Rid this land of the infidel!

It is 1239, somewhere in Gaza.  Rukn al-Din al-Hijawi’s Ayyubid army has set a trap to rid the holy land of the invading crusaders. Using a caravan as bait he hopes to draw the crusaders out into the desert. Al-Hijawi’s plan is to use light cavalry to harass and break up the crusader formations and then converge to pick off isolated units.

With the Ayyubid caravan (led by Al Muzaffir Umar) on table, two of the crusader players deploy their vanguard. Amaury de Montfort commands the right, Henri du Bar the left.

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De Montfort’s men advance with great elan intending to seize the caravan in a coup de main. Umar’s men only have just enough time to form a hasty battle line as de Montfort’s knights thunder down on them. Fortunately for the Arabs, their Turcoman horse archers have succeeded in breaking up the crusader line, preventing them from attacking as a concentrated force.

Led in person by de Montfort, his knights charge Umar’s Azerbaijanis with devastating effect.

The Azerbaijanis break and flee with de Montfort in hot pursuit. Unfortunately for the crusaders one other unit of de Montfort’s contingent takes heavy casualties and is sent reeling back from a timely charge by Umar’s Askari. The other meets a similar fate when it later charges home on the steady Arab spearmen.

Although de Montfort’s gallant charge punched a hole in the Arab line, he and his men find themselves cut off and isolated. De Montfort himself is captured by a unit of Arab light cavalry. This mirrors what happened historically in the battle.

Now the Ayyubids launch their counter-attack with heavy cavalry supported by horse archers. Turamshah leads the left, Fakhr al-Din the right with al-Hijawi in the centre.

On the crusader left, du Bar’s contingent advances as a formidable block.

Their infantry take and hold the village of Bethgibelin giving them a secure flank. It looks like it will be difficult for the Arabs to pick off isolated units.

As du Bar’s men advance, their flanking units begin to take casualties from Turcoman horse archers. Al-Hijawi leads his reserve forward to hit the right of du Bar’s battle line while Fakhr al-Din holds back. This allows al-Hijawi to amass slightly more men on du Bar’s right. The initial clash is inconclusive but having held the initial crusader charge the Arabs begin to gain the ascendancy and crusader casualties mount up.

Du Bar’s right hand units eventually break under the pressure and al-Hijawi follows in hot pursuit.

Meanwhile the main crusader battle, led by King Theobald of Navarre, advances towards Umar’s caravan guard.

Theobald's advance is hampered not only by enemy horse archers but also by the remnants of de Montfort’s units who block his way.

On the crusader left, Fakhr al-Din charges the remaining half of du Bar’s command. Al-Hijawi reins in his pursuit and turns his men to charge the crusaders from behind. Du Bar and his remaining men are routed.

It looks like the Arabs are also about to break through the centre and envelop Theobald. Turamshah leads his Askari to drive off the remnants of de Montfort’s men but he is killed at the moment of victory. Umar’s Askari are also halted and then driven back by Theobald’s Knights Hospitaller. Although the Ayyubids have achieved a convincing victory it now seems likely that Theobald will be able to conduct a relatively orderly withdrawal of his main battle.

The game was played using Comitatus rules. Although not designed for conflicts beyond the First Crusade, it seemed worthwhile stretching the outer limits to the crusades of the 1200s. There were no rule complications in our game from doing so.

The end result was not dissimilar to the historical outcome in which Amaury de Montfort was indeed captured. In the historical battle Henri du Bar was killed but in our game he escaped by the skin of his teeth.