Fm Bannockburn 1314.zip- (7.15 KiB) Downloaded 318 times
Designer's notes
The English had marched into a constricted battlefield that favoured the numerically inferior Scots. English units could not deploy, especially the archers, save for a few units on the flank that were famously ridden down by Robert Keith's light cavalry. The schiltrons were unbreakable by heavy cavalry and they steamrolled everything in front of them.
The pell-mell nature of the English advance is simulated by the use of 'scottish negative points' that restrict movement, inflict casualties, and additionally bring down the Scottish army's rout threshold. Also archer units are merged into heavy infantry units.
Tactics: at one point the English player has to think about withdrawing toward the Bannock burn and saving as many units as he can. The goal is to inflict as much damage as possible as victory depends on the Scots' casualties level.
The Scottish player has to plow forward as fast as he can while minimizing losses. The margin of error is very thin.
Sources: Like most British battles, there is an abundance of secondary sources, 4 monographs in the past decade alone, the best being Michael Brown's 'Bannockburn: the Scottish War and the British Isles, 1307-1323' (Edinburgh University Press, 2008). While it breaks no new ground, it is an academic work and as such has impeccable research and gives a sober reading of the primary documents.
