"The Battle of Castillon 1453" Topic

The scenario is posted to the blog.

Some options, such as artillery fire from a camp treated as if firing from a city or fort still can still be effective.

Handling the loss of the franc-archers as the first casualty for the French adds and extra incentive for both sides.

The debate as to where the Breton cavalry entered the field (east or west) is resolved by allowing the French player to decide before the game start.

Allowing the French player to determine when the Breton contingent arrives may seem a gift, it is not. Appearing too early will allow the English to unleash a fire storm on them and too late, well, is too late.

link

Cheers,
Robert

I have thought about gaming that battle, too. I think the timing here is a most crucial decision, so I pondered to give both the English reinforcements (modelling the lagging infantry coming in) and allowing the French reinforcments by fortifications or artilley (modelling their hauling around the guns from the northside and redeploying within their camp).
So the English are faced with the decision to attack fast with probably insufficient strength, or wait and face stronger defenses.
Reinforcements could be modelled static – one unit/round or randomly.

Their ignorance over the Breton contingent is hard to model – the problem of FOG in any tabletop simulation. Perhaps another random roll when they show up that allows the English to either cancel, postpone or relocate their appearance (1/2/3 – 4-6 coming in as planned).

This means random events have a major influence, but its hard to simulate the FOG of war otherwise. It is certainly not suited for competetive gameplay, but I have left that domain a decade ago…

Puster,
Thank you for the comments.
The Bretons were no easy task and after Formigny would class them as capable of assessing battle conditions.

The sound of the first cannon fire would signal a response from the Breton commander. The 1.5 km distance can be covered in less than ten minutes at a simple trot, which essentially offers the French player the ability to decide when and where to arrive, the only limitation begin a poor pip score.

Lastly, there is no need to place the Breton contingent on the table but to place them where they would be first seen by the English. In the tests, pip expenditure for the Breton was recorded for several turns before placing them physically on the board. This was small compensation to offset the immediate loss of the franc-archers at the priory early that morning.

Using pips for movement certainly makes a difference to rules where all units can – more or less fast – move.

One day I should try this with DBMM :-)