Cid Stuff

 

As I write it is very hot also I have been very busy. Not an ideal combination.  All the same I have finally found time for some Cid Stuff. Thinking about and writing up In The Days of the Cid. 

The key concepts are there. Fearsome charges, storms of arrows and dashing Jinete. The steady advance of the Berber spearmen. Basque javelin men skipping from vantage to vantage. Last stands by Nubians or Crusaders. Evocative.

Above Caballeros Hidalgos, look at that little pennon. Below, Christian Jinete. From Donnington New Era. I continue to warm to the brand of the broken hand. I only broke one figure this time.

In my Spanish Civil War Game I first introduced the key concepts here on this blog. As much for my own clarity as to interest others. I'm minded to do the same again.  

Let's start with Command. In the Days of The Cid the top dog commanding is you, the Player. The General.

Below the General are the Counts and Emirs and Mercenary Captains whose contingents form the Host. Like the General, the Mercenary Captains are exempt from the following table. They have been paid to do a job. Not so the Counts and Emirs.

Players throw a D6 for each Count or Emir and consult the table below for their Unique Quality and Epithet.

Dice Score	Quality
1.	The Cruel	If wounded or killed his contingent will immediately withdraw from combat without him.
2.	The Cunning	May successfully order his contingent to evade without testing.
3.	The Generous	May not be killed by a Mercenary unit regardless of combat result.
4.	The Valorous	May successfully order his contingent to charge without testing.
5.	The Pious	May excuse the first unit of his contingent required to test morale.
6.	The unbeaten	May double his personal combat dice if personally engaged.

Obviously, this approach requires some individual figures to personate the Counts and Emirs. 

Likewise there are some other special figures, famous banners, drums of war. 

You can see a selection above, Essex, Minifigs and Donnington Old Era.

A bit of Minifigs nostalgia here. Murabit Cavalry. I thought I had more of these and some Minifig Negro Cavalry too. Seemingly not. I wouldn't mind some of the latter.

You might recall recently seeing some exceptionally well painted Minifigs Late Romans of the same vintage. The result was splendid. Really first class. Anyhow, it inspired me to take my time with Minifigs in order to get the best result. I have a fair few more.

My unarmoured Basque cavalry have been redesignated as Caballeros Villanos. I had based them 3 to a 40mm frontage base. I was going to use the old spread them out technique to convince that they were skirmishers. It didn't work for me.

Instead we are going to have lots of these fellows on single figure bases sweeping in and out of the action. Above some Christian Jinete have caught some Moorish javelin men in the open. 

The plus side? I now have two units of Caballeros Villanos.

In The Days of The Cid is a Card powered game. Some units react to their own card being turned. Others need an order from their Count or Emir.  Each of those can usually get their contingent to move as a group. It gets trickier when individual units need special attention. Or start running away.

There is something else too. Some cards favour a specific side. If the opposing player turns such a card he may remove it from play. Denying his foe advantage. This is new to me. Will it go as far as Card Trading? Maybe.

Foot Skirmishers I’m doing 3 to a rounded edge base like these Africans above. From Donnington New Era. 

I did wonder about making the Andalusian crossbow men skirmishers. It is a nice idea with good gaming potential. I decided against it. 

Instead I envisage blocks of Andalusian Crossbow men relying on the penetrative power of their weapons to keep the enemy away. They had not been a great success as spearmen. Perhaps the crossbow would suit them better.

At this stage of the project I will also be doing some Basque and Berber Skirmishers, javelin men both.  More Cid Stuff as it comes.