For this months Sunday game we had a large El CID encounter with 9 players.
We would have 24 Divisions of troops on a 14 feet by 6 feet table.
For our scenario a large Muslim army has raided into Christian Territory and is returning laden with booty and slaves. In march column jammed up on the road they find their way blocked by 3 divisions of Christians and Christian reinforcements appear at intervals on their right flank as the game progresses.
To make it easier I have dropped the army lists below straight from the excel spreadsheet I used.
Muslims
These forces are spread along the road and the Muslim commander Chris Charlton gets to decide what order they are in front to back.. He decides that a division of light cavalry screening his front followed by his best foot the Black guard will be best.
The Christians and commanded by Si, one Division of six foot blocks the road with two more and a division of Knights marching on in support.
I had actually split these down into smaller divisions for ease of movement but later realised I had done this after I sent the lists over to Chris and asked him to print them! Doh!
Christians:
So whilst the Moors have a fair advantage in numbers they are bunched and hemmed in so will take time to sort themselves out, the Christians have the advantage of surprise and better cavalry but will have to commit to battle piece meal if they want to keep the advantage and stop the Moors organising. ,
The Christians deploy to block the road in a strong deep formation somewhat protected by a wood through which the Moorish horse cant pass.
On the flank near the rear of the Moorish column Richard has a division of Christian cavalry and immediatly throws his light horse at the Berber spearmen still in march column. The archers flee, the first unit of Berbers are ridden straight over and he is straight into the next.A good start for the Christians who have grasped the need to be aggressive to prevent the Moors getting organised.
Also move one Mark has a further division of Christian Cavalry arrive on the right flank of the moors, having much further to go he is content to close the distance,
In response the Moorish light cavalry begins to deploy to cover their flank and face the Christians whilst the mass of foot tries to untangle itself.
At the front the Black guard is hampered by the inexperience of Ben Yusufs son Muhammed who cant see a way to deploy his superior troops. We made him a level 7 commander as Historically the Cid beat him more than once and a it of confusion at the front buys the Christians badly needed time to bring more troops up.
A view down the table gives an idea of the scale of the game with the two isolated divisions of Christian horse mybe 5 feet apart doing their best ttie down the Moors.
Rich presses a further two units of Knights forward to take advantage of the confusion as the Moors continue to struggle to get into battle formation.
Chris Charltons rear division has managed to get turned to its right flanks and begin to advance towards the woods that earlier hid Richards Knights.
Marks Division has made rapid progress and is almost set to charge into the Moorish column.
Jerry however has got his first units of Moorish light horse forward and chages the Christians.
As Jerry and Mark battle it out the rest of Marks Christians push toward the colmn.
Unfortunately for Mark this part of the line is guarded by Muslim heavy cavalry, almost as good as his knights.
At the front of the column Dave is still trying to deploy his Black Guard and finds his light cavalry is an encumbrance being too light to go for the Christians but too numerous to easily get out of his way and allow him to get to grips.
The sneaky Christians push their archers and crossbowmen through the wood to both the Moors but are driven back by the Moorish light horse..
Dave pushes the Black Guard camelry to his right flank to counter the Christian Knights Richard is pushing forward, albeit still very slowly.
A couple of hours in and most of the Christians are now deployed and closing on the Moorish column, the Moors are slowly untangling them selves ad throwing their horse at the Christians to buy them both space and time .
At the rear of the column Chris is now pushing his Moorish foot through the light woods to attack the Christian left flank and start closing them down.
Marks second division of Knights close with the Moorish column and troops are now engaged almost the legnth of the table.
Richard has pulled his Knights back behind his remaining light cavalry unit as the Moors get organised and start to inflict casualties. Aware the Chris's infantry is on his left flank and getting caught up by the horse may pin him for the infantry to take him in flank.
The Moorish light horse advance to challenge Richards remaining unit but he is keeping just out of range.
At the front Dave's Muslim light horse is still doing all the fighting and the Black Guard have barely moved all game. It seems unlikely there will be a break through today, there may not even be any sort of decisive clash.
The Christians have finally got most of their troops deployed on the table end but both sides are still struggling to get their best troops to grips with each other.
Mean while the remaining Christian forces have deployed onto the flanks of the column and the Moorish cavalry has pushed out to face them in a series of running cavalry combats.
As we return from lunch at last the Black Guard are formed up ready and advancing but it may all be too little too late.
The other division of Black Guard is still in march column and going nowhere.
At the front its a slugging match but neither side can get to each other fully still.
Richards initial Cavalry division remains largely intact but he has pulled it back even further from the rear of the column to avoid units breaking and force the Moors to come to him, trading time for space.
The Black Guard cavalry and Camelry have closed with the Christians Knights abd both sides struggle to gain the upper hand.
Jerry's Muslim heavy cavalry finally break Marks original cavalry division only to find a fresh division of Knights behind preparing to charge him.
As the day draws to a close it is all still to play for. Neither side has captured any of their opponents leaders, the Christians have failed to capture any baggage whilst the Moors have failed to move their force any further down the road. I award a minor victory to the Moors who have destroyed one Christian division but this is pretty tenuous, the Christians have penned the Moor in all day and they dotn look like breaking out anytime soon.
The game itself worked mainly as planned, it did take longer for the Moors to sort them selves into a coherent force, at the end of the game the Black Guard were still not properly engaged with Richard and Si's Christian foot at the front of the column. We could perhaps have done with less players and less troops on table to get a result as it goes there is another full days worth of gaming to get a proper result to the game but I think everyone enjoyed it and we all got our models on table.
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Alternative Miniatures are a fairly new company producing the lovely Reconquesta 3d printed figures but in metal. I really enjoyed painting both the horse and rider. I probably should have got a better contrast with the saddle blanket but it looks great. Lots of detail and character. Really like this.
Victrix, pretty much as easy to build as Gripping beast but with a lot more detail on both the figure and the horse, that makes it a bit more time consuming but the end result is worth it I think. Again all the different plastic heads in different sets from different manufacturers makes these plastic figures very useful indeed. Different head and shield and this guy could be Indian, Sikh Gorchurra might work with an appropriate Turban and Dahl shield.
OK so Cons, the Gripping Beast figure possibly a little too simple and the head join on the horse is a bit too obvious as you can see in the picture. Still very happy with him. 
Lots of detail on this figure, to be honest nothing I didn't like other than from the whole set not every rider fits every horse so you do need to be careful to match them up at the start.
The Victrix figures have so much detail they put me off starting, however the end result is very good I feel ,so less daunted to do the next ones. with 12 Victrix, 12 Gripping Beast and 6 Alternative Miniatures I do need some motivation.
A bunch more coming off the workbench, breaking these down by manufacturer. Firstly two more of the lovely Victrix figures.
