Battle of Bairen,Spain 1097AD.

It is now the end of January,and our thoughts are turning towards "Carronade" on the 11th May!! so we thought we had better do some planning and give some thought as to what kind of game we are going to put as a demonstration.
We pondered long and hard last week,and decided to give our "El Cid" figures a run out this week to try to see what a game would look like and translate onto the games table,and we came up with this lesser known battle from the period-Bairen!!

Top photo is the scenario,bottom is the table before any movement-Graham and Dave were the Spanish commanders,Brian,Paul and I were the Moors-I "assumed" that everyone had read the scenario,but Graham,who was in charge of the Spanish left flank,hadn't,and was "gobsmacked" when Paul's fleet opened a volley of arrows upon him!!!-oh how we laughed!

The "aforementioned" fleet,ready to inflict casualties on any Knight that strays into their field of fire!!

Before waiting for the result of the cavalry battles,about to take place on both flanks,the Spanish "square" moves forward,against the resolute and static Moorish square-a grand sight!

Top photo shows the cavalry clashing on the Moor's right,commanded by Paul,and the bottom one shows the cavalry clash on the Moor's left,commanded by Brian-the camels are causing a bit of confusion in the Spanish ranks-hurrah!!(not 100% historically accurate,but they look good!!)

Now it's the turn of the Infantry to get stuck in!-Graham has charged into my Square,and all hell has broken loose!!

Confusion!!-Infantry and cavalry locked in battle,units retiring(fleeing!) arrows still being shot from the ships-great stuff,and great wargaming.

The other flank looks worse!! but Paul is slowly getting the upper hand,but my square is looking "shaky" to say the least-this is going to be tight.

Brian's flank has collapsed,my square has collapsed,and even though Paul is dominating his flank and shoreline,we had to concede and call it a Spanish win!-what a game,and well done lads,I think we might just take this game to Falkirk.
Roll on next Sunday,could be a Marlburian game,but who knows??