August Reinforcements

Finished up two more battle groups for the Normans in the Nunnery Campaign scenario yesterday and started the basing process this morning.  Added the base color on the stands and will do the flocking later today or tomorrow.

The foot battle group in the front will serve as Later Lombard Italian Militia/Papal State Town Militia Spearmen-Feudal Spearmen/Italo-Norman Spearmen or Early Crusader Protected Spearmen.  This battle group contains a mix of figures from various Old Glory 15s, Baueda, Khurasan and Two Dragon Dark Ages/Viking/ Normal ranges (Although the monk in the front left may be Peter Pig).  Most were painted by me with a few off Ebay and the flea market at Nashcon 2024.    The mounted in the back are all from Old Glory 15s and painted by me.  Most are from the various OG15 Norman/1st Crusades selections with one or two from Dark Age packs.

July 2025 Reinforcements

 Still painting along...slowly.  Two battlegroups of archers from the lead pile:  one battle group of Babylon Levy archers for the Broken Rays of the Sun Campaign setting and one battle of group of generic archers for the Normans in the Nunnery Campaign.

The left hand group are the Babylonian Levy Archers from a pack of Old Glory 15s of the same name.  There are three other figures as the pack of 24 came out to 21:  one is an OG 15s figure, one is Forged in Battle and one is an old Corvus Belli.  I painted all of the Babylonians.  The right hand battle group of generic western archers is a mixture of OG 15s, Essex, Baueda and some I can't identify.  Some of these I picked up off Ebay and the flea market at Nashcon last year but most I painted myself.  These can be used for just about anything Early Medieval through the 1st Crusade.

The Emirate of Aleppo by Suheil Zakkar

 Way back in 2017 when I started developing the campaign "A War Like No Other,"  one of the sources I looked for high and low was the one by Suheil Zakkar.  At one point, there was a hardcopy on Amazon for approximately $150.

One random day in June 2023, I stumbled on a copy of the draft of the manuscript submitted in 1969 for Dr. Zakkar's PHD.  The pdf is available through the SOAS eprint website.  The link for the full 298 page thesis is available here. There are an additional 16 pages that appear to be short biographies of other Islamic writers from antiquity.  These pages are obviously not part of the original thesis judging by the print quality and font.

Reinforcements for the Table

 Keeping in line with the renewed interest in the 1st Crusade and Byzantium, I got around to adding some additional troops to the Byzantine/Crusades collection:  Seljuk Turk Bow Cavalry and Byzantine Medium Foot Archers.  The Byzantine archers are from a Komnenan Byzantine list I used at a team tournament under FOG V1.  They originally numbered only 16 as light foot.  When V3 came out, I now needed medium foot to field the list so I painted up 8 more.  The SeljukTurk Bow Cavalry started off as light horse bow under V1.  Under V3, every Saracen list from the Crusades list have to have multiple battle groups of Bow Cavalry and the 16 stands of light horse bow just would not work so more had to be recruited.  All figures pictured are OG15s BTW.

Seljuk Turk Bow Cavalry - I painted 8 of these and the others I picked up off a gentleman from France off Bay.  These can be used for any Saracen list of the Crusades era as Turcoman Bow Cavalry.

Medium Foot Byzantine Archers

A War Like No Other Rules Update

 Added a revision of the A War Like No Other campaign rules today bringing it in line with some of the recent additions.  Follow the link below to see the new version.

A War Like No Other 3.0

Back to the Blog

 This morning has seen a bit of interest again in one of the campaign scenarios that has been languishing for a while, The Red Boots of Byzantium.  

The map has been finished for a while but the rules needed work.  As of today, the rules have been updated and are linked below.  Hopefully, I will be inspired to finish up some Byzantine units that have been in various stages of completion.

The Red Boots of Byzantium

The 1st Crusaders or Some of them, anyway.

 Coming off the Chilled Iron FOG Tournament recently where my Crusaders made another foray onto the table, I decided to start work on my Post-1st Crusade campaign again and ended up taking pictures of my current collection.  I love the Norman look of the first crusaders and have a load of them still unpainted.  Most of the figures are Old Glory 15s but there are some odds and ends mixed in.  I will add comments in the captions where there are different figures.

Here is the whole host with two camps in the background.

These are my generic leaders.  All of the command figures are from the OG15 pack NO01 Command with an extra milite from either OG15 pack NO02 or NO06.

These are my more specific leaders.  The left one is supposed to be Raymond of Toulouse and these are from the Essex Norman command pack.  The middle is Adhemar Le Puy and these are various figures I found in the spares box.  The far right is Beranger of Narbonne.  The colors are speculative but they look nice.  The figures on that stand are all OG15s from the command and cavalry packs.

These two stands I painted and they are a mix of OG15s NO02 and NO06.

Thomas Demers of Mad Monkey Painting painted these two stands and they too are a mix of NO02 and NO06.

These serve as my Turcopoles/Byzantine Cavalry.  They also do double duty in my Seljuk Turk army and Komnenan Byzantine army.  They are a mix of figures from OG15 packs ST03, ST08 and ST09.

The infantry in the front are OG15s with a mix of NO05A and NO07.  Thomas Demers painted most of these figures with a few that I did.  The horde in the back are a mix of manufacturers from all over.  Some I picked up years ago from Hinds Painting and a few I painted.  The archers on the left are a mix of OG15 NO04D and some random Baueda Norman archers I had.  There may also be a random Essex figure in there.

The spearmen in the front are a big time mix of Khurasan Norman and Southern Lombard Milites, Essex and OG15s.  The OG15s are from NO05B.  The archers behind are the Syrian Christian Archers from OG15 pack OR08.  I painted both of these groups.  The Horde in the top left are mentioned earlier.

Here we have another group of spear that I painted.  They too are a mixture of OG15s, Khurasan and Essex miniatures.  The Crossbow behind are OG15s mainly from the FC04B pack.

This is my Crusader fortified camp.  I picked it up off Ebay, rebased it, redid the gate and added the cobblestones.  Wish it was middle eastern in color but it works.

These three bases together work for a full sized unfortified camp for FOG and split apart work for three FOG 300 camps.  The two ships I picked up years ago in a HYW English army I purchased from Hinds Painting.  The other base has a wizard from Battle Valor's Fantasy line and three mules I picked up in a mixed bag from Hinds painting.

FOG 300: Crusader vs Fatimid 1101 AD

Another adventure in Outremer this week with a detachment of the forces of the Holy City meeting a force of the Fatimid Caliph somewhere on the road to Acsalon.

Crusader List and Host:

Fatimid List and Host:

The Crusaders won the initiative and opted to fight in agricultural.  The Fatimid took the compulsory open field, a gentle hill and a gully.  The Crusaders took the open.  The open ended up being picked up with the gentle hill landing in the bottom right corner of the Fatimid deployment zone and the open field ending up on the side edge of the left side of the Fatimid zone and then shifted to the middle of the table.  The gully ended up 4" in and just off center of the Crusader side of the table.

The Fatimids deployed with the Ghilman deployed in line with the lancers to their right followed by the Red flagged Abid al-Shira and then the Green flagged Abid al-Shira slightly echeloned back towards the table edge in front of the Fatimid camp.

The Crusaders deployed with the Superior Green knights on their right followed by the Average Red knights in line in front of the camp and then the armoured spearmen anchored on the gully,  The Average Blue knights were deployed to the left of the gully.

Both armies deployed with a full view of the battlefield.

The Crusaders moved first with the Blue knights moving a full 5" forward and shifting 1 base towards the top of the board.  The spearmen moved 4" forward and shifted 1 base towards the Blue knights.  The Red knights and Green knights moved 5" forward and shifted 1 base towards the spearmen in their first move and then moved another 3.5" forward stopping just outside of 5" from the Fatimid line.  The Crusader general moved to the spearmen in Joint Action.  (Unfortunately, the Buzzard cam was shot out of the sky by roaming Bedouin so no picture survives of the Crusaders opening moves).

The Fatimid first turn opened with the Ghilman and Lancers moving as a group to 3" of the line of knights.  Both Fatimid foot BGs moved 3" straight ahead.  In the shooting phase, the Ghilman were only able to score 1 hit on the Red knights who shrugged it off.  With no melees to resolve, the turn proceeded to joint action to end the turn.

To open the Crusader 2nd turn the Green knights declared a charge forward and the Red knights rolled not to charge.  The Red knights failed the CMT not to charge and plowed straight ahead.  The Ghilman evaded 5" back and the Green knights charged forward 5" afterward.  The Red knights charged forward into the Fatimid lancers.  The Red knights scored 4 hits on impact to 3 from the Fatimid lancers (who were fighting as superior).  The Red knights survived their death roll but the Fatimid lancers suffered a base loss yet passed their cohesion test.  In the maneuver phase, the Red knights conformed to the Fatimid lancers and the Crusader spearmen moved 3" forward.  The Blue knights failed a CMT to expand while stationary and opted to hold in place.  In the melee phase, the Red knights scored 3 hits to 0 from the Fatimid lancers and 0 from the Abid al-Shira in overlap.  The Fatimid lancers survived their death roll but dropped to disrupted on their cohesion test.  There was nothing to do in joint action so the Crusader 2nd turn ended.

For the Fatimid 2nd turn, there were no charges to begin the turn.  In the manuever phase, the Ghilman BG turned around so they could fire at the knights bearing down on them.  The Green flagged Fatimid Foot advanced 3" straight towards the Blue knights.  In the shooting phase, the Ghilman managed 2 hits on the Green knights who disrupted on their cohesion test.  In the melee phase, the Red knights managed 3 hits on the Fatimid Lancers who scored none in return as did the foot in overlap.  The Fatimid lancers survived the death roll but fragmented on their cohesion test.  In the joint action phase, the Fatimid general could sense the end was near for the lancers and opted to move to the Ghilman.

The Crusader 3rd turn began with the Blue knights charging the Green flagged Fatimid foot.  The Green knights tried to hold but failed their CMT and charged into the Ghilman.  The Green knights should have listened to their commander as they managed only 1 hit to 4 on impact.  On the subsequent death roll, the Green knights lost a base and fragmented.  The Blue knights, however, beat the Green flagged Fatimid foot 2 hits to 1 who suffered a base loss to the death roll and disrupted.  In the maneuver phase, the Green knights expanded a base and the Ghilman matched by shifting a base to cover an existing overlap.  The Blue knights also expanded a base to get more dice on the Green flagged Fatimid foot.  There was no shooting to be had so into the melee phase the turn quickly moved.  The Blue knights scored 3 hits to 1 against the Green flagged Fatimid foot.  The Fatimid foot survived the death roll but then fragmented.  In the center, the Red knights scored 4 hits on the Fatimid lancers and took 2 back from the lancers and 0 from the Fatimid foot in overlap.  The Fatimid lancers survived their death roll but broke on their cohesion test.  The Green knights scored 1 hit to 2 from the Ghilman who had decided to fight with their general.  The Green knights lost a base to the death roll and then broke on their cohesion test.  The Red knights were too far away to care about the broken Green knights.  The Red flagged Fatimid foot in the center did not care about the breaking Fatimid lancers.  The Fatimid lancers routed 3" and were caught by the Red knights losing another base.  The Green knights routed 4" back.  The Ghilman chased after the Green knights and plowed into the Red knights.  In the joint action phase, the Green knights routed 5" and were then picked up as they were at 50% and broken.  The Fatimid lancers routed off the table.

The Fatimid had no charges to declare to begin their 3rd turn.  The Ghilman pursuit into the Red knights was the only impact to be resolved.  The Red knights scored 1 hit and took 2 from the Ghilman whose general was still fighting in the front rank.  The Fatimid general survived.  The Red knights went on to lose a base to the death roll and then disrupted.  In the maneuver phase, the Red knights shifted a base to cover an existing overlap and the Fatimid foot in the center advanced into the face of the armoured Crusader spearmen.   As there was no shooting, in the melee phase, the Ghilman and the Red knights scored 2 hits apiece.  The Fatimid leader survived the drawn combat.  However, the Fatimid foot facing the Blue knights managed only 2 hits to 4.  They suffered yet another base loss and then broke on their cohesion test.  The Fatimid foot in the center were within 3" but just like with the Fatimid lancers they did not care.  With the second Fatimid BG broken, the Fatimid army broke and the battle ended.

All told the game lasted approximately 55 minutes with a Crusader 4-2 victory.

FOG 300 AAR: Ayubid Egyptians vs Crusaders

Managed to find the time to get a quick game in Thursday night with John Martin.  He ran Ayubid Egyptians vs Early Crusaders.

Here is a shot of the Ayubid Host.  Two average Turcomans in the front.  The 2nd row is made up of the average Ghilman on the left and the average armoured lancers on the right.  The 3rd row is the superior Ghilman with the FC and the unfortified camp in the back.

Here is a shot of the Crusader host.  The two average knights have flags and are on the right hand in the center.  The superior knights are the green and yellow ones on the left.  The armoured spearmen are behind the knights.  The general is an FC and the unfortified camp is in the back.

The Ayubids won the initiative and opted for Hilly.  The Crusaders took the compulsory hill and a broken.  The Ayubids took a broken and a brush.  The compulsory hill and his broken fell on his side of the table.  His brush fell in my middle.  My broken could not fit on his side edge and was discarded.

The Ayubids deployed with the superior Ghilman on the left end of the line partially on the hill.  The average Ghilman and one Turcoman deployed on the other end of the hill.  The remaining light horse Turcomans covered his center with the armoured lancers next to them.

The Crusaders deployed the armoured spearmen in front of the camp.  The two average knights were deployed stretching to the left from the brush in the center of the table.  The superior knights deployed in line at the end of the Crusader front.

The Ayubids had to move first.  The armoured lancers moved straight forward.  The two light horse Turcomans moved toward the center in an effort to get ready for shooting at the average knights.  Both Ghilman moved their full move forward. (No picture).

The Crusaders moved both average knights straight forward 5".  The Superior knights moved 5" forward with a slight wheel to their left.  the General moved to the center average knights.  The Ayubid shooting was poor at best.

The Ayubids expanded the average Ghilman into a line and moved up to within 3" of the superior knights.  The superior Ghilman moved up on the end of the Ayubid line to also be able to shoot at the superior knights.  The center Turcomans wheeled until they were pinned by the center knights to get a die on the superior knights as well.  The other Turcomans moved up a bit to shoot at the average knights next to the brush.  The armoured lancers turned 90 anticipating the knights charging.  In the shooting phase, the Ayubids threw a lot of dice at the superior knights but to no effect.

The Crusaders charged in their turn with all of the knights.  Both Turcoman light horse evaded as did the average Ghilman.  The superior knights made contact with the superior Ghilman with 1 base so there was only one impact contact.  The resulting impact resulted in the Ghilman disrupting.  After conforming the superior knights shifted a base to cover the front of the Ghilman so 3 bases were fighting.  The center average knights rolled down and only charged 3" while the average Ghilman evaded 5".  The center Turcoman evaded 9" and stopped just short of the table edge.  The other Turcoman evaded 7" stopping in front of the Ayubid camp.The Crusader spearmen moved up 4" to stay within 8" to give support where needed.  In the melee phase, the superior knights beat the superior Ghilman again dropping them to fragmented.

To start the next Ayubid turn, both Turcomans moved up to be in position to shoot the knights closest to the brush.  The average Ghilman turned around and measured their options realizing too late that none of their bases were entirely on the hill.  The armoured lancers stayed put.  In the shooting phase, the Turcomans proved inept with their bows.  The average Ghilman were just outside of 3" of the superior knights.  In the melee phase, the superior knights beat the superior Ghilman who routed off the table.  The superior knights pursued stopping at the table edge causing the average Ghilman to evade to the back side of the hill.  In joint action, the Ayubid general moved to behind the center Turcoman hoping to make it to the average Ghilman before it was too late.

Unfortunately, no picture survived of the final defeat of the Ayubids but this is how it unfurled.  The superior knights charged dropping a base back to keep from going off the table edge.  The average Ghilman were less than 3" from the table edge and evaded off board.  The average knights next to the brush charged the Turcomans in front of them.  It just so happened that by charging straight ahead they would clip the front corner of the Ayubid lancers who were within 5" so they did not need a variable move roll.  The Turcomans, however, evaded off the table.  At impact, the average knights, with general attached, managed to roll about as bad as you could rolling 1 hit and a 2 and a 3.  The Ayubid lancers hit twice.  Luckily, the Crusader general survived and the knights passed their cohesion test.  At the end of the impact phase, the Ayubid army was broken with 5 attrition points down to 0.

We finished the game in less than 1 hour and a half.  We hope to make this a weekly event with 1 or 2 games every week going forward.  Until next time...

Updates

Made some updates to the Campaign Reference Material for the "A War Like No Other" Campaign.  Click on the campaign page to the right and look for the reference material or follow this link:

A War Like No Other Reference Page

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...