100 Years War Skirmish!

[HenryTheFifth]

England wins the day!

The French pretender to the throne and I met upon the field of glory for the first time last weekend at his home. My bases had not yet arrived, so my painted troops were useless...still glued to thier painting sticks. The French forces were entirely unpainted, but there were enough units based so that we each could field four units and two commanders.

I deployed two units of longbows between two wooded areas, with two units of Men-at-Arms providing rear support. The French deployed two units of knights in the center, with peasants and dismounted knights out on the flanks. The battle commenced. I deployed my stakes and waited. The French (knowing that this was simply a rules exploration) ignored tactics and simply rushed straight at my lines. The two wooded areas were too closely spaced for both French knight units to fit between them, so one unit contracted frontage and fell behind the lead knight unit. The lead unit of knights advanced into longbow range and recieved a disordering volley for thier troubles. The French "king" ordered a charge, but it fell short of the English lines and the knights suffered horribly under a hail of longbow fire from both units at short range.

Once again the French "king" prepared to charge the English line...but the charge did not come...for suddenly...from out of nowhere...a carriage flying the royal colors of France careened onto the field of glory. It came to a screeching stop right next to the French "king"...and the French Queen disembarked. She proceeded to berate the French "King" at a high volume...that despite the distance between the lines...I could catch bits and pieces of the conversation. Apparently the Dauphan had commited some sort of vehicular infringement and had been stopped by the Paris traffic authorities...and the French "King" had apparently not informed the French Queen of the incident.

The French royal herald arrived at my lines under a flag of truce. He quickly informed me that we had indeed won the day...and that the French would like to meet upon the field of glory again...at a later time. He stated that it would be in our best interest to leave...NOW...Fearing the Queen's wrath...the English army immediately packed-up and headed up the coast of France at a gallop!

VICTORY IS MINE!!! For King Henry, England, and Saint George!!!
Henry the V, the true King of England and France

Our one rule question in our brief skirmish; Is pre-measurement allowed? We normally do not allow it, and played without it.

[gibby]

Yes, pre measurement is allowed.

[SirGarnet]

Sounds like a near run thing - you are indeed fortunate that with your army laid up in the sticks the French didn't simply sneak by and seize London.

Prohibiting pre-measurement has a place in naval warfare of about a century ago where rangefinder eyes lend an appropriate benefit in combat, or aerial games where 3-dimensional spatial awareness is a key pilot skill, but not in any type of battle covered by these rules.

[HenryTheFifth]

Thanks Gents! ok pre-measuring is allowed.

Another quick question...The poor French knight unit that fell short on it's charge (due to a poor variable move die roll) recieved ELEVEN hits from longbow fire. Am I correct that his unit suffers SIX hits, apply all modifiers and make death roll, it then suffers FIVE hits, apply all modifiers and make a second death roll? My opponent seemed to think that one casualty was automatic and you rolled on the second...

Henry the V
King of England and France

[SirGarnet]

My opponent seemed to think that one casualty was automatic and you rolled on the second..

p115 specifies the procedure which is to roll a D6 with modifiers against 11 hits (meaning a base is automatically lost no matter what you roll), then deduct 6 from the total and roll again with modifiers. This amounts to the same thing as just taking 6 hits off the top and removing a base, then rolling for the 5 hits with modifiers.

As you have probably realized, the charge couldn't fall short since you can't charge unless the target is in range, and a charge can only fall short if all targets evade and you roll a Variable Move Die that's not high enough for you to make contact.

Mike

[rbodleyscott]

Another quick question...The poor French knight unit that fell short on it's charge (due to a poor variable move die roll) recieved ELEVEN hits from longbow fire. Am I correct that his unit suffers SIX hits, apply all modifiers and make death roll, it then suffers FIVE hits, apply all modifiers and make a second death roll? My opponent seemed to think that one casualty was automatic and you rolled on the second...

Your opponent was correct. The first casualty is automatic if a BG suffers at least 8 hits from shooting - as you cannot score higher than 6+2 (with the modifier for death rolls when shot at).

In your situation, the first death roll would be against 11 hits. Even with +2 on the roll you cannot score 11 so 1 hit is automatic.

You then deduct 6 hits, leaving 5, and make a death roll against that, needing a roll of at least 4 to pass (which, with the +2 modifier, would score > 5).

[lawrenceg]

Thanks Gents! ok pre-measuring is allowed.

Another quick question...The poor French knight unit that fell short on it's charge (due to a poor variable move die roll) recieved ELEVEN hits from longbow fire. Am I correct that his unit suffers SIX hits, apply all modifiers and make death roll, it then suffers FIVE hits, apply all modifiers and make a second death roll? My opponent seemed to think that one casualty was automatic and you rolled on the second...

Henry the V
King of England and France

You only get a variable move die roll if all your charge targets in range of a normal move evade (check the rules). IF the knights were charging MF longbowmen, which cannot evade, then there should have been no VMD and you would have automatically got into contact.

For death rolls, the table on page 115 tells you how it works.

In your example:

Roll 1 dice e.g. scoring 6

Add +2 because it was hits from shooting e.g. total 8

If the score does not exceed the number of hits, remove a base. In your case the number of hits was 11. 8 does not exceed 11 so you lose a base.

A base was removed and there were more than 6 hits. Therefore deduct 6 from total hits, leaving 5.

Roll 1 dice e.g. scoring 4

Add +2 because it was hits from shooting e.g. total 6

6 does exceed 5, so you don't lose another base.