Capture the Relic - Playtest

This week I got to playtest the Capture scenario I had planned out with my Milites Christi joining battle with Mick's Crusaders. This was the first time either of us had played Crusaders so as well as testing out the scenario it would be a learning experience for the Crusader board.

The Byzantines escorting the Relic

I also had the chance to use the stone bridge I had been bought for Christmas as a jumping off point for the escorting party. The bridge is hard plastic and went together very easily with some plastic glue, I then gave it a coat of grey paint and a good helping of Army Painter dip to bring out the stone effect. As this left the model as a large block of grey I then decided to break that up with some mud effect and grass to make it more interesting.

Initial Setup

The Milites Christi

I went with 3 points of Hearthguard, 2 points of Warriors and the Religious Advisor for a 6 point warband. I split the Hearthguard into a 4 man unit and a 8 man unit and fielded the Warriors as one 8 man crossbow unit and one 8 man melee unit.

The Crusaders

The Crusaders went for an all infantry force with 3 points of Hearthguard, 1 point of Warriors, 1 point of Levy and the Enlightened Priest. The Hearthguard where split into 6 man units with heavy weapons, the warriors in one 8 man unit with crossbows and the Levy in on 12 man unit with throwing weapons.

The Milites Christi move forward

As do the Crusaders and the Byzantines

The battle started with both sides making a steady advance in the first turn before the Milites Christi charged in to the Byzantines to claim the Relic. At this point we decided that the Relic carrier should only move once per turn so as he had already moved at the beginning of my activation he could not be moved again, it also stops people from using multiple activations to end the game in one turn.

Relic Seized

As the Crusaders had speed disadvantage they could not stop my forces making a move to the rear.

Retreat !

But they did manage to get a charge into the Milites Christi after having taken some shooting damage during my activation. At this point the power of the Crusaders board in melee became apparent as they easily wiped out my Hearthguard.

The Crusaders claim the Relic

On the other flank the Crusaders took several shots at the Milites Christi foot but a combination of bad rolling to hit and good rolling to save resulted in no casualties being inflicted.

Shields up lads !

During the next turn the larger unit of Milites Christi retook the Relic as they finished off the Crusader foot which had already been weakened by some accurate crossbow fire.

Relic captured for the second time

This left the Crusaders without any combat units close by to attempt a recapture and this was compounded when the Crusaders remaining Hearthguard unit was wiped out whilst killing all the Milites Christi melee Warriors. Again the Crusaders rolled an impressive amount of attack dice as they had been powered up with some excellent abilities and managed to inflict 18 kills on an 8 man unit. In return the Warriors inflicted 7 hits none of which the Crusaders saved, this lead to both units being destroyed.

Retreat once more

Back by the bridge the Crusaders pushed forwards with their remaining units but more accurate fire from the Milites Christi crossbowmen whittled down the Levy Pilgrims and the Crusader crossbowmen once again proved ineffective.

Pilgrims into Action

Crusader Crossbows cause 1 casualty

The Crusaders could not cause enough damage to stop the Milites Christi exiting the table with the Relic and claiming the win.

Milites Christi just before they exit the table

The scenario worked pretty well and even though the Crusader army was overall slower than the Milites Christi the rule addition for only allowing the Relic unit to activate once per turn to move helped to keep the game in contention. We will try the scenario again and may allow the Byzantines to generate 2 attack dice each so that the initial capture of the Relic is a slightly more dangerous affair. This may encourage players to let the other player take the risk of making the first capture and allow the Relic to travel further across the board.