MT06 Crusades

Throwing my name in the ring for the next tournament. I am Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4).

Round 5

Gileforn (Saracen) 8 banners won, 31 blocks lost

Rams1984 (Crusader) 4 banners won, 37 blocks lost

That was a really nice and hard battle with great crusader's attacks and some lucky turk's defence. A lot of shooting, mounting charges and really good maneuvering by both sides. The final situation could be absolutely the other one, but Turks were lucky and perform good one cry havoc at the end. Thanks to Rams for the good game. 

Round 5
Crusaders (gotigerssc) - 8 banners; 22 blocks lost
Suljuq Turks (Mark McG) - 2 banners; 34 blocks lost

Mark fell victim to an atrocious hand of cards and a pair of resilient crossbow units. Had he more foot units I would have been doomed. A good deal of the fighting happened on the flanks at range as I never really had pure center cards to make a push in that section, but used what I had at the end to make it count. Also had the luck of drawing two ambush cards that derailed successful attacks against the crusaders. Only captured 1/4 of the camps so no threat there on medals. 

   

Polonus100 aka Michał Wasil
Confirming participation
Warsaw time GMT+1
polonus100@gmail,com

 

Gileforn (Fatamid) - 7 banners, 42 blocks lost

Soul1st (Crusaders) - 5 banners, 31 blocks lost

That was a really good tactic battle with a lot of bolt shooting by crossbowmen. They shooted not bad and was really dangerous. Knights attacks were heavy and difficult to be protected. With the last chance cry havoc helped to get winning banners. Thanks to Twan for the great game.
 

Gileforn wrote:

Gileforn (Fatamid) - 7 banners, 42 blocks lost

Soul1st (Crusaders) - 5 banners, 31 blocks lost

 

Gileforn (Fatamid) - 7 banners, 32 blocks lost

Ambush card
- the wording on the Ambush card is pretty concise, but it gives a somewhat misleading view of how Richard Borg has explained how the rule is played. Players shouild look at the clarification on p.14 of the Crusader rules, but the essence is that the Ambush is played AFTER all the Momentum Advance or a Cavalry Special Momentum Advance is completed.

What I suggest is the player's do not play the Ambush card until the opponent announces a follow up attack with cavalry. With foot it makes no difference, but premature play of Ambush versus cavalry may simply announce the card and allow the cavalry to continue their Special Momentum advance to a safe spot.

Round 5
Crusaders (Hank B.) - 8 banners won; 14 blocks lost
Suljuq Turks (John Dietrich) - 1 banner won; 38 blocks lost

The Crusader Heavy Cavalry just kept going.

 

Round 2 Second Ramla

Fatamids:  Mark, 5 banners won, 35 blocks lost

Crusaders:  JR, 6 banners won, 18 blocks lost

The Crusader player has to pass a pre-game morale check with this one - that opening board is terrifying.  I didn't help matters by stepping forward with my knights, so Mark could Line Command all 17 of his units and begin peppering me with long range fire.  I knew where this was going if I put up with it for long so I just sent the big boys forward to see what would happen.   


Stephen of Blois throws down

Mark soon had a 4-2 banner lead as he was landlng solid blows on my knights, killing Stephen of Burgundy's contingent after a well timed Ambush and riding down Stephen himself shortly after.  However, little things like knights ignoring one sword hit even from heavy cavalry were keeping me in the game.  Also helpful was Mark's inability take out my leaders, despite nine or more checks.  Even Stephen was hard to kill.


A rude surprise 

I managed an effective Mounted Charge to square the game at four banners apiece.  Mark struck back with Cry Havoc! to score his fifth banner, but Baldwin's entourage scored my own fifth on battle-back.


Nearly a killing blow

I then played Counterattack for some havoc of my own.  Baldwin caught up with Saad el-Dowleh and his depleted medium cavalry too close to the board edge to evade.  With the extra die from the card, the mediums fell for a Crusader victory.

 
Two can play that game


Final banner

This wasn't nearly as uneven as I thought - the heavy knights can really hand out some pain, and all three have a leader so you are getting maximum bang for your denier.  Our dice were pretty even but he landed fewer hits thanks to armor differential.  Mark didn't quite have the cards to really take advantage of Fatimid numbers and speed, and I was always able to do *something* even when I was down to two or three units.  Interesting scenario, with more than meets the eye.


 

John of York (Saracen)  6 banners won, 18 blocks lost JRTracy (Crusader) 5 banners won, 24 blocks lost

The battle was played out on the Crusader left / Turk right. Three MOUNTED CHARGES (one Crusader and two Turkish) and two Crusader FOOT ONSLAUGHTs were played.  I stated off with ranged fire and halved the HKC with Baldwin II. But that just got the Crusader blood up and the Knights supported by a MC charged. The result of that led them halfway to victory as one of my HBC went down along with Soqman and a LBC also fell as it could not evade. My own MOUNTED CHARGE killed off one MC and HKC but Baldwin, that sly fellow survived a 1dlc and a 4d attack and I also missed finishing off a 2 block HKC. My second MOUNTED CHARGE does kill off the HKC but 12 other dice with leader support vs infantry only gets 4 hits while 9 BB dice inflict 7 losses on my cavalry. CLASH OF SHILEDS bags one wounded MC and I trail 3 to 4. A FOOT ONSLAUGHT targets two one block MC and a 2 block HC and one MC is killed off on the first attack, but my other two weak cavalry survive. I am now on my own baseline and trail 3 to 5. I play a LEADERSHIP and use a token to RALLY. I revive a MC and HC fully and they charge and kill off a MI and half another. A turn later my ranged fire would finish off a 2 block HI and Baldwin's luck would run out as he falls after catching an arrow.  A close-run affair I feel I escaped with one there. Well played by my opponent.