The Battle of Bouvines 1214 - A Wars of the Roses-themed refight

Miniature Wargames 18 featured an article on refighting the Battle of Bouvines, fought between the armies of King Philip Augustus III of France and Emperor Otto IV on 27 July 1214, the latter being allied to King John of England in his wars against the French crown.  Not having a medieval French or German army, I plumped for using my Wars of the Roses armies as substitutes.

The Forces:
 The article gives the following strengths:
Otto - 6000 Knights, 18000 Pikemen
Philip - 7000 Knights, 3000 Crossbowmen, 12000 Foot soldiers

These figures seem a bit on the high side to me! Amusingly, the article writer recommends using a 1:20 figure:man scale for this engagment...Anyway, I ignored all this and just used the relevant DBA army list to generate two reasonable forces, viz:

Otto - 5 x Knights (3Kn), 1 x Crossbowmen (4Cb), 2 x City Militia spearmen (Sp), 2 x Brabanter Pikemen (4Pk), 2 x Archers (Ps)

Philip -  4 x Knights (3Kn), 2 x Feudal Militia (4Sp), 2 x Mixed Weapon Foot (4Bd), 1 x Mercenary Crossbowmen (4Cb), 2 x Archers (3Bw), 1 x Bidower (Ps)

The Set-Up:
The article gives quite a 'standard' set-up of both sides having infantry in the first line, mounted troops in the second.  However, other interpretations seem to indicate that both sides had foot troops in the centre of the first line with mounted men on each flank in the front line, and then the second line containing the reverse.

For no very good reason, I plumped for this way of setting-up:

The armies face each other.  The village of Bouvines is extreme centre-left.  The French at the bottom, the Imperials approach from the top-right.

The French Army: Knights, Crossbowmen and Spearmen in the front rank; Knights and archers in the second rank.

From behind the Imperial Army: Knights and Spearmen and Crossbowmen in the front rank, Pikemen, Knights and archers in the second.

View from above.

The Battle:

I have always thought that the DBA "defender moves first rule" was a bit quirky - nevertheless, the French move up into position...

Another view

The Imperials were a bit surprised and discomfited by this - their battle line is by no means fully-formed as the French charge home

First blood to the French - French spears get amongst the German crossbowmen and create a gap on the Imperial right...However, the French crossbowmen then met the same fate at the hands of the German knights!, Next, the German knights and archers have encircled the leading French knights (left);

The French second line moves up in support

The French put more pressure on the German line - the German knights seem to be losing ground...

The French knights have capitulated on the left - both side regroup

More and more pressure on the German front line, but it bows, not breaks...

Fighting is indecisive on the French left - the French are struggling to make their numbers pay here

The Flemish pikemen and more knights attempt to bring succour to the left of the Imperial line...

German knights again triumphant on the French left...

French bowmen devastate a group of German cavalry but their own knights are pushed back..

The French Bowmen boldly (recklessly!!) advance to put the German nobility under fire, as the French knights continue to be pushed back

The indecisive fighting continues on the French left

Otto leads his Knights to massacre the French bowmen just as the Pikemen do the same - the French collapse!

At least the majority of the French nobility will probably escape...

 Game Notes:
An interesting game, with the historical result thoroughly reversed!  I think it is fair to say that the luck was with the Imperials: the elimination of the French crossbowmen was a very flukey outcome for the Germans, and without it they would most likely have been just under that little bit more pressure in the centre, which would probably have collapsed under it - they were lucky to maintain their line as it was.  The advance of the French bowmen at the end was suicidally stupid - although bowmen are stronger than knights in DBA (generally), everything else about the situation favoured the Imperials.  More caution would have prolonged the battle and perhaps allow the French to put together a decisive attack on their left, which they threatened but never quite pulled off, because the situation there was too dynamic (in game terms, the German simplicity in the centre allowed spare PIPs to be used to be creative on the flanks).
All-in-all it was a very good experience.  The DBA rules continue to give an exciting game and the PIP mechanism is an excellent aid to solo play, giving command-and-control problems and unpredictability in a very simple way.  Figures used were from Baccus 6mm Wars of the Roses range.  Buildings from Timecast and Leven (I think).

DBA really lends itself to re-theming battles, because all of its armies are expressed in terms of troop types which act consistently through the ages.  So as long as one can find troop types equivalent in the era that one actually has armies for, re-theming is a doddle.  I am sure, for instance, that there are several armies that could stand-in for their French and German counterparts, especially if one picks options that don't include crossbowmen. 

ECW Refight Battle 02: The Battle of Andersea November 1642

General Situation: After his defeat at the Battle of Cricket St. Thomas, Hopton was called East to help restore the situation in the South after the fall of Portsmouth, to distract and delay Waller's victorious forces.  This was achieved, but his opponent in the Southwest, the Earl of Bedford, took this opportunity to advance further into Somerset, cutting off Hopton from his main areas of support in Cornwall and Devon by occupying Bridgwater and preventing Royalist movement of the River Parrett.  His mission in the south achieved, Hopton has retraced his steps westwards and is intending to break past the Earl of Bedford's army.

Royalists:
Hopton (Good): 4000 Foot (4 Veteran Foot (M) bases, 4 Raw Foot bases (M) ), 4 Guns (2 Arty bases)
1750 Horse (8 Veteran Horse (Sw) bases, 6 Raw Horse (Sw) bases); 250 Dragoons (1 Raw Dragoon base)

n.b. M - 1:1 pike:shot ratio; Sw - Swedish tactics

Parliamentarians:
Bedford (Poor): 4000 Foot (4 Veteran Foot (SH) bases, 4 Raw Foot bases (SH) ), 8 Guns (4 Arty bases), 1750 Horse (8 Veteran Horse (D) bases, 6 Raw Horse (D) bases); 250 Dragoons (1 Raw Dragoon base)

n.b. SH - 1:2 pike:shot ratio; D - Dutch tactics

(n.b. - I stuffed up the calculations, both sides should have had 500 Horse less than they actually had here.  As both sides were the same, I figure that no real harm was done).

The Set-Up:

Yet again, I rolled up a rather sparse set of terrain!  The terrain is randomly generated according to the tables given in the Polemos ECW rule book and for the second game in succession, I generated very few terrain features.

The Parliamentarians are defending the North (top) around an isolated farm, using a standard formation: infantry in the centre, horse on the wings.  The Royalists have overloaded their right wing with cavalry

Room to manoeuvre on the Royalist left wing is limited by the presence of the River Parrett and some marshy ground around its banks.

A view along the lines from the East: Royalists approaching from the left, Parliament's forces to the right, defending

And from the opposite angle, behind the Parliamentary right wing.

 The Battle:

The Royalist infantry on the left advance and are confronted by Parliamentary cavalry: the Earl of Bedford has ordered his right-hand infantry brigade out from the cover of the hedges to support.

The Royalist cavalry on theit right advance; Hopton halts the left-most brigade, fearing to charge too recklessly into the veteran Parliamentary infantry which is supporting the Royalist cavalry.

The first clashes!  The Royalist Horse charges in...

The Royalist infantry on the left continue to push forward...

The melee on the Royalist right continues: the first troops become disordered and start to waver...

Same position, slightly different shot

The Parliamentary horse begins to break in places...but the Cavalier cavalry is also looking shaky...

The Royalist veteran infantry confidently move up to attack the Parliamentary horse on the Royalist left at pike-point

Another Royalist infantry brigade moves forward to try and storm the Parliamentary main position

The Parliamentary horse's first line comes off slightly the worse, but the second line restores the situation, by and large.  Some Royalist cavalry again begin a wild pursuit of a defeated enemy (top-left)

The Royalist infantry on the left have routed some of the Parliamentary horse; Parliamentary infantry begins to pour in musketry to try and stop their advance

Parliament's left wing advance, daring Hopton to throw in his final brigades of horse

So near and yet so far: Royalist infantry briefly break through the hedge, but are repulsed subsequently

The Parliamentary forces have formed a solid line again on their left

A see-saw combat on the Royalist left sees Royalist infantry break some of their veteran oppenents (see the base routing top-left)

But the Parliamentary centre has held-off a second assault, this time leading to the right-hand Royalist battalia breaking...

A Parliamentary charge against the Royalist's second line cavalry has some of the cavaliers on the run, the others wavering...

Stalemate on the Royalist left, as some of the Royalist infantry are broken in their turn

The final position on the Royalist right: the defeat of that second-line brigade has stopped much hope of Royalist victory here.  The action continued indecisively for a couple of turns, before it was clear that the battle was a tactical draw.

Game Result:
A tactical draw - the Royalists lost slightly more infantry, the Parliamentarians more horse, plus two guns (temporarily).  However, the strategic win was clearly with the Earl of Bedford again, as he has held Bridgwater and the line of the River Parrett against Hopton.  Both sides lost c.850 men in this quite hard fought struggle.

The Earl of Bedford

Ralph Hopton

Game Notes:
The Polemos ECW rules continue to give a good game, quick to play but with convincing results, generally.  I may play about with the troop quality modifiers a little: using only  Veteran and Raw (because this fits in better with "The King's War", which is the boardgame being used as the campaign engine) seems to create too many "sure things".  The 1:1 pike:shot ratio continues to perform very well against 1:2 pike:shot ratio troops,  perhaps ahistorically.  The problem is that if musketry is generally ineffective, then more pikes seems like a good idea!  But on the other hand, this may be a consequence of my poor tactics...
There is also still much to be understood about exactly how best to use horse in this game.  The Royalist cavalry do have the advantage in terms of more ferocity in the charge, but their recklessness does leave them very vulnerable to second echelon forces of Parliamentary horse.
Figures by Baccus 6mm, on a homemade mat on a 5'x3' table.
 

Nuts! Normandy Campaign Mission 05: Attack on Lac d'Iseult

Pressing home their advantage, our plucky Tommies from the Tyneside Scottish, have some scoff, a brew and a fag, pull-through their weapons, bomb up and mount up for the next attack...

This mission is very similar to the previous one, an attack through the countryside to try and penetrate the weakening German defences around a small pond in some parkland.  The German force is down to morale level 1 now, so another successful mission might just seal victory...

The Tyneside Scottish have a more-or-less full platoon, although with a couple more Rep 3 replacements newly-joined since the casualties suffered in the last mission.

The Mission:

The battlefield.  Mainly woods and hills, with a big pond/minute lake in the corner.  The British are advancing from the btottom of the board as viewed.

1 Section, the Pl Sgt and the 2" mortar team advance gingerly into the dead ground

Note the potetial enemy forces (PEFs): one near the hedge by the house, one right in the centre, one top-right (also in the open)

Contact!  British LMGs from 1 Section (bottom left, on the hill) and 2 Section (by the lake) open fire on the German MG42 caught in the open - it is despatched in short order.

2 Section's view of the German MG42 pair.  You can see them, honest!

Position cleared, note the German PEFs starting to appear closer.

The Pl Sgt, a Bren gun team and the 2" mortar team adopt a position atop one of the hills.  They spy another set of Germans - a full section - in the open (just seen between the two woods)

The eagle's eye view:  British Pl Sgt's group on top of the hill, the Pl Comd leading 3 Section into the woods (extreme right); the Germans caught in the open are about to get plastered

The British LMG and 2" mortar open up: the Germans are suppressed and have no answer, the MG42 silenced in the first seconds

The Germans lose six casualties in a few moments: the survivors break and run (top-right)

And 3 Section and the Pl Comd eliminate the rest as they emerge through the woods before they can make good their escape.  However, at this point, more stray artillery hits the British!  One man is killed and two are injured from 2 Section.

More bad luck!  A wandering German patrol comes in to the British rear.

The German patrol's view: nothing seen

The German section adopts covered positions; the British Pl Comd decides to ignore them

Without much further incident, the majority of the British Pl is able to exit the German-side of the battlefield.  Victory!

Game Notes: The British were very fortunate with the position of the German PEFs in this one, as they were able to catch both of them (the other was a 'false alarm') in the open and hit them with superior firepower.  I was able to use the additional THW mortar rules and they seemed to work fine; the 2" mortar on the hill was very effective indeed!  Even when the unexpected German reinforcements came up, they luckily arrived in such a place as they could be ignored safely.  Mirroring reality very well, every single casualty in this game was caused by artillery, mortar or machinegun fire.
And that about wraps up this campaign, as the Germans' campaign morale is now 0.  However, the main objective of this series of games was to teach myself the basic mechanics in a fun way before I start thinking about how to adapt them more fully to my ways of thinking and to look at creating some more involved scenarios.  The rules have been everything I imagined they would be and more.  I will try and write a more full review when I have played a couple more times and at least had a proper go with some armour/anti-tank interactions but I really like this game.  The games are quick and simple to pick up, but very involving to play.  I only wish I'd had this game at 12 - 14: I would have absolutely loved it!
As in all the other games in the series, I used Baccus 6mm, Adler and GHQ figures, Leven Miniatures' buildings, Nuts! Final Edition rules on a 2'x2' board.  I hope that this short campaign has been interesting and maybe useful for those who play or who are considering playing this ruleset.