This game was a re-match of the same armies from the previous club game. The task of repeating the French win of the previous week by dice roll was given to myself while Tony and Tim aimed to reverse this and produce an English victory.
The terrain was very different to the previous game in that apart from a 4 hex hill towards the English table edge and a large area of woodland to the extreme right and left of the table, there was a wide open centre through which a road zig-zagged from one table edge to the other.
The opening moves from the English saw Tony and Tim establish a defence line centred on the 4 hex hill. Tim in command of the English right had longbow units equipped with wooden stakes and these were deployed either side of the road and into the woodland on the extreme English right. Units of English dismounted men-at-arms also entered the aforementioned woodland.
My French army advanced to take possession of the road stretching across the middle of the battlefield and I established a line of crossbow units equipped with pavisses ahead of the road. This was to give my French cavalry speed of movement along the road so as to switch behind the front line to where they were most needed.
- IMG_2191.JPG (69.13 KiB) Viewed 2678 times
Tim continued to advance slowly against my left wing taking full control of the woodland and the nearby stretch of road. Tony, strengthened the English defensive line and re-positioned his mounted and dismounted men-at-arms ready to receive the anticipated French heavy cavalry charge. I slowly pushed forward my 3 ‘D’ class peasant hordes forward across a small hill to do nothing more than be a nuisance and distraction for the English left wing. Their purpose was to hopefully try and pull and commit English men-at-arms into hand-to-hand combat.
- IMG_2195.JPG (72.93 KiB) Viewed 2678 times
As the 2 battle lines simply stood and grimaced at each other, in reality it was up to the French to launch the attack, the English being the more defence orientated army. My problem was that this ‘death or glory’ charge had little chance of success in the middle, and no chance against Tim’s English right wing. I was trying to do the maths in my head and I calculated that only way to break the English centreline was to attack the extreme left of the line, and then hopefully out-flank the central 4 hex hill which was crammed with English longbow. Tony accused me of doing a lot of thinking before making my tactical movement. To right I was - this was going to be tricky!
- IMG_2198.JPG (75.33 KiB) Viewed 2678 times
I pushed my line forward and the shooting match commenced between the French crossbow and English longbow. This was always going to advantage the English eventually but would prevent English units being switched across to their left flank where the French heavy cavalry hammer blow was planned to fall. I did my best to disguise my true intentions but Tony knew what I was about! He advanced a unit of men at arms against my right wing effectively blocking my cavalry charge route. Unfortunately these guys fought to well, followed-up after combat to their doom in the next combat phase.
- IMG_2203.JPG (75.72 KiB) Viewed 2678 times
Tim’s English infantry started a general advance against my right which had no choice but to undertake a fighting retreat. Tim’s longbow units concentrated their shooting to pick of my crossbow and men-at-arms one by one. I kept a general and one unit of the French heavy cavalry threatening his extreme flank in the hope it would slow his progress.
Having stalled until I could get my French heavy cavalry ready and into position, I launch the mass charge against the extreme left of the English line. There was just enough room to squeeze the bulk of the cavalry into hand-to-hand combat along with 2 generals. One stubborn unit of English knights (mounted men-at-arms) held, but the rest recoiled, were disrupted or eliminated. With all the English cavalry – mounted men-at-arms and mounted sergeants either eliminated, pursued or surrounded, the French were in a position to turn and out-flank the English line and push towards the central 4 hex hill and defending longbow units.
- IMG_2206.JPG (73.31 KiB) Viewed 2678 times
The English now needed some luck with the shooting dice which thankfully from the French perspective they didn’t get. The combat dice weren’t exactly helping the English cause either. And so with Tim’s English infantry still punishing and slowly pushing back the French infantry on the other wing, things pretty even in the centre, but the English collapsing on the right, the pendulum had swung decisively in favour of the French. I charged my last uncommitted unit of French knights along with their general against Tim’s infantry – a fairly pointless gesture but it would at least give Tim’s victorious longbows a new target.
- IMG_2207.JPG (75.07 KiB) Viewed 2678 times
With only English infantry left on the table all the advantages now lay with the more mobile French heavy cavalry who would inevitably sweep along the less mobile English infantry line. There was still plenty of fight left in the English infantry, but their relative geographical position to the French did not enable a new defensive line to be established. Tim and Tony studied the situation and decided to give the win to the French.
Game Analysis
Against an English longbow army the French are always a one trick pony – attack with numerous French knights in a mass charge at the weakest point in the English line. In this game this tactic worked for the French.
