Not much of a battle report as such. Four Rejects gathered via Zoom, and a fifth spectated, to have a practice medieval game using Flower of Chivalry rules. These will be the rules used to fight any tabletop actions arising from the Imagi-Medieval campaign.
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| The Battle of Crecy, from an illuminated manuscript of Jean Froissart's Chronicles |
Jonathan and Ray were pitted against Steve and Dan. Meanwhile, Lee spectated.
For the campaign, I have given Flower of Chivalry units points values. For this game, I asked both sides to produce a 1000 point army.
Ray and Jonathan constructed the following:
1 unit of foot knights
1 unit of men at arms
1 unit of Longbow
1 unit of mounted knights
1 unit of foot knights
1 unit of men at arms
Steve and Dan had:
2 units of longbow
3 units of retainers
1 unit of longbow
4 units of men at arms
It looked like a situation of quality versus quantity.
Based on the number of units, the Army Morale Points for Ray/Jonathan is 6 and for Dan/Steve is 10.
The figures are 2mm Irregular miniatures.
The Battle
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| Jonathan's and Ray's smaller army look north across the table to Dan's and Steve's array. |
Both sides advanced towards each other. Dan's Battle showed unwelcome enthusiasm by racing forward. However, Dan's longbow units quickly starting finding their mark. It was important now for Ray to get his foot knights into contact.
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| Ray's foot knight charge into contact. Meanwhile, the rest of Ray's and Jonathan's troops continue a steady advance. The white labels are just my temporary fix to have at a glance unit stats... apologies. |
It would be true to say that Ray and Jonathan both cursed that they were not getting the number of actions that would help them most. All players also suffered the frustration of not having all of their orders come through.
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| Ray's foot knights and men at arms in melee with Dan's archers and retainers. On the right, Jonathan's mounted knights trample under foot a unit of men at arms. |
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| Ray's foot knights destroy a unit of longbow but are now stranded as his men at arms are forced to retreat. Jonathan's mounted and foot knights are annihilated by Steve's counterattack, and his men at arms forced to retreat. |
With army points reduced by one for every unit forced to retreat and two for each destroyed unit, Dan and Steve have their army morale reduced to 6. However, the game ends as Jonathan and Ray find their Army Morale Points have been reduced to zero.
Jonathan and Ray put up a good fight against a larger army. They didn't always enjoy the best of luck. I reckon that we could play this again and get a different outcome.
Afterthoughts
Army Morale Points were based on the number of units. On reflection this benefits the side that buys lots of cheap troops or tries to "game" the system. I am now reviewing this and may link the Army Morale more closely to the amount of points the army is worth.
I was really pleased with the game. It played out well, in my opinion, and provided the kind of uncertainty that perhaps ought to be in a medieval battle. Sometimes the troops don't want to move, sometimes they will charge forward when you would rather have a more controlled advance.
The rules are essentially IGOUGO. However, the uncertainty about orders and how many actions available from turn to turn prevents any advantage being derived from going first or second.
From my perspective the game was fun, but also very instructive for all. As well as the Army Morale, I'm going to look at tweaking the personal challenges.
Lastly, in my opinion, the result was plausible, and you can't ask too much more from a set of historical wargames rules.
That seemed to work well Richard. Nice to get some practice in before the real high-stakes combats begin.
ReplyDeleteIf the outcome produced is plausible, that is sometimes the best that be asked. Ray and my action draws were really discouraging. With one action not much could be accomplished be bring our might to bear. Having to "burn" an action even with charging cavalry was a real nuisance. Looking at the original rules and your QRS, your QRS requires charging cavalry to burn one action when charging. The original rules only have this one-action burn for archers, crossbow, slingers. Why add a penalty for cavalry?
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