Egyptians vs Syrians(?)and "El Cid" armies preview

Yesterday,Brian and I had a good game in the morning,and at night I "rolled" out my newly completed "El Cid" Spanish and Moorish armies.
Brian is getting a real handle on his Egyptians,and I put up a sort of Syrian army against him so he can get used to using the different elements of his spectacular army.

Both armies ready to go,Syrians on the left,and Brian completing his battle plan.

First move,and my chariots and horse archers move to the flanks,hoping to "goad" Brian into charging me and instigating a melee-it worked!!

The chariots have clashed,and the first lines are moving forward-Brian sacrificed his mobility and fire power for the "glory" of the charge,however in the post match analysis he realised that this was a mistake,and probably won't do it gain-that means I'll have to come up with another tactic!!

In this shot,my outflanking manoeuvre,and combined chariot charge are just coming to fruition,however my first line of infantry are being mangled by the Egyptians!!

At last,my Syrians are beating the Egyptians,but only just!! On the last move Brian's line crumbled,and I had won both flanks-but at a cost!! The Syrians had won the day,but I find the Egyptian army a very tricky one to fight,and look forward to many more encounters-I do believe that Brian has got his hands on a "boatload" of archers-oh dear!!
I enjoyed the game and Brian is certainly learning how to get the best out of the varied troop types in his army.

Now for something different-it has taken 4 months of intensive painting,and has 650 figures in it-my Spanish and Moorish armies of 11th Century Spain-"EL CID"

The whole lot!-Moors on the left,Spanish on the right-all figures from Warrior Miniatures "El Cid" range.

I knew those Priests would come in handy for something!!-match stick cross looks,well,like a match stick cross!!!!!

This is a shot of the Moor's camp and some of the colourful cavalry posted on their left flank,and of course the Black Guard of Ben Yussef.

This shows the other flank cavalry,and some light troops-there are 10 cavalry units,6 light units of infantry and 10 units of heavy infantry per side,plus command groups!!

The Spanish left hand cavalry,and supporting light infantry-all of the banners and flags were free downloads from Grimsby Wargamer's web site-very useful and colourful.

The Moorish infantry-I had fun painting these,my imagination ran riot with the colours and banners.

The Spanish infantry-what a line,again I went to town with the colours and flags-great figures and easy to paint-which for me is a definite plus!!

The Spanish right flank cavalry!

And finally,the Black Guard in all it's glory,archers,cavalry and infantry.
I'm looking forward to gaming with these,and we are putting on a demo game at Call To Muster in Middlesbrough in March-should be good.