The Battle of Hattin - a 28mm Crusader Wargame

Hello All and welcome back to the Shed. 

Today I am going to report on our attempt to refight the 12th century Battle of Hattin. By all accounts this was the first and most deadly nail in the coffin for the Crusader states in the Palestine and the growing powerbase of the Saracen King, Saladin.

We have already fought one of the other major battles several times in this period - the Battle of Arsuf - This Link will take you straight there, and I was keen to develop another option that could be hosted as a game for my Shed Wars Experience.

This game would be played twice over consecutive nights with learnings from the first game incorporated into the second. This post will share the orders of battle , a short summary of the games and of course lots of photos.

Before I proceed I should acknowledge that inspiration and the basis of the orders of battle  was taken from an Italian blog site and the link can be found here.

Background to The Battle of Hattin

The Battle of Hattin took place on the 4th July 1187 between the Crusader States lead by the King of Jerusalem , Guy de Lusignan and the army of the Ayyubid Sultan Saladin. The actual battle saw the destruction of the Crusader standing army and therefore their ability to take the war to the growing Moslem influence in the Levant. This defeat prompted the call for the third crusade which began two years after this battle.

The battle itself took place along the old Roman road that crossed Palestine towards the settlement pf Tiberias on the sea of Galilee. Also known as the Battle of the Horns of Hattin the topography was shaped by a waterless arid landscape dominated by the escarpments and hills of Hattin (an extinct volcano).

The Crusaders had amassed an army of almost 20,000 when word was received that the Kings wife had fallen captive to Saladin at the capture of the Crusader citadel at Tiberias. Urged by his commanders not to risk an ambush by Saladin in the wastes of the Desert the King decided otherwise and marched his army to rescue his wife. It soon became apparent that he should have listened to his advisors.

The army set off along the road and in the heat of the July sun the force soon depleted its water reserves and began to be harassed by the swarms of light Saracen horse. As darkness fell on the eve of the battle the army was some 6 miles from the settlement of Hattin with a known water source. Out there in the darkness lay Saladin's forces marching towards them from Tiberias. Weary and thirsty the Crusaders endured a night of living hell. As dawn arrived the encampment were confronted with the prospect of another day of marching, harassing fire and no water. Saladin had other ideas. 

Taking advantage of a dry hot westerly wind the Saracens set fire to the scrub, fanning the additional heat and smoke into the Christian forces. Saracen forces encircled the Crusaders. 

King Guy realised his only hope was to get to the waters of Hattin quickly. Forming his troops into three large formations with the infantry shielding his precious knights and mounts they marched forward. As the day progressed more me succumbed to the heat and the arrows of the Moslem horde. The Crusaders endeavoured to push their way through Saladin's forces and some even managed to escape but for the vast majority it was over either dying from thirst or being hunted down by the lighter marauders. Saladin achieved a total victory.  

The Game - Using Hail Caesar Rules 

In our first game we determined that the objectives were simple - the Crusader army either had to break the Saracen force or reach the waters of Hattin with 50% of their forces. Should they fail to achieve this within the allotted time they would lose. The game would last three hours. All the Saracen had to do was to hold the Crusader force for this period or break the Crusader army.

To reflect the heat exhaustion and earlier skirmishes every Crusader unit will have suffered one casualty thereby giving the a starting stamina of 5 (as opposed to 6)

The Crusader forces are set up in three boxes with all troops in march column. The Saracens are spread across the table. The fires have been lit along the northern edge of the table and their smoke would obscure targets for shooting (-1 to hit).

Orders of Battle

Crusaders

Vanguard

Cavalry Commander - rating 8

1 x unit Templar Knights

1 x unit Crusader Knights

Infantry Commander - rating 8

4 x Heavy Infantry (mixed units of spears/xbows/bows)

Middle Force

Cavalry Commander - rating 8 (King Guy de Lusignan)

2 x units Crusader Knights

Infantry Commander - rating 8

4 x Heavy Infantry (mixed units of spears/xbows/bows)

Rear Guard

Cavalry Commander - rating 8

1 x unit Hospitaller Knights

1 x unit Crusader Knights

Infantry Commander - rating 8

4 x Heavy Infantry (mixed units of spears/xbows/bows)

Saracen Forces

At Waters of Hattin (Ahead and East of Crusaders)

Infantry Commander - Saladin rating 9

2 units of Medium Archers

3 units of Medium Spears

Cavalry Commander - Rating 8

1 x unit heavy Mamluks with Lances/Bows

3 x units of Turcopoles (small units - stamina 4)

1 x unit Bedouin Camels

South Flank of Crusaders

Cavalry Command rating 8

1 x unit heavy Mamluks with Lances/Bows

4 x units of Turcopoles (small units - stamina 4)

Cavalry Command rating 8

1 x unit heavy Mamluks with Lances/Bows

4 x units of Turcopoles (small units - stamina 4)

West of Crusaders (Rear)

Infantry Commander - Command rating 8

2 x units of Medium Archers

3 x units of Medium Spears

North of Crusaders (fanning the fires)

Infantry Commander - Command rating 8

1 x units of Medium Archers

1 x units of Medium Spears

1 x unit of Fanatic Ghazis

How did Game 1 play?

The first game featured myself and Alastair as the Saracens. Glen and Vince would lead the Crusaders. The pictures relate to the game on the first evening.

Vince and Glen initiated proceedings with the column pushing outwards and trying to establish a barrier at the rear of the column. Suffice to say they achieved all their commands and by the end of the first turn they could begin to pour heavy crossbow fire into the Saracens awaiting in the wings.  

The first few turns for the Saracens went badly with very few of the units moving. The crusaders gained an early advantage and quickly pushed back one division of Saracen light horse and routed a heavy unit of Mamluks.

Elsewhere the Crusader knights thundered forward challenging the lighter Turcopoles to a fight - they of course declined.

As the battle progressed the saracens just couldn't get into gear and despite outgunning the Christians in archery they were both struggling to find the mark and when they did the heavy armour of these western knights was superior.

By now the rear of the column was being threatened by Saracen horse but once again they proved they were not up to the task.

Both Crusader flanks were secure by midway through the game and they could begin to march forward.

Slow progress was made and again despite the more numerous lighter troops the Saracens just couldn't find the target. However reaching the waters of Hattin was going to be tough in the time allotted.

The Crusaders pushed forward engaging the horse near Hattin. An inconclusive melee and plenty of evades from the light turcopoles. The Crusaders charges just wouldn't go in.

Despite this frustration Saracen casualties are wracking up and yet no Crusader unit has been lost despite some heavy losses.

It becomes apparent that time is the Crusaders enemy - had another hour of play been possible the Christians would have certainly broken the Saracen force and achieve their goals.

 

The Crusader Generals are masters of the field but will run out time to achieve their goals.

Game 2 - Following the success of Mondays game I played again on the Tuesday this time with Mark as the Saracens and I would lead the Crusaders.

I felt the first game had been too kind to the Crusaders - there was no sense of urgency in their actions to reach the water instead they were more content to fight a pitched battle with the Saracens. And as we have seen they achieved most of what they intended. This replay would be different.

Firstly the -1 stamina for the Crusaders would remain in play BUT at the start of each Crusader turn every Christian unit would throw a die. If a 6 appeared that unit would suffer a further casualty. If the unit was already shaken or would be shaken by this roll the unit would collapse and disappear.

Secondly the objectives for the Crusaders would be the same BUT the Saracens would win the game if they either break the Crusader force or prevent any units from reaching the waters. 

With just two of us playing we probably played only 2/3rds of the turns achieved in the first game but this did not influence the outcome of the game. 

Mark played a blinder with his Saracen horse archers - they repeatedly weakened my armoured force and combined with the addition heat exhaustion roll by the end of the evening the Crusaders had lost almost a third of their force. Comparable losses were scored on the Saracens .

Unlike the first game the likelihood of the Crusaders achieving a victory by the end of the evening was extremely unlikely. Too many units had too many casualties and the Saracens still had plenty of archers left.

All in all two thoroughly enjoyable games and with a further few tweaks I think Hattin can be a very useful addition to my Crusader scenario list...

Don't forget that if you ant to take part in one of these games my Shed Experience is open for business - just hit the link button at the top of the page and drop me a line.

Up next - another update on my Greek army

unitil next time 

My big fat Greek army - part 2

 Afternoon all

Over 12 months ago I put out a post that discussed my next army build - you can read it HERE

In this post I mentioned that my next focus was going to be on Greeks, Macedonian Successors and Persians. The project started and then stalled with the house move BUT I am delighted to report that this phoenix has now been resurrected and work continues apace. 

However the focus has changed a little bit. As opposed to two phases I have decided to break the project into three manageable pieces. The first will focus on the Greek State city wars also known as the Peloponesian wars. In essence these were the civil wars of ancient Greece where massed ranks of hoplites would bash and stab one another.

Phase two will focus on the Macedonian Successor wars where massed ranks of pike armed phalangites would stab at each other from a distance whilst fighting over Alexander's empire. The good news is I can press my aforementioned Hoplites into these battles as additional troops. Plus I get to field Elephants.

Finally phase three will focus on the development of a Persian Army not only to take on the chaps of phase 1 but also phase 2. In all three phases I am going to need Greek light cavalry and light skirmish troops.

Back in 2022 I had completed around 150 Hoplites and 300 Phalangites (pikes). My summer and autumn have not been idle as I can now field almost 1000 Hoplites in units of 32 men per unit. 

All the Hoplites are from the excellent value Warlord Games Greek and Spartan starter sets. Each box provides around 150 figures ad all of these have been sourced via ebay at discounted prices. My best guess is I have been paying around 25-30 pence per figure.

I did consider the Victrix sets but the cost was both prohibitive and for the volume I am looking for their assembly is much more complicated. I will however use Victrix for Skirmish and Cavalry units.

Each 32 man unit has been painted with a particular distinctive three colour scheme, typically bronze or lined white cuirass. a dark colour for tunic. and white/light colour for plumes/tunic. This colour combination has then been mixed up on the shields. It provides some unit uniformity but also creates variety that would be expected of the period. The exception all the majority of Spartan units that have been given their distictive red tunics and plumes. I also decided that any bronze cuirass would be a Spartan (There is one on each sprue).

If needs be units can be mixed up to provide less uniform looking troops - eg picture below

I have adopted a factory line approach to his vast number of figures - from assembly to priming and onto painting and varnishing. Typically working in blocks of 96 figures I have been cranking three units out every two weeks when time permits.

The excellent shield transfers are added once the figure has been painted with army dip (my go to process to both shade the figure and strengthen it) and only then is is given a coat of matt varnish.

The figures are mounted 4 to an mdf base which is 40mm x 40mm. The basing is yet to be done and I intend to do this en masse at the end.

With the Greek hoplites almost finished ( I think I have enough figures left to make two more units) attention will turn to the skirmish and light infantry units, cavalry and command stands. 

 

Drop by again soon

Par 3 of this series can now be found HERE

Cheers

 

I'm back - Shiver me timbers !

 Afternoon All - following some technical difficulties I have been unable to access my blog for some weeks but the good news is I am back and have a load of new posts and news to share.

I'll update you on the progress of the house build in a future post but suffice to say that my hands have been rather full over the autumn months. The good news is that the work has started.

Lets get onto the most important business - the gaming and hobby projects. Monday night saw regulars of the Shed crew get together for a spot of piracy on our ficticious Pirate Island. Its been several years since this period saw some action and we were all raring to go.

The table was approximately 6ft x 9ft with three zones, the mountainous jungle area featuring Skull mountain and the lair of Ben Gunn, and in the valley some old lost ruins. The terrain is a bit of a mash up from my jungle, peninsular and desert set ups. I think it all works well together.

The village of St James sat across the seafront and backed onto the jungle

and down on the coast a full third of the table was occupied by the sea, port and a coastal castle

The two ships moored off the coast were just for terrain purposes and could be boarded by the players but not sailed away. Scattered across the coast were a number of rowing boats. We house ruled that a boat needed a minimum of two players to move, it would move at the same pace of a walking man..If for any reason only one or no person could man the boat it would drift three inches per turn towards the castle and founder on the rocks with all treasure and lives lost. 

We used the excellent Fist Full of Lead rules for our game and with five players each commanding seven figures its was a full on experience. At the bottom of the post is a roster sheet of the crews created in advance for the players. In essence three groups of Pirates were raiding the island for treasure and other valuable goods. The goods themselves were marked up with values/points ranging from 1 to 10. 

The players did not know the value of the goods until; they were picked up. The goods themselves would then have to be transported to the Pirates lair (each Pirate had a ship off the coast, or in the case of Redbeard an old tomb at the end of the Island. Facing the pirates were the local garrison of British Redcoats and a marauding unit of French marines. The government forces got points for killing Pirates. At the end of the game the player with the most points was declared the winner. In the event that one player lost all his forces he would be given control of the towns militia and these only acrtivated/appeared if one player was knocked out.

The following are a few photos from the game - with a short narrative.

I commanded the British, Tony the French and Mark , Vince and Sven the Pirates. Sven pirates started in the jungle with the tomb as their lair. As it turned out both the British and French turned their attention towards Redbeard (Sven) believing the other two would do the damnedest to scupper each other plans.

The coastal Pirates (Mark & Vince) seemed to strike up a cordial relationship and began to plunder the town with a view that there were enough spoils to share around.

Poor Old Sven's pirates were coming under significant fire from the French Marines sitting in the higher ground with only the temple ruins as cover.

Perched on their high advantage point the Marines poured fire into the helpless pirates.

Elsewhere Mark and Vice were happily rowing their boats taking treasure back to their ships....

Fortunately for Sven he was somewhat helped out by the marooned pirate Ben Gunn sitting in his camp on Skull mountain. Gunn was an NPC (up until someone could rescue him) and given he was mad he would open fire on the nearest target when possible. Ben's unerring accuracy put paid to two of my redcoats before the third could overcome him and convince him to join the Kings cause. 

By now the French were in the jungle and mopping up the remaining members of Redbeards (Sven) crew.

Sadly for Redbeard his force was eliminated and so Sven switched to command the militia. The shot below of two pirates on the rope bridge was not from the game but I just wanted to share that this resin bridge is fish tank ornament but works so well for this 28mm scale.

With Redbeard dealt with the French turned their attention onto the remaining redcoats now heading back into the town. Seargeant Croissant took up a high vantage point in the church and soon scored a kill on the Redcoat commander.

A firefight on the beach broke out between the militia and the coastal pirates who had now cleaned the town out of valuable (without coming to blows I should add)

The last Pirates soon made their escape and with the clock marching on a halt to the game was called

Our winner was Mark who had quietly amassed a total of 56 points of treasure, in second place Tony and Sven shared the honour with 40 points, with Vince one point behind on 39. Sadly the poor old redcoats came last with 26 points.

It should be added that if Vince had counted carefully he would have noticed the nine units should have been eight - (private joke !!)

An honourable mention should go to Roger the Cabin boy who from the walls of a villa in the town managed to take down one redcoat with his blunderbus. Despite being hunted down for the rest of the game he managed to flee the scene intact. 

The crew rosters

Hope this was of interest and there is more to come soon...what does 1000 x painted 28mm Hoplites look like ??