Somewhere in Anatolia - A 1st Crusade Scenario

Last night, I had to knock something together for the Lads. I had to do it in a hurry because painting commissions have been piling up of late - deadlines pending! Consequently, I decided to pull out an old favourite and do a 1st Crusade marching column scenario.  I've done several of these, all a bit different, and they always provide a definate set of victory conditions (the Franks must exit the appropriate table edge with X units), and something more to think about than 'kill the enemy'.

The scenario invloves the unwashed European masses marching through the wilderness on an ill defined road towards the Holy Land. Ahead of the column, an encounter with a caravan heading west is imminent. No Seljuk forces are deployed.

 The Christian vanguard. Two commands of knights and 'local' guides.

 The Christian mainward. A ragtaggle column of pilgrims, foot sergeants and knights.

The Christian rearward. More of the same.

You might have noticed the playing cards around the three edges of the table. The Seljuk player puts a numerically similar card by each of his three commands. They can deploy onto the table, on a march card, providing that they don't roll a 1. A 1 delays entry until the next turn. The two entry points at the rear of the Frankish column (K and Q) cannot be entry points until turn 2. Due to the vagueries of the FoB system, the caravan was added as a scenario fail safe. It is a trap; hidden amongst each caravan unit is a unit of Ghazis. They have been added as a speed bump.  The caravan moves and acts on Frankish cards until it is in combat, or deploys as into its parts, when it joins the Seljuk sequencing.

Anyway, last night the game got underway:

 Arrivals, the Seljuks are here!

 Thousands of 'em.

 The advance of the van is blocked.

 The caravan scatters, getting in the way of everything (umpires choice!).

 You never expect the Village People. Though to be fair, Peter did.

 But, they are not as hard as they look.

Knights charge, the Seljuks falter - the Seljuk King is killed.

 Turn 2. At the rear of the column, more Seljuks arrive.

 The battle is now in two parts. A battle at the head and tail.

A shot of the action at the end of night one. Proving, if nothing else, that Frankish pilgrims will always plough the fields and scatter.

Next week the action will continue