Brittany's Spears - Right Cruel and Fell AAR

Another weekend gathering at Kelly's!

This time we were playing another of Rocky's rules; "Right Cruel and Fell", for fighting the Hundred Years War.

This was a bash-up set early in the Hundred Years War, with the French and British providing backing to a civil war brewing in Brittany. Historically, this was a proxy war between the two larger powers, but Rocky's scenario was set in a version where both sides had sent proper armies to back their candidate.

The scenery was randomly set up by Kelly, commanding the French, and I, commanding the British (Kevin and Scott would join the French and English, respectively, early during the fighting). Two fordable streams split the battlefield, which was centered upon a trio of small villages. Fields, hills, and forests were scattered around the table. 

The French and their allies consisted mostly of mounted men-at-arms with supporting spearmen, crossbowmen, and peasants armed with sharpened sticks. The English brought their longbows and men-at-arms, while their Breton allies had some men-at-arms, spearmen, and militia.

Now, a decent English commander would have looked at the table, seen how the terrain placement would likely lead to the French cavalry funneling into the center through the villages, and deployed appropriately. I, as it turned out, was not a decent English commander, and so set up two independent commands with an incredibly weak center.

As an example, look at that incredibly open road leading right to the English camp! 

But maybe I would get lucky and the French cavalry would trip over some rabbit holes. 

As the Englishmen busied themselves in a pair of fields, the rest of the three commands approached each other with skirmishing crossbowmen. 

Realizing that I hadn't done much to protect my vulnerable center from a tidal wave of the cream of French nobility, a lone unit of English men-at-arms set themselves in the way with a barricade of wagons. 

Since Scott rolled multiple 6s for his battle's command checks, his troops that weren't in defensive positions were forced to keep advancing towards the enemy. 

However, the French knights were happy to ignore the villages they weren't allowed to enter and rolled on by. 

The English longbowmen were the most threat to the French cavalry, but this had an unintended consequence. As the French were hit, they slid back and away from the threat; placing them closing to Scott's Bretons.

Kelly's first wave of knights began to charge the enemy units while a second wave formed up.

In Right Cruel and Fell, French men-at-arms are forced to advance towards any enemy units with 3 squares. As the heavily armed knights can only move 2 squares per cycle, it's possible to bait them forward to attack unsupported.

Now, the way the rules work, English dismounted men-at-arms should be able to see off their mounted French counterparts, as they're more numerous per unit.

However, if you're rolling like I did during the game, then your Englishmen are going to be as effective as a can-opener made of cardboard and white glue. 

Kelly's knights attacked on a broad front, pushing back the English center. The longbowmen in the field were desperately loosing arrows to keep the French back. 

Zooming out a bit more, you can see Kevin's attack finally crossing the stream and pressing the rest of the English force. 

However, what sealed the fate of this battle was Kelly's breaking of the center, routing the only English men-at-arms defending their camp. 

Looting a camp is worth 10 loss points. The English would begin to wave at 26 loss points, and rout at 31.

It seemed as though the French cavalry were everywhere, breaking through the English line at multiple points.

With multiple losses of valuable men-at-arms and longbowmen, the English were forced from the field, and France's candidate for the duchy of Brittany was likely to secure his seat. 

This defeat was on me from the outset. I likely should have gambled more with the defensive terrain to give the English a better position. While I wasn't wrong in acting defensively, Rocky's advice was that a much more condensed battleline with flanks anchored on defensive terrain would have had a better chance against the French. 

However, I did enjoy these rules, and I would forward to trying them again. There are also a trio of supplements that expand the rules to other time periods: the War of the Roses, the Italian Wars, and the Great Teutonic War.