The Prophet is Outraged (Dorylaum Battle Report)

On Thursday night,  my brother Alan, as the Turks, and Charles "Brother Punchy" Fleurie squared off in my miniatures battle test of the Battle of Dorylaeum (First Crusades 1096 AD).   As my super-awesome cartoon illustrates, the Turks were soundly beaten in the turns we managed to get finished.

Here's a picture of the set-up:

The crusaders are in the center and the Turks to top, and the small group to the lower left.   The retinues of Robert of Normandy and Robert of Flanders surged forward and wiped out Ghazi ibn Dansihmend's shadowing force on the bottle left.   Tancred's cavalry surged forward and engaged Sultan Arslan's guards on the left-top.   Tancred was almost eliminated but managed to hang on by a thread.   On the top right, an archery duel broke out that saw some of the turks flee, and one unit of Peter the Hermit's pilgrims eliminated.  Duke Godfrey's reinforcements appeared on the right, and the Turkish infantry was sent marching off to meet them.

     The count was 2 Turkish stands fled off the board, and 4 Turkish stands destroyed (10 points), vs. 1 Crusader stand eliminated (2 points).   Things would probably evened up a bit if we had had more time to play.   My camera failed after the above shot, and Chuck didn't send me the pictures he tried to take.




Lessons Learned:  I needed some clearer rules about how much space was required for troop stands to move through, and how to handle an ongoing melee involving a large number of stands from different retinues.   Other than that, I really liked how the combat unfolded.  Alan said that he'd prefer a hex grid to measuring tape, but non disputandum de gustibus.  However, it seems like to do the battle properly, it would require something more like our usual 4-6 hour session rather than the 2 hours we had.   This also leads me to think that I'll probably have to come up with some simplified quick-play rules for when I take it to school.  I think I'll try to have a full version of the battle at home in February sometime too.