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Continued... Napoleonic Wars 1803-1815 the first crusade A Chronology and Scenario By Paul Leach We had so much material for our First Crusade theme that we couldn’t fit it all into our Wargames Illustrated 267 issue. Instead of leaving you without it, we’ve decided to put it up on our new-look website for all to enjoy. Keep an eye out for more “bonus” content like this in the future. A detailed chronology of the First Crusade 1071 1096 The Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantines at Manzikert. The Turks bring Anatolia under their control while the empire suffers under usurpers and instability. March: Armies of the People’s Crusade depart for Constantinople. 1081 Alexios Komnenos becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire with the help of the powerful Dukas family. He restores a good measure of order but spends the next decade defending the realm against the Normans of southern Italy. Factional fighting follows the death of the Shah The People’s Crusade May through June: Elements of People’s Crusade harass, rob, and/or massacre Jewish Rhineland communities. 1 August: Peter the Hermit’s hordes arrive in Constantinople. Emperor Alexios moves the unruly hosts to Anatolia within a week. The walls of Antioch August through December: The Crusader princes’ armies depart for Constantinople. 21 October: Kilij Arslan destroys the People’s Crusade at Civetos. November through May 1097: The princes’ armies arrive in Constantinople. 1097 1092 The Great Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah dies. Syrian and Anatolian factions break away from the Sultanate and vie for regional dominance in subsequent years. 1095 1-7 March: Ecclesiastical Council of Piacenza receives Byzantine appeal for military support against Islamic enemies. July through September 1096: Pope Urban II tours France to solicit aid and organize the First Crusade. 18-28 November: Council of Clermont. Pope Urban II delivers the Crusader sermon publicly the first time on 27 November. The ultimate objective of the martial pilgrimage: restoration of Christian rule over Jerusalem. December through March 1096: Peter the Hermit begins the People’s Crusade movement. 14 May through 19 June: Crusaders and Byzantines besiege Nicaea. Kilij Arslan fails to relieve the siege of his capital city (16 May). The city eventually accepts Byzantine surrender terms. Late June through September: Crusaders begin grueling trek though central/western Anatolia to restore Byzantine control over interior. Separate Byzantine coastal operations begin before year’s end and continue through the following spring; they penetrate deep into southwestern Anatolia. 1 July: Seljuk and Danishmendid Turks ambush Crusader vanguard en route to Dorylaeum. The Turks flee at midday when the rearguard arrives; Crusader numbers and a flank attack prove too much for Kilij Arslan’s army. September through October: Tancred and Baldwin engage in Cilician mission. 20 October: The Crusaders begin their siege of Antioch. 17 November: Genoese fleet arrives at St. Simeon. The Crusaders take its supplies and construct Malregard on the November through May 1099: The Crusader princes engage in land-grabbing campaigns in northern Syria as they maneuver for rank over their peers. The winter sieges result in massacres, sacks, and even cannibalism. 1099 northern slopes of Mount Staurin to deter Turkish sallies. 31 December: A large Crusader foraging expedition defeats Duqaq of Damascus’ relief army in a chance battle. 1098 9 February: A mounted Crusader force defeats Ridwan of Aleppo’s larger relief army. Shortly afterwards the Crusaders receive a diplomatic deputation from the Egyptian Fatimids. 4 March: An English fleet (possibly exiles in Byzantine service) arrives at St. Simeon. The Crusaders use supplies to build La Mahomerie at Antioch’s Bridge Gate between 10 and 14 March. 2 June: Stephen of Blois abandons siege before Kerbogha of Mosul arrives to relieve Antioch. Emperor Alexios returns his army to Constantinople in July; Stephen’s dire news greatly influences his decision. 3 June: The Crusaders take Antioch through treachery and sack it. Only the city’s citadel holds out. 4-5 June: Kerbogha’s army arrives at Antioch. He initially attempts to capture it through the citadel, but settles upon a siege after his troops lose a long, bloody struggle on Antioch’s eastern slopes. 14 June: The Crusaders discover the ‘Holy Lance’. This relic contributes to the faith and fervor of the increasingly desperate army. 28 June: The Crusaders defeat Kerbogha’s great host outside Antioch’s walls. 16 May: The Crusaders depart from Arqa for Jerusalem, with the exception of Bohemond, who remains in Antioch. They meet little resistance on the way. 7 June: The Crusaders reach Jerusalem. 13 June: Jerusalem’s Fatimid garrison repulses the Crusader’s first assault. 17 June: Genoese ships arrive at Jaffa. The Crusaders use its supplies to construct siege artillery and towers in the following weeks. 15 July: The Crusaders capture Jerusalem. July: The Fatimids take Jerusalem from the Seljuk Turks. 22 July: Godfrey of Bouillon elected to rule Jerusalem. 1 August: Bishop Adhémar, the First Crusade’s papal legate, dies from disease. 12 August: The Crusaders defeat a Fatimid relief force outside Ascalon. Kerbogha “Kerbogha had with him a great army whom he had been assembling for a long time, and had been given leave by the khalif, who is the pope of the Turks, to kill Christians... [He had] collected an immense force of pagans - Turks, Arabs, Saracens, Paulicians, Azymites, Kurds, Persians, Agulani and many other people who could not be counted.” From The Gesta Francorum Pope Urban’s call to crusade unintentionally spawned the so-called People’s Crusade, an unruly collection of peasant armies nominally led by the aesthetic French demagogue Peter the Hermit. Knights and nobles assumed core leadership roles within the peasant hordes and gave them some measure of professional fighting ability. They rushed to Constantinople with an uncontrollable temperament capable of destroying Byzantium’s goodwill before the ‘real’ crusader armies arrived. The armies of the People’s Crusade provoked enmity almost everywhere they passed, some even going so far as to massacre Rhineland Jewish communities. At least three of the armies suffered destruction after fighting the Hungarians. A host of 25,000 actually made it to Anatolia, where they terrorized the Nicaean region until the Turks annihilated them. Peter the Hermit escaped the disaster and continued to play a kind of figurehead role throughout the First Crusade. Godfrey, Duke of Bouillon Wargame scenario: Napoleonic Wars 1803-1815 The Last Battle of Antioch, 28 June, 1098 The following scenario does not specify a particular ruleset, but players should have no problem adapting it to their chosen game system. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The Frankish hosts faced a desperate situation in Antioch. A larger army surrounded them and they could not outlast a siege with their meager provisions. The crusaders had to somehow break out with an army that had lost most of its horses. They prepared for battle with three days of fasting and faced the enemy hosts with no small measure of religious fervor. The crusaders placed Bohemond of Taranto in command of their combined forces. His strategy made the best use of the terrain and a powerful reserve. The crusaders launched their attack over Antioch’s Bridge Gate; the Orontes separated their immediate foes from their nearest allies. Hugh of Vermandois pushed the enemy back with horsemen and archers and then the crusaders deployed in four battle groups: Robert of Flanders and Robert of Normandy with the northern French on the right, Godfrey of Bouillon with the Germans in the center, Bishop Adhémar and the southern French on the left, and Bohemond with the large reserve. Raymond of Toulouse remained behind to guard the citadel. Turkish cavalry slowed Adhémar’s force as it advanced against the enemy’s right. The crusader center and right advanced against Muslim infantry (possibly religious volunteers). Bohemond dispatched Renard of Toul and a rearguard to stop an attacking relief force from the south. They prevented a disastrous breakthrough but suffered heavy casualties. From the north, Kerbogha and his elite retinue moved towards the repulsed Muslim line. The Muslim infantry withdrew across a wadi and held a low hill for a short time. They broke before Kerbogha reached the field and before long his entire army fled. The sources indicate that some of his subjects betrayed him, while others suggest that panic swept the army. Kerbogha’s army lost relatively few men despite its decisive defeat. Armies/ Orders of Battle The Crusaders • No more than 20% of troops or purchase points may be avalry. • Increase the morale and/or fighting ability of any peasant infantry units to reflect religious fervor and dismounted knights within their ranks. • The reserve must contain between 30% and 40% of the entire force. • Assign major leaders stands or command bonus effects to each battle group. Kerbogha’s Army • No more than 30% of troops or purchase points may be cavalry. Below: Turkish Ghulams charge through the Crusaders’ defences, into their baggage train and camp followers. • Must contain one or two units of volunteer infantry (high morale/ poorly equipped), which must be deployed on-table. • The Flanking Force may not contain more than 25% of army. It may not have more cavalry than on-table forces. • The army may have no more than two leaders. DEPLOYMENT The Crusaders deploy in four groups: Right, Center, Left, and Reserve. Kerbogha’s Army on-table forces deploy in three groups: Right, Center, and Left. The Flanking Force deploys in the Crusader rear on the 3rd turn. The Battlefield Place 4-6 small hills on the Muslims’ half of the table. Who Goes First The Crusaders go first. GAME LENGTH Per chosen rules. VICTORY CONDITIONS Each army must destroy or break the enemy army to achieve a major victory. An army may achieve a minor victory if it destroys or routs more enemy units than it loses. Above: Robert de Normandie at the Siege of Antioch 1097–1098, Painting by J.J. Dassy, 1850