FOG 300 Playtest - Early Crusaders vs Fatimids

Today for your gaming pleasure, I offer up Early Crusaders vs Fatimid Egyptians circa 1100 AD.

We begin will  with a glance at the lists and hosts involved in today's adventure.

Fatimid Egyptian List and Host:

Early Crusader List and Host:

The Crusaders won the initiative and chose Developed.  They opted for the compulsory village, a gentle hill and an open.  The Fatimids took the gully and the road.  The open ended up getting picked up and after the camps were deployed the table looked like below:

The Fatimids deployed with the Armenian Archers in the village on the left, then Lancers, the Abid al Shira and the Turkish cav on the far right.  The Bedouin Lancers went into ambush in the gully.

 The Crusaders deployed with one crossbow on the far left, then the Blue Knights, the Green Knights in a single deep line, the spearmen and the last crossbow.

On their first move, the Fatimids opted for a measured advance with the Armenians setting the pace at 3".  Being a mainly drilled army helped.  The Turks moved a full 5" forward but wheeled towards the center.  There was no shooting so the turn ended.

In the Crusader first move, the left wing crossbow and spear did a double move of 5" to the forward edge of the hill.  Both knights moved a full 5" with the Blue Knights wheeling towards the Turkish cavalry.  The crossbow at the end of the line moved forward 4" and shifted 1 base to the right.  Again there was no shooting so the turn ended.

To start the Fatimid 2nd move, the Bedouins revealed themselves and moved towards the Fatimid left flank.  The Abid al Shira wheeled towards their left and the Lancers moved to keep pace.  The Armenians moved forward to shoot at the Crusader spearmen.  In the shooting phase, no one's fire was effective, so the turn ended.

On the Crusader 2nd move, there were no charges so on to maneauver we went.  The Crusader crossbow and spear moved 3" straight ahead.  The Green Knights passed a CMT and moved 3" to stay in line with the Crusader spear.  The Blue Knights passed a CMT moved 5" forward and wheeled to parallel to the Turkish cavalry. The crossbow on the far right end of the Christian line failed a CMT to wheel next to the Blue Knights so instead did a half-base shift and moved 4" ahead.  In the shooting phase, the left end Crusader crossbow and the Armenian archers managed 1 hit each to no effect.  The Turkish cav however connected twice on the Blue Knights who failed their cohesion test and disrupted.  The right end crossbow connected twice on the Bedouins and caused them to disrupt as well.  Below is the status at the table of the turn:

To start the Fatimid 3rd turn, the Bedouins opted to charge the crossbow to their front.  The Fatimid Lancers in the center successfully rolled not to charge.  It turned out to not be such a good idea for the Bedouins (even through they had double POAs) who managed to loose big and fragment.  The Fatimids had no other movement so we went straight to shooting.  The Armenians and the crossbow on their end failed to score enough hits to have any effect while the Turkish cav scored 3 hits on the Blue Knights.  The Blue Knights failed again and fragmented.  In melee, the crossbow scored 1 hit on the Bedouins who did the same in return.  With the melee being a wash, the turn ended.

For the Crusader 3rd turn, the spearmen charged ahead and the Green Knights failed their roll not to charge so plowed into the Abid al Shira foot and the Fatimid Lancers.  In the impact, the Green Knights managed 3 hits on the spear but none on the lancers.  The lancers failed to hit the knights while the Abid al Shira scored 5 on the knights with their general fighting.  The knights passed their cohesion but lost a base to the death roll.  The Crusader lord opted not to fight in the impact with the spearmen against the Armenians.  The spearmen failed to score a hit while the Armenians scored 2 in return.  The spearmen passed their cohesion and death roll.  The spearmen could not conform to the Armenians as in doing so it would push the left end crossbow off the table edge.  There was no other movement so into the shooting phase we went.  The Turkish cavalry scored no hits on the Blue Knights this phase.  In the melee phase, the Bedouin lancers lost to the crossbow and subsequently routed loosing a base.  The crossbow caught them in the pursuit and they lost a 2nd base.  The Green Knights scored 3 hits to 2 on the Abid al Shira while the lancers scored 3 hits to 2 on the Green Knights in return.  The Green Knights passed their death roll.  The Abid al Shira passed their cohesion test and death roll. However, the Fatimid Vizier took a lance in the gullet.  None of the Fatimid BGs seemed to care though.  The Armenian archers suffered 6 hits from the spear and only gave 2 in return.  The Armenians disrupted and lost a base.    In the JAP, the Bedouins routed off the table while the pursuing crossbow managed only 4".  The picture below is before the cohesion tests for the general dying.

To start the Fatimid 4th turn, the Turkish cavalry launched a charge at the fragmented Blue Knights who decided to just run away (they failed the check).  Once the route and charge move was completed, the turn moved right into melee as there was no BGs able to maneuver or shoot.  In the melee phase, the Armenians took 5 hits from the spear and only gave one back.  The Green Knights scored 2 hits on the lancers and 2 on the Abid al Shira Foot while taking 1 from the Abid al Shira and 2 from the lancers.  The Armenian archers suffered a double drop in cohesion and broke.  The Abid al Shira went disrupted from losing to the Green Knights.   The Green Knights took 5 hits this turn but survived the death roll.  The lancers disrupted from seeing the Armenian archers break.  In the pursuit the archers routed into the village while the pursuing spearmen slammed into the Fatimid lancers.

The Crusader 4th turn dawned with the Crusaders ahead 4 points to 2.  There was only one impact to work out:  the pursuing spear into the Fatimid lancers.  Both scored only 1 hit to no effect.  In maneauver, the Crusader crossbow on the far right attempted a CMT to turn and move but failed the CMT and end up just turning 90 degrees.  As there were no targets to shoot, melee began quickly.  The spear took 1 hit from the lancers and gave 1.  The Green Knights scored no hits on the lancers but 3 on the And al Shira.  The lancers scored 1 hit on the Green Knights as did the Abid al Shira.  The lancers were fine but the Abid al Shira only scored 1 hit against the knights.  The Abid al Shira passed their cohesion but did lost a base to the death roll.

There was not much left to do once the Fatimid 5th turn began.  The Turkish cavalry attempted a CMT to turn and move but failed and had to settle for just turning 90 degrees.  There was no shooting.  In melee, the lancers failed to score any hits on the Green Knights or the spearmen,  The Abid al Shira only managed 1 hit on the Green Knights while the spearmen hit the lancers 3 times while the Green Knights scored 2 on the lancers.  The Abid al Shira received 3 from the Green Knights.  In the following cohesion tests, the Abid al Shira suffer a double drop and broke.  The lancers fragmented and lost a base.  The lancers then broke on a failed cohesion test for seeing friends break. With 4 of their 5 BGs broken, the game ended with a loss to the Fatimids.

Until I get the Armenians painted, I am going to work on playtests pitting the Moslem armies against each other for a while.  The Islamic armies struggle against the Early Crusaders on the small table and I want to try them out against each other.  Until next time...