The Battle for the Church of St Martinez : Al Andalus

 With the short ‘Indian’ summer we took the opportunity to maintain social distancing and play another ‘big’ game in the garden shed. With the previous experience setup was pretty quick.

Background

Nestled in the foothills of the Central Cordillera in southern Castille lies the walled town of St Martinez, named after its most celebrated inhabitant, a local monk who lived for three wholes years on a diet of figs and beer ! A small shrine was built in the location this pious monk finally exploded to his death, and later a church was built atop a rocky outcrop beyond the town walls. Not surprisingly the Christian inhabitants of of the region consider this an especially scared site. King Alfonso III has visited on several location adding to the sites venerable reputation. Abdul Khaliq al-Jama the ruler of the nearby Muslim state has for long disputed this region and has coveted both the neatly walled town and the site of the church which would make a splendid mosque. His negotiations and attempts to sway Alfonso through marriage to his lovely daughter have come to nothing, and he has led a strong army to force the issue once and for all. He will take the church for the one true god. Hearing the alarming news Alfonso has quickly marched south sending orders for his supporters to meet him at the town.

Scenario

The overview below shows the initial deployment. Abdul Khaliq significantly out numbers Alfonso at the start, although not in heavy cavalry. There are four objectives each worth three points, the oasis, the shrine, the Arab camp and the Christian baggage. The church of St Martinez on is craggy hill is worth five points. Reinforcements will arrive for both sides randomly and slowly. We estimated that when they arrive the forces will be roughly equal although the Christian forces are generally heavier armed of course. The reinforcements with arrive from the baseline hit at a random location depending on which road they have taken to the battlefield. So the challenge for Abdul Khaliq is to overrun the Christians before they are reinforced ! We made the table as large as possible to provide the opportunity for reasonable cavalry manoeuvre.

A hot sunny day so I took a load of photos......😀

Overview of the battle Christians on the right (north)

Khaliq has mustered a fine force, horse archers, light infantry cavalry and yet more archers !

But Alfonso has turned out his personal retinue of heavily armed knights and under the command of Duke Ranaldo they are itching to cut a swath through the infidel

The church of St Martinez itself currently occupied by the local monks 

The Arab camp, with space to manoeuvre and objective to protect on both baselines neither side could afford to go all out on the attack

Another view of the church from the west

Duke Ronaldo at the rear only knows one way of fighting and with a cheer he puts his spurs to his horse and and charges the whole of the heavy cavalry across the board 😢

Immediately met by a hail of arrows, an Iberian precursor to Agincort, the Duke turns two of his units past the shrine to seek to outflank the infantry and chase away the weak Arab light horse 

In a carefully thought out strategy Khaliq advances his infantry in the centre and towards the church.....

and sends further light forces around the church to attack the very weak Christian Left flank......

Berber African mercenaries assault the church itself which is now being lightly held by local levy ! What was Alfonso thinking 

Turning again the heavy cavalry attempts to charge home but they are mercilessly shot at from the flank by Arab horse archers

The horse archers prove very effective at shooting and then withdrawing when the heavy cavalry attempts to charge them

Late morning and the first reinforcements arrive for the Christians, several units of medium infantry, they fan out as ordered.

Despite much gusto the heavy cavalry is making no progress on the right and are gradually being worn down through arrow fire, a strong sense from both commanders that if the Arabs can nullify the heavy cavalry the Christians are done for !

Hoorah ! a dust cloud from the rear announces the arrival of more heavy Cavalry (we did randomise both time and location) but Alfonso noticed for the first time a slight grimace on Abdul Khaliq’s face perhaps the Christians dogs were stronger than he thought, his own reserves were woefully slow in arriving

The thunder of hooves but the majority of the Muslim left flank is intact

In the centre a bloody combat swings back and forth as more infantry is thrown in to the battle in front of the church

Somehow the levy in the church are holding on, they are fighting for their lives and their god (their morale held with a double 1roll on one occasion !)

The bloodbath on the slopes of the Church Mount

Still stalemate on the left flank 

The battle had swung back and forth across the whole board and it felt the collapse on any one unit might might be the end of either army......

Crap............galloping through the Arab camp Khaliqs reserves finally start to arrive

....but what’s this the final Christian heavy infantry have somehow managed to march the long way round and turned up on the same flank

It is mid afternoon and there is only one thing for the Arabs to do, sweep these new arrivals away before they can make an impact

Exhausted in the centre both sides are slugging it out

Still the heavy Christian cavalry hasn’t been able to break through

Crash the Arab cavalry smashes into the poorly prepared infantry....will they hold ?

Just as a gap opens up in the Arab centre their final infantry reserves arrive and now there is a huge gap in the centre of the Christian line held only by a thin line of crossbowmen, they start their advance 

This location would later be named the Red Mount, in the background the church itself has be taken (like a moment from Waterloo, when the french take La Haye Saint and hoist their flag !) Alfonso now sends more troops to take back the church

The afternoon is drawing on and finally the heavy Christian cavalry has brought its superior numbers into play, the Arab 

Left flank is about to break

But on the right their own cavalry is cutting through the enemy infantry like butter 

A huge gap is opened up and the baggage has been left unguarded 

Many of Alfonso’s forces from around the church have simply ceased to exist and the Arab reinforcements simply have to crash through the gap in the Christian centre and it will be all over

Enter the crossbowmen, volley after volley pushes the Arab infantry reserves back staggering

But the Christian baggage is lost

And they are close to being completely outflanked

It is the crossbowmen that make the difference, in the lengthening shadows, the Arab final push in the centre is thrown back, and at the same moment the Arab left flank collapses freeing up the freshest cavalry to swing around to the centre

And at this critical point in the battle the church is retaken, the Arabs just don’t have the wight in numbers to make another assault and Abdul Khaliq must retire from the field. Exhausted Alfonso will celebrate in the church this evening !

What a splendid battle we had, when the initial heavy cavalry assault was turned back we genuinely thought it might be over by lunch with a crushing Arab victory, but they were outdone but the arrival of the Christian reinforcements, the dice gods turned away from Khaliq and to Alfonso later in the day. Both sides had some fight left in them but the significant outflanking by the Arab cavalry whilst taking the baggage couldn’t really sway the day. The collapse of Khaliq’s centre and left flank was too significant to hold on. The crossbows really were the winner for the Christians holding the centre on their own, freeing up infantry elsewhere.

I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed playing the game, not sure what next with Covid etc.... but hopefully soon 😀