A bit of recycling: Islamic mangonels for the Crusades

Edit: When I linked this post on TMP, Col.Campbell (hi, Jim) commented on the name 'mangonel' being applied to this type of siege engine, thinking it should be called a 'trebuchet', specifically a 'traction trebuchet'. For some reason, I've always called them 'mangonels'. Luckily for all, both of us are right, and Jim posted this interesting link about the "Torsion Mangonel Myth" explaining why.

Before I get to the models, let's get the big issue out of the way. I know that throwing engines were not used in field battles. However, artillery, in any period, can be great table-top fun. I know because, I have a couple of onagers with Frankish crews (Gripping Beast Normans range, I think) which have seen the table a couple of times.

The basic design for these models is taken from various sources including pictures and models of Chinese mangonels. The scale I can only call 'table-top scale'; they were made to look just big enough to look like practical pieces of siege equipment.

The model, with arm up, is 110mm tall overall.

They are made from recycled plastic. 

The throwing arms are plastic pins (I can't remember their original use). 

The green plastic beams are made from the plastic bases that come with plastic figures, glued together to make small pieces of plastic sheet. There are two thicknesses: three layers thick for the base frame; two layers thick for the upper structure.

The plastic is soft enough to be cut into 'planks' with a modelling knife. Each piece was sanded with fine sand paper after cutting to get rid of the burrs.

I added wood grain in two ways. At first I used the tip of a blade but, this was too slow. To speed things up a lot, I simply dragged the plastic over rough sand paper. 

The throwing 'bag' is made from a piece of netted ribbon, and a few bits of wire drilled into place as axles and throwing hook finish the pieces.

Start to finish, they took about two hours to design (as I went along, more or less), and make.

The bases, like all the bases for my crusades stuff, is 4mm plywood. It seemed like a good idea at the time but, is now one I regret. Cutting 4mm ply with a Stanley knife is a hastle I can do without. The bases, for scale, are 60mm x 90mm. 

Here they are with the ropes attached. These things were man powered. 

There should probably be more ropes. However, as I can't find figures in poses suitable for actually pulling the ropes, I thought six would be sufficient to express the basic working principles of the thing. 

The ropes are cotton button thread: a single thread has been wound around the beam; the actual ropes are two threads twisted and glued (PVA) together before being glued into place on top of the cotton around the beam.

All in all, I'm quite happy with the way these turned out.

The best crew I've found so far are Gripping Beast shepherds. Each model will get a crew of four figures idly standing about the place. The figure with the staff / crook over his shoulder will be given a longer pole with a hook on the end - he's the guy who hooks the throwing bag after firing to drag the arm back down into the launching position.

Neat little models that cost next to nothing. Something from scrap.

Desert real estate: Embracing the grid.

Having reorganised and rebased my Crusades collection (units are now on three stands, each 60mm frontage) for To the Strongest rules, I decided to re-do my desert buildings so that they could hold units more comfortably. There were several ways I could have done this but, after much thought, I pitched for building modules that fully embraced the grid and TtS box sharing rules. I made four modules including a mosque. 

Each section is 210mm wide. My grid boxes are 200mm and ideally the building modules should have been the same but, during the design process I realised that the unit frontage plus the thickness of the walls wouldn't quite make this possible - so I added 10mm.

All the buildings were all made in the same way. They are based on 2mm MDF (or hardboard from the back of a broken picture frame - waste not want not). The walls are constructed from 5mm foam board. Doors are balsa wood and the gates are made from the wood of ice lolly sticks (because the latter is much stronger than balsa). The dome is a plastic lid (I found in the street last year and picked up) with a crescent made from a spare shield. Brickwork is old greetings card / cereal box (I keep some of this about the place too). Roof supporting beams are cane barbeque skewers. Plaster daub work is heavy body artists acrylic (dark blue and left over from basing ships for a client - Hi, VDS). Ground texture is artists acrylic, a bit of sand and grit and cat litter (unused: I do draw the line somewhere). All are painted using household emulsion (when you choose your room colours, think about what you can use the leftover paint for afterwards) and artists acrylic paint and ink.

They take the units quite nicely, as you can see here.

Building with tower. This is a good looking, very basic design.

All the buildings are built as fully enclosed 'compounds'. I got the idea for this from footage of the goings on in Afghanistan a few years back. 

A secure compound structure seems fitting for built up areas in 'lawless times': I imagine compounds would be the normal format for most rural buildings in the Holy Land during the times of the Crusades. 

Note two new flags for the Armenians. The mountain lion on red features in a film, as does the small cross. A white red and yellow tricolour is the flag of modern Armenia (horizontal stripes?).

Two storey building with long one storey warehouse attached. This will give a 'multiple module village' a bit of height.

Note the small high windows on the outer face of the compound. Windows low down would defeat the compound's purpose.

Two small, single storey, buildings sharing a compound. 

I might make another similar to this. As a design, it came out much better than expected. The narrow gap, between the buildings, leading to a smaller courtyard beyond, was important for its success, I think.

A mosque. 

Domes are a bind because they preclude putting troops on the roof and spoil any chance of two unit per box occupancy...

...but wait! 

I actually managed to think about this before gluing the dome structure in place: the dome lifts off when required. 

I very nearly glued it on. Phew!

The roof has a hole in the centre and the dome has a plastic locator pin. these centre everything when it's put together. Troops on the roof cover the hole. 

Will I make more? Yes, four, I think. Three will be made with a single building on one edged and a road on the other (the road being the position of the second 'occupying' unit) so that I can have a road going through two module villages. I'm still at the design stage for these - getting these to look good is actually harder that it seems; one will be a row of shops with a cloistered front.

On the rules front. TtS rules for 'village boxes' are not quite right, IMHO. So, I'm tweaking again. 

• I'm only going to allow occupancy of a single unit of cavalry (in the streets) per section. 
• I'm going to say that units can fight back out of a flank if attacked, though the attacker still gets an extra chance to hit. 
• I'm going to allow units in a village to choose to shoot out of their flank, choosing the front or flank facing they wish to shoot out of for the duration of each turn: once the direction of fire is chosen it is chosen for the whole turn; if a unit chooses to shoot out of a flank, any other unit in the same box, or entering the box at a later point, can't shoot out of the same flank that turn if the original shooter is still there. One stand of the shooting unit can be turned to the flank to indicate the direction of fire.
• Light troops can't use special move and shoot activations on entering, or leaving, a village box.

My house army lists and rule changes for TtS Crusades games. TtS Even Longer.

Following the lengthy reply I made in comments relating the last Crusades post, I thought it might be useful if I posted these. They are the army lists and quick reference sheets that I'll use here for TtS Crusades games. They have all of the house rule amendments included (at least I'm pretty sure they do), and the sheets over ride the rules as originally published.

Obviously, the lists reflect what's in my collection. The rule changes have been made purely to add an extra layer of depth to give my Crusades games more period characterisation - this is especially the case when it comes to missile weapon technology. 

I've added a new formation called whirling mass specifically to reflect the tactics of Turcoman horse archers. Unlike settled Seljuk Turks and Arab troops, who used shower shooting whilst stationary, Turcomans were constantly on the move when shooting. Turcomans used, what I can only describe simply as, 'shooting by tribal caracole': That is sweeping in in large groups, before shooting, then retiring, the process constantly being repeated by more groups behind. This whirling, dust raising multi-unit tactic is a difficult thing to model, so I've come up with whirling mass. (see notes under Turcomans in the lists below).

I've also added a couple of simple rule changes for impetuous troops who often charged without orders, and made a simple change to the way artillery works. 

Possibly the most radical change I've made is to dispense with ammunition chits altogether because so much in the Crusades shoots; having stacks of chits everywhere isn't great; I frequently forget to expend them on shooting (or worse put them into the replenishment stack); it is a needless complication that slows the game down. Units do still go out of ammunition (and such units are marked with a counter) but, they do so following activation to shoot, on drawing a 1 (ace) chit when determining if there is a hit or not (javelins are treated slightly differently - see QRF). Ammunition is replenished in the usual way except that on a single replenishment the unit counts as 'loaded' until it draws a 1 (ace) chit again. I do something similar for lances. I do not have separate lance and ammunition chits, they amount to the same thing and have been termed 'replenishment chits'.

I'll stick my neck out here and say that Simon M. will not mind me publishing this as I think the official TtS army lists and QRF are free to download from his site, and he's quite open to new ideas. He calls his amendments TtS Even Stronger; I call my amendments TtS Even Longer.

EDIT: Since originally posting I have edited the tables and reposted them here. Some people are not getting the tables in the right format. If you are experiencing difficulties, drop me an email (see my contact details in the sidebar), and I'll send you the original MS Word doc.

Syrian
Unit		Description	#	Save	Cost
Generals & heroes		Mounted, attached general	1 - 3	2+	5
		Upgrade to heroic	Any	3+	+1
		Upgrade to senior general	0 - 1	-	+1
		Mounted, Turcoman tribal leader ¹	0 - 1	2+	5
		Heroes	4 - 8	-	1
Askari or Ghulams		Cavalry lance, veteran	1 - 3	6+	11
		Upgrade by adding composite bow	Any	-	+2
Other Syrian or Kurdish cavalry		Cavalry lance	1 - 6	7+	9
		Upgrade to veteran	Up to 1/2	6+	+2
Bedouin cavalry		Light cavalry lance or javelin, raw	0 - 4	8+	4
		Upgrade from raw	Any	7+	+1
		Reform two units into tribal mass ²	Any	-	-1
Turcomans		Light cavalry composite bow	4 - 8	8+	5
		Reform two units into whirling mass ³	Up to 1/2	-	0
		Upgrade to impetuous ⁴	Any	-	-1
Ah’dath		Shieldwall, raw	0 - 5	8+	5
		Upgrade spearmen to glaiveman (2HCW)	Up to 2	-	+1
Muttatawwia		Warriors, deep, impetuous	0 - 2	7+	10
		Upgrade to warriors, fanatics, deep, impetuous ⁴, added hero	0 - 2	8+	+1
Kurds or Daylami foot		Javelinmen, veteran	0 - 2	6+	7
Crossbowmen		Light infantry, crossbow	0 - 2	8+	4
Al-ashair		Light infantry, composite bow, raw	0 - 5	9+	3
Naffatun		Small light infantry unit, hand hurled ITW weapon ⁵	0 - 2	8+	3
Artillery		Small artillery unit.	0 - 2	7+	7
1	Notes Must command at least at least four tribal units; may not command other troops.
2	·         A tribal mass is represented by placing one unit directly behind the other with the same facing. ·         A tribal mass has two hits; it is disordered after receiving a first hit, lost after receiving the second. ·         A tribal mass is not required to evade when charged; it may, however, choose to evade. ·         A tribal mass may charge disordered formed troops frontally. ·         A tribal mass cannot share a box with any other troops. ·         A tribal mass is treated as light troops in all other respects.
3	·         A whirling mass is represented by placing the stands in a circle running clockwise with the command stands arranged so that the facing of the formation is clear. ·         A whirling mass has two hits; it is disordered after receiving the first, lost after receiving the second. ·         A whirling mass can shoot twice on the same activation unless it is disordered, in rough terrain, or it is partially OOA (partially OOA with one OOA marker, totally OOA with two) when it can shoot only once. ·         A whirling mass never presents a flank to shooters but always presents a flank to chargers. ·         A whirling mass cannot share a box with any other troops. ·         A whirling mass is treated as light troops in all other respects.
4	A failed activation on a 1 will cause impetuous troops to charge the nearest enemy unit within reach and remain impetuous until successfully activated again. Whilst impetuous light troops may not evade. Impetuous troops always hit on 6+ in the first round of combat.
5	If Naffatun turn a 1 when activating to shoot (throw) their fire pot incendiary terror weapons (ITW), someone drops a pot and the unit must make a save or be lost.

 

 

 

Seljuk
Unit		Description	#	Save	Cost
Generals & heroes		Mounted, attached general	1 - 3	2+	5
		Upgrade to heroic	Any	3+	+1
		Upgrade to senior general	0 - 1	-	+1
		Mounted, Turcoman tribal leader ¹	0 - 2	2+	5
		Heroes	3 - 6	-	1
Ghulams		Cavalry, lance, composite bow	2 - 5	7+	11
		Upgrade to veteran	Any	6+	+2
Seljuk horse archers		Cavalry, composite bow	2 - 5	8+	9
		Upgrade to veteran	Up to 1/2	7+	11
Turcomans		Light cavalry composite bow	6 - 12	8+	5
		Reform two units into whirling mass ²	Up to 1/2	-	0
		Upgrade to impetuous ³	Any	-	-1
Armenian knights		Cavalry, lance	0 - 2	7+	9
Armenian light cavalry		Light cavalry lance or javelin	0 - 2	8+	5
Syrian cavalry		Cavalry, lance, veteran	0 - 1	6+	11
Bedouin cavalry		Light cavalry lance or javelin, raw	0 - 1	8+	4
Turkish or Armenian foot.		Javelinmen	0 - 5	7+	7
Turkish or Armenian archers.		Light infantry, composite bow	0 - 5	8+	4
Kurds or Daylami foot		Javelinmen, veteran	0 - 2	6+	9
Adhath		Shieldwall, raw	0 - 2	8+	5
Crossbowmen		Light infantry, crossbow	0 - 2	8+	4
Naffatun		Small light infantry unit, hand hurled ITW ⁴	0 - 2	8+	3
Artillery		Small artillery unit.	0 - 2	7+	7
1	Notes Must command at least at least four tribal units; may not command other troops.
2	·         A whirling mass is represented by placing the stands in a ‘circle’, running clockwise, with the command stands arranged so that the facing of the formation is clear. ·         A whirling mass has two hits; it is disordered after receiving the first, lost after receiving the second. ·         A whirling mass can shoot twice on the same activation unless it is disordered, in rough terrain, or it is partially OOA (partially OOA with one OOA marker, totally OOA with two) when it can shoot only once. ·         A whirling mass never presents a flank to shooters; it always presents a flank to chargers. ·         A whirling mass cannot share a box with any other troops. ·         A whirling mass is treated as light troops in all other respects.
3	A failed activation on a 1 will cause impetuous troops to charge the nearest enemy unit within reach and remain impetuous until successfully activated again. Whilst impetuous light troops may not evade. Impetuous troops always hit on 6+ in the first round of contact.
4	If Naffatun turn a 1 when activating to shoot (throw) their fire pot incendiary terror weapons (ITW), someone drops a pot and the unit must make a save or be lost.
Other Notes ·         Danishmend armies can also include Syrian cavalry and Adhath. ·         Great Seljuk armies can include everything except Armenians. ·         Following the First Crusade, Seljuk armies did, on occasion, field allied contingents of Franks.

 

 

Crusader (Frankish)
Unit		Description	#	Save	Cost
Generals & heroes		Mounted, attached, heroic general	1 - 4	3+	6
		Upgrade to senior general	0 - 1	-	+1
		Upgrade senior general to ‘Great’ as Bohemund ¹	0 - 1	3+	+4
		Upgrade to mounted, attached, heroic Military Order general ²	0 - 1	3+	0
		Mounted, attached, Armenian ally general ³	0 - 1	2+	5
		Heroes	4 - 8	-	+1
Army standard		True Cross or Holy Lance of Antioch, attached ⁴	0 - 1	-	4
Knights		Knights, lance	2 - 6	6+	11
		Upgrade to veteran	Up to 1/2	5+	+2
		Upgrade veteran knights to Brother Knights, fanatics, plus added hero	0 - 1	5+	+2
Turcopoles		Light cavalry, lance, composite bow	0 - 4	7+	6
Armenian knights		Cavalry, lance	0 - 2	7+	9
Armenian cavalry		Light cavalry, javelin	0 - 2	7+	5
Bedouin cavalry		Light cavalry lance or javelin, raw	0 - 1	8+	4
Foot Sergeants		Armoured foot with integral bow or crossbow support	0 - 8	6+	10
		Upgrade as bolstered by foot knights (2HCW) ⁵	0 - 4	5+	+2
		Upgrade as veteran Brother Sergeants	0 - 1	5+	+2
Arriere-ban or pilgrim soldiers		Shield wall, raw	0 - 3	8+	6
Crossbowmen		Armoured light infantry, crossbow	0 - 2	7+	4
Archers / slingers		Light infantry, simple bow or sling	0 - 3	8+	4
Pilgrims		1st Crusade, civilian mass, IPW ⁶	0 - 5	9+	4
		Upgrade to Mob, deep, IPW as pilgrim militia	0 - 2	8+	+3
Armenian foot		Javelinmen	0 - 3	7+	7
Armenian archers		Light infantry, composite bow	0 - 3	8+	4
Syrian archers		Light infantry, composite bow, raw	0 - 3	9+	3
Maronite archers		Bowmen, composite bow	0 - 1	8+	7
Artillery		Small artillery unit.	0 - 2	7+	7
1	Notes Bohemund may play two replacement ‘activation chits’, or ‘to hit chits’, or a combination of both, in a single turn rather than the usual one. When testing for injury he always picks the lower of two chits.
2	General must attach to Military Order knights; he may only command knights, sergeants, crossbowmen and turcopoles. Military Order knights require a military order general.
3	An Armenian ally General is needed if more than four units of Armenians are used.
4	Add three extra VP medals to the army’s total; lose three VP medals if it is lost. Count as a hero for any unit within 1 box range. Units in the same box, or adjacent boxes, never test for routing units.
5	The number of available mounted knight units must be reduced by one for every bolstered foot sergeant unit fielded.
6	Civilian mass are 1st Crusade pilgrims ‘on the road’ rather than an armed mob. They have two hits (to reduce staying power). They do not count as deep for box occupation. Upgraded mobs are as per the standard rules and include campaigning pilgrim militias. Both count as deep formations for movement.
Other notes ·         Military Order Brother Knights and Brother Sergeants are only available after 1128. The save of Brother Knights is not downgraded for being fanatic due to their discipline, hence 2 points extra. ·         Armenians are only available to the armies of Antioch and Eddessa. ·         Maronite archers are only available to Tripoli. ·         Knights did not regularly dismount to fight. During the last year of the 1st Crusade (1098 -99) half the total number of knights fielded must fight on foot due to a lack of horses. German knights dismounted to fight in the difficult terrain, “as was their Teutonic fashion”, outside Damascus in 1147. ·         Frankish armies sometimes included larger Islamic contingents than listed. E.g. Bedouin tribesmen under their own chieftain, large numbers of Turcoman mercenaries, or the army of an allied Islamic state.

 

Easy Activations
Move or Charge one box straight ahead, or two boxes straight ahead if mounted.
Move and Shoot one box straight ahead (light troops armed with javelins only).
Shoot and Move backwards, facing in same or opposite direction (light troops armed with bows only).
Replenish units that are out of ammunition (OOA), or replenish ‘broken lances’.
Rally.
Difficult Activations (Light troops ignore all difficulty)
Move or Charge one box diagonally ahead, maintaining facing; mounted units may move or charge one further box straight ahead thereafter.
Move one box sideways, maintaining facing.
Move backwards one box, or two if mounted, facing in the same or opposite direction.
Change facing, or exchange places within their box. After this, mounted may move one box straight ahead.
Move or charge into, through, or out of rough terrain.
Save Modifiers
Type	Circumstance	Mod
Melee	Light infantry in rough terrain, except when charged by light infantry.	+2
	Foot when charged across fortifications.	+2
	Any hit by improvised peasant weapons (IPW).	+2
	Foot when charged uphill.	+1
	Foot in rough terrain charged by mounted.	+1
	Any, defending against a charge across a stream, bridge, shoreline or stakes.	+1
	Foot (except light infantry), who are not disordered, receiving a frontal mounted charge.	+1
	Charged by foot wielding two handed cutting weapons (2HCW).	-1
	Light infantry charged by mounted in the open.	-1
Shooting	Units hit at three boxes range by composite bows.	+2
	Any hit by improvised peasant weapons (IPW).	+2
	Units hit, at any range, by simple bows or slings.	+1
	Foot behind field fortifications, except versus artillery or incendiary terror weapons.	+2
	Shieldwall, or any units behind cover, except versus artillery or incendiary terror weapons.	+1
	Light infantry, light cavalry or artillery, except versus artillery or incendiary terror weapons.	+1
	Units hit from behind a flank or rear, except versus artillery or incendiary terror weapons.	-1
Rally	A general is present in the box.	+1
	For each unit in a position from which it could charge the testing unit.	-1
Special Saves
All units in a targeted box, hit by artillery (artillery targets a box, not a unit) regardless of circumstances.		7+
Any unit hit by incendiary terror weapons (ITW).		9+
Useful Reminders
Shooting	Target priority is always the nearest target, with diagonals measured as 1.5 boxes. All hit on 8+.
	Range: Javelins, IPW and ITW: 1 box. Simple bows, crossbows & slings: 2 boxes. Composite bows: 3 boxes (save bonus applies at 3 boxes range). Artillery: 4 boxes.
	Bowmen, veteran Ghulams, veteran Askaris, and double strength Turcomans in whirling mass, may shoot twice except when disordered or in rough terrain.
Melee	All hit on 6+, except disordered and light troops, bowmen, artillery, civilian mass and mobs who require an 8+.
	Note: Fanatic troops always hit on 6+. Impetuous troops always hit on 6+ in the first round of combat.
Evade	3+ if mounted in the open evading foot, or foot evading any in rough terrain.
	5+ if mounted in the open evading mounted, or foot in the open evading foot.
	7+ if foot in the open evading mounted, or mounted evading any in rough terrain.
Injury to Generals	Generals must save each time the unit is hit. Generals failing to save draw a second chit to determine the effect: 9-10= Killed; 6-8 = Seriously wounded must retire from battle; 1-5 = Lightly wounded, no effect, a second light wound is a serious wound. A general surviving attached unit loss automatically joins another of his command.
Difficult Activations & Out of command	Difficult activations are 1 activation point harder to achieve than normal; all difficulty is cumulative. Deep units and civilian mass find difficult activations ‘doubly difficult’ (e.g. 2 levels of difficulty is 4 points harder).
	If the command’s general is dead or has left the field; the general is more than 2 boxes away, or 3 boxes away if the unit is light troops, difficulty will always be 1 point harder. Not cumulative.
Replenish OOA & Lances	Any bows or crossbows, artillery, ITW, or IPW go out of ammunition (OOA) after turning a 1 to hit.
	Light troops with javelin go OOA after turning a 1-5 to hit; others with javelin go OOA automatically.
	Lances need replenishing after turning a 1 to hit.