The early Crusades offer an intriguing number of wargaming situations upon which to draw. The traditional Crusader vrs. Byzantine, Turk or Saracen warfare was interspersed with any number of sporadic 'civil wars' which often found Crusader knights battling each other instead of their Moslem foe!

During the march on Jerusalem following the capture of Antioch in 1098, dissension between the Norman leader, Tancred and the titular leader of the entire Christian army, Baldwin, resulted in an open battle in which many knights were killed. The two leaders later reconciled their differences, but this flare-up was indicative of the sectional rivalries which were brought to the Holy Land under the guise of Crusader unity. The following scenario is very loosely based upon an episode such as that noted above where two Crusading forces decided to settle a disagreement by military means rather than reason a lesson all too often forgotten in our present age an well.

For too long the cruel, dry lands of Syria had sapped the strength from both man and beast of the powerful Christian forces sweeping towards Jerusalem. When, on another startlingly bright and hot morning, advance scouts of Bruce the Bastard's Aquitainian and Flemish forces sighted an area of oasis surrounding deep and cool wells of water. He ordered his troops to secure the area and encamp for a well-earned respite from the heat.

Ternred of Apulia, leading the extreme right flank of the Crusading host had also spied the lush green areas and had ordered his own, equally as thirsty troops to make camp as well. The two armies of hot, tired and hungry Christians soon found themselves embroiled in an argument over who was there first and the two generals, each eager to wash the dust from their bodies immediately came to blows over the disagreement.

The hot-tempered Ternred and his nephew Ronald of Sterling stormed away from the fistfight vowing revenge and demanding justice while Bruce promised them their just rewards would be found on the field of battle the following morning. Both armies spent the night refreshing themselves from the wells and prepared for the next day's action by verbally sparring in a dozen different languages.

There was little love lost between the Italo-Normans and the Western Europeans, thus the battle promised to be both long and bloody.

As the dawn neared, both forces deployed. By virtue of his supreme army command, Bruce hold the sacred relic of the Holy Lance which he placed with one of his knight units on the left wing of his line, locating himself on the right flank of the army. Bruce also had under his command the only light cavalry unit on the field, a unit of bow and javelin-armed turcopoles who were stationed on the far right. Robert of Blois remained in the center as subcommander to support the left or the middle of the army.

A surprise came with the sunrise, as Tenred saw revealed five units of Frankish close-order foot who had stolen a march on the Normans and were in position to the immediate front of the intended Norman high ground position. Ternred had a few tricks up his mailed sleeve as well, however. His portion of the Christian army included two large units of non-combatants and poorly armed pilgrim foot. Instead of placing than behind the Norman army (and out of the way), Ternred placed then in the wooded oasis to his left, anchoring this flank and keeping them hidden from Frankish eight. To add insult to injury, the Norman intended to actually use these next-to-useless units to ambush any unsuspecting Frank foolish enough to try turning this flank.

The Normans had deployed with heavy horse to either flank, the pilgrim-fanatic foot, sailors and archer units in the center (I counted on taking the high ground where my LHI could hold off the tougher Frankish close-order foot).

Ronald, rash as most Normans were, immediately advanced toward the oasis to his front, fortunately he led the advance with his Armenian LI archers. As they entered the oasis, they were attacked by a large body of archers which Bruce had placed in ambush. The LI didn't have a chance and were quickly destroyed. Nonplussed, Ronald ordered his fanatic pilgrims to go in after the archers, which they eagerly did, and a bloody melee began.

In the center, Bruce's close-order troops advanced toward the hills, but Ternred's faster horse and LI got there first, buying time for the LMI sailors and LHI archers to advance and take the positions. Ternred and his two Norman HC units made a feint toward the center, than turned and quickly galloped around the roar of the center oasis (in which the two units of 121 class non- combatants as well an a unit of fanatic pilgrims lay in ambush), hoping to catch Bruce's foot units and HC hopelessly out of position and thus be able to fall on his open right flank. The Turcopole LC moved to halt this end-run, but could not pin all three Norman units, letting the A, class Apulian HC slip by.

Charge and Evade

A deadly game of charge and evade ensued in the center as Bruce's foot units attempted to outflank the central hill and the Normans tried to slow their advance to allow the flank attack to get into position. Ternred determined that the LMI archer units would be utilized to protect the higher ground from being taken (actually, this determination had been made before the game started and it had taken this long to get theme troops into an attack position). Firing before charging, the left-hand archer unit impetuously attacked the waiting long-spear armed Franks. These and all the other Frankish foot units had crossbowmen in their roar rank but their fire was ineffective an the shield Norman archers crashed into their front line.

The frenzied Normans actually managed to push the startled Franks back! To stabilize the front, the Frankish knight unit with the Holy Lance standard charged into the engaged LMI Norman archers, who were so caught up in their sales that they didn't waver in the face of the mounted attack. Ronald, seeing the archer unit fighting two enemy ones, throw his Italo-Normans into the fray, breaking through and disordering the Frankish knights. The victorious Normans then turned around and charged into the rear of the milling, disordered Frankish knights immediately breaking them.

On the Norman right flank, Ternred's Norman horse had moved around and to the rear of the Turcopoles when a large body of ill-formed LMI peasant pilgrims streamed out of the woods and headed toward the open LC flank. (Notes 'e' class troops in ambush can charge with no prompting, but if they lose and rout, they also cause waver tests on friendly observers, just as any other friendly unit). Turning to evade the unexpected attack, the Turcopoles were in turn caught in the flank by the Irreguler 'A' Apulian Normans. The situation was beginning to look grim for the Bastard's forces.

Endeavoring to salvage a win in the center, the Frankish extreme right wing 81 unit charged the now visible (by nature of their having moved out of their ambush position) fanatic-pilgrim LHI who held the north and of the center oasis. Though disorganized upon hitting the treeline, the Franks managed to push the pilgrims back, opening up a gap between the hill and the oasis.

Two sore HI units plodded forward to exploit the hole as the Norman retainers and European HC moved to block the attack. Bruce's attack was too late. however. The rout of the extreme left-hand HC unit, the one carrying the Holy Lance, caused morale to waver and fail all along the front of the Frankish center. The HI unit facing the forward slope of the center hill was shaken and, with a triumphant yell, the LHI sailors streamed off the hill and routed their tormentors (who had been shooting at the sailors with crossbows all day), causing a chain reaction of further morale failures among the remaining Frankish foot.

Bruce gathered his remaining HC and fell back with him remaining HI to a position near his camp and asked for terms. Ternred was only too happy to sit down with his ex-commander and discuss a change in command structure as well as who would receive first choice of future camps. It was not long before the Crusaders were united once more and continuing toward their date with destiny at the city of Jerusalem.

Notes

The rules used were WRG 7th. The forces were approximately 1600 points per army using WRG book III lot Crusader's for Bruce's army and my own Norman Crusader lint (published in MA and Spearpoint) for Ternred's troops. The game lasted nine turns with three players, two Normans on Crusader. and took 3 hours from setup to finish. This type of semi-historical battle to always the most enjoyable to so as it gives an opportunity to pit my generalship against a contemporary opponent. Whether winning or losing, I always come away from these games with an appreciation of the leadership qualities of the actual generals of the time.

FORCES INVOLVED

FRANKS

Bruce the Bastard w/11 HC 'Irr. B' L.Sh. and PA
Robert of Blois w/11 RC 'Irr. B' LSh.
2x 12 HC 'Irr D' L.Sh. (one unit carrying Sacred Standard)
1x 12 LC 'Irr. C' JLS, B.Sh. Turcopoles
1x 24 LMI 'Irr. C' 1/2 B, Sh., 1/2 B
5x 24 HI 'Irr. C', 1/2 LTS.Sh., 1/2 CB

NOMANS

Ternred w/5 HC Irr. B L,Sh. and PA
Ronald same as above
1x 12 Norman HC 1/2 Irr. B, 1/2 'Irr. C' L,Sh.
1x 9 Sicilo-Norman HC 'Irr.A' L,Sh.
1x 9 Calabrian HC Irr B L,Sh.
1x 9 Italo-Normans RC 2/3 'Irr.A', 1/3 'Irr.B' L,Sh.
1x 12 Retainers HC 'Irr. C' L.Sh.
1x 12 European HC 'Irr. C' L,Sh.
2x 12 LI 'Irr. C, Bow
2x 18 LMI 'Irr. C' /2 B,Sh. 1/2 Bow
1x 24 LMI Sailors 'Irr. C.' 1/4 HCW,Sh. 1/4 Bow 1/2 JLS.Sh.
2x 30 Fanatic pilgrims LMI 1/2 'Irr. A' JLS;Sh 1/2 'Irr B' Bow
2x 36 Non-combatant pilgrims LMI 'Irr. E' IPW