"WotR Battle Formations" Topic

How deep would the various types be?

MenatArms
Archers
Billman
Mounted men

And (less importantly) how would they array relative to each other?

I ask, because I'm curious how a 2mm army should be represented. (Man for man scale).

Troops on foot in 4 to 6 ranks. Mounted may be 2 or 3 ranks.

Most formations seemed to have fought in what was called a "herce" (some spellings are herse), which was archers intermixed with bills as well as some men at arms. I've only been able to find a few references to it and none of them really explained what it was. Couple that with the fact that many formations were ad hoc in terms of their size and composition. On top of that, the various knights and lords would attach themselves to units at times in what can best be described as random assignments.

Of course, for a war-game you need rules for various formations (unless you're doing skirmish level games), so there needs to be some way to designate formations. My 28mm armies are for Hail Caesar and most units are what are termed Household troops, which seemed to be the main unit raised by most lords. In Hail Caesar terms the unit consists of one or two stands of bill and men at arms with a standard and two stands of archers on the end of the unit. It works well and in game terms depicts the mix between archers and heavier troops fighting in the same unit.

To add to aegiscg47's points, Deucy, base the figures with the archers and melee troops (men-at-arms and billmen) on separate bases. Have the most heavily-armoured figures in the front ranks, with some sergeants and lesser lords sprinkled in the rear ranks as "encouragement".

Period maps of battles show the troops as deployed in quite deep blocks, which contradicts some/most of the battle descriptions. It's possible that means each command (the term used was "battle", which you probably know and which is confusing- so I'll use "command") may have had more than one "line" of melee troops.

There's little known exactly how they fought in the WotR, but using the later phases of the 100YW as a guide the army would deploy in four commands with archers to the front and flank of each command. The archers on the flanks of the army may have been reinforced with troops from the reserve command. As the enemy got within melee range the archers would fall back to the flanks or behind the melee troops of each command.

Dal Gavan, are there period maps of WotR battles? Please, can you point me at them.

Dal Gavan, are there period maps of WotR battles?

Sorry, Billy, a poor choice of words on my part, mate. I meant the late mediaeval period as a whole, not specifically the WotR. If there are any WotR specific period maps there may be a reference to it/them on the Lance and Longbow Society site. I can't remember seeing a map in the L&LS CD's, though.

This, if you have not seen it already, from the Lead Adventure Forum is very useful link
Ian

Excellent link, Ian. Thanks.

My rule of thumb for the proportions of the various troop types is 45% archers, 45% billmen, 10% men-at-arms. The men-at-arms could theoretically be mounted on the battlefieid.

That is an interesting thread.

But what is the "Arlequin's Blog" that is referenced?

But what is the "Arlequin's Blog" that is referenced?

Sadly long gone. Though you might find it on the Wayback Machine archive.org

Did it have another name?

Try this link

Thanks. But nope.