Match Report - French v Scandinavians

[dave_r]

Medieval French v Medieval Danish

The Medieval Danish (commanded by Hammy) comprised
1 CinC - FC
2 Sub Generals - TC
1 Ally General - TC
5 BG's of 6 Heavy Foot, Poor, Undrilled, Protected, Defensive Spearmen.
3 BG's of 8 mixed Heavy Foot, Average, Armoured, Undrilled, Heavy Weapon / Medium Foot, Average, Armoured, Undrilled, Crossbow, Swordsmen
2 BG's of 6 mixed Heavy Foot, Average, Armoured, Undrilled, Heavy Weapon / Medium Foot, Average, Armoured, Undrilled, Crossbow, Swordsmen
1 BG of 4 Knights, Superior, Heavily Armoured, Lancers, Swordsmen
2 BG's of 4 Cavalry, Armoured, Average, Undrilled, Crossbow, Swordsmen
1 BG of 6 Light Foot, Unprotected, Undrilled, Firearm

Medieval French
1 CinC - TC
2 Sub Generals - TC
1 Ally General - TC
2 BG's of 6 Mob, Undrilled, Poor
2 BG's of 6 Medium Foot, Average, Undrilled, Crossbow
1 BG of 6 Light Foot, Average, Undrilled, Crossbow
4 BG's of 4 Knights, Heavily Armoured, Superior, Undrilled, Lance, Swordsmen
2 BG's of 8 Medium Foot, Average, Protected, Undrilled, Longbow, Swordsmen
1 BG of 4 Heavy Foot, Average, Heavily Armoured, Undrilled, Heavy Weapon

The French (with a Pre-Battle Initiative of zero) decided to invade Scandinavia. They chose to attack in one of the developed areas. There was one [compulsory] difficult going chosen (the village) and then 4 lumps of rough going (2 Plantations and 2 Enclosed Fields). Hammy chose 3 lumps of broken ground. Most of the terrain finished on the right flank with a big lump of broken ground in the centre sector just on Hammy's side. There was one lump of rough on the left wing about 8 inches in from the table edge.

Since Hammy had a large amount of levy spearmen I decided to flank march one BG of knights on my right flank (as his baggage was much closer to this table edge behind the rough going) to try and get at the rubbish at the back and I also ambushed my Light Foot in a Plantation which spanned both sides of the table, mainly in an attempt to slow the heavy foot down so that my longbowmen could catch him in the rough.

Hammy did indeed deploy with 2 BGs of poor foot defending his camp on my right and 3 more on my left right at the back of the table. He had all the mixed BG's in the rough and broken ground with his skirmishers on the far right. The Cavalry were in the open bit on the left third of the table. The knights were deployed in the middle in reserve. One general was with the cavalry, the CinC was in the middle, there was also an ally (which were the sixes of the mixed BG's) and a further general somewhere else!

I deployed my 3 BG's of knights in the open opposite the cavalry then my crossbowmen opposite the broken ground, the Longbowmen in the rough going with the Heavy Weapons chaps guarding their right flank, I had a further crossbow group to their right My mob were gloriously defending the baggage - which was behind the knights.

Hammy opened up by moving the good foot forward and attempting a flanking manoever with his cavalry around my left wing. His light foot ran forward as fast as they could.

I sprang my ambush and my light foot started facing directly towards my right flank. They ran forward to threaten Hammy's LF. I decided not to use my knights to counter the on-table flanking manoever and ran forward to try and get towards the poor foot as quickly as I possibly could. I instead turned my crossbowmen 90 degrees to the left and marched towards the threat. The mighty mob were more than capable of defending the baggage. My longbowmen also ran forward to try and get into the plantation and start making holes in the scandinavian foot.

My flank march arrived and began moving towards the Poor Spearmen and Baggage. Hammy managed to turn one BG, but the other could not be coaxed to join the fray (six failed CMT's).

Hammy continued to plod forward with his heavy foot (at 2 inches a go it is not quick) and his flanking manoever continued. The Scandinvian LF moved to fire at my LF - there was no effect from the shooting. In response, my Light Foot charged, given that we were within 2 inches Hammy decided it was too risky to leg it and stood to receive the charge. There was no result in the impact phase, but in the combat phase my plucky chaps got a magnificent six hits (needing four's from six dice), disrupting the Scandinavians and killing one. Hammy claimed I was lucky!

In the centre, given that my crossbowmen had moved to counter the flanking Cavalry the Scandinavian Foot in the broken ground attempted to wheel or turn to face off my knights to allow the Cavalry and Knights time to manoever. They sullenly refused to do anything other than move straight forward though! (on no less than four occasions), which left one element in the open. In the rough going we had closed to within bow range and an archery duel ensued. This was largely innefectual, until when the Scandinavians closed to within 2 inches I disrupted both BG's and then in my turn Fragemented one of them. The disrupted BG refused to charge and then the Fragmented BG broke. The Scots victory was short lived however, the ally general urged on his flagging troops who promptly charged my Longbow and Heavy Weapons BG's.

The flank march charged the first BG of spearmen. This was an inconclusive affair with both side losing a base, but neither being disrupted so the French rallied back for a further charge. The French general had been in the forefront of the charge but the charge had seen him meet his end. Enraged by the loss of their leader the French promptly charged again and routed the Scandinavians killing their general in the process. The French pursuit took the knights into the second BG of Poor Spearmen, who were also dispatched with little difficulty.

Meanwhile in the LF bash, with the Scandinavians disrupted and a base down the only logical conclusion was that in the following combat phase they would win. Which they did. I went disrupted and lost a base. The Scandinavians moved some heavy foot into an overlap position to hopefully decide the combat, but the French crosbowmen stubbornly refused to yield and the melee continued. Some French Crossbowmen then also moved to an overlap on the other side, which proved decisive as the Scandinavians broke with the victorious French pursuing until the Scandinavians had surrendered.

The Scots Longbowmen and Heavy Weapons put up much less of a fight with both BG's breaking and running for the hills. The one remaining Longbow BG was charged, but managed to disrupt their opponents on impact, but then went disrupted themselves in the melee! On the far left my Crossbowmen closed to within range of the cavalry and were promptly ridden down!

My knights on the far left were closing in on the Poor Spearmen with one BG being forced to "clip" the heavy foot in the broken ground in the middle. This was a fight that the French were destined to win, it did however take some time.

After pursuing my Crossbowmen on my left, the Scandinavian Cavalry were right behind my Knights who were engaged with the Heavy Foot in the broken ground. Just as the Cavalry were about to charge, the Foot broke, the Knights were obviously tired as they did not pursue into a column of cavalry behind the foot (threw a flipping one) so were surrounded. The Cavalry charged my rear, I was disrupted, but in the ensuing melee the Cavalry were fragmented, My knights were then charged in the rear again by the other cavalry and broke in the impact phase.

The other knights were however within striking distance, one BG charged the poor foot and the other charged the Scandinavian knights who had moved to counter. Neither BG was able to hold the flower of the French army and the Knights cut down their Scandinavian counterparts and pursued into more Poor Foot.

It was at this point that the Scandinavians decided they had had enough. They had lost five BG's and had one Fragged, but were about to lose their camp and two further BG's. The French had lost one BG of knights, one BG of crossbowmen, one BG of longbowmen and one BG of heavy weapons. The other Longbow unit may have broken depending upon how quickly my knights broke the poor spearmen (who were at the time both disrupted). Probably would have lost 9 AP / 12

Cracking Game, thoroughly enjoyable, also very close.

Points to note:

We didn't really find anything wrong, but we had one situation where Heavy Foot were unable to contract as since they were in rough going they could not move 3 MU's which is the minimum distance required. I presume this is known?

[rbodleyscott]

We didn't really find anything wrong, but we had one situation where Heavy Foot were unable to contract as since they were in rough going they could not move 3 MU's which is the minimum distance required. I presume this is known?

It is.