Back to Spain, and back on-line

Regular readers will know that it hasn't all been sweetness and light with on-line gaming in Shedquarters on a Tuesday night. A couple of weeks ago I had a complete wash out, with speeds dropping to less than 1mbps. In the interim I re-evaluated my set up, and gave in to buying another couple of mesh nodes to add to my existing network. These have come down in price, so I got a pair for £35 to add to my current three nodes. I also figured out a better place to put the node in Shedquarters, but the key thing was to have linking nodes in several locations, rather than run around plugging and unplugging the damned things to see what was talking to what.

Any how, I got what I thought looked right, then ran a test with Richard one evening last week which seemed to work. For this week's game I had two people in SHQ and two on-line. Tested wi-fi speeds were 65-70mpbs both up and down. The evening ran without any glitching or freezing (except when I pulled a camera cable loose) and good clear sound. A win, if I might say so myself.

So...this week, more Reconquista. For this game I went to the Almoravid invasion of Spain, and set up an Andalusian v Almoravid game "somewhere near Seville". The Muslim on Muslim battles are not well documented, so I just made it all up. I was using Basic Impetus, but I don't really like the army lists. I cobbled together some armies from looking at a variety of rule based sources with a bit of background reading. I'm feeling that the Almoravids should have more heavy (i.e. medium) cavalry than usually allowed, and that was reflected in the game.

This was a BI 30 point aside game, with 18 units, so a pretty big game.

The Almoravids are to the left. They were commanded by Dave on-line and me (then Phil) in SHQ. Richard and Ian (on-line) had the Andalusians.

We start off with both sides moving forwards. Richard is unhappy that I've put his hard charging Christian mercenary knights in the centre of the table. I thought he'd need them to support his out-gunned spear units, and would want to keep them well away from the camels. I also would like to think of a better way to keep track of the VBU/I values than using dice.

Phil arrived, and it all got a bit more organised on the Almoravid side.

In the distance from my end of the table the various cavalry units faced off. Richard was swinging his knights round to counter the Murabit fanatics.

Ian was commanding this wing, and was using his skirmishers to shoot some bits off the camels (BTW by this point I am starting to fall out of love with BI. I like it a lot for medieval warfare, but I feel some design thoughts coming on to smooth off some of the more outrageous outcomes).

Dave is prevailing on the Almoravid right, driving back the Andalusian cavalry, or forcing them to evade.

Dave's Murabits contact the Andalusian medium cavalry, but fail to inflict any damage. This will turn out to be a problem.

On the other wing, some scruffy slingers see off some rather natty Andalusian medium cavalry, at least for a little while, to everyone's surprise. Yeah, BI can give you some funny results.

So much so that it looks like skirmishers are the go-to melee troops against cavalry.

Not to be discouraged, Phil sends in another wave of light horse.

At the other end of the table Dave had broken some Andalusians with his Murabits, only to be caught in his pursuit by some ginetes who had previously evaded in abject terror.

Richard counter-attacks the aforementioned scruffy slingers. They do not survive this time.

It's all kicking off down the far end. Richard has got his knights lined up on those camels.

This is a close up gratuitous eye-candy shot of the Knight/Camel melee that does nothing to advance the narrative of the game.

I really have lost track of what happened at this end of the table. It was all so fast and furious. What I do know is that both sides were losing units here and there, but the Almoravids were behind.

Conscious he is behind, Phil tries to force some favourable outcomes in the centre.

The knights break the camels, and all Dave has got are some javelin men to give them some grief.

At Phil's end of the table an epic cavalry duel starts.

The Andalusians are breaking through on their left. 

Phil is whittling away the odd point here and there, but it isn't enough as we go into the last turn.

Phil loses another unit on a close roll, and the massed Almoravid spear and bow units can't get a decisive win. They drive back a unit of Andalusian spears but fail to follow up and break them. The game ends with the Andalusians ahead 14 points to 10, so not an army break, but a win.

It was an exciting and free flowing game, and everyone pronounced themselves satisfied. We played for just under three hours, with a lot of kit on the table and with players on line, so a good session all round with no technological hiccups.

As hinted above I may well start looking at producing something of my own that does what BI does well, but without the irritants. And on squares. Probably. I'm not sure on a title yet. "Who reigns in Spain?" or "Knights to Reconcquista" or even "The Moors are Merrier" are all in the frame (or even "Try being a bit Seville").

Well, it works for me.