From Phil about his recent trip to Historicon:
The most important part of the Historicon trip for this group was the first 1.1 game in America, Tom Thomas with his 100 YW French v me with his 100 YW English.
This was a very long and closely fought battle lasting from 10 in the morning to nearly 3 in the afternoon, so I flagged at times, and my memory of the details is certainly imperfect.
I was defending, and failed to position either of my two bits of boggy flat to my front, but got a wood to rest my left flank on (in which I tucked 2 elements of Irish Ps) and a boggy bit to rest the right flank on (the gap behind it guarded by 2 columns of Welsh spears). I formed up in 3 battles, each of 4 dismounted men at arms flanked by longbows, vaward on the right with high PIPs slightly advanced, then main battle under the C-in-C with second PIPs, then rearward with low PIPs.
Only the C-in-C and rearward general stayed mounted. In some places I had men-at-arms behind archers, but they were mostly on the flanks of each group.
For some reason, Tom did not want to replicate Crecy, so he broke with French tradition by using a sensible deployment, with mixed infantry in front and mounted knights held back in 3 groups in a second line. I'm a bit hazy as to what and where the infantry were, but there were a lot of Genoese crossbows, a body of Parisian militia pavisiers, dismounted men-at-arms and a lot of ribalds that threatened the wood but progressively died of arrows while approaching it - which was probably their intended function...
The non-combat rule changes of 1.1 did not affect the game, being mainly intended to clear up possible wording confusion and us not being confused. I completely forgot the Sp support changes, to the probable disadvantage of the pavisiers after they made contact. The important changes were to (S) and (I)gradings, which were those trailed here, namely
(S) in distant combat:
+2 if more when shooting, +1 if less when shot at (except by Arty or Shot),
(S) in close combat:
+2 if foot or train and more in own bound against foot.
+1 if mounted or naval and more in own bound.
+1 if equal in own bound and mounted v mounted or foot v foot.
+1 if foot and less in enemy bound.
(I):
-1 if less.
These worked well, but I'm not sure if mounted should get +1 if equal against mounted in own bound. In its favour, it does encourage charging in. Arguments on that are welcome.
The early part of the game was one sided as regards casualties. The Genoese fulfilled their natural function of dying in heaps (though survivors did better when they got to close quarters and started hitting people over the head with their crossbows). The pavisiers and men-at-arms were tough targets (though a couple of the latter surprised me by dying of an excess of 1s) and the main effect of the archery was to break up their formation, enabling the longbows to counterattack with good effect.
Opportunities to do this reduced in the second part of the game, partly due to a dearth of PIP dice, and archer casualties started to mount. The French mounted knights tried to break through their own foot but found interpenetration difficult, and it settled down to a dogged killing match with the honours slightly going to the French. My vaward disheartened their opponents quite early and later broke them, and the rearward managed to dishearten theirs latter in the game. However, the French king finally ground through the centre, breaking my C-in-C's command. This may be partly attributed to the evil omen before the game when my gross carelessness brushed the English C-in-C off the table edge and trampled him, necessitating glue repairs, for which I apologise unreservedly...
At the end, we were still nowhere near a conclusive victory for either side, and a count-up gave a 14-11 in my favour.
My requirements of a game that it should look like a battle and feel like a battle were amply satisfied - I was exhausted at the end.
More general happenings at Historicon.
Berserk sheep aficionados would have appreciated a lecture on one of the more obscure campaigns of the ACW in which a Confederate mounted force based around the Texas Rangers invaded New Mexico opposed by Union regulars and Colorado militia, both sides largely commanded by quarrelling incompetents. I really felt for the Texan unit that made the only lancer charge of the war against a militia unit that turned out to be the only unit in the war that had practised the drill for forming square, but the highlight was the torpedo mule, loaded with explosives and a slow fuse and driven towards the Texan camp at night. This equivalent of the DB Chinese thunder-bomb oxen had a fatal flaw. Mules are used to hard words and kicks and go home when hungry. Some did, and others stole the food of the Texan cattle herd. So the Colorado camp was first disturbed by exploding mules, then stampeded over by the Texan cattle herds...
......
