State of Play: Sarmada - 29 June 1119 - "Field of Blood" (Commands & Colors: Medieval – Crusades Exp.)

 

 

Scenario set-up.

Another Monday Tuesday Night game at T’s; another Commands & Colors: Medieval (GMT Games 2019) Crusades (GMT Games, 2024) scenario. This time we visited the field of Sarmada, site of the Battle of Ager Sanguinis ([the] Field of Blood). T took his traditional role the Crusaders, in this case Roger of Salerno, in an incursion that took place in the brief lull between the formal First and Second Crusades, while I played the Artuqid Turk defenders, under the leadership of Il-Ghazi.

The scenario covers a portion of the situation of battle. For background; after a couple of years of uneasy peace in the region following the death of Ridwan of Aleppo in 1113, Roger captured Azaz in 1118, which left Aleppo vulnerable to attack. Il-Ghazi, under whose rule Aleppo had fallen at Ridwan’s demise, recognised the danger facing the city, and had crossed the Euphrates River with his army, making camp less than a day’s ride south of Aleppo. There he was to wait for another contingent of the supporters under Toghtekin of Damascus, but he received intelligence of Roger being on the move.

Not a bad opening hand.

The night before the battle, Il-Ghazi encircled the Crusader camp, which only realised their predicament at first light. The only avenue that offered a chance of survival for Roger and his men was to attempt to break through the envelopment. This scenario reflects that attempt to escape through the Artuqid lines.

The Artuqid move first in the Sarmada scenario. I opened with an Order Medium Troops, which saw five of my Medium Cavalry descend on T’s Turcopole mounted archers on his Left flank (my Right), and the Medium Cavalry vanguard on his Centre/Right. The Retreat and Panic rule is in play for the Crusaders in this scenario, and this, rather than straight combat, led to my first Banner of the game, with both Turcopole Cavalry fleeing and breaking, one completely lost and the other reduced to half strength. Pressing their advantage, the brave Medium Cavalry took on a Knight Cavalry unit under the leadership of Robert of St Lo. Though reduced, Robert’s men stood firm against the onslaught. On my left, my second banner was temporarily denied me as a Crusader Medium Cavalry unit weathered my cruel attacks, trading nearly man for man. In response, the Crusaders adjusted their ranks but didn’t engage.

Taking the fight to the enemy: five Medium Cavalry descend
on the Crusader front line.

My second order was to five Light units, none of which needed to move to be able to strike with their bows; this winnowed down some of T’s forces by a block or two, particularly his Right. T Responded with a Leader Right Section card that drove into my thinner Left and earned his first banner for the game.

Robert of St Lo valiantly held his ground.

While the Dice god seems to have forgiven T for his past infraction, the god of the Cards still takes umbrage, dealing my opponent unhelpful hands. Nearly all of T’s efforts too place in the centre, which by the third turn I’d begun to hollow out. 

The Card god continued to smile down on me, offering a useful card for every turn in the action. But those who the gods would cast down, they first build up; I tried to save myself the indignity of a second banner loss in the third round, when Geoffrey the Monk’s Knight Cavalry hit one of my reduced Medium Cavalry units on his Right, but my rolls amounted to naught and the squadron was swept away in a deluge of crossed-swords and helmet results.

End state. Not much left on the board for the Crusaders.

With the scores at 6-2 in favour of the historical victors, we entered the seventh round. In my last turn I needed just one more banner to seal the seven-point game. The Leaders card allows a side to commit all their Leaders and any attached troops, which may manoeuvre as normal but will attack in close combat with an additional die. All of my leaders had at least partial units attached, and so I went at it. As is our habit of long standing, we played out the whole round – I took all intended actions while T responded where and as he could. I took a banner in the first round of combat for the turn, winning the game. As the bouts continued, we exchanged two more banners each, bringing the final score to a convincing 9-4.

Crusader casualties: seven full units, Robert of St Lo and Guy de Frenelle.

T has broken his non-scoring streak, which made for a more satisfying win. Historically we’re pretty evenly matched across all the flavours of Commands & Colors, though we’ve both experienced losing streaks. The longest was recorded by me, with fourteen consecutive losses. There’s no telling when that particular brand of lightning nay strike again, but it wasn’t this week.

 

Artuqid cards played.

 

State of Play: Tel Danith - 14 September 1115 (Commands & Colors: Medieval – Crusades Exp.)

 

Camping, Crusader-style.

Sometimes I feel bad for my long-time Monday game night partner and longer-time brother-in-law, T. In all flavours of Commands & Colors we’re pretty evenly matched. But every so often the gods of dice and cards take umbrage at some perceived offence, and in their petty manner they contrive to deny him any gaming satisfaction.

To wit, this week we played at T’s place, so, of course, a scenario from the Crusades Expansion* (GMT Games, 2024) for Commands & Colors: Medieval (GMT Games 2019), as set up and ready to go when I arrived. This time, it was Tel Danith; I went to sit on the Seljuk side, but T insisted I was to take charge of the Crusader forces. After our previous exchange and the humbling 6-0 defeat he recently suffered as the Seljuks at Harran, T would have been eager to return to the Crusader camp, but he insisted, and I didn’t argue.

Initial set-up.

On the face of it, the Seljuks may have an advantage in numbers – twenty units on the board, compared with the Crusaders’ fourteen. For mobility the Seljuks have fourteen mounted units to the Crusaders’ eight, although five of those are Knight Cavalry. On top of that, all the Seljuk Medium Cavalry are armed with bows. Personal artillery seems to have a greater diminishing effect in C&C Medieval than in any other flavour of Command & Colors.

I’ve learned the hard way not to underestimate a smaller Crusader force (again playing the Seljuks), receiving a particularly clarifying lesson on the shores of Lake Antioch. There, a combination of the disfavour of the card and dice gods on my part, along with some clever execution of orders and outstanding rolls on T’s side, saw an 8-1 victory for the Crusaders.

First blood (and poor sticker application).

The situation in this scenario is as follows; supporting Crusader forces gathered to Baldwin I of Jerusalem’s aid when news was received of an invasion lead by Bursuq under the auspices of the Sultan. When Bursuq heard of the gathering force, he demurred, crossing the border once again. When some of the Crusader forces had dispersed, Bursuq, himself having lost some of his forces due to internal disputes, chose to attack Jerusalem with his own diminished but still viable army. Baldwin’s superior intelligence warned him of the danger, and he rode out to meet the treat, descending on Bursuq’s army while they were setting camp. The Seljuks counterattacked, but at the end of the day, the bloodied Crusaders prevailed.

The first five Orders for the Crusaders,

My Crusaders opened with movement on the Right flank, making for the camp tiles on that side. A special rule states that if a Crusader unit occupies a Camp hex at the beginning of their turn, the player can remove it; when all four are removed, the Crusader player earns a permanent victory banner. It took five rounds to accomplish, but the decampment of the Seljuk aggressors earned my fourth banner.

In all, the bout covered eight rounds. Auxilia, Medium Infantry, and Light Bow Cavalry fell like wheat before the scythe. Everywhere was blood and fear.

End state.

Whatever led to T’s loss, it could not be blamed on a lack of fighting spirit. With what cards he had (and with the occasional murmur of, “Who dealt this rubbish?”), he brought the fight to the Crusaders. This may have been his downfall. In the same situation, I would have (where I could) use my light troops as artillery, trying to pick off the enemy as I could with arrows and javelins rather than committing them to near certain death. In consecutive ruounds, two banners were secured for the Crusaders by defending units putting multiple retreat results on Seljuq Light Cavalry, forcing them off the board

If I have a score advantage, I can often get a little callous with my troops, taking greater risks to press an advantage. I’m willing to risk the loss of a unit or even a leader if it will bring me closer to victory. In this case, an Order Two Units Left allowed me to activate the Turcopole Light Bow Cavalry on my Left who, capitalising on their accomplishments on the previous turn, gained the last three banners I needed to secure a win of 8-0.

Seljuq banners and casualties.

T must have greatly offended the gods of chance. While his Seljuq army (at least the ones he could bring into the contest with his limited card options) fought bravely, and sent many Crusader souls to their eternal rest, he once again could not gain a single banner.

 

* I tend to use the Crusades Expansion as short-hand for what, in truth, should be referred to as “Commands & Colors: Medieval – Expansion #1 Crusades Mid-Eastern Battles I”. This distinction is crucial, as the I at the end of Mid-Eastern Battles suggests at least a second set in development, and, of course, the Holy Land wasn’t the only place that saw Crusader battles. I for one would be overjoyed to see an expansion covering major battles from the Northern Crusades, a crucial but often overlooked portion of European history.

State of Play: The Battle of Harran – 4 July 1187 (Commands & Colors: Medieval – Crusades Exp.)

   

 

Opening set-up, Crusaders' POV.

For the first time in a while, T and I played games on consecutive weeks. Last week was at my place, and we took a run at recent arrival WWII Commander, Volume 2: Market Garden (Compass Games, 2025 – there’s an “initial thoughts” post available here), but this week we had to play at T’s place, so I told him to set up whatever he liked. After an exchange of comments with Grant from Pushing Cardboard, I nearly asked T to pull out Commands & Colors Tricorne (Compass Games, 2020), but I gave him carte blanche to pick something and, of course, he went with Commands & Colors: Medieval (GMT Games, 2019), specifically the Battle of Harran from the Crusades expansion (GMT Games, 2024).

Game set-up from the Seljuq side, with Claude officiating.

Now, here at A Fast Game, the clue is in the name. I like a long and complex game, but most of my face-to-face gaming opportunities have about a two-hour or so ceiling, so we play a lot of shorter or smaller-scale games. But now and than a game truly lives up to the moniker of a fast game, and the Battle of Harran was it. I wasn’t familiar with the battle before we sat down to play, and honestly, I can’t really claim superior abilities or insight for the win, just a stellar card draw on the opening round.

The Seljuq opening hand.

The Seljuq player starts first. He has some other advantages in the scenario as well; one extra card in his hand (6-5) and a few extra Inspired Action tokens 4-2). Looking at my opening hand, Line Command jumped out at me. I had a line of eleven units, ranging from Light Mounted Bow running from the Center to my Right Flank, with three Crusader mounted units – A medium Cavalry flanked by two Mounted Knight Cavalry, led by Baldwin II and Jocelin respectively – before them. An envelopment was by no means a sure path to victory, but it was historically accurate.

At the end of that action, both Heavy Cavalry units had fallen, their respective leaders escaping to the infantry line on the back of the Crusader lines, while the remnants of the Crusader Medium Cavalry, reduced to a quarter of their initial strength, held their ground in a delaying action. (Two banners.)

The Seljuqs' big opening move, just before the carnage.

T’s response was to try to get two cavalry units up to challenge the Seljuqs in the Center, where I happened to be weak, and brought his Medium Infantry, rallying to Jocelyn’s Command, to brashly meet Jikirmish’s bloodied but ready Heavy Cavalry.

The Infantry took a block, but their strength was halved in the Heavy unit’s retribution. Throughout the first round, the Crusaders fought valiantly, causing losses along my lines, but they could not translate their successes into Victory Banners.

The battle was decided quite definitively on the Seljuq Right flank.

To open the second turn, I opted for an Outflanked order which allowed me to get a couple of my Light Mounted Bow into the fray on my Left, while my Heavy Cavalry to deal with the remaining block of Medium Cavalry and Jocelyn’s Infantry. (Two more banners.)

In response played a Scout order, and in true knightly tradition had Baldwin advance his Heavy Infantry – which he had enjoined after his narrow escape in the previous round – to meet Soqman in battle once again, only to fil in lading a single blow on their target. In return their numbers were depleted, but they remained on the battlefield, their honour allowing no escape.

My third – and last – order was given to the Seljuq Leaders and their attached units, but as it was, only one saw action, The Leaders order grants the activated units an extra dice in combat. T had no First Strike to hand to counter the blow.

The Crusader casualties.

In keeping with history, Baldwin was lost to the Crusaders with his Heavy Infantry who were cut down with roll of three Red symbols and a pair of crossed swords. A helmet result on a single die ensuring his fate, though Jocelyn did escape such an end this time. (The final two banners of the game.)

That was the fastest route to victory either of us has seen. Commands & Colors doesn’t normally play out quite that quickly. The shortest game we had seen in the past was when we were both old hands at Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010), playing a five-banner game – probably our second or third run at Rolica (French First Position), and was resolved in favour of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance in just five turns. This was more like the judgement of an angry god with his thumb on the scales of chance. But a win is a win. T took it stoically, no table-flipping involved.

The orders played on both sides.

We should have one more game before he’s off again overseas for a couple of weeks, so I’m going to try to get a Ten Wargame Challenge game to the table. In the meantime, I’ve got a couple of other games I want to write up, and I’m working on A Fast Game’s first feature article (which I have alluded to in a post a few months ago, but regular readers will know it when they see it), and I’m going to try to squeeze some solo play in there as well. So, I have enough to keep me busy for now.

Claude was unimpressed by the Crusaders' performance on the night.

Note: The keen observer will note that the Crusaders’ Heavy Mounted Knight units, which made up the bulk of their cavalry, are represented by regular Heavy Cavalry units. T had already set up the game when I arrived, so rather than taking the extra time to replace the units, we played them as their superior units. This might have affected the results if not for the fact that all the units, even the Seljuq Light Bow, were hitting predominantly with Red symbols when they hit. The mix-up had any adverse bearing on the result, which was glorious, and will be spoken of in hushed tones by the old men who sit at the city gate for many years to come.