Now that I had painted up the Italo-Norman militia, it was time to get them into action. I wanted them to face a contemporaneous army, so friend Bevan would field my Burgundian Ordnance collection masquerading as Papal Italians!

Okay, so things weren’t entirely apt, as I was actually fielding Sicilio-Normans instead of pure Italo-Normans, but as the country of Italy wasn’t actually formed until 1870, I decided that stretching things slightly too far south wouldn’t matter too much.

As you can sort of see in the picture, above, both sides had concentrated their cavalry on one flank (my right, Bevan’s left) so the stage was set for a fairly mighty clash early on in the game…and that’s exactly what happened.

Meanwhile, the each side’s infantry contingent slogged forward towards the enemy, with an unusual run of cards meaning that my troops advanced forward in echelon.

Unfortunately for me, the Pope had obviously secured some divine intervention to support his forces, as my unusual run of cards continued with me drawing appalling cards for the cavalry combat, with what should have been a fight in my favour (four heavy units vs three heavy units, two light units vs one light unit) ending up with my cavalry just about wiped out (one light unit remaining) whilst leaving two of his heavy cavalry units still very much in action.

Meanwhile, the infantry lines had, in a ragged way, closed and gone to melee. Things looked a bit better for me here, and I had started to get back into the game a bit.

Even better, going completely against convention, my newly-painted unit of Italo-Norman militia had burst through the enemy line and had got to within striking distance of the enemy camp…and as Bevan only had four Victory Medals left at this stage, if I could just hold on for another turn, there was a fair chance I could nab the camp, pick up another Medal from somewhere else on the field, and win the game.

Unfortunately, the consequences of losing the cavalry battle on my right wing then came back to haunt me with a vengeance, as the two enemy units of Knights arrived back into the action: flank charging some poor Sicilio-Norman spearmen with devastating effect.

Already Disordered, the Sicilians crumbled and fled, and the game was Bevan’s!

A cracking encounter that, despite my earlier bad luck, got down to the wire, with both sides being in a position where the next casualty would have lost them the game. Sportingly, Bevan did agree that I had had universally bad luck throughout the game, but you have to play the cards you’re dealt so no complaints!