Battle of Hattin 1187

[Randarkmaan]

Anyway had Guy heeded Raymond's advice, who wanted to stay where the army was gathered (don't remember what it was called) and let Saladin take Tiberius, there would most likely not have been a similar battle, Saladin would probably have taken Tiberius and his troops would have raided the countryside, what would not have happened is Saladin attacking the Crusaders entrenched on a defendible spot of their choosing(There were about 25 000 of them, and that's alot!). Had the Crusaders done this all the time they would maybe have existed longer but slowly they would have been depleted of their territories and it would have ended the same way it did in history, though probably a little later. In the end the tactics used by the Crusaders were far too defensive to enlarge the kingdom and in the end they weren't sufficient to ensure the survival of the Crusader States, their best hope would have been peace with the Muslims as many native-born Europeans in the Holy Land desired.

On a different note, have any of you read the Crusades trilogy by Jan Guillou (a Swedish authour)? If you ask me it's one of the most exciting and most interesting historical novels ever done on the Crusades.