King Kenneth I, and the Duc de Departure, 100 Years War.

The Annual General Meeting of the Marshal Petain Gentlemen’s Club for 2016 was delayed until July.  As Treasurer I once again declared that all club funds were currently “resting in my account.”  The club chairman had produced an unexpected and heretofore unseen collection of Hundred Years War figures, a pairing of two armies, French and English.  I declared these figures to be “most righteously painted!”  Awesome actually.

I was given command of the Frenchmen, a force heavy in chivalric horsemen, with some nice foot in support.  The club Secretary took the English, and his inscrutable expression said it all, this would be “Armed and Hostile Brexit.”  King Kenneth “luvvy”  Branagh, and his purple prose, versus the Chevalier Gérard Duc de Departure, and his Gallic phlegm.

The Club President was introducing us to the Sword and Spear rules.  I'd had these for some time but had never actually played them.  With selling up a large part of my wargames collection for my own Brexit to live in Cyprus I hadn't played Ancients or Medieval full battle rules for quite some time, and these were at one time the classic (and only) Petain period.

Terrain dice were good for me.  I needed wide open spaces to operate those Knights in.  There was a single wood out on the left flank, and a hill that I failed to secure, but managed to get into my opponent’s deployment area.  This is probably just as well, since I have a character defect that forces me to occupy and remain on any hill within my own deployment zone.  It has cost me many battles.

I expected that hill to be the centre of my opponent’s line, and so it was.  The armies went down with my horse massed on the left, my foot on the right.  My plan was always a hammering attack across the left flank, avoiding the English Men at Arms, standing on their hill.

Initially I intended to hold back my Infantry, using only a limited echelon advance to protect the flank of my horse.  I expected a general advance of the English, as at Azincourt, to force my attack.  As it happens however Sword and Spear exceeded my expectations.  My Knight's thundered forward in a charge, with two of my Generals in support.  They shrugged off the longbow fire and crashed into the archers, only to begin a slogging match.  While that fight was raging on the left the enemy could only use a few resources to move on my right.  As it was his Welsh Knifemen went missing on a jaunt into the woods, and his archers advanced only a short distance.

However my old illness reasserted itself.  He had a hill, and I wanted it.  I started forward my Infantry line including the Genoese Crossbowmen,  whom the Club Secretary advertised to me as being “mighty.”

The Knights finally broke through the English archers, as well as their supporting mounted Knights.  Then began rallying them on the flank to attempt to encircle the hill.  Yes that hill…

His archers began thumping the “mighty” Genoese Crossbowmen.  I could only reply with my best Italian accent, mimicking Geno de Campo, with a high pitched “Heeeay!”  This annoying sound of disappointment was to become my strongest memory of the game as the Italians were trounced.

My knights captured his camp, and raged in attack against that damn hill.  I had an almost 360° encirclement of his Men at arms on the hill of dead Englishmen. 

King Kenneth the “luvvy” threw down his sword, and the game was done.  The usual Petain dissection of the game and rules over a pint began.  For me the game was really enjoyable, but more importantly it sold me on Sword and Spear.  We took on board the Club Secretary's comments on the playability of the Hundred Years war, but I remain convinced that it has something going for it.  So much so that I am open for a rematch, and he can bring his stakes next time.  

I only hope that the Genoese are slightly more “mighty.”

The club Secretary then commenced to draw us in with his talk of Biblical warfare using Sword and Spear, or perhaps a version of Lion Rampant.  I'm easily lead...

“Heeeay!”