Had yet another HYW bash this week, introducing Dave to the game. He’d played once before, but that was a while ago. Once more I split the forces into the usual lists, with some of my English proxied as French knights. Dave chose to use the English (a good choice, since they tend to win in this set up, and he also had a camp (which enabled him to use extra bonuses) whereas the French (under moi) did not. These were the initial dispositions:
Initial Positions
On my extreme left flank are my Brigans, ready to pop out onto the flank and defend the artillery in front of them if necessary, alongside them are my dismounted knights, then two crossbowmen, and then the 3 units of knights. I split my two commanders so one could stick with the crossbowmen and dismounted knights, the other could stick with the cavalry. Facing them were (from my left) longbowmen (with Welsh Spear behind them), dismounted knights and billmen, then three more longbowmen, with a final unit of longbowmen defending the camp. All longbowmen had stakes deployed.
There go the cavalry
The first turn saw Dave await my advance, and my knights moving forward, which, thanks to some lousy dice on my part, was pretty piecemeal.
Followed by the crossbowmen
Eventually, however, my knights formed up in a good attacking line again, and even had some crossbowmen advance to join them.
The cavalry charge!
After a couple of turns, my knights charged in (though only some got into contact immediately). This was pretty inconclusive – after all, I did charge my knights straight into stakes – but after this first turn I would be past the stakes and could make my presence felt.
And promptly get into trouble
Unfortunately for me, Dave’s billmen decided to make their presence felt too, by charging into the flanks of the knights enmeshed in the stakes. One stroke of good fortune for me though – I destroyed one unit of longbowmen, and my impetuous knights went charging off into the woods in the direction of the enemy camp.
Uh-oh.
One of my knights, however, fell foul to the flank attack, and Dave’s dismounted knights started heading my way too. At least my crossbowmen now had the billmen in their sights, so if I could act before he did, I might be able to do some damage to them. I also managed to destroy another unit of longbowmen with my artillery. Yay me!
Double uh-oh.
Unfortunately (again), Dave’s billmen gained the initiative, and charged into the second unit of knights (again, in their flank) before I could deter them with my crossbowmen. And we had a nice clash of dismounted knights in the centre.
And there goes the cavalry
Not surprisingly, my second unit of knights also disappeared under the bills of their flanking attackers. D’oh!
At least if I can win in the centre…
With my morale rapidly dwindling, I decided to go for a two-pronged assault risking everything. I charged into the dismounted knights with my crossbowmen (who wouldn’t last long, but giving a “friends” bonus to my own dismounted knights might be enough to deal with them, since they were on 3 hits now. My other crossbowmen moved into range of Dave’s longbowmen and exchanged fire with them too, while my knights manoeuvered into position to charge on the enemy camp.
Or sack the enemy camp…
Skillfully dodging the longbowmen defending the camp, my knights charged in…and promptly rolled really crap dice, resulting in them not even being able to sack the camp this turn. Still, there was next turn…
Or I could just lose in the centre too.
Bugger. Despite a numerical advantage in the centre, I lost that combat, putting me over my morale total which meant at the end of the turn, I’d have to do a discipline check for every unit in my army. And then the exchange of fire between my crossbowmen and Dave’s longbowmen saw my crossbowmen race off the field too, which was just enough for my morale to plummet further and cause a general rout at the end of the turn. I guess the enemy camp wasn’t going to get sacked after all. Another fun game, and one I think Dave enjoyed too. If I’d managed to hang on, or even win in the centre, the result might have been different, but it was still close. And see Markus, nothing good ever comes of being the French.
