Agincourt 601 with Hail Caesar!

On this St Crispin's day, the 601st Anniversary of the epic battle of Agincourt, it is meet and fitting indeed that I chronicle an account of our very own, petty battle of Agincourt...

It was a small band that met to mark the occasion, but a happy one...

Left to right: Ian, Matt, Vic, Phillip and Mark

With a battle like Agincourt, and with a historical scenario, I knew it would be hard to find players to be French!



Whilst the odds would be on the French side, it would be a challenging task to fight through the mud, the arrows, the stakes, to even come to grips with the English!

To their credit, Mark and Ian volunteered for the job without being asked, and, as host, I felt I had to do the same! Noblesse Oblige!



Mark as the Count of Vendome took command of the French Cavalry - all Mounted Household Men at Arms, SR 9. Ian as the Constable of France took the 1st Battle - all Household Men at arms, SR 9. I took the 2nd Battle - Men at Arms toute simple, with a SR of 7 as the hapless Duc of Bar.



That left Vic and Phil to stand by King Harry! Vic as the Duke of York led the Vanguard on the right wing, SR8, with 2 MAA and 10 English Longbowmen. 



Phillip, our medieval expert, took the Main Battle as Sir Thomas Erpingham with SR 9, with 2 Household MAA, 2 MAA toute simple, and 6 Welch Longbowmen; and the Rearguard as Lord Camoys, SR 8, who had 2 MAA and 10 English Longbowmen. Henry V had a SR of 10 as befits that great warrior lord!

To add a bit of tension to the game, it started at the exact point the English arrived at their second position nearer the French, to attempt to taunt them into attacking. They would have to pass a command check for each unit to get their stakes malleted back in...

The Rearguard, over on the English left - failed the command check - leaving them vulnerable if the French Cavalry got a triple move...

Which they didn't - leaving them stranded out in the mud amidst a hail of arrows! For the first 3 moves, the effect of the mud was just to reduce movement by a third. For the next 3 it would reduce movement to half, and then for the last 3 moves it would also disorder any charging troops.

Lord Camoys lost no time in getting his men behind stakes, but Mark, with his blood up, charged in anyway!

And managed to charge home! After inflicting a few paltry casualties, he was beaten off again - but it showed what might be achieved given sufficient noble courage and mien...

So he went in again, this time against the Sir Thomas Erpingham's Main Battle...

But Sir Thomas skilfully sealed off the breach and the gallant chevaliers were all cut down...

By this time Ian's 1st Battle had come up, and thanks to the back and forth antics of the cavalry, could only really commit in the flanks, where he started clearing away the English archers..

With more room to manouever without getting stuck by arrows from 3 sides, Mark lined up for a last heave, as movement on the boggy, churned up, corpse bestrewn ground was getting harder and harder...

And striving mightly, broke through that dread English line in two places!

But, alack, support came in far too slowly as men, brave but not superhuman, floundered in the mud..

Giving the English ample time to seal off all incursions...

So that the setting sun forsook the field of honour, sick at the sight of the flower of French nobility bleeding into the cold wet mud...

Thanks to Matt, Kym and Anthony at the Hall of Heroes for setting us up and looking after us so well, and to Gary for the loan of his lovely collection.