A Busy Night

Bad news regarding my copy of Black Powder- four pages fell out the seond time I opened it! Even my Battle Front books don't fall apart that quickly!However, Warlord Games are sending a replacement- which is great service.

A busy night tonight. I've managed to rebase 2x units of Russian infantry to the new standard and must say I love the look of the 24 figure battalions so I guess I now have to accept that I'll be painting more figures per unit. The overall look is well worth it though and the units look more Napoleonic than the previous system. I  have a few more figures to paint to get back to 8 battalions of Grenadiers which means I will need to paint another 4 battalions worth at some point before too much longer.

Much better visually as far as I'm concerned.

As well as rebasing, painting, flocking and adding some scenic grass clumps I managed a game of Impetvs vs Kent. Dave and I ran my standard Seljuk force vs Kent & Stephen using Kent's Crusaders.

Dave
2x 3 light horse commands

My command:
2x Seljuk Nobles
2x Ghulums
4x skirmishers (shortbow)
1x light troops (javelins)

Kent's command had:
6x knights
2x Armenian light Horse

Stephen ran something like:
3 foot knights
3 foot sergeatns
2 bows
2 crossbows

Crusaders on the left, the Seljuks on the right. Kent massed his knights vs Dave's light horse- or more accurately we massed our light horse vs Kent's knights.

 Kent got to move first and sent his knights forward.

 Stephenn went next and did the same with the Crusader infantry- alas the crossbows got stuck trudging through the woods- and so missed most of the battle. Shame that.

 Here they come. Already the Seljuk composite bows are disrupting the knights.

 My own Seljuk nobles and Ghulums move forward while the horse archers rain a steady stream of arrows on the advancing knights. The light horse managed to tie the knights up for most of the battle.

 A swarm of light horse raining down arrows on the knights- frustrating the impetuous knights.

My skimishers stick to the woods- having been run over numerous times by the foot knights I've decided that massed skirmishers to control the bad going is a more useful tactic than taking militis or other heavier foot troops- and it worked.

 We had already killed the Armenian light horse and a unit of knights with the Seljuks when one unit was caught by some angry knights- a wee bit of revenge.

 Meanwhile my Seljuk heavy Cavalry advances to support the light horse.

  Stephen's infantry continue forward.

The Ghulums charge the Crusader general but become stuck in an inconclusive battle.

 So I throw in another unit- with the same result. If we can kill the general its all over as Kent is very close to breaking.  Stephen threw some infantry in to support the general but the Seljuks forced them and the general back.

 Stephen's infantry are getting too close but it is too little too late.

 The foot knights manage to catch my javelin troops in the woods and slaughter them.

 

 End game. Massed archery from the light horse has been decisive. Although Dave is within a whisker of losing one of his commands he has more than taken care of the Crusader knights, breaking their command!

The most decisive victory yet. However, Stephen and Kent made a few mistakes. They failed to get their missile troops into action and Kent raced forward with his knights on turn 1 to engage the seljuk light horse which then proceeded to dance round and mass their nasty composite bows. By moving out so quickly meant Stephen's foot were uanble to support the knights and we were able to mass most of out troops v Kent's command. Screening the knights with misisle troops and a more combined arms approach would have probably worked much better for them. Looking at the troops massed against us it looked like Dave and I were going to be in trouble but the lack of coordination of the Crusader army helped us out- after the post game debrief about possible tactics to negate the light horse I think  we will be in trouble next time.

Great game guys, lots of fun as always

Craig