Harvey and I were all set up to run a small MW game using 600 point Later Crusaders against the Byzantines on Sunday Morning of REUNION. We didn't get any walk-ups so being avid gamers and enamored with the rules system, we fought it out between ourselves.

Harvey was the Byzantines and I was the Crusaders. My initial roles were poor and even with the plusses I ended up with my CinC and both generals as Stalwart. I divided my forces like this: mixed units of crossbow and spearmen with a large formation of wedged nights behind them and a two stand unit of Turcopoles screening the advance. My center was the same but also had a unit of fanatic Holy Order troops. On my right I had an Armenian infantry unit screened by Armenian skirmishers and more wedged knights screened by Turcopoles.

Harvey had better luck with the die role for his generals and ended up with one stalwart general, one brave general and a charismatic CinC. He organized with a left, right and reserve. Each wing had a large infantry unit consisting of 6 spear stands and 3 bow stands in the back rank and 4-6 stands of Tagmatics (bows in the back rank). Connecting the wings was an 8-stand skirmish bow unit with 8 stands of Varangians behind them and the Cataphracts in deep reserve behind them. All troops were committed to the table immediately with none held off board or doing flank marches.

The Byzantines won the initiative throughout the battle due to their Charismatic leader and were able to quickly move to a hilltop and go into defend orders. I advanced the Tucopoles to attrit his formations and quickly learned that 2-3 stands of light cavalry is pretty useless against mailed soldiers on a hill. The infantry steadily advanced and the crusader crossbows got a hit or two before running low on missiles.

I made contact with the Armenians and realized that they wouldn't last long so I set up a crusader infantry formation for a flank attack. The Byzantines began to commit the Cataphracts to their left side as my holy orders moved that way. I decided that it was time for a glorious charge! The problem was that I couldn't charge the Byzantine infantry without getting my Crusaders flanked so I went into Crusader Order on my deploy orders to charge the Varangians with my wedged knights. The knights failed the morale test and just stood there, but the deploy order allowed me to face the Varangians as they charged in (question, could I have gone into Crusader order while in contact to allow the knights to charge in?

[Ed. No. the only orders you can give to a unit in a close combat is Deploy to face a flank/rear contact or to Retreat and try to run away.]

We figured that the answer was no and I ended up coming around the formation) The attack on the Crusader left went real well, I had twice the number of stands with my wedged knights charging his Tagmatics and they failed moral so stood there disordered as I careened into the unit and caused 3 casualties to my one and he became fragmented He also failed his moral check with his Tagmatic on the other flank and was hit by wedged knights and the wedged Holy Order. He caused one casualty on each unit but lost 5 figs and routed.

With both of his flanks collapsing and the knights ready to about face and hit his infantry in the rear Harvey wisely threw in the towel (we were also out of time as everyone was tearing down the convention around us). We conducted an After Action Review (just a force of habit for us-we are both Majors in the Army, I'm Armor and Harvey is Infantry)

Our learning points were:

• Wedged knights are extremely powerful when they can be screened and hit opponents when fresh - we liked it.
• Good tactics work.
• The rules encourage historical deployments and troop use.
• A poor initial deployment will cost you big and is difficult to recover from when you have an aggressive opponent (his best unit, the Cataphracts, never saw action and the Varangians barely saw combat due to how deeply behind the formation they were kept.
• It costs you a lot of flexibility if you let your fanatics get too close to the battle too soon, but they actually make it easier for you once you get them lined up right and commit them.
• You pay big time if you don't have a visible general within engagement range of a unit for morale and orders purposes. A simple plan well executed is superior to a complex plan executed less well.

We really like the rules set and look forward to fighting some more battles. I have two large Successor Armies and Harvey has a large Roman Army to use in Ancient Warfare, I'm painting 1000 point Viking and Saxon Armies and our gaming group, Plato to NATO has several more armies to test the rules. My research would indicate the availability of more Billmen in the English Army during the later period of the 100 Years War, but I need to use the Army before I can make any credible comments.