One of the D'Arc-est Knights ...

Had my first introduction to the sights and sounds of SESWG [South East Scotland Wargaming Group] on a regular games night - Thursday - in this case 16th October 2014 .. Through the Piquet list, I'd arranged to meet with Paul O'Sullivan, a member of said group, who had offered to put together a Piquet Band of Brothers scenario set in the Hundred Years War. (c 1430 I'm led to understand - before my time ...). I've been remiss in not taking any photos of any participants of size greater than the 15mm scale (next time it's a photo of you Paul too), and such photos as they are come courtesy of AndroidPhone ..


[Piquet sidebar: Paul played 20 pip phases, with the rule of 1/3 variant which takes the number of pips won by the D20s counter-roll, and splitting that up, giving 1/3 (rounded down) to the losing player. For example, if the difference in D20 rolls was 10 (and there are at least 10 remaining in the phase) the winner would get 7 and the loser 3. If there were less than 10, whatever remains is divided similarly. Anyway back to the game .. ]

Paul generously gave me Joan of Arc and ze French, made up of a collection of many unpronounceable names & characteristics (that is, for one usually found in games in the 19th and 20th century), while he took the Anglo-Burgundians. [We then rolled for commander & troop quality and drew cards for Morale chips in classic PK style].

For those for whom the aforementioned names might have meaning, here are the orders of battle:

French

Joan d'Arc

Household Knights
2 x Feudal Knights (foot)
Crossbow Skirmisers

Voulgiers
French Crossbowmen
Coustilliers 

Bombards (nice medium artillery)
2 x Peasants
2 x Brigands


The hill in front of the camp had the bombards, peasants and 1 of the brigands. In front of the hill are Joan and the Knights, Joan being attached to the D12+1 Mounted Knights ..., and the remainder in a unit on the left ..

Burgundians

2 x Burgundian Knights

2 x French Men At Arms (foot)
Valets d'Armes (heavy lance, so I'm told)

2 x English Archers (cue Radio 4 Music [UK joke])
Low Countries Pikemen
Low Countries Guildsmen
English Men At Arms (Foot)

Knights on the left, Archers in middle and Valets and MAA on right .. some class 2 fields and some to-be-annoying (for the Archers) high corn in the middle.

This is what the Burgundian Knights were up against on the Burgundian left

The French got off to a good start, the bombards causing enough damage in one of the Burgundian Knights for them to lose a stand ..

The Burgundian Knights are engaged ..

.. and destroyed .. the impact causes the building to shake, blurring the photo .. ahem ..

Meanwhile the Valets are moving down their right

and the Low Countrymen move up into the centre, hoping maybe to attack the lone Feudal Knights ...

But the French finish off the Burgundian Knights

.. and get the impetus and cards to threaten more of the same in the centre ...

At last the Valets reach the end of the fields, but fail to turn ,and are hit in the flank by the Coustilliers, who themselves suffer long-range damage from the English Archers ... but the melee doesn't work out well for the French, and the Burgundians now turn to face the weakened French cavalry ... and have the upper hand

 it gets worse for the French ..  the commander is killed!

The Valets go on to rout the Voulgiers and French Crossbowmen in the French centre - both occurring as sequential flank attacks, with the French troops being unable to change their facing - leaving the Camp in the sights of the victorious Burgundian cavalry .. apart from a small matter of the bombard, some peasants and brigands ...

At this point time was called . both sides low on morale chips .. and lots of what-might-have-beens ... Exciting and fun .. Great game Paul!