FOG 300 Playtest - 16 Jul 2017 - Early Crusaders vs Seljuk Turks

FOG 300 2nd Playtest

This time I chose Early Crusaders vs Seljuk Turks.

The Seljuk List and Host

Early Crusader List and Host

The Seljuks won the initiative and chose Steppe.  The Early Crusaders took the compulsory open along with a gully and gentle hill.  The Seljuks took another open and a broken.  The Crusader open was placed in the center of the Crusader board edge.  No adjustment was allowed on the 2 rolled by the Seljuks.  The Seljuk open turned out to be too big to fit on the Crusader half and was discarded.  The Seljuk broken was placed on the Crusader half touching a side edge but was picked up on a 6.  The Crusader gentle hill landed in the right hand corner of the Seljuk side where it stayed on a 1 for adjustment.  The gully landed in the left hand corner of the Seljuk side and even though the Seljuks rolled a 4 opted to keep it where it was.

The table to begin with looked like this.

After deployment, the armies looked like so:

The Crusaders deployed the two knights on the left with the spearmen in the center flanked by one of the crossbow.  The second crossbow was deployed behind the spearmen and crossbow to provide support.

The Seljuks deployed with two Turcomans on the left on the hill and a Ghilmen next to them.  Another Ghilmen and the last Turcoman was deployed right up to the gully leaving a two stand gap in the center.

The Crusaders moved first and no one was within range for shooting.  The front rank spearmen and crossbow did a double-move and the knights moved a full move straight ahead.  The Blue Knights on the far right did a one base shift to the right.

The Seljuk 1st move had both right hand Turcomans move 7 inches straight forward and wheel towards the table edge.  The Ghilmen next to them moved 5 inches forward.  On the other flank, the Turcomans moved forward and wheeled over to the left to come up in front of the Blue Knights but outside of 5 inches.  The left Ghilmen expanded two bases and advanced 3 inches.

In the shooting phase, the Seljuks managed only 1 hit on the crossbow.  The crossbow responded with 3 hits on the Turcomans to their front.  The Turcomans passed cohesion and the death roll with no problem.

In the Crusaders 2nd turn, the Green Knights expanded in the middle.  The rest of the Crusader line stayed pat.  In the shooting phase, the Seljuks scored 2 hits on the crossbow who went on to disrupt.  The crossbow managed no hits.  The Crusader general slid over to behind the disrupted crossbow in preparation for the next turn.

In the Seljuk 2nd turn, the left end of the Seljuk line moved to 3 inches of both knights and the right end of the Seljuk line did the same.  The Seljuks inflicted 2 hits on the disrupted crossbow who passed cohesion.  The Spear received 3 hits and passed cohesion and the death roll.  The Green Knights took 3 hits and passed cohesion.  The Blue Knights took 2 hits and passed cohesion.  The crossbow managed 2 hits on the Turcomans who disrupted.

In the JAP phase, the crossbow rally back from disrupted.

For the Crusader 3rd turn, both knights charge.  The Turcomans and the Ghilmen evade.  The Turcomans rolled normal while the Ghilmen rolled up 1.  The Turcomans evaded first and then the Ghilmen moved.  The Blue Knights moved 6 inches and the Green Knights moved 4 inches.

In the movement phase, the spear and crossbow moved up into the face of the right end of the Seljuk line.  The crossbow managed only 1 hit in the shooting phase.  The Seljuk return fire across the line is ineffective.

 In the JAP phase, the right end Turcomans rallied from disrupted.

In the Seljuk 3rd turn, the left end Turcomans turned 180 and moved to within shooting range.  The yellow Ghilmen (left side) turned 180 in place.

In the shooting phase, the Blue Knights took 2 hits and passed their cohesion test.  The spearmen took 3 hits and passed their cohesion test and death roll.  The crossbow took no hits but only managed 1 hit in return.

In the Crusader 4th turn, both knights charge.  The Turcomans evaded off the table.  The Ghilmen evaded 3 inches and came up against the camp.  They turned 90 degrees and attempted to wheel past the camp.  Lucky for the Seljuks, the Green Knights rolled up but ended up just behind the Ghilmen.  The Blue Knights stopped just behind the Green Knights.

In the shooting phase, the right end Turcomans received 2 hits from the crossbow but passed their cohesion.  The crossbow took only 1 hit in return.  The Spear took 4 combined hits.  They passed cohesion but lost 1 base on the death roll

In the Seljuk 4th turn, the yellow Ghilmen (left end) moved 2 inches to straighten out the kink and turned to face the Green Knights.

In the shooting phase, the crossbow scored 1 hit on the Turcomans to no effect.  The Turcomans scored 0 hits on the crossbow.  The Spear took 3 hits but passed cohesion.  The yellow Ghilmen only managed 1 hit.

In the Crusader 5th turn, the Green Knights charged the yellow Ghilmen who opted to receive the charge as they did not have enough room to evade anyway.  Both the Green Knights and yellow Ghilmen scored 3 hits in impact.  The knights survived but the Ghilmen lost 1 base.

 (Note the fragmented marker by the camp denotes the 1 point of attrition from the Turcoman that evaded off the table.)

In the movement phase, the Blue Knights attempted to turn 90 but fail the roll.

In the shooting phase, the crossbow scored 3 hits on the right end Turcomans who passed cohesion and the death roll.  The crossbow took 2 hits in return and disrupted.  The Spear took 5 hits in return but managed to pass cohesion and the death roll.

In the melee phase, the Green Knights scored 6 hits and the yellow Ghilmen scored 3.  the Green Knights passed their death roll but along with the automatic base loss, the Ghilmen disrupted.

In the Seljuk 5th turn, There is no movement to be made.  The Seljuks scored no hits (out of 3 superior dice and 4 average).  The crossbow only managed 1 hit on the Turcomans in return.

In the final melee phase, the Green Knights scored 4 hits to the Ghilmen 2.  The Ghilmen fragment on their cohesion test but then lost a base auto breaking at 1 base.  In the ensuing pursuit, the Green Knights plowed into the Seljuk camp ending the game.

The game took around 1.5 hours.  The Seljuks were severely hampered by the 2 foot table and I will have to explore the possibility of a larger table.  I will need to complete several other playtests before then though.