El Cid Alliance Game November 2014

Bishop Jeromino in both 1:1 and 28mm scales.  The mini is by Reaper

After several aborted attempts called off do to lack of participants, we finally got to do a large Hail Caesar game featuring my El Cid era figures.  I basically put my entire collection on the table and it came to 5 Heavy and Medium Cavalry units, 5 LC units, 6 Heavy and Medium Units plus archers, crossbows and skirmishers.  The scenario was the "Alliance" from CS Grant's Programmed Wargame Scenarios with the (Muslim) Zaragosans defending and the (Christian) Castillians attacking.  There were 3 commands a side, 2 player plus 1 NPC, and each command was given a personal objective plus a team objective.  Curt and Sylvain took the Zaragosans while Jeremy and Sean took Castillian roles.  I acted as umpire and NPC interpreter.

After a long, hard fight game it was a Zaragosan victory.  'Ibn Ammar (Sylvain) and Count Garcia (NPC) both met their personal objective and El Cid may be looking for other employment….

Sean took a series of photos, including the following ones which he took at timed intervals and linked together as a GIF.  It the photos, the Zaragosans are closest with the Castillians facing.  That's Jeremy in the Mitre (yes he wore it for the entire game), Sean in the glasses with Blue sweater and Sylvain in the red.  Curt and I are hiding off camera to the right.

This nicely encapsulates the action.  The Christian left flank advances and charges the Muslim right, followed by a counter charge and stalemate.  On our left, Sylvain moves his Cavalry through an orange grove before leading a successful charge, while Sean files his knights through the woods to attack the line on the hill.  The terrain is Curt's except for the orange trees and building which are mine.  The grey tower in the background is a resin model from some forgotten fantasy range while the church is a home built foam core and cardboard jobby.