Battle of Crecy, 1346

[stockwellpete]

EDIT: 10th April 2012

New version available!!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15461007/Battle ... 20PWv3.rar

Players may use the historical conditions which are as follows:

French army
Turn 1 - may only move Genoese crossbowmen
Turn 2 - may move the 4 groups of mounted knights that are located behind the Genoese crossbowmen
Turn 6 - may move the one group of mounted knights that are located one hex from their baseline
Turn 10 - may move levies and foot knights that are located on the baseline

The English army can move in ite entirety from the outset.

If players do not wish to use these conditions then it can be assumed that the French delayed their attack until the next day and began their assault with their entire army on the battlefield.

My thanks to dav956 for help with the play-testing. Any feedback or suggestions for improvement will be most welcome.

[stockwellpete]

I had a go at this battle as well, zeabed. I don't know if it is of any use to you, in terms of developing your ideas about the battle.

Article on Crecy here . . .

http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/pdfs/devries4.pdf

[ZeaBed]

I had a go at this battle as well, zeabed. I don't know if it is of any use to you, in terms of developing your ideas about the battle.

Article on Crecy here . . .

http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/pdfs/devries4.pdf

Thanks, pete. I've always had a keen interest in this battle, also Poitiers, aside from the gaming aspect. But the more I read the more I find disparities, some times critical, among the different versions. Which I guess is natural, given the fact that documentation on anything about the Middle Ages is logically sparse and frequently unreliable. I'll check it out.

[ZeaBed]

How old is that book? The rudimentary map has the archers in some sort of echelon or wedge formation and does not differentiate among Oxford, the Black Prince, Arundel, etc. Also not clear whether the English had a right flank formation at all. Drat, if I knew I would need a windmill icon for historical verisimilitude, I would not have gotten myself into this project! Where's Don Quixote when you need him?

[stockwellpete]

The book was first published in 1996 according to this . . .

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8000 ... th_Century

[ZeaBed]

Thanks for posting that long segment. I will read the text carefully. Missed that book in my searches.

[stockwellpete]

I am currently completely re-writing this scenario - my earlier effort was a bit sub-standard really. A new version should be available next week. Thanks to dav956 for ongoing help with the play-testing.

[ZeaBed]

Good luck attend your ongoing endeavor, pete. This battle has become one of my minor obsessions and I will be particularly interested in the result of your work. The outstanding challenges remain, imo, settling on an acceptable historical scenario (among several) and ensuring playability by avoiding imbalance of forces.

[stockwellpete]

Obsolete message.

[stockwellpete]

New version now available at the top of the thread.

[ZeaBed]

Thanks pete. Just downloaded it. To paraphrase the immortal words of Sonny Boy Williamson II, I'm going to be on it as white on rice.

[ZeaBed]

A thrilling scenario. Played a couple of games with a relative (offline), one for each side of the contention. Won a fairly close game as the French. Achieved a hardfought techical win with the English. The French clocked 58/56 just before the English clocked 55/56, making me the winner according to the program. Excellent scenario and very enjoyable playability, and a challenge for either side.

[stockwellpete]

A thrilling scenario. Played a couple of games with a relative (offline), one for each side of the contention. Won a fairly close game as the French. Achieved a hardfought techical win with the English. The French clocked 58/56 just before the English clocked 55/56, making me the winner according to the program. Excellent scenario and very enjoyable playability, and a challenge for either side.

I'm glad that you enjoyed it, Zeabed. Did you use the historical conditions?

[ZeaBed]

No, in each case we "waited until the next day" as the French should have. There are some things that are just impossible to duplicate exactly from the historical conditions. Most important imo is the diminished effectiveness of the Genoese arquebusiers' range because of the sudden rainstorm just prior to the battle. Also the historical evidence indicates that the range of the longbows was considerably better than that of any other bow type weapon of the time. But there is no way to alter the range, just the option of downgrading the Genoese quality to poor or reducing the number of the Genoese units. I hope the program allows these alterations in future revisions. As of now, yours is the best iteration of Crecy and I enjoyed it immensely.