Al Andalus : Raid on Castile

Need to think of a better way of linking these battles, they may form into some sort of narrative at some point but at the moment the various City states will be skirmishing along their borders. Here we set up a little scenario with the predominantly Christian forces of Castile under Ferdinando I being assaulted by the forces of Toledo under King ibn al-Mamun.

Muslim Forces of Toledo rush onto the field

In the centre of the battlefield is a small isolated guard, if they can be overwhelmed before the Castile reinforcements arrive victory will be theirs

King al-Mamun’s son ibn Ismail al-Mamun urges his forces forward

Light cavalry is sent down the right flank

More troops seek to exploit the broken ground on the left

Arghh what’s this some of the Castile heavy knights arrive in their rear !

Led by King Ferdinando himself 

The heavy Christian knight prove too much and soon clear a path through the Toledo force

Then turn north where they are tricked into charging into rough ground

al-Mamun himself charges forward to assault the central guard only to find they are the dreaded crossbowmen

Supported by his remaining horse archers his repeatedly charges in.....

But to no avail and he along with his remaining force is driven from the field

A jolly little battle and as always a different challenge for each force, but a chance to get my al Andalus figures on the battlefield. As I was clearing up I thought it might be nice to get the Arab forces out for a parade, quite happy that I am making good progress 😀

Saxon painting surge (warning naked Lady included!)

With a big Hereford 1055 game planned for the weekend I have had the enthusiasm to crack on with some extra Saxons.

First up the Saxon cavalry which I posted last week all Gripping Beast figures, a simple paint job helped by quite a lot of chain mail

Another Gripping Beast figure mounted Ona single base to be used as a command figure

This one is a Foundry figure I think he finds himself riding into battle on a rather small pony ! 

Another Gripping Beast command figure

And finally the Trent figure of Lady Godiva ‘au natural’

Battle for Blue Farm Creek : ACW

So this is me catching up, despite my lack of blogging I have still played quite a few games even if my cycling obsession has restricted my painting !

Anyway here is our latest ACW game. For a change and looking for something fairly quick to set up I rustled up a simple non-historical ACW scenario, somewhere in the Shenandoah Valley  two small forces have been sent to secure provision from a local farm. The forces are roughly equal with both sides allowed to bring on any cavalry as an advance guard. As a non-historical scenario the narrative is fairly light.

Confederate advance guard has charged onto the field with light horse artillery immediately unlimbering, the Creek from the title is just beyond the gun

Union Forces marching forward towards the Winchester Pike

A chance for my newly mustered (acquired) Louisiana Tigers to make an appearance, the dry bed of the Blue Farm Creek can now be seen beyond them

Rebel infantry advancing through the cornfield

.....and fleeing back again after only one volley 😢

Only a couple of turns into the battle and more rebels are being forced back from the farm itself.

On the far left of the battlefield it is mainly skirmishing, these rebels attempting to drive off some Sharpshooters

The 3 objectives for both sides lie roughly in a line level with the farm, so the Union Forces can’t hold back on the road and must advance 

A well placed Union canning guarding the junction between Winchester Pike and Creek Road

Rallied and back into the fight the rebels supported by more Louisiana troops seek to force the defenders out of the farm

Despite taking casualties (green rings) they force the Yankies back

Brigadier Crumpton waves on the Tigers “up and at’em boys”

Not so good on the right flank more Rebels have been pushed back

Union troops holding the road but this may not be enough

Dam from nowhere the 2nd Louisiana are charged in the flank and forced to retreat

Luckily we rally on the right again....

But as twilight looms the Union Zouaves push forward looking to capture one of the objectives 

There are still lots of Union troops holding the road, but they need to get to that barn by the Blue House

The Federal Zouaves and the Tigers clash in a fearsome hand to hand struggle in the ploughed field

Rebel cavalry dismounted are holding the barn and the creek

But these guys have been chased away from the farm.

The final shot as darkness falls, in the end all three objective were contested, although the rebels would like to have claimed a minor victory as it took the Union Brigadier Harrison to risk is own life to contest the barn as darkness fell.

A fun game to play and close right till the end 🙂

German Artillery and a challenge

Finally need to get back into blogging, sorry as usual to my loyal followers I have a number of games to post. I will try and catch up soon. In the meantime here is the latest German unit off the painting table.

And in a fit of madness with a refight of the battle of Hereford I have set myself the task of painting some of my backlog of Dark Age cavalry 😬 eek.

I will blog up a recent couple of battles soon 

Update from the Dungeon

It has been a disruptive few weeks, as I have mentioned on the blog before Mrs C has been undergoing treatment, this has been a challenge over the last month or so but the good news is this is now over and we are hopefully on the road to recovery from the side effects. The bad news means I am back in work !

Painting and especially gaming has slowed but I have managed to finish another unit

These Arab light cavalry have been waiting a while and were a bit of a challenge happy with the result though so another unit completed for Al Andalus 

Out of interest I had the recently completed Persian light cavalry out so thought I would see what they looked like together mixed up, with consistent basing and painting style they arent too bad so I do have the option of playing them together if people don’t look too hard at the details.

I also had my birthday, officially able to retire (but it isn’t going to happen yet😢) so I relieved a few new toys, some reinforcements for the Russian Whites and some more Spanish Cavalry and infantry from Artizan mainly to see what their Al Andalus range is like.

A one for any fellow cyclists ..........this may have a serious impact on my painting over the winter 🤔

As things settle hopefully back to some more gaming 😀

Al Andalus : The First Battle

This battle actually took place some time ago but I hadn’t got round to blogging. This was the official first battle in my very open ended campaign focussed around the Iberian Pennisula between 1000 and 1100 AD. With the fall of the Umayyad Dynasty and the Caliphate of Córdoba the whole of what was later to become Spain split up into a multitude of independent and frequently warring states or ‘Taifa’ . Broadly mixed between Muslim and Christian states it was a time of great turbulence with only very broad religious delineation. All sides used mercenaries from both their own and other religions. Gradually larger states absorbed smaller states until toward the end of the period the reconquista, the gradual reclaiming of Spain by the Christians took place with its most famous mercenary soldier El Cid.

The campaign has no clear direction at this stage or clear objectives and is in fact just the opportunity to collect and game with beautiful colourful armies. With the wide use of mercenaries there is huge flexibility, whilst based on the key historical situation the rest I will make up as I see fit 🤭 I will content myself with smaller battles until the requisite armies are ready then may develop something more linear between the Christians and the Muslims ?

The Taifa’s of the Iberian Pennisula circa1030 AD

So to our first battle a smallish border skirmish between Zaragoza and the much smaller state of Alabarracin. A dispute has arisen over grazing and watering rights and both states have dispatched small forces to enforce their claim. We played with two equal forces using lion rampant rules. The objective of both forces was to finish the battle with more units over the river than the enemy. Simple stuff......

The Albarracin force lead by Abu al Barni Razzin seen here to the right is composed of predominantly light forces so to gain a victory they will need to be quick

Immediately light cavalry are sent across the river

The Albarracin infantry advances slightly more cautiously

Prince Razzin urges his units forward

The Zaragoza Forces has more heavy infantry and some newly equipped heavy knights ! Their leader Prince Haseen al Tujib is dressed in the newest Christian heavy armour. (But you can’t see him here as it is skulking at the back !)

Zaragoza spearmen with Berber mercenaries advance towards the river

The light cavalry are ideal for this battle they move across the river then retreat 

Unless they fail their command roll and are charged in the rear by heavy cavalry, it doesn’t end well, but at least the heavy cavalry have been drawn out of position andinto the shallow river where they are less effective

Zaragozan Forces have now captured the river 

The light cavalry pull back from the well protected spearmen but Prince Razzin shows them the way

With a (very lucky) well executed and decisive charge supported by his own spearmen he is able to force his way across the river

Down river the heavy knights are floundering about in the shallows but are forced to recklessly charge and charge until exhausted

Prince Razzin’s personal bodyguard of elite infantry now runs forward to slice through any remaining enemy on their side of the river.

Finally a shot of Prince Haseen he is no longer skulking but has chosen to flee the battle field. No doubt he will return to exact some form of petulant revenge, but for now the boundary has held.

A fun game played in great spirits my Forces were very lucky and what looked like an impossible task when the light cavalry were wiped out became a clear victory for Albarracin.