I took part in another remote wargame last Thursday evening, again hosted by Jonathan Freitag of https://palousewargamingjournal.blogspot.com/. I am sure you will find a better after action report there in due course. I joined fellow Virtual Wargames Group members Doug Melville and Stephen Caddy for a recreation of the 12th century Battle of Ucles between the Almoravids and the Christians of Leon and Castile under King Alphonso VI. An outline of the real battle can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ucl%C3%A9s_(1108)
Stephen and I were the Christians and Doug the Almoravids. Would we do any better than the Spaniards managed in 1108? The short answer is….nope.
The Almoravid centre, composed of heavy cavalry, about faced and withdrew to ensure they were out of reach of our Christian men at arms. Both Muslim flanks advanced and engaged with our forces facing them while I threw caution to the wind and did what any God fearing Spanish man at arms would do and launched all five of my units straight at the enemy, led by myself as the king. This was quite a large battle but we skipped though it pretty smoothly.
A few photos now, taken off my computer monitor during the Zoom call. They give a fair idea of what went on.
To cut a long story short, our right crumbled, our left quivered and the centre, well the mounted elements at least, ran out of steam and were picked off and annihilated. The king died with his bodyguard as they were put to flight and it was all over in three hours of very enjoyable play. We used Basic Impetus again, which I am beginning to get the hang of and do quite like. Certainty with a master like Jonathan running the show we were always politely and firmly told what we could and couldn’t do. A man of great patience indeed.
I hope next time I am able to take part we might play an ECW game using Impetus Baroque. I have used them for my 1672 collection several years ago and seem to remember they gave me a headache but produced a really good game.
Big thanks to Jon for hosting and herding us like cats, to my earstwhile compatriot Stephen and Doug the dastardly Moor. Great fun. Now where are all my unpainted 3d printed Requonquista miniatures?
Colin, thank you for joining into the game! You’re right that it was a fairly large game and by my clock, finished in under three hours. Very fun and action-packed throughout. A replay would be interesting to see if either army changes up their battle plan in a rematch.
ReplyDeleteJon hosts a good game 👍
ReplyDeleteQuite a tough situation and some good photos of the game.
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