Deus Vult!

I suppose my first exposure to the Crusades was a toy crusader knight from a cereal box given to me by my grandparents in the late 1960's. As a child of about 6 years old, this seemed wonderfully exotic and was a treasured gift for many a year. Growing up we all seemed to admire the tales of Richard the Lionheart, not knowing the reality behind the myth.

Many years ago after the visually superb 'Kingdom of Heaven' film came out, I did ponder long and hard as to whether to try and game this period using the Warmaster Ancients rules, but frankly was put off by the sheer number of bases and miniatures required. A common theme I fear looking back over many a project contemplated and then discarded by the wayside!

My next venture was somewhat off the beaten track, this time with the Baltic Crusades using Lion Rampant and/or Hail Caeser rules, inspired by Michael Leck's post on this period. He put me onto the 'Arn: Knight Templar' trilogy of books as well as the Swedish tv Series of the same name. As is sadly often the case, lists were drawn up, figures bought, plans made and then: nothing. the butterfly had flapped its wings and my mind had wandered onto yet another project.

Quite by chance Richard on his excellent Blog showcased a couple of excellent books that I'd not heard about nor considered reading. But always on the lookout for a good book I bought the following for a bargain price:

Then a few weeks later the chaps from Little Wars TV were back with a Battle for Acre game to kick off things in there new enlarged games room. I always like what these guys put on but my interest was really grabbed by the fact that they were using Lion Rampant II with a few tweaks for the game. Having playtested the original rules way back when, and others since in the same stable, I thought that this would be a good way to maybe scratch that itch from the 'Kingdom of Heaven' film initial idea. The game certainly looked fun and so I started to have a think about how I might go about this.

Looking at my bookpile I dug out the following which I bought as reference for the Baltic Crusades some 10 years ago or more:

Luckily for me it also has plenty of stuff on the 'traditional' Crusades that most people seem to play. Alongside this I remembered that a few years ago some books were released as almost 'army books' for Lion Rampant; one of the Vikings in the Mediterranean and the other on the Crusades. I'd considered the former but never the latter. However as my interest had been piqued, I managed to track down the Crusades book which duly arrived today.

From a quick flick through it really is a nice book and alongside the above, it will really give me plenty of ideas and options for forces to make for some small games and/or battles. Luckily I think I have enough figures for the Western Crusaders, only needing to make some purchases for the 'Muslim' forces. 

So not having planned this project at all just a few weeks ago, it seems I have something else to keep the old grey cells ticking over! Not that I'm one to complain but let's hope I can get enough units based and painted to get these onto the table. Then of course I'll need some buildings and terrain...

Thanks for reading and for leaving a comment too.

TTFN.