This time around in Anton and my game we were working with the third army list book for WRG 7th edition. Anton went with one of his preferences, French Ordinance and I went with one of mine, Hundred Years War English. The terrain dice proved kind to me and I managed to clutter up the fringes of the board as well as Anton's deployment zone with some woods. Unfortunately Anton went against type and stocked up on missile troops some of which could handle woods. Anton outscouted me HORRIBLY 60:12 so I deployed first. Here is our Deployment
Anton's Army consisted of the following.
CinC SHK L & Sh, Body guard SHK L & Sh w/PA standard
Unit Un - 12 x Ordinance Horse, REG B, 1/2 SHK, L; 1/2 HC, JLS
Unit Dieu - 12 x Ordinance Horse, REG B, 1/2 SHK, L; 1/2 HC, JLS
Unit Trois - 24 Ordinance archers, REG B, HC (EHI), LB
Unit Quatre - 24 Ordinance archers, REG B, HC (EHI), LB
Unit Cinq - 24 Crossbowmen, IRG C, LMI, CB (1/2 with shields)
Unit Six - 24 Crossbowmen, IRG C, LMI, CB (1/2 with shields)
Unit Sept - 24 Francs Archers, IRG D, LHI, LB
My army was as follows
CinC SHK L & Sh, Bodyguard REG A, SHK L and PA standard
Unit One - 24 Men-At-Arms, REG B, 1/2 (SHK) SHI 2HCW & Sh, 1/2 (HC) EHI, JLS
Unit Two - 24 Archers, LB, 2/3 EHI, 2HCW (3/4 REG B other C), 1/3 HI REG C (half w/2HCW) *
Unit Three - 24 Archers, LB, 2/3 EHI, 2HCW, 1/3 HI (half w/2HCW) *
Unit Four - 30 Archers, REG C, LB, 18 x LHI, 2HCW, 12 x LMI 1/2 w 2HCW
Unit Five - 30 Archers, REG C, LMI, LB, 24 w/ 2HCW
* indicates pony riding loonies Unit Two is also not disordered by terrain.
Anton deployed Unit Cinq on his left. Unit Trois on the hill. Unit Sept in the woods on the hill. Unit Quatre in front of the woods to the right. Unit Six on his right. Units Un and Dieu are in the second rank left and right respectively.
My army is deployed with Unit Four in the village. Unit Two next to them. Unit Three in the middle. Unit One to the right. And Unit Five on the far right.
On turn one, Anton stood still and let fly with his overwhelming missile power, focusing on my Unit Three in the middle to some success. I sent Unit Four into the woods from the village and Unit Five into the woods on the right. Being careful in both cases to leave the units exposed on the wood edge so they could see the army standard. Mean while I attempted to reply in kind to Anton's barrage with my close order archers on units Trois and Sept and retrograded my SHI to avoid expensive casualties.
On turn Two I advanced Units Four and Five out of the woods and the missile fire continued in the center with Anton focusing on my Unit Three to mounting results. Anton also began the ponderous process of moving his Knights out to the flanks to run off my loose order archers.
On Turn Three I marched my Unit One forward and made the mistake of keeping Units Two and Three back for one more turn of missile fire, to Unit Three's detriment. I then began signaling for a general advance by the center on the enemy by use of the Army standard. Unfortunately it takes a turn for those orders to be "digested" by the unit commanders so my center stood around for another turn. Finally my loose order archers began returning fire on Anton's Crossbowmen to some effect. The Cavalry maneuver continued slowly.
On turn four as Unit Three was rapidly approaching 2/3 original strength which would have nasty repercussions on their morale I continued my wild gesticulations of the Army Standard calling for a general advance by the army. This turn my center advanced and the loose order archers fired again.
On Turn Five, my Unit Four charged into Anton's Unit Cinq and routed them. My unit Five was unable to charge due to a no charges allowed morale result (and the presence of Anton's Knights) and my slow crawl forward under missile barrage continued in the center.
On turn Six Anton's Unit Un charged my unit Four on the left and Anton's Unit Dieu charged my Unit Five on the right. My unit Four was routed. But Unit Five was only pushed back. The slow grind forward continued for me in the center with Units Two and Three finally getting into charge range for the next turn.
On Turn Seven my Unit Four ran off into the woods on the left while Anton's Unit Un pursued and lost contact. My Unit Two charged up hill and pushed back Anton's Unit Trois. But Unit Three refused to charge due to accumulated missile casualties and less than optimal dice rolling. However, on the right my Unit Five managed to push back Anton's Unit Dieu (God bless the English Archer's Maul) so Anton bounced his knights out of combat.
On Turn Eight Anton's Unit Un rallied forward and turned to face my Unit Two's flank. Meanwhile my Unit Two managed to break Anton's Unit Trois by casualties. My CinC joined Unit Three and after putting spurs to them managed to get them to charge into Anton's Unit Sept, shattering Unit Sept on impact, but the Francs immediately outdistanced my archers in the woods and escaped further harm. At long last my Unit One got to charge into Anton's Unit Quatre. However, being cowardly French, Anton had Unit Quatre evade. Cries of "Not Cricket!" And "Poor Show There Chaps!!" Went up from my Knights. But no matter how shabby a move, I can not deny it was COMPLETELY fitting with French style and accepted the dastardly deed. Meanwhile, Anton's Unit Dieu reformed on the right as did the remains of my Unit Five.
On Turn Nine My Unit Four continued routing through the woods appearing out the other side. Anton's Unit Un charged at my Unit Two. After some wrangling with the always LESS THAN CLEAR Rules we determined that my Unit Two was allowed to be reforming in any formation or direction it chose (facing the oncoming Knights thank you) but, while uphill of the knights were still disordered from their previous fight with the French Longbowmen. The charge pushed back my archers, but did not break them. Anton Unit Sept continued routing in the woods. My Unit Three rallied forward and prepared to support my Unit One. Anton's cowardly Unit Quatre began reforming. My Unit One turned to face Anton's Unit Dieu and Anton's Unit Six moved to mask his Unit Dieu from my Unit Five on the right.
On Turn Ten, the battle was decided when My Unit Four rallied while Anton's Units Trois and Sept both failed the morale checks and continued routing off the board. Meanwhile in combat Anton's Unit Un was unable to push back my Unit Three a second time. At which point Anton conceded the game, which translates as his general ran off to save his own skin leaving his army to fend for themselves as best they could!
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