Battle Report: The Battle of Ramla

A while back I got myself a copy of the rules Soldiers of God because the battle plan/card activation system sounded like a lot of fun and I figured I could adapt for my ancients collections. One quick playtest later I was hooked on the rules.

And then I remembered that I'd always wanted a medieval collection for the Crusader era ......

So after a few weeks of misery, painting and more misery I had a Saracen and Frankish army (without flags due to distractions and exhaustion) painted and ready to go. Rustling up some willing volunteers at work I put on a straight up fight for control of the town Ramla.

The armies stare each other down, the Crusaders to the west, the Fatimids to the east and the town of Ramla to the north.

The Crusaders had a defensive Hold the Line battle plan, giving them rally cards on their flanks and a loose card in the centre. Their army began with a morale rating of 23.

The Crusader right, two units of knights, one of three stands and the other with two, with a mounted men-at-arms unit of three stands in support (to the rear of the formation).

Centre battle, front to back two units of three stands of men-at-arms, two units of three stands of archers and a two stand unit of knights.

Right battle: Two stand unit of Holy Order Knights (Templars in this case), a four stand unit of mounted men-at-arms and a three stand unit of turcopole mercenaries.

The Fatimid army began with a highly aggressive All Out Attack plan, giving them the initiative for the first turn, with a charge order for the centre battle and march orders on the flanks. Their initial army morale was 19.

Saracen right battle, a four stand unit of Mamelukes, four stands of Horse Archers, three stand unit of Arab Tribal Horse, three stands of infantry and a three stand unit of archers.

Centre battle: Two four stand units of Mamelukes, a four stand unit of infantry and a three stand unit of Arab Tribal Horse.

Saracen Left: Two units of Horse Archers, one of two stands and another of three, a unit of Mamelukes, Infantry, Archers and Arab Tribal Cavalry, each with three stands.

The battle began with a general advance by the Saracens, on their right the four stand unit of horse archers made it as far as the town of Ramla in preparation to flank the Crusader left wing. Hampered by the lack of movement cards in the battle plan and some poor draws, the Crusader forces did very little beyond pushing their left wing forwards, minus the Turcopoles who were hit with a mercenary grievance special event by the Saracens.

Clouds of dust and sand rise as the battle begins with massed cavalry movement all along the Saracen line.

The next phases saw both sides push closer together, the Crusader left pushing towards the join between the centre and right battles of the Saracen forces, and the Crusader right moving towards the Saracen centre, while the Saracen left moved to outflank them. Once they were in range the Fatimids began to rain arrows on the Crusader forces, to little initial effect.

The disadvantages of not having missile weapons to hand begins to hit the Frankish forces as they enter bow range of the Fatimid forces, mostly in the form of arrows.

At this point, the Fatimid players used a special event to switch their battle plan, changing to a Harass and Advance order, giving the centre battle a March order card, and the two flanks Advance, Loose, Withdraw cards. Using these cards, they began to hammer the Crusader right especially, although in what would become a recurring theme some spectacular rolling resisted all lasting harm, while the centre withdrew out of charge range. Faced with an escaping foe to their front and fire coming in from their flank, the Frank's right battle turned to face the outflanking Saracens hoping to charge them down.

"Sir, the arrows appear to be having no effect. Well, except that they're now mad and coming this way."

On the left, the mounted men-at-arms took a battering from massed fire from the Mamelukes, archers and Horse Archers, but the Franks used a "God Wills It" special event to clear all the accumulated disorder and keep the unit fighting. While this was happening, the Fatimid centre battle's Arab Tribal Cavalry were pulled off the table for a flank march, aiming to appear behind the Crusader lines.

Before the Saracen left could stop it, the Crusader knights launched a charge, with the larger unit slamming into the Arab Tribal Cavalry, where appalling dice rolling saw them only inflict one point of disorder plus their bonus heavy cavalry charging point, while suffering one point themselves as they charged home due to galloping.

Somewhat less impressive results than intended by the knights sees them in a precarious position.

The Frankish attack had exposed their flank and the Saracen centre battle moved to exploit the opportunity, swinging around to line up a charge.

Determined to smash the infidels, Mameluke cavalry move in to smash the knights in the flank.

And without further ado, they charged into the knights, and immediately met the ridiculous resolve rolls of the Jerusalemites, meaning very little damage was caused, and the knights inflicted more damage on the Arab Tribal Cavalry in the fight, which was cancelled out by the use of  God is Great special event. A further round of combat saw the knights and Arab Tribal Cavalry take a point of damage apiece.

Outnumbered, but defiant, the knights fight on.

At the northern end of the battlefield, there was a lot of back and forth as the Saracens hammered the mounted men-at-arms with arrows and good rolling with the rally card removing the disorder before it became too much for the unit to cope with.

The next round of combat on the Saracen left saw the knight unit taking so much disorder they became disrupted, before an excellent roll on a rally card saw them return to action, although still in open order leaving them less effective in combat. Their return from the brink of being routed did not please the Fatimid players. On the plus side, the outflanking Arab Tribal Horse reappeared behind the Crusader right at the first opportunity. A champion from the knights in combat challenged the champion of the Mameluke unit they were in combat with, and dispatched him in a savage duel, although this eventuality didn't phase the rest of the Mamelukes.

Desperately rallying after taking a beating, the knights prepare to make a last stand taking as many of the infidels with them as they can.

"So we're behind them, now what was step two?"

The next round saw the Crusader right come under more pressure, while the Arab Tribal Cavalry executed a swift escape from the melee with the knights, the Mamelukes and their infantry supports inflicted four points of disorder on the knights, enough to rout them if that stayed the same at the end of the turn. The small knight unit managed to charge a unit of Mameluke, although in the fighting the Franks got the worse of it, while the mounted men-at-arms tried to run down the Horse Archers, getting several barrages of arrows for their pains.

Combat rages around the knights, while the men-at-arms begin to take a beating.

A good rally roll saw the three stand unit of knights come back from the brink, although they were still vulnerable, preventing a large hit to the Crusader morale. 

On the Fatimid right, concentrated arrow fire devastated the mounted men-at-arms, leaving them in complete disorder, while the Holy Order Knights slammed into the Mamelukes, inflicting significant harm, but not breaking them. More fighting at the southern end of the battlefield saw the large unit of knights take a hammering again. Both the left flank men-at-arms and the right flank knight unit routed at the end of the turn, causing the Crusader army morale to drop significantly, giving the Saracens the initiative for the first time after the opening round.

In the final turn, the Saracens poured missile fire, using two special event cards to get additional moves with their skirmish troops in addition to their normal fire, into a unit of archers from the Crusader centre battle and the mounted men-at-arms from the Crusader right. Both units shattered at the end of the turn, leaving the Crusader army on -2 morale, giving the game to the Saracens who had lost only a handful or morale points, but none to damage to units, only to special events and cards.

A hail of missile fire from all directions shatters the resolve of the mounted men-at-arms

The battlefield as the fight ends with the Franks beating a hasty retreat from the liberated town of Ramla.

All the players had a good time, even the Saracens who had faced significant frustrations with the astounding toughness of the Crusader troops, especially with added rally cards and some excellent dice rolls to keep them going, but eventually good tactics saw the Sarcens to victory.

Some lessons I think the game brought out:

1. Rally cards can make tough units incredibly hard to shift, knights and Holy Order Knights in particular.
2. Defensive battle plans without move card make it very hard to maneuver, which can hamper options for both sides. A highly mobile foe can easily use this to concentrate on part of your army.
3. Combat is a real card sink, between knocking off disorder and trying to keep units inflicting damage. 
4. Good tactics can overcome ridiculous dice rolls, mostly, which is (I think) a sign of a good rule set.

 This set of rules and figures will undoubtedly be back at some point.