Strange Doings in Burgundy - The Battle of Cravant

We went to the Hundred Years War this Tuesday, courtesy of Richard, as he works out how big a period his WotR rules will cover. Cravant was fought shortly after the death of Henry V, and featured Anglo-Burgundians fighting Franco-Scottish forces. The Anglo-Burgundians are trying to lift the siege of Cravant.

I was commanding the Anglo-Burgundians, supported by Chris and Ian in the relieving force, and Vincent with the defenders. Jon was the Franco-Scottish, together with Phil, Steve and Will.

The plan was to pin most of their army to the river line whilst Chris forced the bridge and hopefully Vincent would sally forth and take them roughly from behind.

I swapped the sequence of our battles, so that I ended up on the left. I should have been in the centre. I did this because Phil was on the Franco-Scottish right, and I thought he would be more aggressive, so needed to face the stronger battle. I expected Jon to be a bit more cagey, and that would make him easier prey to Ian's Burgundian handgunners.

Here we are several turns in, and Chris has got to the bridge. He now needs to change into attack formation, and rush Steve's Frenchies at the far end.

Chris' charge succeeded beyond expectations. He loosed off one round of shooting, swapped his big men to the front and pushed Steve off the end of the bridge. In the distance you can see Vincent's defenders have emerged from the town. They are mounted knights.

I'd got a bit mired by Phil's 6 rolling machine (he really must give me the name of his app). Ian was a bit slower getting into position, but it had drawn Jon forwards. Ian really needed to be on the river bank by this point, but I had mistimed the approach.

BTW at this point my command figure was shot and killed, which was a shade irritating. However, we had wounded Phil's commander, so there was an opportunity to be exploited.

Phil is standing back from the bank, shooting at me as I wade across the river. I should have left my archers behind to provide covering fire. The effectiveness of the Scot archery came as some surprise. Chris is pushing Steve back steadily, so Jon retires from the bank. Ian has taken some damage.

Vincent, who is now off to the right, launched a charge at Will's militia guarding the siege lines, broke them, and is now pursuing them off picture.

That's a better camera angle. You can see Vincent's cavalry now. Chris is pushing Steve further back. Jon is trying a cunning trick of dropping back. I guess he intends to about face and charge Chris in the rear at some point as he pushes Steve past him. 

My fight with Phil on the river bank is hard fought and intense. With Jon a couple of turns back, Ian decides to cross the river.

Vincent is now looting the camp. I think Steve might be broken at this point, and Chris pursues. Ian emerges from the river. 

With Jon still fixated on Chris, Ian swings round to give Phil's men something to think about.

Jon about faces, and heads back to take on Ian, saving Phil from a flank attack. So far we have done well to keep one of their strongest units out of the fight, by having it run backwards and forwards. Chris breaks off the pursuit. 

On my flank it is getting tense. We must be getting close to one of us breaking.

Vincent carries on looting. Will shoots at the defenders on the walls.

Ian charges Jon. His battle is much the weaker, but it is best to fight Jon nearer to Chris' men and also get the first hack in.

Chris does the business, and hits Jon from behind, having broken off from pursuit.

Finally I get that last hit in, and break Phil's men, but at a heavy cost. Anglo-Burgundian victory.

An ambitious game, with 8 players all on line. The game had one command for each player, although Vincent and Will had less to do than the rest of us. Whilst it moved on fairly quickly, there was some down time between turns, and once we were locked into combat there wasn't a lot of thinking between turns. That enabled me to catch up with some paperwork between activations.

The only one of us who has played this scenario before was Phil, who had played it using Impetus with the Lance and Longbow Society. He declared this to be a better game and outcome, so Richard is doing something right.