Saladin never expected to face Mongol close order infantry and artillery.

Paul Schneider's Mongol horde deployed lots of each! I never checked the details with Paul, but I'm certain he actually dismounted a fair amount of his cavalry to present a decidedly flat-footed, off-beat Mongol host. The Mongols are more of a central Asian steppes, skirmish cavalry army than are the Ayyubids, given the latter's greater reliance on heavy cavalry. The Mongols may nonetheless opt to overmatch the Ayyubid FMC Mamluks with a combination of Mongol guard and Armenian FMC, so there is no reason to expect the Ayyubids to successfully overpower the former with their shock cavalry. Thus, imagine my surprise at seeing Paul's unusual deployment.

The battlefield was fairly open overall, with some brush, woods and hills on the Mongol's remote flanks. Having faced Paul's Mongols at Cold Wars, I expected a similar battle, i.e. large numbers of Mongol shock and skirmish cavalry spread out across the board attempting to slide around my flanks. I wanted to repeat the tactics I used then (with Baldwin IV's army of Jerusalem) by placing an area of dense or delaying terrain in my central sector, and concentrating the bulk of my forces on a single flank, essentially splitting the attacking Mongol army and bringing most of my army into play against half of his (Civil War buffs may recognize Robert E. Lee's basic strategy for the abortive Mine Run campaign).

But sometimes it don't always work. I couldn't get any terrain to fall in my center, and Paul's slow-footed Mongols put me on the offensive. Still, I opted to mass my cavalry on the right, and stretch out a thin line of Sudanese archers to the left, while actually leaving my far left flank hanging in space. Paul deployed his army very broadly, but his thinking mirrored mine -- shock cavalry on the right, foot stretched out to the left; he, however, solidly planted his left in delaying terrain.

These deployments created what appeared to be the prototypical "pinwheel" battle, as each sides' massed cavalry attack wing was deployed against the opposition's weaker, rear-echeloned infantry. The battle developed as expected as the shock cavalry wings surged forward towards the respective refused infantry lines. As my Sudanese archers had advanced relatively further forward than Paul's close order, dismounted Mongols, his cavalry contacted my infantry first. Here the god of battle (or dice rolling) looked kindly on the stalwart Sudanese, as the Mongol FMC fist landed a powderpuff blow. The archers stood their ground and locked-up the guardsmen, whose losses began to mount. Complicating the situation for Paul was a unit of Mamluks, led by the Defender of the True Faith, Saladin himself, which had slipped away from the Ayyubid right and was bearing down on the hung-up Mongol FMC for a clear flank shot (Paul opting not to retreat his boys out of the mess).

Meanwhile, the lead elements of the Ayyubid cavalry hit the Mongol left. Paul had retained some cavalry to cover his left center, including HC and SC, and these units bore the brunt of the Ayyubid attack; it appeared to be the better course to drive off the overmatched Mongol horse on the flank before wheeling into the flank of the Mongol foot. The Saracens won the initial round, and continued to pressure the flailing Mongol horse thereafter, but they didn't manage to roll-up the flank as quickly as anticipated.

Time was called as the Mongol situation was getting desperate – still holding but on the verge of collapse. However, just as the Ayyubids had escaped a crushing loss in the first battle, the Mongols turned the tables and escaped this round with a marginal loss. The score was 3-2 for the Ayyubids. Once again, most of the Mamluks had not gotten into the fight, allowing the Mongols to hold out longer than they otherwise might have done.

Saladin was very impressed by the Mongol use of artillery. As the battle progressed, the Sultan and his bodyguard were subjected to repeated barrages by these infernal machines. In particular, the Mongols covered the seam between their attacking right and refused left with the artillery. This allowed them to snipe at the Sultan as he moved from his right to the left to succor the beleaguered Sudanese bow. Only a benign providence spared him from bearing the serious consequences of bucking the killing machines. Indeed, the Sultan never did manage to deliver the killing blow on the tapped-out Mongol guardsmen.

More Saladin at Historicon

Introduction
Late Crusaders: Crossbows and Knights
Mongols: Long Spears(!) and Artillery
Feudal English: Knights and Longbows
Post Mortem