An Introduction to Medieval French DBA Campaign

 by Steve C.

In 1407 France was in a pretty desperate state of affairs and the once proud King Charles VI was no more than a figurehead.  Suffering from psychosis, and for the most part being in delusional state having had metal rods sewn into his clothing so that he wouldn’t shatter because amongst other things he believed that he is made of glass, France was for the most part run by a regency council.

The Queen, Isabeau of Bavaria, presided over the counsel on which sat the Kings Uncles and his Brother and cousin.  His uncle, Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, who had acted as regent during the King's minority was a great influence on the Queen.  However, this influence progressively shifted to Louis I, Duke of Orléans, the King's brother, and it was suspected that he was the Queen's lover.  On the death of Philip the Bold his son John the Fearless took over but he lost even more influence at court due to his unpopularity which then lead to a massive fallout between the Duke and Louis.  The Kings other Uncle John, Duke of Berry, served as a mediator between Louis, who now lead the Orléanist party, and John, who lead the Burgundian party, but to little avail.

John had an expansionist policy and had brought up large tracts of land that Louis countered by acquiring Luxembourg in 1402 and lands in the eastern marches of the kingdom that the Burgundians considered their private hunting ground.  Louis, having control of the purse strings, got 90% of his income from the royal treasury whilst John saw his revenue drop from 200,000 écus a year to 37,000.

Eventually John was ousted from the council altogether and his revenue cut off.  This was too much for him and he took advantage of the anger amongst taxpayers in Paris and won them over but even this and a demonstration against Paris with his army wasn’t enough to restore his influence at court so in 1407 he had Louis assassinated on the rue Vieille du Temple in Paris and took control of the council.  Louis’ son Charles vowed to avenge his father’s death and by marrying the Count of Armagnac’s daughter Bonnie d’Armagnac he then had a power base from which he formed the League of Gien which became known as the Armagnac party.

Whilst France was having its fair share of problems England, under the rule of King Henry IV, was having some of its own.  Since usurping the throne in 1399 Henry had been ruling a very troubled Kingdom.  A Scottish army of 10,000 men had laid waste to Northumberland and after a short campaign it was eventually defeated at Homildon Hill in 1402.

Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, and his son Harry "Hotspur", the very same men who had led the English army at Homildon Hill, rebelled against Henry whilst supporting the 5th Earl of Marche, Edmund Mortimer, who also claimed the English throne because he was a great-great-grandson of King Edward III.  The rebellion was eventually put down at the battle of Shrewsbury in 1403.

Owain Glyndŵr had also raised the flag of rebellion in 1400 and since then had been taking back tracts of Wales from the English.  Rumours abounded that Richard II was still alive, even though his body had been put on display in Westminster Abby after he died, and it was said that he was “awaiting only a signal from his friends to repair to London and recover his throne”.

Ireland was also causing the crown problems with most of it being taken back by the Celts with only the Pale and major towns still in the hands of the Anglo Irish lords.

Because of all of this internal strife Henry had very little time in which to concentrate his efforts in France, the last army being sent there in 1380 under the command of the Earl of Buckingham during the reign of Richard II.  Because of the high taxes that were imposed during the campaign, overseas war was very unpopular with the English public and is thought to have contributed to the peasants’ revolt of 1381.  So Henry’s tendency was to stay at home and watch with interest as events unfolded in France.

So this is where our campaign kicks off in July 1410 with both French factions building up their armies for the second time in 6 months.  Now, I’m not sure if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew here because there’s a lot to do and the rules may not allow for such a complex campaign in just two weeks but we’ll see how it goes and go as far as we can.

There are four historical chunks that I’ll try to tackle, and to begin with I’ll be concentrating on the period between 1410 and 1415, the rest, if you’re interested, can be played at a later time.

Unlike usual DBA campaigns where it’s very much a free for all, in this campaign there will be three teams, English, Burgundian and Armagnac each of which will have a set of historical objectives to achieve.

More on Ancient Chinese Armies

 By Dave Vallance

One of the Warring States Ancient Chinese armies for DBA in 6mm, is the almighty Chin.

In front are 3 elements of Crossbow

2nd line, on army photo above, on the left, 2 elements of Psiloi light infantry, and 4 elements of loony Warband on the right

Psiloi Light infantry

'Loony' Warband

Back line, 1 cavalry element t on the left, 2 Heavy chariot elements (General in the one with the parasol, as are all the other generals). These are treated as Knights in the rules.

And finally 1 element of Light Horse.

13 units, but there are options to have choices to make up the 12 elements, in this case, either 1 Psiloi or 1 Light Horse.

The other armies are similar, some spear heavy, some crossbow heavy

Another shows close ups of the chariots. The General could be one of the three Ting brothers, Bo, Lu or Shu (work it out!)

And finally, one of the walled towns, in this case the town of Pi Sha. Note the tower which is slightly leaning. The buildings in the middle are not stuck down. 

An Introduction to Ancient Chinese Armies

by Dave Vallance

With regard to the appearance of these armies, there is not much in the way of proven uniform colours etc, for my five DBA armies I've just painted them up as follows ;

Chin : Blue 

Wei/Yueh : Red (the first Chinese Red Army!)

Chao, Land of Late-coming : Green 

Chu. Land of the Immaculate : Yellow 

Han : White (Virgin Soldiers)

The other two states were Yan, Land of Swallows (if to be done, likely in black) and Chi, the Land of the Devout.(not sure, probably brown)

For those wanting more detail, I'll offer a brief outline on the chronology up to this period

1500 BC - Bronze casting. The first recognised dynasty, the Shang, becomes established over a pre-existing people called the Hsia, but little is known about these folk. Shang introduce writing. 

1300 BC - Chariot introduced

1027 BC - the people known as the Chou (pronounced Chew, or Jew...the 'ch' sounds like a 'j') rise up in revolt. They win, becoming the Western Chou, Shang becomes a minor state. The Chou set up 4 'duchies', namely Yen, Lu, Ch'i and Sung.

880 BC  - Barbarians from the North West, the Jung, invade Chou, forcing them to move capital further east, becomes known as the Eastern Chou. 

707 BC - Eastern Chou fragments into hundreds of little states, who spend the next 300 years or so fighting amongst themselves. The period from now until about 479 BC is known as the 

' Springs and Autumns' which is fairly settled, any warfare is described as being 'chivalrous' and 'aristocratic', and not all that bloody .However, our old pals, the Chin, who are far out to the west and were considered as being barbarians, are on the rise, and start to conquer other lands in there area, such as Shu, and Pa..

Bear in mind that the ancient China back then was not as huge as today's nation, and the Chin would roughly be in today's west centre of China. The Chin are pronounced as 'gin' as in 'gin and tonic'

From 479 BC onwards, this period is known as 'The Warring States' as previously mentioned above, with warfare become more and more aggressive, and with massive armies. There were seven main states, as mention above, the last being Ch'i which fell (whoopsadaisy) in 221 BC to the all conquering Chin.

The King of Chin, a man called Cheng, now called himself Emperor Shih Huang Ti, Lord of all Under Heaven. He ruled ruthlessly until dying in 210BC in his wagon, whilst out on a pilgrimage. It is said that his Chancellor, a devious cunning chap called Zhao Gao, disguised the whiff of the Emperors decaying corpse from the others in the entourage by having  wagon loaded with fish follow the Emperor's one. 

Zhao was well into power politics, and managed to get one the Emperor's youngest sons, (he had numerous kinds with numerous concubines, the randy git!) proclaimed as the Second Emperor. 

However, once the Emperor's death was announced, revolts took place all over the Empire, some of the old states were re born. It got so bad that even a Chin general, had to stop the work on the Emperor's Tomb (this is where the Terracotta Warriors come in) and equip the labour force with weapons taken from the statues (which is why none have been found in their tomb) in order to fight off a revolt. 

Eventually there were two main contenders, a southern aristocrat called Hsiang Yu with an army from Chu, and a Liu Pang, a man of lowly birth, who commanded contingents from Han, Shu, Pa, and former Chin soldiers. 

In 202BC at the Battle of Kai-hsia, Liu Pang finally defeated Hsiang and Liu took the title of Han-Kao-ti, the start of the Han Dynasty which ruled China for 400 years. 

I'l leave it there as it is not relevant to carry on with all the following Dynasties etc. surprised if you have kept up this far!

Some info for you

Armies fought in five divisions, or 'battles', if you will, all denoted by flags :

Vanguard - a Red Bird

Left Wing - a Green Dragon

Right Wing - a White Tiger

Rearguard/reserve  - a Black Tortoise

C in C with bodyguard - Great Bear constellation

They also had varying rank names for their nobles, big cheeses etc, in comparison with their Western ones 

Kung - Duke

Hou - Marquis

Po - Earl 

Tzu - Viscount 

Nan - Baron 

Wang - King (!)

Chariots were the original shock weapon but were later supplanted by cavalry which was fairly rare at this time, except for the barbarian tribes on the borders who were mostly horse archers. By the Han dynasty, cavalry became more and more common, with some later examples being armoured up like cataphracts.