Newark, 25th May

Partizan '08 Kelham Hall, Newark, 25th May

Thankfully, I forgot to take my camera to Partizan ... so showteamer, Chris, made sure he got some pictures for us with his camera (which is better than mine!)... Excellent.

For Partizan, we returned to the Poitiers theme, and my developing DBA scenario.... 'Froissart's Poitiers' (so styled, because it features a really significant hedge and ridge - just as Froissart describes)...

Basically, the game is a part-way DBA Big Battle ... the English have a standard DBA army, but a position magnifique (to borrow, appropriately enough, from the French ...).. The French have 2 DBA army sized battles (+ the Marshals as supernumerary elements not counting for losses ..).. representing the first and third parts of the army... with which to assault it.

The whole of the French army is deployed on foot, with the exception of the two Marshals of France, Clermont and D'Audrehem. The Black Prince is provided with a foot or mounted element, and chooses which to be when he first moves in the game. The second French Battle commanded by the Duc D'Orleans did not participate in an organised way, so is not represented.

I will include a full scenario when the experience of a few more shows has refined it down - fighting two battles (in both senses, really) is a precarious balance ... it makes the game take longer than DBA really should ... but most of the teams presenting games at the battleday seemed to reckon this was the most legible way to do Poitiers...


This shows me removing the defeated Prince of Wales from the first game of the day (losing all ends up to a red hot youngster - becoming a speciality of mine, it seems). Aficionados of the game will well understand that once in combat, you might get overlapped, and an overlapped Knight General can end up fighting on a 3 against an overlapped Blade on a 2. This creates that situation where the battle can be immediately lost if you roll 1 and the youngster rolls a 6. There is a rule of wargaming which predicts this will always happen.

The pictures show the first evolution of my new terrain, replacing the commercially pre-flocked boards we used at Triples earlier in the year. It was a partial success. I have tried to copy Mark Craddock's 'rolling foam' idea which looked so good at the Society of Ancients Battleday (remember these ...) ... but my colouring was far less lush, and my foam was lifting a bit at the edges .... Version 2 will be much better!


The whole thing was constructed inside a pasting table (so folds out quickly when arriving at a show ...) and was the right shape for the battlefield once I switched the hinges around. I think it's a good idea, and I love the way it folds away to go back in the car (no more bits of broken polystyrene!)... but this is just the first go at it ...

Returning to the scenario, I've dealt with the Captal de Buch's outflanking manoeuvre by borrowing some bits from HOTT: if the English roll a 6, they can use it to allow the Captal and his detachment to slip away from view (behind the hill, as it was, historically) ... if/when another 6 is rolled, the concealed force may reappear anywhere on the table edge. This has worked very smoothly to allow the English their outflanking stratagem.

But overall, did the hugely advantageous English position allow them to survive having to fight two French armies, one after the other?
Well, we played through 4 times ... and given my excellent combat skills when taking the English army (charging the Prince of wales in, and rolling' one's!), there were 2 French wins and 2 English. Perfectly balanced, but more by incompetence than actual design, maybe. Of course, historically, the English win ... and then some...

Ah well.

Thanks to the Newark Irregulars for their hospitality, and to Dave Lanchester of the Lance & Longbow Society (with who we team up for this show - and who is very forgiving of my idiosyncrasies!)... Thanks to the players for making it fun.

We will be in Birmingham next weekend, at the UK Games Expo... We don't have a full 'wargame' space, but I will take along Gladiolus and some of the other SoA games (if anyone wants to try them out). I would love to hear from Society of Ancients members who might be able to lend a hand over the weekend (at the Expo, or any of the scheduled events - we could always do with more). Don't hesitate to get in touch.

(figures in the pictures by Graham Fordham, photos by Chris Ager)

Bletchley April 26th

SOCIETY OF ANCIENTS BATTLEDAY - AN OVERVIEW

Sorry for the delays in getting this next post up (again). I conceived of this blog as a record of where we went and what we did ... and as a place to upload the photos we took (if anyone else wanted to see them). The BattleDay was, of course, an official Society of Ancients event. Given that I had responded to a request on the Armati Yahoo group to put some pictures of that game up, it only seemed fair to try to give as balanced an overview as possible to follow. Well, I did my best ... and that meant a lot of pictures to gather and edit ... a lot of different but equally intriguing games is the whole point of the battleday

We had Warlord II, DBMM, Armati, DBM (later rerun as AMW, I believe), and 'Days of Knights'


We had Piquet, Arcane Warfare (which reran later as FoG, I believe), Warmaster Ancients...

2 boards of Command and Colours (one the 'Battle Lore' version) and DBA ...


Some of the games were presented by their designers, notably Phil Barker and Trevor Halsall, or involved well known Slingshot contributors ... Duncan Head, Phil Sabin, Anthony Clipsom, John Graham-Leigh (to drop a few names ...)...

Hopefully the photos I have collected will give a good impression of the excellent variety and quality of games exploring this fascinating battle in parallel - and some hint of the differences in approach ... from Warmaster's 'cast of thousands' to Warlord's carefully recreated battlefield.

As is the custom, Richard Lockwood organised the awarding of mementos, sponsored vouchers and topical figures from his own painting table

The best Terrain, and best game on the day (these are pure 'caught the eye' awards) went to Shrewsbury/Sue Laflin-Barker's DBA, and Warlord II (Richard Harper, Trevor Halsall, Ian Colby) respectively...

and the recipients of the notable event mementos were ...



Adam Hayes, in the Piquet game, won the Black Prince Award - first rallying the centre, then the left, then leading the victorious charge ...
Graham Fordham won the English Archers ('peasants') Award .. shooting at each mounted wing of the French attack, and requiring 10 on a D10, Graham apparently disposed of both Marshals before they reached the English lines...

Paul Glover won the King Jean Award for his inspiring French victory in the
DBA game.
And Rodger Williams won the Chandos award for chivalric conduct in the Armati game ... moving his crossbowmen aside to make way for their betters - and forfeiting their shots at the Black Prince's (by then crippled) bodyguard .. in proper wargaming fashion, Rodger rolled the dice anyway, to see what might have been - and rolled the sixes that would have destroyed the English veterans (and maybe won the French the battle). The French Men-at-Arms that came through were mercilessly cut down, of course.

Poitiers Battleday - Froissart's Hedge

Readers of the blog will know the importance of the hedge at Poitiers - or at least, in Froissart's account.

My 'hedge of the day' award went to the Armati game - in which I had the opportunity to participate (as king Jean) in the afternoon game ..

Wonderfully modelled, it did not look easy to get the English out of there ...I am sure that readers of Slingshot will get full rules orbats etc. for the armies in due course. Suffice to say that the French army was enormous, and that the king's division would not take the field until the Vanguard was routed.

The single unit mounted divisions leading each wing .. the Marshall's of France, Clermont and Audrehem, were not key units in order to encourage their reckless assault on the English lines ...
Actually, in our game, they made some headway, despite the apparent futility of attacking English Longbows and Men-at-Arms uphill though two lines of disordering hedge. Encouraged by the initial valour of the Marshals, the Dauphin advanced as fast as possible - scarcely delaying to pepper the English with darts and crossbow bolts.
Again, some encouraging leadership (canny die-rolling ...) raised French expectations ..

and some Englishmen were soon routed as the Dauphin's men looked to carry the hedge ...

but attrition eventually wore down the Frenchmen, who broke leaving the English ragged but still holding the line. King Jean personally led the remaining French division, but as he took the field, the Black Prince has released a small party of mounted English and Gascons under the Captal de Buch which was able to ride around the open flank of this unwieldy French mass. King Jean fought valiantly as the enormous army collapsed around him ....

Unfortunately for Rodger and myself, history was not rewritten on this occasion.

(game: Armati; scenario: Mark Fry; figures: Roy Boss; terrain: Mark Craddock; presentation Mark, Mark and Rodger Williams)

Poitiers and The Hedge

I think one of my main issues has been with the hedge. Froissart describes this in fulsome detail, and it seems quite a substantial feature. There has been a tendency to minimise it in wargames reconstructions (to little more than a modern 'field boundary' type feature) - and I'm not sure that's right. OK, later in the battle (after thousands of men have hacked their way though it .. or tried to ...), it seems insufficient to restrict the English cavalry charge ... At deployment, of course, it seems to be the line drawn by a vastly out-numbered army between the broken ground on their left, and a palisade of wagons on their right... It is suggested they enhanced it too ...

I look forward to how the various game designers/presenters deal with this issue at the BattleDay. I will learn what I can from them - however, I suspect my own evolving game will be titled 'FROISSART'S POITIERS' (so no-one can be misled where I stand on the sources ...

Another shot of Poitiers

The 'crunch' approaches as the French attempt to smash through the English line at Poitiers