A Demo Game

     The last few weeks I have had little time for gaming. I did find rules converting DBA armies into units to be used with Battle Cry (by Tom McKeand and William L.Blanks). Today I set up a quick demo game with 20 point armies. The Viking were mainly Warbands; the Normans were blades, spears and cavalry. At first the Normans were dominating the game, but then the Viking managed to bring up more units. In the end the Normans won a close battle.. Using these rules, I see potential for using Peter Laing figures that I hadn't thought of using.

    After the demo game, I tried another game with my simple rules. It was to be Saracens vs Crusaders.  The Saracens mixed their archers with spearmen; the Crusaders had units consisting of a mounted knight, two spearmen and an archer. Once again I didn't think things through. With these rules figures in a unit must stay together. By putting the mounted knights with infantry, the knights could only move as fast as the infantry, thereby negating the value of the mounted figures. It cost the Crusaders dearly; indeed, they lost the battle!

Near the end of the battle using DBA units with Battle Cry.

A Norman spear unit finishes off a Viking warband, to win the game. As it was just to get a feel for if these units would work, I didn't take photographs until the end of the game.

I based more Norman figures for another project I'm thinking of, and wanted to use them.

The Saracen cavalry hits both flanks. On the Crusaders left they are forced off the battlefield....

... at the same time another Crusader unit is forced off on the right!

On the  right of the picture, another Crusader unit is forced off the field; the Saracen unit that made them retreat moves in the vacated square, blocking the path of another Crusader unit.

AT this point the Crusader have lost over half their units, and has lost the battle.