Impetvs- 500 pts Armenians vs First Crusaders

It has been several weeks since Kent and I managed a game. Yesterday was Queens Birthday (a public holiday) here in NZ so we arranged a game of Impetvs with my Armeains vs his crusaders.

I took (split into two x even commands
4x heavy knights (VBU 7)
4x standard knights
4x foot light javelinmen
6x heavy foot
2x crossbows
2x shortbows

Kent ran:
4-5 knights
2x CM turkopoles
3-4 foot knights
3-4 foot sergeants
6x crossbows
2x shortbows

Having faced my Seljuks and Syrian armies Kent maxed out his crossbow options, obviously to keep my cavalry away from his troops. Kent put all his cavalry in one command and his infantry in the other.

My lighter cavalry are holding my flanks. 

 The armenian army advances to stop the Crusader incurision into their territory.

 Kent led with his crossbow units. We both manged to destroy a unit of crossbowmen in long range firefight but he has a lot more of them than I do.

 I refuse my centre and wait developments. Once the impetuous knights are released and start going forward they are hard to stop.

 The accursed crossbowmen taunt the Armenians

 I threw my javelinmen at the Franks skirmishers but lost one unit very quickly. The second unit was attacked in the flank by some foot sergeants and several rounds of combat resulted before either unit broke.

 In the centre my heavy (VBU 7) knights tried t charge home their advantage but having done some damage they were repulsed having taken heavy losses.

 On my far left flank my lighter knights tried to ride down Kent's coveing forces but again failed to drive home the charge.

 I was starting to take serious losses on my left flank so decided to advance the centre to try to claw things back.

 On the far right I managged to kill a unit of turcopoles but then the second unit and some knights decided to get involved and my light troops once again melted away.

 In the centre Kent finally decided too unleash his own knights who had been waiting on opportunity for the battle to unfold.

 Confused fighting rages in the centre as the two armies engage.

 My Armenian foot (my last reserve) advances to support my knights who have become bogged down.

 To little to late though. Both Armenian commands are broken in the same turn as is the Crusader knight command but the Crusader infantry division is barely scratched and holds the field.

Once again the knights claim the glory but it was Kent's foot troops that held their ground and at the end of engagement held the field.

A fun game, lots of topsy, turvy dice rolls. My heavy hitting knights (VBU 7) were not as effective as I'd hoped but even so they could still take a lot of damage before being destroyed. I was happy with the army overall. The only real change is going to be the balance between infantry and knights in each command. I might make a foot and a mounted command next time as that seemed to work really well for Kent.

Craig