"hyw- giving the french chance?" Topic

I have a small HYW army for English/French. But whenever we wargame with it, the French get pummeled with Arrows and die, which I know is historically accurate, but a bit dull.

What tactical changes did the French make (apart from getting Joan d'Arc and God on their side) to turn it around ? My limited knowledge suggest they just avoided open warfare and had a lot of seiges. Did they actually change battle tactics too?

Is there something I can do to make the HYW battles a bit more interesting and at least give the French a chance to win? Throwing skirmishes and peasants forward as arrow fodder works, but wouldnt be popular with the locals in real life. Do others just avoid open battles and use different senarios ?

Invest in artillery. Towards the latter half of the conflict, the French historically invested more in their artillery park, which helped render the defensive tactics, especially the ranks of relatively immobile longbowmen behind stakes, vulnerable.

Also if the English wee forced to attack the French (rather than the other way around), they tended to do worse than when in defence. Recall the 3 most famous battles for the English were all defensive affairs, where if the English were allowed to fortify their positions, played into the strengths of the longbow.

Damon.

Invest in artillery. Towards the latter half of the conflict, the French historically invested more in their artillery park, which helped render the defensive tactics, especially the ranks of relatively immobile longbowmen behind stakes, vulnerable.

Battle of Castillon, 1453
link

Most rules have archers way too effective. They never won a battle by themselves and the French won plenty of battles too, and indeed won the war.

There's a lot of change in weapons, armor, organization, and leadership in the HYW, as one would expect for such a long period of conflict. As Garand and Major B observe, a 15th-century French army has men-at-arms wearing steel plate armor that is practically arrow-proof except at point-blank range (provided they dismount), has access to fair numbers of useful guns, and (perhaps most importantly) has learned through defeat to (sometimes) subordinate mere questions of honor and glory to military necessity. A HYW Crecy-period French army, unfortunately, has none of those things. Their hauberks are virtually useless against warbows, gunpowder is in its infancy, and it will be very difficult for a "commander" to get the men-at-arms to do anything except charge pell-mell. In such a case, you probably are best off avoiding field battles and concentrating on sieges and counter-sieges, where the crossbow isn't disadvantaged against the warbow. Remember that most of a typical English HYW army is paid (through the indenture system) – so when the crown runs out of cash and can't borrow any more, that's probably the end of the campaign.

If you're going to read into what happened make sure you get hold of serious history by academics. The English victories in the popular consciousness have undoubtedly been mythologised to some extent e.g., Anne Curry's work on Agincourt suggest the numbers were not as unbalanced as thought.

Ok thanks, I'll do scenarios where the English don't just defend. I do have handgunners that have yet to see battle. @mad Anthony Thomas, I did write my own based on modified rank and file. The French got slaughtered , but then I am English. 😁

I can't remember which battles but I think it all boiled down to how much control the French commander had over the nobility. When they charged headlong at the English line for chivalric honour did often did not go so well but when they dismounted and advanced with supporting crossbows the English were at the disadvantage.

You might want to look at battles the French won, apart form the above-mentioned Castillon for example Pontvallain 1370 and Patay 1429.

General engagements were not that common but clashes between parties of men-at-arms were, so design your scenarios accordingly.

it's difference between War and Battles : The french won when they stop thinking about Battles. The main differences between Agincourt and Formigny :
1/ more disciplined troops with the creation of a permanent army (Compagnies and Franc Archers)
2/ a really good artillery (The Bureau Brothers) for Sieges

if you want play your game more accurate, remove the impetuous rules