Some photos from Gary Lewis and I's game today - Free companies vs 100 years war English, both 1360s! Gary brought a mix of German, English and French knights, Hungarian light horse and bowmen to the fight (sadly he left his psiloi at home, so had to sub in another German knight), whereas I brought my usual 23 longbow and 12 knights, guns and filler. We both opted for lots of difficult terrain to block the flanks, and Gary put an orchard in the middle, splitting the battle in two.
The opening stages were cagey, with the English advancing slowly with good pip dice, while the Hungarians used Gary's few pips to begin a long flanking manoeuvre, drawing off some of the longbow. The German and French knights held back behind the dismounted English, while the French crossbowmen watched the orchard fill up with Irish psiloi.
First blood went to the free companies who killed an English longbow with some of their own longbow on their left flank, but the English responded and drove the outnumbered Free company behind their own dismounted knights, leading to a long standoff between Bw(S) and Bd(S).
On the other flank the Germans stayed out of range of the English artillery, allowing the English to take the narrow road between a rough hill and orchard. But when Gary finally got good pips he was able to reposition the French knights behind the Germans and attack the heavily outnumbered English bow and artillery.
However, the charge ended in disaster, with a German knight and their general (who was protecting the flank) being shot down by bow on the way in. Most of the rest of the knights were also driven off, with the sole victorious knight finding itself surrounded and picked off by the English counter-attack.
The second charge was hardly better, with the Germans losing two more knights and an English man at arms to longbow, and the command (including the Hungarians) breaking. Even worse at the same time the English general of the free companies was killed by concentrated bow on the flank of the far formation disheartening the command. Together these left Gary's force on the brink of defeat.
Things turned around slightly for the Free company, when the mercenary crossbow got the edge over the French crossbow in English employ, and the French knights impetuously followed up the Germans and killed two longbow and the second artillery piece.
That last minute success didn’t make up for the piles of 1s Gary had rolled earlier in the game, and the royal army of the rightful King of England and France mopped up the last of the traitors, sellswords and Frenchmen with only light losses.
I got the luck of the dice this game, with consistently good pips, whereas Gary seemed to roll 1s half the time. It was good to get back to the English and remember what it’s like to use the lethal longbowmen, who shredded the charging knights. It’s certainly a step up from the poor Greeks.
