A Crusades game playtest

Chum Matt is working on a Crusades set of rules that Helion will hopefully be publishing later this year. I don't have any Crusader miniatures per se however the difference between the Christians of the first Crusade and the Christians of the age of El Cid is the odd headscarf and we also felt that my Almoravid force would do a good job as stand-ins for appropriate opponents. As it happens my El Cid Christian force was too small for a game, so we ended up with a mish-mash of Knights and spearmen - all probably at once representative of the melange of forces of the period and massively a-historical at the same time. But hey-ho, it's a playtest.

I was due to go on holiday early the following day, hadn't read the rules in advance and the game was played well over a week ago, so my recollections are hazy, so mainly here are some pictures.

The "Arab" forces deploy

Their "Christian" foes take the field.

Some of the Spanish are a bit shiny - I need to get the matt varnish out!

I sent forth a flanking cavalry force.

And "cleverly" pulled some of the opposing spearmen out of position.

My archers gave a good account of themselves, driving some of the Christian infidels back.

Unfortunately my camels took a beating on my right.

The white clad spearmen of my forces advanced to support the cavalry.

Whilst my centre held firm.

The Christian Knights finally did what Christian knights do best...

...CHAAAAARGE!!!!

Truth to tell I don't even remember the result. I think I may have won, or maybe Matt let me win. Or I may have lost.

The point was Matt got to make some notes and try things with a real live simpleton of an opponent.

It was a fun game. More abstract than I was expecting (not that I'm sure exactly what I was expecting!). It uses a grid which some will find anathema, but I didn't really notice once the game had begun. The focus is on decision making rather than dice rolling and it played reasonably quickly and I felt it worked. Look forward to testing it a few more times and then playing the finished game.

It was also good to get the El Cid collection out on the table. Some of the models need a little TLC (especially the bendy lead Gripping Beast spears) but it did make me thing I should get them some proper movement trays for this game and Midgard (El Cidgard). There's a few more models in the leadpile too so maybe time to add a few more units.