Horns of Hattin, Battle on the Hill

Objectives

No difficulty choice

  • Kill enemy lord

‘Saracen forces have the Europeans’ encampment trapped on a hill with no water. Although we are outnumbered, the enemy is demoralised so this will be an evenly matched battle. Many of their religious and military leaders are in the camp, so a victory here would be a devastating blow for them.’

Resources

Starting troops

  • 30 Arabian horse archers
  • 6 Arabian fire throwers
  • 10 Arabian slingers
  • 17 Arabian swordsmen

Notes

Mission 4 is another tricky and yet different mission. No castle to siege but an open play battle of sorts, recreating the Battle of Hattin. You have to kill the enemy lord, who is fairly protected by European troops, including macemen, pikemen, swordsmen, archers and crossbowmen.

There is clearly two approaches here: either to the left or right of the map. After playing both approaches there is little difference between the two and the approach below is suitable for both methods.

I started by moving my horse archers to the west of the map and to the raised land in the far left corner. From there, they were able to take out the archers and even some of the pikemen there. This allowed one of my fire throwers to use greek fire and set alight the dairy farms found there. The bushes are placed on top of pitch ditches and they will catch light, weakening and even killing some of the enemy troops as the fire spreads around the camp. Indeed, this seems to be the general approach here. I gradually picked off a few swordsmen and crossbowmen to allow my fire throwers access to various parts of the map and asked them to set buildings alight as well as the bushy areas. I used my horse archers to entice the swordsmen. They soon caught fire as they passed by burning buildings. Repeat this as necessary, trying to keep the horse archers away from the swordsmen. With most of the buildings on fire and then burnt down, I was able to rush my Arabian swordsmen to the keep area and killed the enemy lord there. The majority of the European enemy swordsmen were already dead by this point. A steady approach is required, rushing in will inevitably see you face defeat.

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