"Medieval Tactica The Battle of Agincourt" Topic

I was able to stage an Agincourt Wargame this weekend. It was fun but the rules let us down a bit. Swing over here for a look.

link

Thanks for looking.

Hi Paul,

Were the English able to force the French units to take morale tests by inflicting the necessary amount of missile casualties? If two longbow units can concentrate on a single French unit it can usually force them to test morale. If the French unit fails morale it must spend a turn halted within range of the longbow. Sometimes it is good to angle the longbow so that concentrate fire can take place. Otherwise it is tough for the English to win.

Great looking game. Sounds like you need some mud next time. I have a copy of Tactica from way back, though never actually played a game with it. At the time, it was the prettiest book of Medieval rules out there.

Paul, I read your account and I'm afraid you did miss something. I have the Medieval Tactica rules. You wrote that "the French had to eliminate 8 English units to win while the English had to get 9 of ours."

That's not correct. According to the Agincourt scenario in the rules, the English lose if 6 of their units break. The French lose if 5 of their massed units are broken (not 9).

We have a house rule that you might find useful. We allow massed Longbow units to have a 45 degree arc of fire, rather than limiting their fire to their flank lines. This allows Longbows to fire in support of nearby heavy infantry.

Longbowmen deployed in an wedge shape formation. Allowing them a 45 degree arc of fire helps simulate this.

I love Medieval Tactica. I think Agincourt, like Bannockburn and some other historical battles, is really hard to recreate and make for a good game. The rules are great fun for pick up games and balanced historical battles though in my opinion.

Thanks for the comments fellas. The 45 degree idea may come into play if we do this game again. Needing a '6' to hit really is tough on the archers and the fact they cannot initiate melee even if on the flank or rear of a unit. This may get changes as well.
Robert my armies are one and half times larger than standard Tactica armies hence the larger Army break numbers. My memory did fail on the French number when I was doing the account and I just guessed, sorry about that.
I do love the feedback!

Paul, I missed the fact that you were using larger armies. My apologies.

If you use the 45 degree angle, please let me know what you think. You can email me at Burker1 (at) aol (dot) com.

Some armies won battles because they maximized their own strengths and minimized the enemy's strengths. Such was the case with the English army at Agincourt. They selected some high ground with forested areas to anchor their flanks. These prevented them from being outflanked. Furthermore, the ground had become a muddy bog from the Autumn rains and the archers planted stakes to disorder any mounted charge. All these factors combined to force the overconfident French cavalry to go attack the English line frontally. Horses got bogged down and dismounted men at arms were even worse off in the mud. The longbowmen had a field day against the slowly moving targets. If you want to replicate the historical Agincourt, the conditions mentioned are crucial to the outcome. On a sunny day with open flanks the larger French army could have won the day. Check the Tactica terrain rules for your next game or just lay out the ground as it was in real life.