MacDidz: The Scottish Blog

[Didz]

Winter 1116 Makmartane sails South.
At last after years of delay Makmartane has sailed with an army to secure Scotlands trading empire in the Africa. Even so, the demands made on the Scottish treasury to support the war against heresy and Prince Kyles Crusade mean that Makmartane's army is hardly of the quality needed to ensure an easy victory, and the fleet transporting it is equality understrength.

However, with Gods blessing both the fleet and the army will survive and acheive their goals.

Admiral Dougall's fleet collects Makmartane and his rapidly assembled army from the Welsh coast and heads south.

The plan is to land Makmartane and his troops on the coast of Morocco where they will make a quick dash across Portuguese territory into the Sahara and then head south for Timbuktu. The hope is that Makmartane will be able to hire friendly natives locally to bolster his numbers and make up for his lack of foot soldiers before he reaches his goal.

Having landed Makmartane's Army, Admiral Dougall’s fleet will continue eastwards into the Mediterranean and will rendezvous with Prince Kyle’s crusade somewhere along the Adriatic coast. Then, hopefully reinfoced by additional mercenary ships, Dougall will load the Prince’s Crusaders and carry them on to Jerusalem.

It was an ambitious plan, woefully under resourced but at least it was underway.