El Cid Campaign Weekend: The bitter end!

Sorry for the delay.
Been busy and poorly and such like.
Anyway better get these pictures posted before I get old and die.

However before I do that realised on re-reading my last report that I'd got so excited about the success of my Camels that I forgot to say how much fun the game was and that Chris was a pleasure to play against. It was and he was. Sorry Chris.

So it was on to the final battle and for this game I was again paired with Lawrence against Jim and El Gary and once more I was on the outside of a walled city trying to get in.
As I was dead to Lawrence our planning process was hampered, but after eventually locating a Ouija Board and Derek Acora's phone number we came up with something. I was going to anchor one flank to the table edge and then run like billy-oh towards the gate. Lawrence was planning something altogether more sophisticated and I decided that it was probably for the best if I left him to it. This meant I was to face off against Jim's lovely Andalusians. Should be a breeze!

However before that we introduced a new phase to a game of WAB - the "Cor Doesn't that look bluddy brilliant" phase. This phase happens right after set-up and before you start the first turn.
To be honest I was happy just looking at the table and could cheerfully have gone to the bar for the afternoon, popping back at regular intervals to admire how splendid it all looked. The stick-in-the-mud traditionalists around me however claimed we should at least roll some dice - so I gave in and the game started.
Look at what follows and tell me I was wrong...

Onward the Kamel Korps!

And I don't, in all honesty, remember much of what happened.
The Kamel Korps reverted to type and died early
The newly painted, much vaunted Christian Knights of whom much was expected did finally earn a fraction of their points back by killing a few fellow infidels.
Jim discovered that Sayyids are quite tasty in close combat:

This actually ended surprisingly well...

And the New Plan(tm) of more marching less shooting meant I almost steamrollered my way through the gates of Valencia.
However Jim played very well and used his Andalusian horsemen to great effect to just deny Ibn Coldir glory. On the other half of the board Gary and Lawrence fought themselves to a standstill but somehow a unit of Christian (or possibly Andalusian) horsemen sneaked into Ibn Coldir's camp and pinched his favourite geese, resulting in a win for the Cid and his turncoat allies.

Stand still and fight dammit!

Something familiar about these walls, must have used the same architect as Marrakech.

A splendid game that simply looked fantastic - a proper wargame spectacle and again Jim and Gary were splendid and fun opponents.
And Lawrence bore the handicap of me as his ally with good humour.

With that the event drew to a close.
History had pretty much been emulated, loads of games and plenty of fun had been had by all.

There were even prizes and Khamu Karsai’s Kamel Korps won me a lovely blister of Artizan Almoravids for The Most Heroic Camel Charge!

I had a great time. And thanks to all the other guys who took part and especially to James for organising it all.
I can thoroughly recommend these events as a marvellous way to spend a weekend, roll on Age of Arthur in May!