Hail Cid - Club night action

Following on with the recently adopted tradition of tardy battle reports here is a precis of the engagement between myself 'Ibn Scrivs' and Richard of Hampton, the Lord of Castille!

We had not played Hail Caesar for a long time and I've been adding to my already large El Cid collection these past few months so when Richard asked if we wanted a game it was a great opportunity to get them in action.

I picked a couple of forces based upon the troops that I have in hand and we played with the following forces:

Almoravid Moors

Commander (leadership 8)

• Hasham heavy cavalry guard with spears 
• Light cavalry Berbers with spears and/or javelins fielded as small units

Commander (leadership 8)

• Berber medium infantry with mixed ranks of spears and/or javelins and bows
• Berber medium infantry with mixed ranks of spears and/or javelins and bows
• Berber light infantry with bows
• Berber light infantry with bows
• Skirmishers with javelins fielded as small units

Commander (leadership 8)

• Berber medium infantry with mixed ranks of spears and/or javelins and bows
• Berber medium infantry with mixed ranks of spears and/or javelins and bows
• Berber medium infantry with mixed ranks of spears and/or javelins and bows
• Skirmishers with javelins fielded as small units

Commander (leadership 8)

• Light cavalry Berbers with spears and/or javelins fielded as small units
• Light cavalry Berbers with spears and/or javelins fielded as small units
• Light cavalry Berbers with spears and/or javelins fielded as small units
• Light cavalry Berbers with spears and/or javelins fielded as small units

Christian Spanish

Commander (leadership 8)

• Caballeros Hildagos Knights - heavy cavalry with spears and/or javelins
• Caballeros Hildagos Knights - heavy cavalry with spears and/or javelins

Commander (leadership 8)

• Heavy Infantry with spears
• Peone medium infantry with spears and or javelins and bows
• Skirmishers with javelins fielded as small units
• Skirmishers with slings fielded as small units

Commander (leadership 8)

• Peone medium infantry with spears and or javelins and bows
• Peone medium infantry with spears and or javelins and bows
• Light infantry Retainers with crossbows 
• Skirmishers with javelins fielded as small units
• Skirmishers with slings fielded as small units

Commander (leadership 8)

• Caballeros medium cavalry with spears and/or javelins
• Caballeros medium cavalry with spears and/or javelins
• Jinetes light cavalry with spears and/or javelins fielded as small units
• Jinetes light cavalry with spears and/or javelins fielded as small units

Both sides deployed and we were soon advancing towards each other, as is usual with Hail Caesar, the first command you order plunges forwards with abandon towards the enemy while their comrades jeer from the rear and either refuse to move or stagger sluggishly forwards.

Both sides danced around with their cavalry, but the infantry were soon slogging away at each other in close combat. Initially the press of Spanish foot were able to tear into the archers on the Almoravid left flank, but as soon as the Berber spearmen became involved the course of the combat turned.

In the centre the Spanish fared better, the Guard heavy infantry, supported by Caballeros were much too strong for the Berber spearmen and soon the Almoravid centre had collapsed and was falling back on their camp.

But, the large mass of Berber spearmen on the left, having finished off their opponents soon turned and stemmed the tide in the centre and the Spanish centre began to give way. 

On the right the cavalry finally stopped their dalliance and soon the Cabaleros Hildagos were engaged by the Hasham Guard, both sides committing their commanders to this fight. The Hasham Guard had the initial luck and the Hildagos were shaken but as the fight continued both sides were shattered.

Seeing that the end was in sight, the Christians started to withdraw to regroup. A very narrow victory to the Almoravids.

Here are a load more pictures from the game, all figures are from my collection and were painted by me. Looking now, I think the collection is getting too large; in these photos there is so much on the table it looks like we could be playing in 15mm.