Crusades campaign: Battle of Hattin (Deus Vult -rules), report by Mentor on Miniatures

Last Saturday we played a rather huge battle as part of our Crusades Campaign.

Juha was faster than me in writing a report, so let's utilize that:

Mentor on Miniatures: Deus Vult - Battle of Hattin: Last weekend we had one of the main battles of our Holy Land Crescent & Cross campaign. The battle of Hattin 1187 which sealed the fai...

To sum up my findings and lessons from the game

• Table setup and deployment should be accomplished during the previous evening (as we had planned) - now it was already lunchtime, when we had completed round one of the game. We also grew weary by six (the old men with families we are) and decided to call it a day, even if playing a few more rounds would have made it even more clear a victory for saracens!
• We didn't play army standard rules correctly (and probably quite a few other rules as well, it was only our second game of DV)
• In the middle of the game I felt it was moving a bit slowish
• As a Saracen player, with a divisions like these to lead:

2nd Ahdath Division (III) (12#, 585 pts)
1 Battle Leader (Mullah Nicodemus ibn Yahia ibn Aymaan al-Zugag), 50 pts
1 Arab Heavy Cavalry, 120 pts + 6 stands 120
1 Arab/Bedouin Cavalry, 115 pts + 6 stands 115
1 Arab/Bedouin Archers, 60 pts + 4 stands 60
4 Arab Spearmen, 140 pts + 6 stands 105 + Mail Armor 35
4 Muttawi'ah, 100 pts + 4 stands 100

Beduin Tribe (6#, 330 pts)
1 5th Battle Leader, 100 pts
1 Arab/Bedouin Cavalry, 115 pts + 6 stands 115
4 Beduin Infantry, 115 pts + 6 stands 115

... I very drastically learned, that ALL OF MY TROOPS were discipline 0.  What makes it drastic, is the fact that I made a huge mistake by placing my  commander just in front of my units (not knowing the rules very well) and he was run over by a unit of mounted sergeants, while they charged my spearman unit:

Ok, my mistake, I thought he could jump into the nearby unit or something... AFter reading some rules, there could actually be another interpretation: rules say, that you can only charge one unit at a time. Now the mounted sergeants clipped my battle leader while charging another unit... is this legal, I don't know.

Anyway, this lead to a situation, where my whole division would act on their own discipline - and of course losing their opportunity to launch a lot of charges! With discipline of 0 you roll two dice and choose the worse result. This effectively lead to a situation, where my division couldn't get any action done, except fighting in the melee initiated by the enemy. Especially painful this was for my muttawiah (guys dressed in black in the middle), on whom I had high expectations!

So for the next game I will certainly

• Keep my Battle leaders out of the harms way (the smoke caused and effect, that their command distance was reduced to 3 inches, hence he was so boldly placed)
• I will influence my OOB to make sure, that I have some troops capable of acting, should they lose their battle leader

Few more pics:

Christians deploying their trapped, soon to be slaughtered troops

Christian deployment

My bedouine division sneaking behind the christians

My division pushing forward, christian players looking worried...

My battle leader has fallen and melee erupts

My bedouins beeing demolished by Baron of Ibelin

Christian spearhead division about to collapse under saracen cavalry onslaught!

End game - Saracen victory!

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