My correspondent very generously recreated some key moments from his Hastings test game using Blood & Chivalry and sent a short battle report. I was excited to see the game played out. As you can see in the pictures he made some clever data sheets for the various units involved.
I will now turn the narrative over to Stefan:
The set up for the Normans was as follows: Light infantry crossbow unit on the left flank, with Arriere-Ban medium infantry behind. Light infantry bow unit on the right flank, with heavy infantry spearmen unit behind. Heavy cavalry knights behind in the center and right flank.
The set up for the Saxons was as follows: Medium infantry Select Fyrd unit on the right flank. Heavy infantry Huscarl unit in the center and another unit on the left flank.
The Normans advanced their crossbow unit on the left flank and their bow unit on the right flank and, once in range, stated inflicting missile casualties on the Saxons. The Arriere-Ban medium infantry and the heavy infantry spearmen unit advanced behind the light infantry. Eventually, the Norman light infantry bow unit and the right flank scooted further to their right so as to make way for the heavy infantry spearmen. They could do so because, as light infantry, they are very maneuverable. On the left flank there was not enough space to do the same with the crossbow unit and, unlike the bow unit, the crossbow unit could not move and shoot. So the Arriere-Ban medium infantry started a ponderous wheeling maneuver to try to get at the Saxons. As feudal medium infantry they could only wheel or turn about.
The Saxons started getting annoyed with the missile fire and the Select Fyrd unit on the right flank came off the hilltop to chase the crossbow unit away, while the Arriere-Ban medium infantry was still trying to wheel into place. The crossbow unit elected to stand and fire, but incurred casualties and had to flee when the Saxon Select Fyrd meleed the crossbowmen.
At the same time the Norman heavy infantry spearmen engaged in suicidal charges by throwing themselves at the Saxon left flank Huscarl unit. The intent was to inflict damage on the Huscarls but also to clear the way for the Norman heavy cavalry knights. These feudal forces are very restricted in their maneuverability, and there really was no way for the Norman heavy cavalry to proceed forward unless the Norman heavy infantry was first destroyed. After a couple of attacks, which resulted in the smaller Norman heavy infantry unit being repulsed, the Norman heavy infantry unit was finally destroyed. This then allowed the Norman knights to charge,
The Norman heavy cavalry's charge hit the two Saxon Huscarl units, stationed in the Saxon center and the Saxon right flank. The charge was devastating, resulting in the two Saxon Huscarl units recoiling. While casualties were inflicted on the Saxons, the Norman heavy cavalry also incurred casualties. However, in their morale test, the Norman heavy cavalry rolled a morale result of "battle ferocity." So, they successively continued to charge the two Saxon Huscarl units before them, eventually routing these two Saxon units. However, by the time of the last charge, they had incurred substantial casualties themselves, and their morale roll ended up in the Norman heavy cavalry routing also.
[The bit about Blood & Chivalry that I'm quite proud of is the Morale Testing. The rare professional troops roll 3d6. Feudal troops roll d20, Mercenaries roll 2d6. Everyone uses the same table. So Feudal troops are more likely to get a '20' "Battle Ferocity" and mercenaries are quite in danger of rolling badly since you need a modified result of 9-19 to be in Good Morale. But in the above case the Norman cavalry rolled a "1" and with negative modifiers for casualties they'd break.]
At that point we called the game. The only Norman units left on the board were the Norman light infantry bow unit, crossbow unit, and the Arriere-Ban medium infantry; the latter still trying to wheel into place. The only Saxon unit left was the Select Fyrd medium infantry unit.
So very exciting to see my rules used in the wild by people who don't know me. The armies are all 15mm figures from Two Dragons, Thistle and Rose, and Old Glory.
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