Hi
Had our second try out of the Soldiers of God rules, which was a siege scenario.
A set of picture should be accessible here
flic.kr/s/aHsktL1rpr
The crusaders were attacking and had a siege tower, a battering ram and 5 units with ladders for the assault. They also had 5 siege engines, 2 light, 2 medium and 1 heavy.
The castle defenders had 2 light siege engines, 5 pots of boiling oil and 3 stands of naffatun. The oil and naffatun are lethal one shot weapons.
The pilgrims were given the honour (i.e. considered expendable) of manning the battering ram.
They were first to contact the castle, and paid for the privilege by a shower of arrows, oil and Greek fire, to gain instant martyrdom. The chance of taking the unmanned battering ram proved too good to ignore, and a unit of gulams charged out of the gate. This resulted in a combat with some spearmen which lasted the rest of the game.
Meanwhile the units on either side were making their assaults. At the far end the spearmen came up against the elite Guards and were destroyed. The siege tower assault was successful and by the end the crusader were attacking the towers on either side.
On the other flank the quality of the dismounted knights proved too much for the defenders, and after a hesitant start finally gained the top of the wall. Both sides had to use cards to rally units that were on the brink of routing, rather that more belligerent activity. Shades of the Henry 5th speech at the siege of Harflur multiple times by both sides.
Other that the one shot weapons the shooting had proved to be relatively ineffectual.
With better knowledge of how the rules work and the qualities of the troops the Saracens could have put up a much better defence.
There are number of holes in the siege rules, for which we had to make some house rules. In particular the points cost for some of the siege equipment and the effect on Army Morale when lost. The Crusaders started with a value of 34 and the Saracens 18. By the end of the game the losses were similar, but the defenders had reached zero. The over kill to remove the pilgrims resulted in no loss of morale to the Crusaders. If used against a quality unit it could have reduced the morale value by 6 or 7.
Is anyone else still using these rules? After the flurry of activity about June everything seems to have gone quiet. A FAQ was mooted but I have not seen this yet.
We plan to try some further games as the card system gives a different and interesting set of command decisions.