TTS AAR: Dead Cid Rides Again!
/Time for the re-match, with the Al Andalus forces smarting from their defeat last game and the Early Feudal Spanish busy tying dead El Cid’s body* to his horse!
As Arab commander, having learnt my lesson last time, I deployed my men in a much tighter line: stacking my cavalry on one side rather than splitting them between the flanks.
*he’d been killed in the last game!
Advancing forward strongly, I thought I saw the chance for an overlap on the left, but the Spanish moved quickly to counter and, in a decidedly unsporting move, manoeuvred to actually outflank me there themselves!
Meanwhile, in the centre, I had sent the light horse forward to generally harrass the advancing Spanish infantry, hoping to soften them up a bit before the main melee began.
Back to the left, where the Spanish had now managed to turn my flank, forcing me to try and pull back my infantry to avoid my line being rolled up.
Despite my best efforts, I had to leave a unit of the Black Guard vulnerable to a flank charge, and could only watch with horror as the Spanish cabelleros, led by El Cid himself, took the corks off the tips of their lances and charged in.
Unfortunately for the Spanish, they had forgotten that El Cid was actually now dead, merely a corpse tied to his horse, and the move into charge distance and then the charge itself didn’t make contact with the very relieved Guard!
This enabled me to stabilise the situation, my spearmen ready to hold the Spanish horse at bay.
One weak point, however, was the green-pennant unit of Arab infantry, who had been disordered previously. In went another unit of Spanish cavalry, again led by Dead Cid. This time they actually made contact, but gloriously failed to do any damage even with Dead Cid’s extra replays.
Do the Spanish still not realise he’s dead? Leave the man to rest in peace!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, some of my light cavalry had a narrow escape after failing to do any damage to some Spanish shieldwall.
At risk of being pushed off table, they watched with glee as the hapless Spaniards foundered around in the rough ground: eventually even managing to kill the Spanish general and disorder the unit.
As the flanks weren’t working for them, the Spanish then sent everything they had left forward in the centre.
This was another decidely worrying development for the Al Andalus, as there were far too many lights holding my line, with my formed cavalry (including the mercenary christian knights that you can see bottom-centre in the pic below) not really in that much of a position to help.
Fortunately, it turned out that the money I’d invested in the mercenary unbelievers was money very well spent.
In an extraordinary series of events, they charged over the hill in front of them to smash the end unit of cabelleros from the table…
They then turned and did the same thing to the next lot of enemy horse: hitting them in the flank to devastating effect!
With Rob’s men pinned in place by my infantry line, it was Rob’s turn to look on in horror as a flank charge went in…but fortune smiled on him as the mercenaries paused to renegotiate their fee:
Fee safely doubled, however, they went in again…this time securing the Al Andalus the last two coins they needed for victory!
So a glorious victory for Al Andalusia helped, it must be said, by cards that were decidely in my favour for once: the poor Spanish learning that you can’t rely on a dead body for inspiration and that gold sometimes means more than faith!
