The 100 Days campaign meets the 100 years war

I read a recent issue of Minature Wargaming the other day, and it has some simple, fun rules for fighting the 100 days Napoleonic campaign in Belgium. Not having nearly enough napoleonics to do it justice, I transported the campaign to my favourite period of the hundred years war. The colourful map is available on the magazines goodies page, but you need to buy the magazine for the rules.

In this campaign Henry V, along with the Earl of Oxford and Sir John Cheyney, have landed armies in Ghent and plan to strike into France. Boucicault, Marshal of France, Robert Count of Marle and Waleran de Raineval are each taking armies to stop them. The French win by taking Ghent and cutting the allies supply line. The English win by preventing this. Each of the six armies is about 1500 pts using the Warhammer Ancient Battles rules. After a battle the winner permanently loses 25% of his causalties, the loser has 50% lost for the rest of the campaign. Other causalties are only wounded and return for the next battle.

On turn 1 Henry V stays in Ghent. Oxford takes Hal and Sir John takes Ath. Bocicault takes Leuze, Robert of Marle marches into Ath to attack Sir John Cheyney, while Waleran takes Banche. There was no rain this turn.

Sir John orders his defence of Ath while Robert marshals his knights to attack.

English on the left, French on the right.

Billmen, archers, dismounted knights, archers, cannon. Not pictured are more archers to the left, they were busy eating Belgian chocolate and arrived late (i.e. I forgot to deploy them) First use of my new cannon!

The French deployment of 27 knights. They decided not to deploy their Crossbowmen to save space.

After a turn of shooting, Robert of Marle and his knights panic and flee! Not a good start for France.

Soon only one unit of French knights remain.

A single, very brave Knight remains where all his brothers have fallen.  He fights the artillery crew, breaking them, and then the game ran out of turns.

Big victory for England! England's total causalties were one artillery crewman, while France lost 14 knights. Plus my new cannon killed one knight, but were routed themselves as is normal for freshly painted units. I look forward to my next game in this 100 days/100 years campaign.

The Battle of Calais: Englands Last Stand

Henry the Fifths army had suffered two routs to the mighty French knights. The French knights had pushed the English all the way back to their base in Calais. Henry has one more chance to defend his rights to the French throne. Another loss means he will be able to save only a fraction of his army retreating across the channel, and possibly leaving England open to invasion. A victory puts his plans for French domination back on track.

The Armies

England
Henry V and the Earl of Oxford
Two units of 23 archers each, both with stakes.
Eleven dismounted knights, all with two handed weapons

997 points, 59 figures

The English Army

France
Waleran de Raineval, Count de Faquemberges
Robert, Count of Marle
Twelve knights
Two units of crossbowmen, 17 men each
1000 pts, 48 figures

The French army, as seen from the English lines

Turn 1
The English archers killed two French knights. The French knights then advanced.
Turn 2
Archers killed seven knights, but then the knights charged into the English lines. The archers stakes blunted but did not defeat the French charge. The French crossbowmen advanced.

The French knights charge across the battlefield.

Turn 3
The English dismounted knights and French knights fought a bloody melee, including a challenge between Waleran and Henry. In the end the English won by one point, and the French failed to hold their nerve, they broke, and were run down!

The battle after the French knights were run down.

Turn 4
French crossbowmen and English archers exchanged shots, causing minor causalties.
Turn 5 - Last turn
The English archers concentrated all their shots on one crossbow unit, causing it to panic and flee. The remaining crossbowmen shot at the English knights killing quite a few, but they didn't quite wipe out the unit, and it passed its panic check.

In the end: big win for England! Turns out the best strategy for England is historical: Archers with stakes flanking knights.

King Henry started plotting more invasions into what he viewed as his French inheritance.

Run out of France

Time for the English to get some revenge on those nasty French guys. At least, that was the plan.

Mighty French knights flanked by lowly crossbowmen.
 

English Archers and Dismounted knights.

The armies were similar to those used in the last battle.

English
Henry V, general
Sir John Cheyne, noble
3 units of veteran archers, 2 of 18, one of 14
13 Dismounted Knights
998 pts, 65 figures

French
Waleran de Ribeval, general
Robert, Count de Marle, noble
13 Dismounted Knights
2 units of 18 crossbowmen each
1005 pts, 51 figures

The field of battle from the english left flank.

Turn 1

English archery killed seven knights! Things were definitely off to a good start for Henry.

Turn 2

The surviving knights ran down a unit of archers. All english passed their panic test.

The French knights re-enter the battlefield behind English lines.
The French crossbowmen in the woods make a charge later in the game.

Turn 3

The French knights re-enter the battle field, after charging away the archers. The english knights tried to charge them. This may have changed the whole game, but their full plate slowed them down and they couldn't quite make it.

Turn 4

The French knights paid back the English temerity with a charge of their own, and of course their mighty steeds took them far enough to succeed. Waleran challenged Henry, who took 2 wounds. Henry's knights fled.

Turn 5

Henry stiffened the resolve of his knights, just in time to get charged again. This time the english held.

Turn 6

The french crossbowmen finally finished walking through the forest, they then charged the english knights in the flank. They fled, game over.

France wins by 584 pts, over half the value of the game. Major win for France!

King Henry needs to stop playing tennis and find some better knights.

Thanks for reading!

First try at Warhammer Ancients Battles

I missed out on Warhammer Ancients Battles (WAB) when it was in print, because I was so busy playing the fantasy version. But I was able to pick up the version 1.0 rule book and more importantly the Armies of Chivalry supplement. So now I have an excuse to paint more medieval figures!

A classic game, this is the 1.5 version.

This book gives you the rules for my favourite period - The late middle ages.

The English army 

Henry V, General

Sir John Cheyne, noble (well, really a knight but you get it)

Dismounted Knights x 16

Two units of veteran archers, 20 each with stakes

The French Army

Waleran de Ribeval, general

Count Robert de Marle, noble

Knights x12

Two units of crossbowmen, 16 each

Each army was about 1000 points.

Henry and Sir John both set up with their dismounted knights, Waleran and Robert with theirs.

The French: Lowly peasant crossbowmen, heroic knights, more peasants.

The English: Archers, dismounted knights, more archers.

The view from the english left flank. There was also a hill
in the foreground.

Turn 1: The french crossbowmen cheered as they slew several english archers, but their tune changed when they lost more causalties from the return fire.

Turn 2: More of the same shooting, but the french knights advance.

The French knights advance. Their crossbowmen were getting the worst of it.

Turn 3: The chivalry of France charge the english and wreak great havoc amongst the english knights. The "First Charge Rule" means that a mounted knight units first charge of the game is especially deadly, but then their horses are tired from carrying around all the heavy armour and subsequent charges are at normal effect. Still, cold comfort to Henry V as his unit flees, taking him with it. A sad day for England's knights.The right flank archers also fled in panic on seeing their beloved monarch scamper away. The remaining archers turned about and wheeled, bringing most of their bows into firing arc of the knights.

Turn 4: The french knights reformed to prepare to charge the last unit of english. The desperate archers shooting does little.

Turn 5: The French knights smashed into the English archers, killing some and sending others running away screaming.

The end of the English.

Big victory for the French!

What did I learn? Well...I learned I love medieval battles regardless of who wins, and playing with a system based off my favourite rules of all time is a sure fire winner! Now, what do I paint next?

Thanks for reading!