambush opportunity or the chance to bluff one whilst flank marching. Unfortunately both landed in Dave's left rear giving him something of a flank to dafely rest on, he then placed a bog which conveniently for him landed in his centre base. Dave not surprisingly deploys in the safe 2/3 of his side as follows (my right to left) Sub: 9 Reg Cv(O) inc. general, 12 Irr Bw(O), 2 Irr LH(S); C-in-C: 1 Reg Cv(O) gen, 8 Irr LH(O), 16 Reg Bw(X)/(O); Sub: 1 Reg Cv(O) gen, 10 Irr Wb(F), 4 Reg Bd(X), 2 Irr Ps(S), 2 Irr Hd(O). The Wb command is entirley in the boggy ground the centre is all the DBE bows with LH behind and the left is the Bw(O) extending the line up the hills with double ranked Cv holding the flank. I deployed (from my right) Turkoman, Syrian, C-in-C and Armenian. Again LH mainly upfront with heavier mounted behind, but the Armenian Kn were deployed facing to my right in column. Dave was quite ahppy to sit and let me make the running in attacking him and he slightly nervous about the rain affecting his bows in combat so kept his line tight - the rain came and went a number of times in the game and even though I had 4 commands I chnaged the weather most times. I manoeuvred all my Cv to the right with the aim of possibly attacking his Cv with my superior numbers and quality, but his Bw on the hills just made that rather risky, if not suicidal. I also marched the Kn to mid table to make my left look weaker whilst pushing the Armenian Ax and lone Ps towards his Wb command lurking in the bog, to add more bait for him I pushed some LH that way as well when he started to bring LH out from behind his centre (they mostly went back quite quickly). My LH got a bit broken up and I lost a couple in a LH fight and this tempted Dave to bring his Wb out of the bog to see if he could nab a few more - a mistake IMO as he was really only going to flee them - he also moved the Bd to start going towards the Ax. Now he had atken some bait I marched the Kn back to the left (pretty OK PIPs so far) to give them a chance at something squidgy. However, when they were getting close the inevitable 1 happens and I really have to let them go and they end up in the proscribed mess with some inconveniently behind each other, etc. Dave attacks 1 with double ranked Bd(X) which I promptly 6-1 and then my Kn dies frontally to a Hd! However, my LH(S) run down the wb in the open I have broken the command. Of course it is now too late to break any other commands despite a few pretty desperate charges into Bw(X) and the game finished 6-4 to me. So I'm now on a total of 21 points tied for first place with 2 others and another 2 on 20 points - all nice and close and all to play for, and the Syrians have done far better than I thought they would so far :-)

The last game matches me against Adam Worsdale on the top table, he has the Seljuq Sultanate of Rum army. Despite his Ag 3 I invade with no weather. I choose no terrain and Adam chooses 4 pieces of RGo as he has a command with a lot of Ax in. These all land in his half of the table with a large piece dead centre away from the edge. I decline to add any more. Adam deploys (from my right) Sub: 1 Reg Cv(O) gen, 16 Irr LH(S), 3 Irr Ps(O); C-in-C: 7 Reg Cv(O) inc. gen, 11 Irr LH(S), 1 Irr Ps(O); Sub: 1 Reg Cv(O) gen, 12 Irr Ax(O); Ally: 4 Irr LH(S) - and yes we know! His army id deployed on the right hand 2/3 of the table with the Ax command in the large RGo patch. The number of LH(S) he had surprised me as for some reason I thought he had more Cv. I deployed (from my right) Armenian, C-in-C, Syrian then Turkoman - I should really have had the Syrian on the right with the Armenian behind him and the C-in-C. The Armenian was unreliable - argh! I pushed forward tentatively and started to manoeuvre the Syrian's Cv right wards in a desperate attempt to hopefully shore up what was going to be rather nasty. The Turkoman had good PIPs and rushed round the RGo and ended up 4" away from Adam's ally. The Armenian could fortunately use his 1 PIP to move Ax to stop Adam rushing mass LH round my right. In his bound Adam's ally was unreliable, it was catching. However, with his regular dice he was able to get some of the C-in-C's LH over to help them when they pulled back, he also moved his massed left wing LH up to get my ally and so be able to get onto my C-in-C's flanks. Next bound the Armenian rolls a 6 but is still left in a mess (strangely Adams ally also come back on line this bound when it rolls a 6 as well). Over the next 2 bounds all 6 of the Armenian Kn including the general evaporate with no loss to Adam and I'm looking at a 10-0 within 2 hours - my dice rolling is such they we both agree that it's fated. So I do the damn the torpedoes thing and start throwing things in left right and centre to see if I can get something out of this - I have LH attacking Ax in the RGo ( as much to force Adam to spend PIPs as anything else) and we end up with LH(S) fighting each other in RGo as well near his baggage. Out of all this I kill his C-in-C's Ps in the RGo! Game of skill mate :-) My C-in-C's command now lose 3 LH and 3 Cv rather quickly and is now 2 elements from breaking and my Turkoman command is broken as well although it took a couple of LH(S) with it before it went. So with 1.5 hours gone I'm 3-7 down 4 elements off losing on total losses or 2 elements off the C-in-C to break the army. We now have one of those complete reversals of fortune that we so love about DBM :-) My desperate attacks now get a run and break Adam's C-in-C and we're back to 5-5 and none of Adam's attacks are getting anywhere and his PIP dice are deserting him. So I hang in there continuing to expect to go at any point but carry on surviving and I start to whittle his left wing command and suddenly we're both 2 elements away from defeat. At last I get one bound of superb PIPs for my C-in-C and Syrian and gang up on some isolated LH(S) and break his army. An 8-2 win from the depths of defeat in one of the best DBM games I've played.

So 29 points overall which gave me 3rd behind Martin van Tol on 30 who was 2nd after coming back from his initial 10-0 loss with 3 straight 10-0 wins and he was only just piped at the post by Andy Claxton who also had 30 points but had beaten Martin in the first round.

All in all this was a superb little competition and I hope John runs another one like it as the very limited theme worked extremely well.