The Battle of Beaulieu Abbey, 1513

Last weekend Simon Chick and I were invited to bring our collections for a Franco Tudor battle hosted by Michael Perry.

We had a great time and it was good to catch up over a game and beers thereafter. For me these annual games serve as a good pause to review a years work and indeed to focus the mind as to where I should concentrate my efforts going forward.

It was also really good to chat with Michael's wife Ninya about early 16c clothing and to have a look at her ongoing projects. Have a look at http://www.tudortailor.com/ for more information. I thoroughly recommend the books.

Unlike me Michael has had quite a few wargames and his write ups and photography really are a treat on the Perry Miniatures Facebook page. Here's his report of the game;

Initial set up

'Our annual Henrician wargame was played out this weekend. Our mates Stuart Mulligan and Simon Chick brought up their respective armies for a grand bash on Michael's wargames table. If you haven't seen their painting and conversion skills before, prepare to be amazed! Stuart has spent ten years now painting plus converting most of his army form mainly our War of the Roses range into troops of Henry VIII's 1513 French Expedition, modelling base coats and Tudor caps on most of them.

Some of the cavalry and the Landsknechts are from our old Foundry Renaissance range and there might be one or two Steel Fist miniatures in there as well! Talking about Steel Fist, the owner of that company, Simon Chick, brought forth his magnificent Burgundian horde (masquerading as French) to once more appose Henry.

Simon's army has about 180 cavalry although Michael had to cull them a bit for the game but even so they seemed overwhelming. Aly Morrison joined in and supplied three units of impeccably painted French Infantry. By coincidence, Ben Wootten, (a great New Zealand sculptor in the film business working for Weta) that we've known for almost twenty years was also visiting this weekend and was very easily drawn into the game.

Onto the game itself. Michael organized the game and set up the table. Unfortunately, there was only one proper clash during the 1513 campaign and that was more of a large skirmish so this was to be a made up action based on Henry's march to besiege Therouanne.

The aim of the game was that the French would attempt to stop the English advance as they broke camp early in the morning with their secondary goals to prevent the Abbey of Beaulieu being looted and bring back the cattle stolen by the Irish. The English objectives were the reverse i.e. to get off the far side of the board, keep the cattle and loot the Abbey (Henry actually ordered that there should be no looting on the campaign, but he had no sway with the Germans and Irish in his force).

Stuart, Ben and the legendary Dave Andrews played the English placing the English division of infantry forming up just outside the camp. Dave placed his two units of Border Horse ahead and to the left of the infantry. The rest of the divisions would issue forth from the camp on a dice role each turn, if there was room. The French, Simon, Aly and Alan, had initially two units of light cavalry (Stradiots and mounted crossbowmen) already bearing down on the Irish with the looted cattle in the centre of the table with the rest of the divisions appearing on a dice role two feet in at the far end of the table. The rules were a Rick Priestly adapted version of 'Hail Caesar'.

Irish kern returning to the English camp

The English won the toss to kick off and Ben led the way by sending his English infantry division towards the river and abbey. Dave, in control of the heavy cavalry, and Henry himself, trotted out with half the horse to the left of the field. 

Stuart managed to rouse the Germans but they were a little tardy and stayed within the camp boundaries while the other English/Irish division didn't wake from their slumbers as did the rest of Dave's horse. Michael rolled for the Irish cattle rustlers in the middle of the table and they headed towards the camp, not being tempted by the abbey's bling.

Henry leads his division of heavy cavalry

The English right begin their march

The Irish kern hurriedly returning to camp with their loot

The Landsknechts form up to leave camp

The main Irish auxiliaries break camp. They didn't play much of a part in the game but they do look great don't they !

The French initially failed to move their light cavalry in pursuit of the Irish but pretty much all of their divisions appeared on command dice rolls with, from the left, Aly's French infantry division on the far left opposite the abbey, then Aly's heavy cavalry, then Alan's infantry division followed by Simon's and on the extreme right, Alan's cavalry.

The next turn was very similar to the first for the English with Ben reaching the river and the Germans moving out of the camp and Dave's cavalry pushing forward. The French advanced at a reasonable rate (apart from Simon's infantry) with Aly's infantry moving to the right hand side of the abbey.

The French infantry move forward

The French reach the river in the middle of the board with the abbey in the background

Ben was keen to unlimber his guns this side of the river but was strongly advised to cross it and set up, which he did.

Alan's central division of French infantry were moving in column to reach the river quicker which spurred Dave to, what everybody thought was a rash decision, charge one of his Border horse units across the river and into Alan's infantry. Dave needed three moves so as not to end stationary in front of crossbows and artillery. He made it, ploughing through one unit of crossbow into the next, routing both.

Border Horse leap through the river to attack

The second unit of Border horse headed across the river to engage the Stradiots that were pushing forward but fell short. By this stage all divisions were on the board with the remaining cavalry and infantry of the English moving up to form a battle line their side of the river.

Ben pushed forward to capture the abbey at the same time as Simon's mounted archers but the English got there first. Dave held King Henry and his horse ready to counter charge Alan's heavies as soon as they crossed the river but Alan charged first although didn't reach, leaving them in the river.

French Ordonnance Archers

Aly had, by now, pushed forward an ominous division of heavy cavalry towards Ben's artillery with the intent to unleash them diagonally across the river into the centre of the yet unformed English line but started receiving artillery and small arms fire from Ben which recoiled one unit. The centre of the English line was then plugged by Stuarts German pike and shot which changed Aly's plan.

Organs guns and a culverin with bill in support prepare to receive cavalry

Landsknecht Pike form up to plug the centre

Henry's cavalry with landsknechts in support, their arquebusiers to their flank begin to move into firing positions

Ben forced his way through the abbey with a unit of bow and bill as well as foot knights and out the other side into a hail of arrows and Aly's artillery.

Another of Aly's horse units fell back being stung by arrows and gun shot which made up his mind to charge straight forward into Ben's three light guns. The result was predictable! The horse fell back in disarray exposing the last unit to more ranged fire which broke the division.

The organ guns unleash their volleys

Stradiots leave to fight another day

On the left flank Dave charged his horse, led by Henry. Alan counter charged. There were three units of heavy horse a side with the English having an advantage of two more in support plus one more commander i.e. Henry.

The initial cavalry charge and counter charge.

The first of the three clashes was a draw the second an English win but the third, with Henry in the fray, was a rout for the English. Henry was unharmed and quickly joined the English unit of horse that had won and second a round of combat was fought.

In this second desperate encounter the French narrowly lost but both sides were broken with English unable to pursue.

Henry is led away

All the cavalry on the field were now spent and the infantry were hardly engaged but a veil was drawn over the game as the pub was calling. The game was considered a draw although the Irish had managed to bring most of the cattle to the camp and the abbey was still contested but Henry was not going to push through to Therouanne easily...'

The game has given me resolve to push on with work on my Tudors, I'd like to work on some more artillery pieces and cavalry before I'm content for any more work on the French.

Seeing all of the infantry in their coats was a real boost and I'm very glad I decided to replace the previous units in my collection with these, they really add some period detail to the collection.

Of course a great contrast to all those white coats is the Irish, I think some auxiliaries would also be a perfect addition. It's coming up to almost 10 years since I started this army and my enthusiasm is just as great as at the start.

It never ends !

All the best

Stuart

Renaissance Rampant AAR Tudor Rebellion !

This weekend I hosted a series of 3 linked games with fellow Renaissance enthusiast Oli of the Camisado blog. Oli and I have complementary collections of Italian Wars figures for which we have spent the last year or so working to create an Italian Wars amalgamation of the Lion Rampant & Pikeman's Lament rules as a basis for our wargames. The main focus was to create some bespoke army lists for our early Tudor and French collections as well as some period additions which we feel bridge the gap between the rule sets. 

Our games often have a loosely historical theme and this weekend was no exception. To give you the best feel for the games we played we will present them in a shared post. Here I shall introduce the scenarios, historical background and a few photographs and over on Oli's blog you can read the after action reports and see the majority of the photographs.

As is somewhat evident I've long been fascinated by the Tudor period and particularly the exploits and intrigue during the early part of Henry VIII's reign. Though the Wars of the Roses had come to an end the Yorkist threat remained ever present and no more so than in 1514; a year after the invasion of France and victory at Flodden a very real adversary lay just across the Channel.

There now follows a short summary of the De la Pole family line. If you'd like to know more about this and other threats to the Tudor dynasty I thoroughly recommend a read of The Last White Rose by Desmond Seward.

With the death of his only son in 1484 Richard III elected his nephews John, Edmund, William and Richard de la Pole as legitimate heirs. Richard's death at Bosworth derailed this somewhat but for the the De la Pole's it was not the end. In 1487 John landed with an army of German and Irish mercenaries in an attempt to raise rebellion once more in England. He did not get the anticipated support and met his end at the Battle of Stoke Field.

Edmund fled to the low countries and initially gained protection from Maximilian I but political intrigue meant that he also met his end in England. Henry had him executed in 1513 as he left to invade France.

William was somewhat less keen to cause trouble but Henry VII had him imprisoned in the Tower in 1502 where he would remain in captivity for the next 37 until his death.

Richard had other ideas, he also fled to the continent but took shelter in the French court of Louis XII where following the death of Edmund he was championed by Louis as King of England. He did not shy from danger giving military service to Louis and later Francis I. He was present at the siege of Therouanne commanding a force of 6000 Landsknechts (I believe this was in the relief army rather than the besieged). This number rose to 12'000 in 1514 as Louis funded preparations for an invasion of England with Richard at its head. By June everything was in place with the Scots offering a route over the border, a repeat of 1487's rebellion seemed likely only this time a battle hardened commander would lead a professional force.

Unfortunately for Richard diplomacy ended his ambitions as Louis made peace with Henry. Richard continued to serve the French crown and his ambitions but was killed commanding a contingent of Landsknechts at the Battle of Pavia. Upon hearing news of this from an imperial messenger Henry is said to have cried 'All the enemies of England are gone - give him more wine !'

As host I put together the following 3 linked games to represent Richard's Invasion. As this was a mini campaign of sorts we also tried out using the boasts from the LR & PL rules as a means to gain additional points.

Part 1

July 1514, Richard De la Pole has landed at Leith and moved South at the head of a Rebel army. After gaining local support the first ward of the army makes its way over the border to advance inland when sight of the English is made.

Set up

The game is played with a large ridge running across the middle of the board, obscuring visibility for both sides. The Rebels deploy along the Western edge and must exit via the Eastern edge. The English must try their best to stop them.

Special Rules

·         Players roll to see who starts.

·         Counters are used for movement until a unit crests the hill at which point the army seen by the unit is revealed and the other army stays hidden until an enemy unit does the same.

·         All units activate on 6+ and move 7 inches until revealed.

·         Units behind the crest of the ridge cannot fire upon targets at the other side of the crest. 

Ending the mission

Play until only one side has units on the table.

Victory conditions

The Rebels gain 1 point for each unit they get off the table, the English gain 1 point for each Rebel unit they destroy.

Opposing Forces

The English, 36 points

1 Unit Shire Bow, 4 points

1 Unit Shire Bill, 5 points

1 Unit Retinue Bow, 6 points

1 Unit Retinue Bill, 6 points

1 Unit Foot Knights, 6 points

1 Unit of Demilancers, 5 points

Culverin, 4 points 

The Rebels, 36 points

2 Units of Landsknecht Pike, 8 points

1 Unit of Landsknecht Arquebusiers, 5 points

1 Unit Mounted Crossbowmen, 4 points

1 Unit of Rebel Foot Knights, 6 points

1 Unit of Rebel Shire Bow, 4 points

1 Unit of Rebel Men at Arms, 5 points

Culverin, 4 points

Here are some photographs from our game which featured a newly commissioned set of ridge boards from David Marshall of TM Terrain.

You can read the outcome over on Oli's blog, it was an entertaining game made especially more fraught by the initial obscured movement.

Part 2,

The White Rose is proving his worth and days are turning into anxious weeks as he consolidates his hold. Louis XII & The Duke of Albany both send promised reserves to bolster the invasion for a march on the Capital. The English fall back and make a stand at a vital river crossing.

Set up

As per Scenario E in Lion Rampant.

Special Rules

·         A non-battered unit counts as holding the objective when it begins the owner’s activation phase as the only unit placed on the objective.

Ending the mission

Play until one side has accumulated 5 Glory points.

Victory conditions

A player gains 1 point each time they begin an activation phase with one of their units occupying the objective at the start of their turn. 

Opposing Forces 

The English, 36 points

1 Unit Shire Bow, 4 points

1 Unit English Pike, 4 points

1 Unit Retinue Bow, 6 points

1 Unit Retinue Bill, 6 points

1 Unit Border Horse, 5 points

1 Unit of Demilancers, 5 points

2 Organ Guns, 6 points

The Rebels, 36 points

1 Unit of Landsknecht Pike, 4 points

1 Unit of Landsknecht Arquebusiers, 5 points

1 Unit of Scots Pike, 4 points

1 Unit of Kern & Horseboys 6 points

1 Unit of Gallowglass 4 points

1 Unit French Men at Arms, 5 points

1 Unit Ordonnance Archers, 4 points

Culverin, 4 points

Unfortunately I took less photographs during this game as my mind was focussing upon stemming the tide of Rebels making toward the bridge. The game was over very quickly.

This hill was also part of the recent terrain commission, I added some small brass tubes into it to accommodate twisted wire trees from The Model Tree Shop.

Part 3,

End Game. De la Pole has reached the outskirts of London, Henry takes the field to defend his right to the throne.

Set up

As per Scenario A in LR. The forces deploy along the N and S edges. The board is rolling countryside (possibly with walls at one end.)

Special Rules

None, it's a fight to the death.

Ending the mission

Play until death or a player concedes defeat.

Victory conditions

Players gain 1 point for each enemy unit destroyed or routed.

Opposing Forces

Each side is split into two retinues comprising 30 points worth of troops from the forces listed in the preceding 2 games plus 20 additional points of troops. (the English from the English listings and the Rebels from the English/French/Irish listings).

This was a long hard fought battle fought all day with a very close finish. Due to the size of the armies the two retinues a side worked well and aided the smooth ebb and flow. The large size of the game was easily accommodated by the rules and very much the more enjoyable for that though for ease we ignored the 3" rule. It was refreshing for the absence of long addition and tables that some of the Battle rulesets inevitably come down to. There was a great period feel and you could almost hear the sound of the guns (which I might have spent a bit too long photographing).

For our games Oli took the part of the Rebels and provided troops for them to serve alongside my Landsknechts in French service and Men at Arms. His recently completed Irish alongside Scots and Rebel infantry made for a visual feast and complemented by my Tudor collection the games were a convincing adaptation of the historical background.

As you can see the forces we used were larger than Lion Rampant was intended so these are very much mini battles but I don't see why the scenarios couldn't be adapted for more typical games.

Oli's report will be up in a week or so, a wait worthwhile to hear the result of the Yorkist cause.

We had a great time and even managed to get to the pub and drink responsibly.

All the best

Stuart

Battle Report; the raid on Ardes

A couple of weeks back my local wargaming support group (myself Keith & Jeff) met with Simon at Firestorm Games in Cardiff. We're all separated by distance and time to a greater or lesser extent and this, certainly for me at least was a try at a game without taking over the kitchen for the day. I must say it proved to be a winning formula for a good catch up as well as some introductions and there was a rather good shop on site and a bar - what's not to like ?

We'd agreed in advance that I would host / umpire a game of Lion Rampant using my Renaissance adaptions which I loosely based upon the 1513 raid on Ardes. I had previously gamed this scenario with another Renaissance man Oli during a weekend of gaming in the summer and this was our stand out favourite. You can see how we got on in his blog posting here. In fact, this turned out to be quite a different result !

Here's the history part;

Within days of Marching from Calais to Therouanne Henry VIII soon became aware of the trouble with hiring Landsknechts when they came upon the friendly town of Ardes as an advance party of the Germans soon accompanied by some English began to pillage and burn the town. Henry was furious and decreed that anyone participating in the pillage would be hanged and should leave the town within the hour but this fell on deaf ears and it was only when he personally led a body of his heavy cavalry against them and hanged the ringleaders that the mayhem ceased.

There’s lots of ways you could play this out but one particularly memorable adaptation with a little bit of license was the following;

An English / German raiding force of 30 points attacks the town through an undefended gate, with the town defended by a 20 point garrison. The raiding party must loot and burn 4 prominent buildings in the town and make their escape. When the first building is fired the smoke attracts the attention of both a 30 point French patrol and a 20 point detachment from the English army who arrive on a 1-2 following the turn of the first fire, a 3-4 then 5-6 thereafter.

This makes for a prolonged almost two-part skirmish game in and outside the walls with even yet uneven forces, it’s also a great opportunity for four players to cover a day's gaming.

Unfortunately I neglected to take my camera so all of the photos are from our phones but hopefully that doesn't detract too much.

Here's the set up, essentially a board of two halves, town and rolling country.

The terrain boards, most of the figures and some of the buildings are mine, the majority of the town is made from Simon's collection.

For the initial clash the English deploy at the SW outside table edge and the Garrison deploy in the NE inside table edge.

The forces for the game are as follows:

The French Garrison

Foot Knights (the Garrison Leader) 6 points

2 Units of Aventuriers with Crossbows 3 points each

2 Units of Picard Infantry 3 points each

Culverin and crew 3 points

21 points

English Raiders

2 Units of Shire Bill, one of these is the English Leaders Unit. 5 points each

3 Units of Shire Bow 4 points each

2 Units of Landsknecht Shot 4 points

30 points

When they arrive the English relief force deploys in the Eastern edge in front of the town and the French on the Western edge.

French relief force

2 Gendarmes Units (the Leader) 12 points

1 Unit of Ordonnance Mounted Archers 4 points

2 Unit of Men at Arms 10 points

1 Unit of Stradiots 4 points

30 Points

English relief force

2 Unit of Demilancers (the Leader) 5 points each

2 Units of Border Horse 5 points each

20 Points

Special Rules

See the sausages & mustard scenario for rules for burning the objectives. Once an objective has been set alight each player roles every turn to see if their relief force will arrive.

This will be on a 9+ on two dice for the first turn, 6+ the second, 3+ if they still don't arrive on the third and then automatically if no relief has arrived by the fourth turn. 

The French relief force arrives in the NW and the English relief force will arrive in the SE zone. Both relief forces are entirely separate retinues in the game, this means they have their own Leader and work as their own retinue for the purposes of morale and activations. 

To arrive the relief forces simply make a move activation for each unit that wishes to move onto the board. Units can only enter making a move activation - they cannot charge a unit directly from off table for example.

The aim of the French Garrison is to prevent buildings from being burned, the relief force is to either prevent more of the town being destroyed or prevent the English from escaping if this has already been done. 

The aim of the English raiders is to burn and loot the objectives and escape, the relief force must contact a friendly unit in the town to cease the destruction or if this is too late to aid the escape of the English forces. 

On with the game.

For the first engagement Jeff took command of the Anglo German raiding party with Keith in defence of the French Garrison. Here we are a few turns in with Jeff's force reaching the gate and Keith awaiting with a welcome party. We agreed that Jeff could enter the town by the gate and the breach in the wall.

The Landsknecht arquebusiers were first to break in for which Keith had some initial difficulty beating back with bolt and guisarme. 

The arquebusiers made their presence felt with an initial salvo of shot at point blank range which pushed the Picard infantry back in disarray, this opened up a crucial gap with which to pour men into the town but the street was also clear for a brief moment, long enough for the French gunners who made their presence felt with a nasty blast from their culverin.

This shock sent the Landsknechts reeling back into the gatehouse archway in shock, bumbling into the English Longbowmen who were trying to push through. The English then fanned out as quickly as possible to get out of the killing zone. The Longbowmen punished the adventuriers facing them and the Landsknechts managed to rally and engage in some further sporadic fire at the Picards, reducing them to a man.

I took a lot of photographs of this, being somewhat impressed with the effect of cotton wool and an LED tea light !

Over on the French left things were hotting up with the English managing to pour billmen through the breach into the jaws of some more Picards in schiltron.

There was a lot of back and forth with some Adventuriers adding their bolts at each opportunity but the steady grit of the English bill managed to push their adversaries back in disarray

Keith managed to beat off the troublesome Landsknechts with another murderous blast from the culverin and some positively hostile treatment from his unit of foot knights who he then manoeuvred to the threat at the breach.

The English pushed more men through the breach and into the streets as quickly as possible to get out of the reach of the knights and the culverins murderous gaze for which Keith was having extraordinary luck with the dice.

A point of note on the artillery, here are the rules which myself and Oli fashioned though play testing;

• Use 1 artillery model plus 4 crew (Your Leader can't be part of this unit).

• May be operated so long as 1 crewman is still alive.

• Points cost: 4 points (maximum of 1 artillery piece per Retinue).

• Range: Culverins 24”

• Movement 3”, cannot move and fire and a pivot greater than 45 requires a move

• Shoot value: 7+.

• Damage: 

Short range, up to 6”, roll 12 dice hitting on 5+ (4+ if target unit is in schiltron)

Mid Range, up to 16”, roll 8 dice hitting on 5+ (4+ if target unit is in schiltron)

Long Range, roll 4 dice hitting on 6+

The target receives -1 armour if fired from half range or less & must take a courage test regardless of casualties.

If 5 or more 1’s are rolled the gun is out of action for the rest of the game. This represents lack of ammunition, poor powder, travel damage or badly trained crew.

Once the crew has taken half casualties the above number of dice are halved

• Reload value: After firing the artillery may not be fired again until a successful Reload action has taken place. This is carried out as a normal, ordered fire activation and gets more difficult after each firing, to begin on 7+ then 8+9+10+ and so on each turn with no reload once 12 is reached. 

• If contacted, shot at, and for Courage tests, the crew count as Serfs at their current strength 

• The crew must maintain cohesion around the artillery model (not moving more than 3” beyond it).

Back to the fighting, the foot knights worked their way through the town....

and with the dice skill of a Casino ringer, that bloody gun kept on firing

This didn't sway the plucky Longbowmen who scurried across the streets but sadly it was to no avail as they just couldn't get their tinder box going to fire a building, Jeff's dice in this task was proving to be the opposite of Keith's. We retired for a bit of lunch and shopping at the venue.

Refreshed and with lighter pockets we put round 2 into action. Regrettably, being somewhat distracted in defeating the garrison and with some ill luck no buildings had managed to be fired to signal the relief forces but we agreed the noise of the murderous culverin would surely have served the same purpose - I was really looking forward to setting Simon's collection alight.

Myself and Simon took command of the relief force with myself as the Tudor cavalry.

hmmm, a little bit one sided owing to the raiders being annihilated, then to ad insult to injury Keith was still in the game and eager to add the remainder of the garrison to the fray, and their blood was up.

My task was simple, get across that board as quickly as possible and with a comparatively nimble force I reckoned I had at the very least a tiny speck of a chance.

I managed a good run of movement activations and sent the Border Horse out to screen the advance of the Demilancers, I was counting upon their skill at skirmishing to generally annoy Simon and the chance that the Gendarmes may fail some activations being that little bit more difficult to move.

My plan seemed to be working, for a short while at least....hope is important.

The Borderers bravely or perhaps recklessly skirmished with the Gendarmes and men at arms while one unit of Demilancers sneaked round the back. I manoeuvred the second unit of Demilancers with my leader to Simon's Gendarmes who were engaged with some pesky Borderers, they performed an evade action and then I pulled my trump card and challenged his leader to a duel.

Simon refused, the Earl of Essex was no Brandon or Henry, he was simply too low born and looked a little dirty. This caused a morale check for the French relief force with a reasonable amount of success which gave me a tight window to push my cavalry past them.

Then, with the end in sight, it went horribly wrong and I too was annihilated.

Defeat seemed to be clear but I thought I'd see how we compared;

Victory Conditions

The English;

2 points per objective destroyed. 

3 points if the relief force manage to cease the destruction.

1 point per unit to escape.

2 points per enemy leader slain and a bonus point if in a duel..

The French;

2 points per objective unharmed.

3 points if they stop the English from leaving.

1 point per enemy unit destroyed.

2 points per enemy leader slain and a bonus point if in a duel.

A marginal 26-0 to the French !!!

Did I mention there was a bar on site ?

LtoR; Me, Keith, Jeff and Simon

We discussed the day's game

The street fighting was definitely a hit, it was so much fun and made for some great moments and some pretty good photographs too. Following that the contrast of swirling cavalry battle was also fun and a great spectacle, we had quite a lot of interest throughout the day from onlookers.

In hindsight there were a few things that I'd recommend changing, the English should deploy almost in front of the town and/or the French should not be able to react until this is reached. The idea being that the garrison were not aware of the impending danger. Alternatively you could possibly roll during each English movement up to the walls to see if they are spotted.

That would definitely have made a difference I think. Also though Jeff had a lot of bad luck with the dice I wonder if he could have done with a few more in his force I'm not sure, I think speed was the key here and it was lost by starting at the other edge of the table. Or possibly was it that the English just had too much to do? There's definitely scope for a re-fight.

This also served to remind me that I must get a few more French, particularly some with polearms and ideally some Franc archers too. 

The use of the venue was a great success I must say, I think we'll be there again.

The keen eyed of you in this and the previous post may have noticed quite a lot of new Gendarmes and mounted archers, more on them very soon (I've got 2 figures to complete and I'm in the middle of a painting drought - why do we do this hobby ?!!)

Bye for now

Stuart