Flower of Chivalry Practice Game

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.

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:

1st Battle (Ray)
1 unit of foot knights
1 unit of men at arms
1 unit of Longbow

2nd Battle (Jonathan)
1 unit of mounted knights
1 unit of foot knights
1 unit of men at arms

Steve and Dan had:

1st Battle (Dan)
2 units of longbow
3 units of retainers

2nd Battle (Steve)
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

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.

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.

Flower of Chivalry allows for personal challenges.  This is really a high risk and limited return strategy.  If you can kill or capture an opposing commander then an opposition Battle or even the Army could find itself stalled and unable to move.  If a player is challenged and refused, then all units in that Battle have their morale reduced until the leader either challenges or accepts a challenge.  So, a challenge is a risky move but at the right moment could be important.  Well, Ray challenged Dan.  In the process, Dan was killed and Ray was captured!  Very funny.

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.

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.

Making a Hole in the Collection

Well... strictly speaking I've made a breach.

Siege of Orléans in 1428 (Vigiles de Charles VII, 15th century) - Public Domain

Following a play test of my siege rules using my 2mm buildings and troops (see Testing Siege Rules), I decided to make some breaches instead of just removing walls.  So, this short post is just that!

A wall section in the raw!

They are very easy to take a hacksaw to, and cut crisply.  A sharp Stanley knife was then applied.

Grit and sand is then applied.  Then undercoated in black.

The rest is all just dry brushing - a darkish raw umber/white mix then sky grey and finally wraithbone (a kind of bone colour - off white).

A breached section in the middle of a curtain wall.

I just have to paint some siege towers that I received through the post yesterday.  They shouldn't take long... they're 2mm scale for heavens sake!

All models are produced by Brigade Models.

Testing Siege Rules

In preparation for a campaign, I tested out siege rules that I have written to go with Flower of Chivalry.

Flower of Chivalry, published eons ago by the Canadian Wargames Group, are a simple yet flavoursome set... in my opinion anyway.  My slightly amended version of these are what will be used for field battles.  These, with my siege adaptations will also be used to assaults castles.  It just made sense to use the same base for both types of battles.

The attackers are making their approach.  Off picture are two trebuchets that are pounding the walls.

In keeping with Flower of Chivalry, the loser is the first side to reach zero on the Army Morale countdown.  The defenders can also lose if two of their units are driven off the table edge within a certain time limit.  This represents the poor fellows dispersing to escape the possible mayhem and murder wrought by the attackers.

The missing wall sections represent breaches.  knights are pouring in.  On the left, men at arms are assaulting the walls via a siege tower.  Doesn't look good for the defenders!

The defenders' Army Morale was driven down to zero at the point where their second unit was driven off the table.  The castle is captured and the population put to the blade!

As you can see I used my 2mm figures to enact this siege.  The figures are from Irregular2mm and the castle, towers and walls from Brigade Models.  

After thoughts

I got a lot out of this, both as rule writer and player.

As a player, the attacker could use more ladders (I only gave one unit ladders and they got beaten back!).

As for the rules, I made a couple of clarifications and a couple of additions.  The most important being the starting levels for the two armies' battle lust - this represents the exhaustion and morale of each Battle/Ward in an army.  Plus 7 is exhaustion and big minuses in combat; minus 7 is a collapsing morale with big minuses for morale checks.  The starting point is usually zero with the levels rising and falling depending on orders given.  Manoeuvre and charge orders add to the battle lust;  react and defend orders provide a minus to battle lust.  However, I found that adjusting it so defenders start at plus 4 and the attackers at minus 4 kept the attackers moving without exhausting too quickly and allowed the defenders to react and defend without morale falling too sharply.

Lastly, I have some breaches to model along with a few more walls to paint.

I guess that I will write more about the upcoming campaign in due course.

For your Perusal: Rules for the French Wars of Religion in 2mm

Having embarked on the period of the French Wars of Religion in 2mm I was faced with the pleasant job of coming up with some rules to reflect my research and understanding.

Swiss Pike.

I began by establishing some principles that I felt were important.  These were:

1. Victory and defeat was often determined by the cohesion of the units and armies, not by the number of casualties.

2.  Quality matters.

3. Manoeuvring was difficult.

4. No casualty removal.

I quickly realised that what I was writing was quite generic in itself.  So, I decided that the way to add the period specific flavour for the French Wars of Religion was through the use of the Commander Cards and Action/Event Cards.  The latter being drawn from and based on events that actually occurred during conflicts in the 16th century.

With the help of the Rejects, we played some games to test what had been produced to hone the rules further.  See the following reports:

The Battle of Le Truc

The Battle of Le Truc (Ray's report)

The Battle of Coutras

The Battle of Coutras (Ray's report)

French Wars of Religion Play Test

Whilst far from perfect, and under constant review, improvement and development, please find the rules here, or go the tab above, and feel free to have a look and comment on them.

Huguenot Reinforcements

Adding to the 2mm French Wars of Religion are some artillery, skirmishers (enfants perdus), and arquebusiers.  All figures are from Irregular Miniatures.

The artillery can be used by Huguenot, Ligue and Royalist forces.

Artillery from the front.. mind your head!

Artillery from behind where you can see the parked train.

Enfant Perdus. These will be used primarily in Huguenot armies.

Units of arquebusiers. As the Huguenot infantry was usually deficient in pikemen, they relied heavily on arquebusiers interspersing them between landsknecht and cavalry.

Arquebusiers from behind.

Flags are based on recorded designs. However, without sufficent records  the colours are what took my fancy.

Now to reflect on organising a game to include these new recruits.

The Battle of Le Truc, 1569 - AAR

Stuart's shed saw the Rejects gather to play a fictional battle set during the French Wars of Religion.  Unfortunately, we were two players down with both Stuart and Steve unwell... get well soon boys!

You might want to check out Ray and Lee for their better photos and perspective of the game

Background
The Huguenot army of Admiral Coligny has been operating in Normandy, but has found itself facing a powerful Catholic force led by Tavannes.  In order to avoid an unequal fight, Coligny has retired south towards La Rochelle and the relative safety of friendlier areas.

Unfortunately for Coligny, he has been out-marched by Tavannes.  The Huguenots have been caught before they can make a juncture with the forces led by Condé that are moving from the south.  Without any alternative, Coligny turns to fight close to the small town of Le Truc.

 The Armies
With the battle set in 1569, that meant certain things needed to be taken into account. Unlike previous games set in the later wars, this one has the Huguenot army still using lance armed cavalry rather than the deeper formed sword and pistol cavalry.

The Catholic Army

Vanguard
4 units of gens d’armes (heavy cavalry)

1 unit of Argoulets (light cavalry that can either fire from the saddle, or can dismount and be used as arqubusiers)

Main Battle
2 units of Swiss pike

4 units of French pike and shot

2 units of Enfants Perdus (skirmisher infantry)

1 artillery battery

Rearguard
3 units of gens d’armes

2 units of Swiss pike

2 units of Enfants Perdus

 

The Huguenot Army

Vanguard
2 units of gens d’armes (heavy cavalry)

2 units of chevaux-legers (medium cavalry)

Main Battle
1 unit of Landsknecht pike

3 units of Huguenot pike and shot

2 units of Enfants Perdus (skirmisher infantry)

1 artillery battery

Rearguard
1 unit of Reiters

1 unit of Huguenot pike and shot

1 unit of Landsknecht

3 units of arquebusiers (firearm only infantry)

Deployment
This was the instruction sent to the commanders of both sides prior to the day of the game.

"Commanders you must make deployment decisions now!

On the map below you must decide in which 1 foot squares you will deploy the 3 parts of your army.  One part (vanguard, main battle and rearguard) can go in any of the numbered squares (1-6).  Each square may only contain ONE part of your army.  When you come to the table you will have the opportunity to arrange the units within the squares.

Also, you must decide into which of the lettered squares (A-D) you will place your army camp.  This will be positioned in the centre of the square.

Map
The hills are gentle and will not hinder movement, but do block line of sight.

The farm can be occupied by one unit of skirmish infantry.  The fields about the farm have hedges which may impede, and certainly provide soft cover.  Cavalry cannot charge over any hedges.

The town of Le Truc may hold one infantry unit but not cavalry or artillery."

 

Victory Conditions
The destruction of the fighting effectiveness of the opposition.  This is done by inflicting melee defeats and undermining morale in order to wear away the will of the enemy.

The plundering of an enemy camp contributes to undermining enemy morale.

The army with the greatest loss of army morale points loses.

In the event of a draw the loss of commanders and/or the camp will be given weighting.

 

Deployment
The Catholic commanders (Ray and Surjit) decided to place their vanguard in square 5, the main battle in 4 and the rearguard in square 3.

The Huguenot commanders (David and Lee) placed their vanguard in square 1, their main battle in 2 and the rearguard in 3.

At the table the players went through a deployment phase where they would use cards from their deck to bid to gain initiative to either deploy a portion of their army or force their opponent to do so.  In doing so they would have to start making decisions about keeping high value event cards for the battle, or to gain some deployment advantage.

The result of the deployment is shown in the next photo.

The view of the Huguenot deployment from the town of Le Truc.

The view along the Catholic line of deployment.

The Battle

There was a considerable amount of early manoeuvring.  For the Huguenots, their dilemma was to form a defensive position against superior numbers and an asymmetric deployment.  For the Catholics, it was about trying to exploit their greater cavalry numbers on the flanks, whilst avoiding upsetting the good order and cohesion of their units.

note: basically, all units move straight ahead and are permitted one facing change during the move.  However, a facing change means a cohesion test that may result in a drop in the unit cohesion level  If not recovered, it could impact on firing, melee and morale.

The Catholic army moves forward and the Huguenots position themselves.

The Catholic gens d'armes on the far flank continue to make quick progress.  On the near flank, some repositioning is required while the Swiss pike continue to advance.

With the near Catholic flank stalled in order to recover some lost cohesion, the centre and far cavalry advance.  It is becoming clear that the cavalry commander is intending to turn the Huguenot right flank.

The gens d'armes move further around the Huguenot right.  The Protestant army, to counter the threat, is trying to extend its flank and moves a unit of Reiters to hopefully deter. 

Perceiving a threat from the Catholic infantry in the centre, the Huguenot commanders move the main battle in what appears to be the first step to engaging the centre, or perhaps to limit their advance.

Whilst on the far flank the Catholics continue to inject a significant amount of nervous tension into their opponents, as the the weaker Huguenot rearguard try to counter the opposing gens d'armes laden vanguard.

Now the Catholic gens d'armes turn to attack.

And move into charge range...

... whilst moving into pistol range of the Reiters and arquebus range of the infantry, the Catholic heavy cavalry clearly intends to overwhelm the Reiters.

The charge and melee is successful in throwing the Huguenot Reiters back.  But, with both gens d'armes units failing to maintain discipline, they race after the stricken pistoliers.

The Reiters take more damage, leaving their morale undermined and the unit literally and metaphorically on the edge.
However, the charge, melee, pursuit and further melee has now left the gens d'armes exhausted, lacking cohesion and their horses blown.

And what is more, they are also out of command.  If they Huguenots lost army morale points from the melee, the Catholics also lost one for having 25% of their units out of command.  See the units circled in black.
But as one dramatic and violent event subsides, so another commences with Catholic cavalry and infantry applying more pressure to demolish the Huguenot flank.

note: Each army has a number of poker chips to represent their army morale level.  Losing melees and having morale undermined can lead to loss of a chip, but a morale level is also lost for every 25% of the army out of command radius.  The army morale effectively continues the idea of cohesion being key.  In this case the army's cohesion is being tested with so many units out of command.

To everyone's surprise Conde appears at Le Truc with Huguenot reinforcements. 
But has it arrived in time?

Regardless, on the far flank the struggle continues with Catholic pike and shot and Swiss crashing into Protestant arquebusiers and gens d'armes doing likewise.

Both Huguenot arquebusier units are ill-equipped to face such odds and are hurled back with their cohesion collapsing and their morale undermined.  But as the gens d'armes pursue they crash into a Huguenot pike and shot unit.  With another one close by, the commanders of the Protestant cause contemplate a little revenge.

Conde's cavalry is now able to set forth to rescue the Huguenot right flank.  However, despite being able to mass two pike units against one Catholic gens d'armes unit, sending it reeling back in disarray and killing the commander of the Catholic vanguard, it is ultimately too late.  The Huguenots concede that the battle is lost.

With a stand off on the near flank and in the centre, the engagement was decided by the actions on the far flank where the Huguenots were turned.

Result

The Catholics, who started with 11 army morale points, lost three - one because of 25% of the units being out of command; one for losing a melee; one for having a commander killed.

The Huguenots, who started with 9 army morale points, lost six - mostly from lost melees.

So, a Catholic victory confirmed... if it ever needed to be.

Analysis

This was, from my point of view, an interesting match.  It was unbalanced, with the Huguenots at the disadvantage.  What was clear to both sides was that the Catholic army had the better infantry and Huguenots the better quality cavalry.

From the Huguenot commanders' discussions at the start, I thought that they were going to trade space for time by withdrawing their right flank away from the cavalry and to make it less prone to turning.  When they didn't do that I was a little surprised. The commander of the Catholic vanguard (Surjit) manoeuvred well and took advantage of this.  Although in doing, he ultimately exhausted the vanguard and lost unit and vanguard cohesion.

By the Huguenots pushing their main battle forward, the advance of the Catholic main battle in the centre was stalled.  This possibly reduced the ability of the the Catholic commanders to coordinate more fully against the Huguenot flank.

On the near flank, both sides were content to sit and stare at each other.  The Huguenot cavalry could have bypassed the Swiss pike that positioned itself near the farm and attacked the inferior Catholic gens d'armes.  But, would this have allowed the Swiss to then threaten the Huguenot centre?  This was a difficult dilemma for the commander of the Protestant vanguard.

I have to consider that, as umpire, I was at fault.  I had planned for Conde to arrive, but had not specified a particular turn, but wanted to judge their arrival to be timely but not immediately decisive or seemingly unfair.  I think I might have brought them on a turn too late.

I was happy with the pre-game deployment and the use of bidding for the formation of the armies on the table.

I was also content that what I saw happening on the tabletop I could find examples and speak of in terms of historical events and parallels in the wars themselves.  Something must be going right!

If I was to do this scenario again I might bring Conde's cavalry on earlier.  Difficult to really know what changes to make as all players commented that they would make different deployment decisions, which would clearly alter the game.

Lastly... I think!  I thoroughly enjoyed watching all players engage in a lot of head scratching as they negotiated multiple decision points throughout the game.

French Wars of Religion Pike and Shot

Four units of 2mm Catholic pike and shot units.

Because the French always had less pikemen, their formations tended to be less deep and wider.  The units have similar numbers of shot, but different numbers of pike. This is to represent that sometimes the ratio was affected by the want of pikemen.

In the image above, clockwise from top left, the units carry the standards of the legions from Guienne, Nivernais, Normandie and Champagne.

Next, a view from the rear of the units.

And finally, a couple of photos with some more units to show them in a deeper chequer board deployment.  However, it should be said that in these wars the armies tended to deploy in less depth.

I'm moving up to 15mm for my next batch of painting... well at least that is what is on my painting board at the moment.

Huguenot Cavalry and Reiters

Some quick additions to the 2mm French Wars of Religion collection. As usual, don't look too closely just consider them as representations of formations.

First up four units of Reiters. These troops were generally hired by both Catholic and Protestant forces from various German states. The ones shown here carry flags (L to R) to represent Reiters under the command of Wolfrad Graf von Mansfeld, Eric von Braunschweig, Markgraf von Baden and William of Nassau.  These may not be 100% accurate... but at this scale who is going to see!

All, except Braunschwieg who was at the Battle of Ivry in 1590, fought at the Battle of Moncontour in 1569.

Next up are four units of Huguenot cavalry.  These represent the formations from the later wars (generally from 1587+) once they had abandoned lance armed cavalry for that fighting by sword and pistol. There are some questions over whether in the charge they fired then drew swords, or charged with swords then fired pistols once in the swirl of melee.  Regardless, their shorter but deeper formation give them some punch against the long thin lines of the Catholic lance armed gens d'armes.

Flags for Huguenots can often just be speculation.  Most prints of the day were in black and white, their colours is anybody's guess. However, the diagonal was usually white as a common identifier of Huguenot units.

Lastly, just a couple with all eight units.

Some infantry next, then I may move onto a larger scale.