Medieval battle report

Tonight was fought the Battle of Green Fields, that pleasant if undeveloped land owned by the gracious Lady Lex, who had first to be removed from her comfortable realm:

The rules are a very basic Hundred Years War set, taken from Donald Featherstone's Wargames Newsletter for December 1967. It was written for use with Airfix figures - I used Paperboys from the Castle Assault volume. 

As is typical of Featherstone's brief and conversational rules-writing style, some elements must be worked out by the reader. Given the small size of the battle and units, for example, I played turns simultaneously.

The Scots. 36 pikes, 18 knights and 24 crossbows.

The English. To the right, 36 spears and 30 archers.

To the left, 18 knights.

First move. The Scottish foot and knights have moved 12", the crossbows 15" (but are not able to shoot).

While the English knights head for the center, supported by their footmen, the archers take a half-move and fire. They roll 21 on six dice, quartered, causing five casualties to the crossbows, two of which are saved.

Turn 2: The knights charge each other and meet in the center, while the English spears march to confront the Scottish schiltron - not quite there yet.

The crossbowmen draw back, firing into the English foot's flank at six-inch range, but are still in range of the English archers, who haven't moved and thus get to fire twice!

Firing - The Scots roll four dice against the English spears. They score 13, three quarters of which (9) are casualties. Despite needing 4+ to save, only one survives! Probably something to do with being flanked...

In exchange, the archers roll twelve dice, scoring 43. Even at 1/4 casualties for long range, that's over half the crossbowmen gone!

Now for the knightly combat. Knights are worth three points, and one die is rolled for every five. So on 11 dice, the Scots roll 40 hits, the English 43. Saves are on 3+; the English fail 11, the Scots 20! Which wipes them out; the King of Scots will have stern words for his metallurgists this day.

Turn 3 - a complex melee, as knights, footmen and crossbows all clash. Useful for testing differing types against each other, at least. The archers, with no target, race to join in. Oh, but the knights must roll to charge home against standing infantry, spears always stand, and the knights roll a one. They rest their horses, awaiting results.

Let's break this down into two combats, remembering to account for the English spear casualties.

- On the left, twenty spears vs. twenty-four pikes. Ten dice against twelve. Had the knights made it in, they'd have added four dice. 38 hits, 19 saves vs 43 hits and 17 saves. The English spears are gone and five Scots remain.

- On the right, twelve archers (only two bases can make contact) and eight spears versus ten crossbows and twelve pikes. 32 points for the English vs. 40 for the Scots - six dice versus eight. The English end up needing 34 saves. I split these into 21 for the spears (4+) and 13 for the archers (6+). The Scots require 17 saves (9 for the pikes and 8 for the crossbows). Four pikers and seven crossbowmen are killed, but all the English engaged are killed too.

(If I'm reading these rules right, this is a "bucketsful of dice" ruleset, at least when it comes to the armor saves!)

The final result, after bases with just one man left are removed. I think the Scots have had the worst of the argument...

Obviously, this ruleset would be easier to handle with single figures. There are also no morale rules. I've been considering a simplified variant of Charge! in which a unit that takes 2/3 casualties is out of the game, which in this case would leave the archers alone on the field.

The rules are good enough for a back of a postcard set, but I was surprised at the number of hits and saves that had to be rolled. The aforementioned Charge! rules prescribe a die roll for each base, but scoring only one hit with a successful shooting roll. Melees are one die per figure, but at least do not include saves - they do, however, require opposed rolls.