Slitherine

As royal power grew in France with the dominant reign of Philippe II 'Augustus', conflict with the great feudal lords of the realm was inevitable. The greatest of them all were the Angevins, heirs to the crown of Norman England and the vast lands of Aquitaine following astute dynastic marriages. King John Plantagenet 'Lackland', pursuing the struggle left by his brother Richard 'Coeur de Lion', had managed to build a powerful coalition involving the 'Holy Roman' (Germanic) emperor Otto of Brunswick and disgruntled vassals from the counties of Boulogne and Flanders. In 1214 the Allies launched a two-pronged assault on the Capetian heartland with John operating from the Plantagenets' dynastic birthplace of Anjou and Maine in the Loire valley, and Otto coming down from the Low Countries with the main strike force aiming for Paris. Philippe had to divide his army but managed to confront the emperor's on equal terms on Sunday July 27, 1214 in western Europe's most decisive battle since Hastings.

Designer's notes:

This is another one (last one!) that has been on the back burner for a while now, that I felt the absolute urge to finish. now i'm free.

I have mostly used Verbruggen's detailed breakdown of the forces (in 'The art of warfare in western europe in the middle ages').

I felt particularly clever with how i dealt with simulating the events of the battle, of which the outline is:

1) the great crisis in the French centre as the Imperial troops bore down on the weak French foot. Philip barely escaped with his life, followed by a potent French counter attack.

2) the purely cavalry fight on the French right.

3) the stalemate on the French left until the end of the battle when the Brabancon mercenaries were surrounded.

4) a large number of late arriving Flemish foot never got into the fight (they came they saw and they didn't like it).

Anyway I'll let you find out how i played with Fog mechanisms to get the required flow. Just watch out for the immobile units!

All and all, a tight small 12 turn scenario that has been extensively tuned to feel very historical without the imposition of house rules.

Fogman

reposted due to small error.

Thank you.

Thanks, a very nice scenario.