Weekend Medieval Games

Not much painting time during the week as I am still fairly busy with other non-wargaming activities. However, during the week I was mulling over ideas for some rule variations to the One-Hour Wargaming Medieval rules. The variations are to do with army organisation, unit activation and unit elimination. Today I was able to try them out on the tabletop.

A game underway

The unit activation ideas are similar to the approach taken more recently with my English Civil War (ECW) rules where the army organisation dictates how units are activated (see here). As with the ECW rules I found one book to be very useful is shaping the approach. In this case, it was the book "Medieval Warfare" by Terence Wise.

“It was usual to divide an army into three divisions, called Battles, with the light troops occasionally operating separately under their own commander. The three Battles are generally referred to as the Vanguard (Vaward Battle in England, Avant Garde in France), the Main Battle and the Rearward Battle. The three Battles always marched in this order and normally deployed for battle with the Main Battle, the most honourable command and usually led by the king or his deputy, in the centre; the Vanguard on the right as the second most honourable command; and the Rearward Battle on the left. Where there was insufficient room for such deployment the Battles might be placed two in the front line and one in reserve, or in three successive lines.” (Medieval Battles, Terence Wise)

Assigning Units to Battles

My medieval games generally have between 15 to 20 units per side. At the start of the game a player's units are assigned to 3 to 4 Battles:

1. Vanguard Battle
2. Main Battle
3. Rearward Battle
4. Skirmisher Battle

The first step of the game, before getting to the tabletop, is for a player to assign their available units to the Battles and Command, and there are a few of constraints placed upon the player:

• All Battles must contain at least 1 men at arms unit (foot or mounted).
• The Main Battle cannot have less men at arms (foot or mounted) units than either the Vanguard or Rearward Battle. An equal number is allowed, but not less.
• The use of a skirmisher Battle is optional and if used, can only contain bowmen with a maximum of 3 units.

Battles are deployed

Deploying Units on the Tabletop

Battles and their units are deployed on the tabletop in a set order. Unless specified in a scenario, players begin by rolling the dice to decide who begins the deployment, re-roll any ties. The winner, player A, starts the deployment.

1. Player A deploys all units in their Vanguard Battle
2. Player B deploys all units in their Vanguard Battle
3. Player A deploys all units in their Main Battle
4. Player B deploys all units in their Main Battle
5. Player A deploys all units in their Rearward Battle
6. Player B deploys all units in their Rearward Battle
7. Player A deploys all units in their Skirmisher Battle (if used)
8. Player B deploys all units in their Skirmisher Battle (if used)

A Battle's units must maintain coherency when deployed and during the game. This means all units must be positioned to be within 12” of all other units in the battle.

I play on a 6’ by 4’ tabletop and units must be placed within 18” of their base edge.

Sequence of play

During a game turn each player will have the opportunity to activate all their Battles and Commands. The order of activation is unknown as cards are used to determine the order of activation.

At the start of the game add a card for each Battle is placed into the Activation card deck. At the start of each game turn the Activation deck is shuffled and placed face down. The top card is drawn and the owning player gets to activate all of that Battle's units. Then the next card is drawn and the identified Battle is activated. This continues until all cards are drawn. Then the activation cards are shuffled and placed face down for the next game turn.

As a solo player I like this random activation approach to the Battles. A book quote again: 

"The main problem seems to have been not the fighting quality of the troops, but the inability to maintain discipline over them once battle commenced..."  (Medieval Battles, Terence Wise)

The idea of using cards comes from the "Never Mind the Billhooks" rules by Andy Callan. Except all units have the opportunity to activate with the approach used here.

The Activation card deck determines the order of activation.

Activating Units

When a Battle or Command is activated, a player can activate each unit within the that Battle:

1. First move any of the units
2. Shoot with any units that did not move
3. Melee (Hand-to-hand combat) where any unit is in contact with the enemy.

This Battle activations follow the One-Hour Wargaming Medieval rules.

Battle Fugitives

When units disintegrate they do not disappear from the battlefield and can have adverse effects on other units they run into. So when units are eliminated upon taking 15 hits. Before the eliminated unit is removed, any units directly behind and within 12" the eliminated unit are marked as disordered from the fleeing troops. Units marked as disordered cannot move or shoot until they remove the disordered marker with their next activation.

A unit of bowmen is eliminated. Directly behind them 2 units within 12" become disordered from the fleeing bowmen.  

I got the idea of battle fugitives from the old SPI game Agincourt. Although the rule mechanisms are very different, I did like the disruptive concept of fugitive troops delaying troops behind them.

A final photo of a game in progress