Al Andalus : Battle of Molina de Segura 1020

Not a historical battle but part of my loosely organised ‘campaign’ focussed on Al Andalus between 900 and 1100 AD.  I was looking for another opportunity to get a slightly larger battle on the table, so decided for this battle to run it with two remote generals, avoid too much Fog of war but set them some clear tactical challenges to make them think before they committed to their plan.

Thanks here must go to Norm and Jonathan for stepping up to the invitation. It can be hard to command a remote army where you have little sense of ownership and limited ability to control the tactical decisions, turn by turn, hopefully they enjoyed the game as much as I did, constructive feedback welcome :)

So onto the battle...here is the pre- battle information they were sent.

Background

The year is 1020, the Iberian pennisular once ruled over by the great caliphate of Córdoba has now broken into a number of smaller Kingdoms or Taifa. These petty kingdoms are almost constantly at war over land, borders and resources. The previous ruler of the Taifa of Valencia has recently died. To the South the Taifa of Denia now ruled by the once enslaved Mujahid ibn Yusuf ibn Ali (Mujahid) is keen to take the opportunity for a land grab. He has led a raiding force north into arid mountainous valley of the Segura River. An area at this time with only small villages and settlements. But he is making for the larger city of Orihuela. The new ruler of Valencia  Abd al-Aziz ibn Amir (al-Aziz) must protect his Kingdom but also build his reputation, he has marched South from his capital to intercept the invader and throw him back. (Whilst the battle is fictional the geography, time a characters are real)

Both armies have arrived during the hours of darkness in a narrow arid valley near the village of Molina de Segura. The two commanders aware that the enemy is about but unable to see them due to the darkness have ordered their troops to encamp in formation ready for battle early in the morning. There is likely to be limited time in the morning to redeploy before the expected battle.

Mechanics

Both armies were predominantly Arab based, although both have hired mercenaries to support their cause. The two generals were then provided a map of the terrain as below and their order of battle. They had to deploy for battle without knowing where the enemy were, but would be allowed to see the enemy at sunrise before their force was ordered into battle. As well as baseline deployment i gave the added spice of a couple of deployment option to throw the enemy from the start. Mujahid (Denia) would attack from the south (left) and Al-Aziz (Valencia) from the north (Right) below.  

Victory would be earned with simple points based system for destroying 1/3 or 1/2 of the enemy and capturing the River Hill in the bend of the river.

Sunrise on the day of battle and the two forces awake to find the enemy in position, it was immediately interesting to see the care and thought that had gone into devising their battle plans. Looking from the NE across Orange Grove Hill. Both sides recognised their cavalry would be better placed at this end of the battlefield with the slightly more open ground. Mujahid has been able to deploy a unit in advance in the walled field.

Al-Aziz as massed his infantry by the bridge and is determined to hold the hill, he has been allowed to place in ambush a single unit in the olive grove

....and also to place a single unit on the River hill itself, he chose his crossbowmen but they are isolated and exposed

From behind the Denian lines

Mujahid has positioned his extensive cavalry and camelry ready to sweep across the Orange Grove Hill

His Slavic mercenary warriors are over the river by the village

Mujahid with his Heavy Cavalry body guard

The battle then begins i had planned for a minimum of eight turns with the options for darkness then to fall on a D6

Al-Aziz rushes to cross the bridge

Mercenary heavy spearmen advance to hold the gorge 

The Slavs advance behind mounted crossbowmen 

Light horse disrupt the advance and the light Denian spearmen perhaps having had a bad nights sleep in the field are the first to break

Mujahid throws mercenary Christian knights to break through the gorge but they are turned back

Black Camel riders, playing as heavy cavalry have broken through and crashed into unsuspecting lightly armoured archers who are immediately disordered , but they don’t break !

Across the bridge the Spearmen have been ordered to fan out

Mujahid has cleverly massed all his archers in the centre and they turn the sky dark with arrows quickly wiping out the crossbowmen on the hill before they had a chance to fire a second volley

Of course we all know horses hate camels so they must test before they charge, needing anything less than a 10 both units of Valencian Cavalry fail to charge in the same turn !

Luckily the Valencian Archers roll tremendous low morale tests and stay in the fight, they can’t really damage the camel riders but they can hold them up

A second charge goes in on the gorge but the heavy spearmen like so many ‘Spartans’ hold the narrow gap

Eventually the second unit of camels makes its charge and there is a swirling mounted battle around the back of the hill

The Slavs attempt to contest the bridge 

And the spearmen come under heavy fire from the archers on the hill. Would have been nice to see a unit of cavalry sent across the river to chase them off but they are all engaged to the east.

The leading unit of Slavs has been chased off and the unit in the olive grove has ambushed the mounted crossbowmen

One unit of camel units  has been trapped

But more cavalry is now being directed up onto the hill

Eventually even the heroic archers are broken. The horse archers are ordered to disrupt  the advance and slow the out flanking move as much as possible.

The Archers now start to split their fire, but the Slavic spearmen are heavily outnumbered and cut down

The flank is turned and the potentially the way to the rear of the enemy.

This is the situation after 8 turns so darkness could now fall at anytime, the Black guard spearmen have retaken the hill for Al-Aziz and finally the archers arms are tired and their arrows start to miss their mark.

The unit of the battle the heavy mercenary Spearmen have been fighting a withdrawal action pulling back from the gorge and repulsing everything thrown at them 

Mounted crossbowmen can do little other than target from long range and this has little effect

Some very lucky morale tests keep the Valencia infantry in the battle

Darkness has nearly fallen but the Denian cavalry is now right over the Orange Grove Hill and threatening the enemy rear 

The Mercenary spearmen hold one more turn, but even ‘Spartans’ eventually die when heavily outnumbered

Darkness finally falls the black guard have held the hill and the arrows cant shake them off, all of the Valencian spearmen have been weakened and don’t have much fight left but they haven’t fled.

The flank and rear of the Valencian army is now open and with 1 or 2 more turns an attack up the rear of the hill could be mounted and the enemy potentially cut off or completely wiped out, but crossing the river in the dark is too dangerous

A shot looking down the battlefield as darkness falls.

After all this blood Al-Aziz had killed 5 of the enemy 12 units and held the Hill, Mujahid had killed 7 of the Valencian units so a draw with 3 points apiece and I didn’t need to fudge it.

A really enjoyable battle, from the planning where i tried to create a number of tactical challenges requiring he generals to think carefully where they would attack and where hold the line. I thought I would share a few thoughts on how the battle unfolded for both sides

The blocking of the gorge by the Mercenary Heavy infantry was inspirational they completely blocked that quicker route to the rear and saw combat almost every turn but clung on. Al-Aziz getting across the ridge gave him some protection from being outflanked which as an obvious option. The massed archers in the centre from Mujahid was nearly a battle winner, whilst the dispersed archers on the other side were either wiped out or had little effect. The Slavs were a bit unlucky to end up outnumbered. The Heavy Arab warriors seen on Orange grove Hill in the last photo never really got into the battle and might have been better placed charging across the river. The camels who named to hit the archers were again unlucky as the archers really should have crumbled and fled rather than holding for 3 or 4 turns !

So the game provided a wonderful tonic for these annoying times, using KoW it was actually quick to play as the rules are quite brutal at this scale. The planning and set up took much longer....and I haven’t tidied up yet.

back to a bit of painting now, although i have some more ideas in my head for remote games

Thanks for watching :)