Battle of Bairén (1097) using Hail Caesar

Updated with a great banner done by Mog - who I think needs a career change to graphic designer :)

This evening James, Steve, Tom and myself had an end of year blow-out with a big El Cid game representing the Battle of Bairén in 1097, two years before El Cids' death.

El Cid and King Pedro of Aragon are advancing along the coast around Gandia while the Almohavids hold the high ground. The Christains are also harassed by fire from the Berber fleet.

Tom and I played the Almohavids while Steve and James played the Christians. The Moors held the high ground and the Christians would try to break through.

Christian deployment

I'm not sure of the exact forces involved as we rather chucked what we had on the table, however. Pedro was on the right flank with three units of Caballeros and two units of Jinetes, two large Christian infantry formations were in the centre with another command of two Caballeros and two Jinetes. El Cid held the reserve with two units of Caballeros Hildagos and two Jinetes.

The Moors had three large infantry commands and one command of six light horse.

Battle lines form

All the commanders were rated as eights apart from El Cid who was a nine.

On the Christian right Pedro pushed against the Moors on the high ground but was gravely wounded leading a charge of the Caballeros, although the Moors on that flank were broken.

View from the coast

On the Christian left the Christians made good progress, sweeping away the Berber horse, but became bogged down against the Berber infantry.

King Pedro of Aragon

Fired on from the flanks

The centre became a real mess, the battle swayed wildly with units failing break tests and disappearing on both sides. However, the Christians prevailed apart from in the very centre. One Berber unit broke through the line and El Cid turned his command around to counter the threat. Charging at the head of his Hildagos he hoped to sweep away this impudent Berber unit, however, after four rounds of combat El Cid was dead and his bodyguard sorely shaken!

Steve and Tom

By this time though three of the Almohavid commands had been broken and the field belonged to the Christians. However, El Cid was dead and King Pedro was gravely wounded.

Jinetes

The figures are from the collections of James, Tom and myself.

Here are a load of photos from the game

James and Steve

Tom captures images for his blog

Battle is joined

King Pedros' flank

Moorish ships harass the Christians

I would like to wish a prosperous New Year to all my readers.