Scrivsland: The Battle of Bairen,1097 at Partizan

Tuesday, 19 October 2021

The Battle of Bairen,1097 at Partizan

It seems that everybody else who went to Partizan has already updated their blogs, but pressure of work and a trip to London last weekend have left me rather tardy.

James, Martin, Tom and myself put on a rather huge game of Midgard to refight the Battle of Bairen 1097 using the extensive El Cid collections that we have been working on these past twenty years or so.

I'll not write a full report, it's been far too long for me to recall all the details, but what follows is a selection of photographs from the action.

Moorish boats offshore prepare to raid arrows on the flank of the Aragonese forces

A rather spectacular shot of the initial deployments

James fashioned the sea and shore from a sheet of perspex

The Aragonese Jinetes launch themselves at the massed Moorish camels

The one where Martin points at Toms cock, so Tom does too.

They have calmed down a bit now

After an initial missile duel, eventually the battle lines close to contact

The Moorish camels supported by the boats swiftly gain the upper hand on their left flank

Forces start to clash in the center

King Pedro leads his Caballeros in the charge, but is swiftly cut down in single combat

The Aragonese left force the Moorish right almost back onto their camp

With King Pedro dead and the Moorish camels raiding their camp the forces of El Cid and Aragon collapsed, El Cid cut his way out through the Moorish camp and would live to fight another day.

The game played really well, it's by far the biggest game of Midgard we have ever played by, I reckon, a factor or about three, but the rules scaled up really well.

We were well chuffed to win the McFarlane Shield for the best demo game. Not bad considering some of these figures were painted 20 years ago.