Moors Drive Off Strange New Christian Military Order

    My Moorish cavalry poised to counter-attack Ted's Order of Crusading Knights

Majik Ibn Battuta al-Waqaa stroked his beard as he squinted across the blinding, snow-covered plains. Odd that the Christians would choose winter's coldest day -- and after a rare snowfall -- to launch an incursion into the lands of his lord, the Caliph of Cordoba. He had heard of a new Christian military order of knights forming, vowing to drive the followers of the Prophet from Andalusia. They called themselves The Order of the Holy Bear, and their blazons and crests featured snarling bears. "By the prophet's beard," Majik shouted, "they DO look like bears!"

The armor and barding of the knights made it appear if the Christians were riding bears rather than horses. Even Majik's cheetah Scirocco, padding at his horse's side, seemed fascinated by the appearance and approach of the Milites Christi. "No matter," Majik spoke to his commanders. "We men of Cordoba are nobly-born hunters one and all. We fear neither beast nor man! Ride, men of Cordoba!!"

    Ted's Milites Christi at top and my Moors deployed at bottom, ready for battle

My opponent for March's Saga game day at the Dragons Guildhall was Ted H, who was fielding a fairly new warband for him. He was playing his army as Milites Christi, though truth be told the miniatures were actually mostly 25mm Fantasy Dwarves. And indeed, the mounted troopers were dwarves mounted on bears, but I am always willing to show leeway to people fielding their armies with proxy troopers. I'd honestly rather play against a fantasy army posing as a historical one than an unpainted force - but that's just me...ha, ha! Ted had a LOT of those mounted bears, in fact -- three units of them! His force was composed of two units of 6 mounted hearthguard and one unit of 4. He also had two units of 8 warrior crossbow and his mounted general.

    The first Moorish toss of javelins is very successful, tumbling three knights from their saddles

I was fielding my Moors against him. I'd given Ted a choice of armies I'd brought for me to use and he selected the historical matchup of Milites Christi vs. Moors (both from the Age of Crusades book). In truth, I was happy to get the chance to field Majik and his army again. They are an incredibly fun and challenging army to play. My own mounted hearthguard with javelin are very vulnerable, being only armor 4 vs. both shooting and melee. A good volley or a hard enemy charge juiced up with Saga abilities could easily devastate one of my two 6-man units. So, I tend to shelter them behind my two units of warrior spear (both 8-man). Together with the levy archers, my Moors try to win the battle first with missile fire, and then charge home only when they see a vulnerable target.

    After pulling his cavalry back, Majik orders a wall of spearmen across their front to shelter them

This game would see those tactics brought to bear against an opponent who boldly charged into my spear wall time and again, seeking to batter it down with his knights. In keeping with his army's bravery, he had deployed all the way forward, well within the Long move (12") and javelin toss (6") of my Moorish cavalry. We decided to oblige Ted and galloped both units forward, hurling their javelins. Our first volley was very effective, downing three riders from their saddles. The next volley was less so, and killed only one. Still, one of his 6-man units was emasculated to 2-figures. A good start! We pulled the troopers back and then covered them up with a wall of spearmen stretching between the ruins on our left and the marsh in the center.  In the marsh, our archers had advanced and fired an ineffectual volley at the crossbowmen.

    Ted's crossbow volleys were even more successful as they winnowed my levy's ranks from 12 to 5

Irked, the Christian crossbowmen raised their deadly devices and sent a volley into the Moorish levy in the marsh. Despite playing Hasty Shot, which gives 2 bonus defense dice, we failed all saves. Ted advanced the unit again and fired another volley. We failed all of those rolls, too, and my 12-man unit had been whittled to five already. One Saga dice down (levy must be six figures or higher to generate a command and control Saga dice). The bearish grand master was not done, either. With a truly ursine roar, the unit of 4 mounted hearthguard galloped across the snowy field and slammed into one of my units of spear. Expecting this, we did our standard tactic of closing ranks and playing Forest of Spears, which gives three bonus defense dice. My horrible saving rolls continued, as Ted rolled six hits. Picking up 9 dice, I failed on all of them to roll a 4 or higher. Counting the levy unit's failures, I had just missed 18 consecutive 50% chances! I don't think I want to know the odds of this happening!!

    The Crusader knights followed up with a thundering charge against my Moorish spearmen

Majik's eyes widened as he saw his infantry being cut down and blood spattering the snow. He waved to his cavalry commanders, though, and the troopers paused to rest, then galloped forward, again. More volleys of javelins tumbled knights from their bear-disguised horses and the unit was slain to a man. My infantry had done little, but the Moorish troopers were once again being the right arm that I relied on in my battles. The second unit of infantry marched across to fill the gap left by their retreating companions, and once again, my cavalry rested behind their infantry wall, safe from immediate counter-attack. 

    With one spear unit devastated, the second takes it place walling off the enemy from the cavalry

On his turn, Ted brought over his remaining 6-man hearthguard unit and hurled it forward, as well. This was truly turning into a punch, counter-punch, type of fight. Once again, the Moorish warriors closed ranks and played Forest of Spears. Once again, our saves were below average, but at least now we were actually rolling some saves! Half the unit had been cut down, but at least at four figures they were still generating a Saga dice for me! 

    Unfazed, the knights charged again and drove back the second unit of Moorish spearmen

In addition, after the first two turns of rolling zero Rare dice for my command and control (and no Uncommons either on Turn 2!), I finally started to get some Rares on Turn 3. This gave me a lot more flexibility on movement (Perseverance is a great one - for one Uncommon die I get to move two units of either foot or mounted). After another brief rest, the valiant horsemen of Cordoba rode out to harry the bearish Christian riders. Once again, our darts found targets, though our first roll was horrible -- only two hits on 10 attack dice at 4+! The second unit's volley made up for it, and we continued to whittle away at the enemy knights until by turn 4 only one was left alive.

    After 3-4 turns of relentless javelin fire, the Moorish cavalry had killed all of the enemy knights

At this point, we could have simply held back from his two units of crossbow foot. We had definitely scored enough points by killing 15 hearthguard to win the game. However, on turn five, we had an amazing run of Rare dice rolls using Activation Pool. I looked at my board and counted the dice. We COULD launch one of our favorite Torrent of Iron charges. Majik signaled his orders to his faithful cavalry commanders and the first unit cantered ahead and cut down the remaining bear knight. With trumpets blaring, and ululations to Allah, the second unit thundered down on the closet unit of crossbowmen. The crossbowmen were Exhausted from their moving and shooting (plus the death of their brethren knights close by). This was my favorite tactic: a charge by my javelin-armed cavalry into an Exhausted unit. I planned on using two of his three fatigues to raise my own armor to 6 so he couldn't hit me...but wait! The wily bear had other plans!

    The Moorish cavalry were not done, though, and charged into and overran a unit of crossbowmen

In my impetuosity and haste, I had forgotten look at what Ted had queued up on his board. Oh no! He still had a dice on Spilt Blood on his board. That meant I would not be able to raise my armor above my starting level of 4. His sergeants would get their full attacks. My riders would be taking casualties here, for sure. My plan was to eliminate the unit, though. With Wholehearted (which grants 2 attack dice per enemy fatigue), my +1 for javelins in a charge, and using his fatigue, I would auto-hit with all 18 dice. It is fitting our final combat of the game was a bloody one. Four of my cavalry troopers were slain by their bear sergeants' valiant resistance, while all of their number went to Heaven. Victorious, but grimly silent at the loss of their friends, the noble cavalry of Cordoba pulled back one final time.

    The survivors of the Majik's warband gather out of the range of the remaining crossbow unit

There was some more maneuvering on the final turn of the game, but no significant casualties. I was not going to leave my troopers where they could suffer a volley from the remaining crossbow unit. I had pulled back my infantry, too, so I could keep them alive for victory points at the end. We called it a game, and the Moors had triumphed 17-6. We realized afterwards that we were supposed to keep track of victories in melee for victory conditions. We agreed it would not substantially alter the outcome. At best, that would have given Ted a couple more points and me another. 

The grand master of the Order of the Holy Bear led his sergeants from the field. As far as he could see, bright red patches marked the snow where Moor and Christian had fallen. This had been a bloody baptism for his new order of knights. Still, his men had fought well, and they still had their faith in Christ. They would return one day and drive the Unbelievers from the field, he vowed!