Scottorum Malleus Playtest

I have got the opportunety to try out Dan Mersey, authour of the upcoming Dux Bellorum, latest (under development) wargaming rules "Scottorum Malleus". The rules are a set of medieval wargaming rules in the same spirit as Dux Bellorum.

Here are a short AAR from the first try out of the rules. I used my 15mm Catalan Company minis, got me a Duchy of Athens army against a Catalan Company army...might be the Battle of Halmyros in 1311...

In the OOB I uses the common DBx classification for the troop types...

Duchy of Athens
1xKn(Gen)
3xKn
2xBw
2xPs

Catalan Company
1xKn (Gen)
6xWb ???not realy the same troop type but close enough.
1xPs
1xLH

The unit was made up with several of my bases with a front of 80mm, 2 bases for the Kn, LH and Ps. 4 bases for the Bw and Wb.

We used a 60x90cm gaming area.

Set-up was quite straight forward for the Catalans...a big block of Almogavars in the center, Light Horse to protect the left flank and some lonely Psilios to the right. The Knights was held in reserv...

The Duchy of Athens mixed the Knights and Crossbowmen in the main line using Psilios to cover both flanks and also held the Knights in reserv...

The Catalans made some swift advances forward the Duchys forces, the plan was simple, hit them hard before they can make use of all their crossbowmen...

Duchys forces was just waiting letting the crossbowmen soften the Almogavars up a bit before the Knights was suppose to sweep them of the field.

The Almogavars didn´t care about all the crossbow bolts, just keep moving. But the Turk Light horses didn´t stay for long and was chasen away as soon as they was hit by a few arrows from the Greek Psilios...

"Desperat Ferro!!! " The Almogavars took the Knights ofguard and charged all over the line... The Almogavars and the Knights are both good in offence but not as good in defense...

The Knights that was sent away from the main line was also hit and annihilated by a unit of hard hitting Almogavars...

It was the start of a quite long and rolling fight...the knights was at first puched back, a unit of crossbow men was slaughtered...but the other unit of the Duchys Crossbowmen managed to fight of and break a unit of Almogavars...

Just before the final disaster for the Duchys troops... The Almogavars keept the initiative and made a last puch cuting down even more of the splendid Knights in shiny armour...

Then the battle ended the Catalan Company had lost 1 unit of Light Horse and 1 unit of Almogavars...The Duchy of Athens had lost a unit of Psilios, a unit of Crossbowmen and 3 units of Knights... A brilliant victory for the Catalan Company:)

The rules worked out quite nice, of course do I need to try them some more to get a cleare picture and understanding of them. The only thing that realy struck me was that the moral was a little to unpredictable, I will try the alternative moral system next time;)