Battle Report - France 1355, Part 2 of 3

Turn 5 (below) saw the consolidation of the respective armies' positions, with the English setting up a defense and the French preparing to come to grips. The cavalry battle continues to rage in the foreground, with additional English mounted men at arms trying to hold off the more numerous French. With the French being handled brainlessly, they are wracking up more losses than the English, and are in danger of losing their numerical superiority. In the center, the longbowmen holding the central hill decide that discretion is the better part of valor, and beat a hasty retreat from the advancing French foot men at arms. The men at arms gladly advance to take the hill without a fight. A unit of foot hobilars moves up to block the men at arms, but for the time being, the hill belongs to the French. In the distance, Breton light infantry advance out of the woodlot to test the defenses on the far flank. In keeping with his horrible shooting, it was somewhere around this time in the battle when the aforementioned Breton light infantry were Arrow Barraged by Ryan's longbows at close range. He need 8 or less on a d10 to hit, and rolling four dice came away with 4,9,9,10, for one lousy hit (and went out of ammo in the process).


End of turn 6 is shown below. The cavalry battle in the foreground is going well for the English at this point, having sent a few French units fleeing. With more French in the second line, the English grip their lances a little tighter and wait for the counterattack. Elsewhere on the field, there was much shooting, or in the English case, much missing. In the center, the valiant hobilar unit threw itself into the French men at arms, hoping to buy enough time for a more solid defense to be organized behind them. The fates smiled on the brave English, who fought the French tin cans to a draw, clogging up the middle for another turn. Time was not looking like it was on the English side however, as more blocks of French men at arms and spearmen were converging on the English lines.


Turn 7 (below) saw the tide in the cavalry battle began to go against the English as the greater French numbers began to wear them down. In the center, strong units of French dismounted men at arms were closing fast.


The situation at the end of turn 8 is shown below. Due to time constraints, this is the last turn Dave and Ryan were able to play, although part 3 of 3 to be posted soon has another three turns that I played solo the next day. As can be seen in this close up of the center, French men at arms are driving back the English, with more coming up in support. It is fair to say that the ineffective shooting of the English longbows was a key to the French success to this point. Instead of being weakened in any substantial way by longbow fire, the French men at arms were charging into the English lines virtually unscathed. The English conversely had been getting plinked away at with some success by the crossbowmen in French employ.


Tomorrow I will try to post the conclusion of this game, along with a recap of what we did wrong (it was a training exercise after all), what I intentionally left out of the game/rules for simplicity's sake the first time around, and what we learned. All in all a great way to spend a Friday evening. Thanks Dave and Ryan!