NOTE: Delighted by the appearance of my Halidon Hill report in the November Newsletter, I am enclosing a report on another battle which I recently fought with my wife. Despite the small scale, it was great fun to fight and the report was even more fun to write. Please assure any of your American friends who might take offence that I was looking at New York through the eyes of a 7th century Arab, who would no doubt regard it as the work of Shaytan! I recently tried a re-fight of Poitiers based on your book, using Ed Smith's Wars of the Roses rules, with amendments. The French (commanded by me) had about 400 figures, the English (mywife) about 120. The only changes in history were that the Dauphin's division failed to close after its commander was killed by arrow-fire, and that Orleans did close. Otherwise, the course of the original battle was reproduced, even to King John's capture. The French lost 39 figures, the English 12. In A.D. 683, Uqba ibn Nafi led an Arab Army into Morocco, captured Tangier and advanced down the coast to Agadir, where he ode into the Atlantic calling on Allah to witness that only the vastness of the ocean prevented him from marching ever onward. He then turned back towards Tunisia, but was ambushed by the Moors in the Atlas passes and his army totally exterminated. Thus, at least, runs the popular version, From a newly-discovered manuscript, I am now able to reveal that Uqba was not with his army when it met disaster. Inspired by a vision of the Prophet, he embarked a force at Agadir in all the ships he could muster and set sail westwards across the unknown Atlantic. Some months later, he landed somewhere on the eastern seaboard of America, dispersed a force of local tribesmen who mustered to oppose his advance but fled in terror from his cavalry, and, having convinced some prisoners of the wisdom of embracing Islam, advanced inland on his proselytising mission. The most powerful chief of the region at that time was Sitting Duck, of the Upajuma tribe, who was in a state of perpetual warfare with his rival Running Rabbit of the Wakahambas. On hearing of Uqbats approach, he hastily concluded a truce and persuaded Running Rabbit to join him to eliminate the invaders, The combined fighting strength of the two tribes amounted to some 1,200 warriors, about the same number of troops as Uqba mustered, the Arabs having the advantage of some 200 horses. Uqba's army consisted of 200 cavalry, 200 javelin-armed light infantry 400 bowmen and 400 spear-armed light-medium infantry. The combined forces of the chiefs amounted to 700 "first-class" warriors with tomahawks and carrying shields, 300 braves armed only with light throwing-spears, and 200 with short bows. As the Arabs advanced westwards along a forest trail, following the line of a small river, the stillness of the forest was split by wild war-whoops as the Upajuma braves, brandishing spears and accompanied by a shower of arrows, charged across a ford to catch the Arab cavalry in the rear. The horsemen were able to turn and counter-charge, Uqba himself at their head, and despite heavy losses from arrow-fire routed the Indian bowmen. Further up the trail, Sitting Duck's veteran warriors caught the right wing of the Arab advance guard completely by surprise in the forest and routed them, continuing their charge to catch the Arab archers while still disordered by their comrades fleeing through them and driving them back. The Wakahamba braves dealt equally summarily with the Arab light infantry on the left, but were then attacked by the Arab spearmen and quickly put to rout, The initial Indian attack had therefore failed to destroy the Arabs by the first shock of surprise, and worse was to come, for Uqba rallied his cavalry from their pursuit of the bowmen and charged the skirmishing braves in support. The combat was short and bloody, terrified Indians fleeing in all directions from the terrible Arab horsemen. As Sitting Duck and his crack braves pursued the routed Arab bowmen back down the trail, a small force of light infantry, who had rallied unseen in the forest after their defeat by the Wakahambas, fell on their flank, The Upajumas turned to face them, and the outnumbered Arabs fell back up the trail before the flailing tomahawks. Relief was at hand from the spearmen, who halted the Indian pursuit in a savage melee. Sitting Duck, realising that he now Had no chance of destroying the Arab army, utilised the superior mobility of his braves to break off the battle and disappear into the forest. The battle was extremely hard fought, casualties amounting to about 400 on either side. Although Uqba had gained the victory, the knowledge that his small force was completely isolated against unknown numbers of Indians cooled his evangelical ardour, and he retraced his steps to his ships. Praying hard for guidance, he was rewarded by a visitation from the Prophet, who revealed to him a vision of New York many centuries hence. Appalled by so ghastly a prospect, Uqba promptly took ship for Africa. Landing in Spain, his small remaining force, reduced by shipwreck and hardship, was overwhelmed and destroyed by the Visigoths. Uqbals memoirs, written on the voyage home, were recently discovered and have enabled me to tell a heroic story never before published. The battle was fought under simplified Research Group Ancient rules with 60 figures a side, the Indians' advantage of ambuscade making up for their general lack of shields and inferior weapons. I, in the character of Uqba, had no knowledge of the whereabouts of the braves cunningly placed by my wife (as Sitting Duck), until the howling hordes of Upajumas and Wakahambas flooded across the stream. The Indian pla n misfired in that, while the initial rush of Sitting Duck's braves was able to catch the Arab light infantry unprepared, the bowman and lightly-armed spearmen fell short of the Arab cavalry in their first onrush, enabling the latter to turn and countercharge. A battle fought only with light and light-medium infantry, with a few medium cavalry, proved to be fast-moving and exciting, and a refreshing change from the lumbering super-heavy masses of my normal Hundred Years' War and Wars of the Roses battles. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 131 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1973 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com