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The tree of battles
Text
European warfare ad1300-1500
Wargames rules by Simon macdowall
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Introduction
I make a Tree of Mourning at the beginning of my book on which you
may see first, the governors of the Holy Church in such sharp
tribulation as was never before, dissensions and wars... and after you
may see the great discord, battles and killings which exist today
between kings and christian princes. Afterwards you may plainly see
that amount nobles and communities there is great anguish and
slaughter.
Honoré Bovet from the frontispiece of
Arbre des Batailles,
a military
manual from 1360
The Tree of Battles
is designed to re-create, with miniature figures, the battles of the 14
th
-15th
centuries in Western Europe. This fascinating period covers the demise of the aristocratic
knight as the arbiter of battle at the hands of common men armed with spears, pikes, longbows
and guns.
The Tree of Battles
has have been adapted from
Comitatus,
my Dark Age wargames
rules and uses many of the same mechanisms.
I have taken care to ensure that these rules work particularly well for the Hundred Years War
and Wars of the Roses. However they can also be used for other actions and theatres including
the Scottish, Italian, Burgundian and Swiss wars right through to the end of the 15th century.
With little modification they could also be used for representing some earlier conflicts.
Many key words used in The Tree of Battles have meanings which have a significant bearing
on the rules. These words are set in italics the first time they appear in and are fully defined in
the last section of the rules.
v1 © Simon MacDowall, Wangford, Suffolk, 2012
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Thursday, 26 April 2012
1. Preparing a Game
What You Need to Play:
Sufficient figures mounted on uniform sized
stands.
These are pieces
of cardboard or similar material cut out to a standard size, mounting a
group of miniature figures of the same troop type. You should be
careful that the card is thick enough not to warp when painted or
textured. The addition of magnetic strips across the bottom of the card
base can be useful for transporting the figures in metal or metal-lined
boxes and can also help to stiffen thinner card and prevent warping. It
is possible to play the game using the stands as counters marked with
appropriate symbols to distinguish troops types. New players might
like to do this to experiment with the rules while they raise their
armies of miniatures
Measuring sticks or tapes to measure move distances and ranges. These can be cut from card or
wood and be marked in graduations equal to
�½
stand frontage (see p7).
Several normal 6-sided dice
(D6),
and Average dice
(AvD)
marked 2-3-3-4-4-5. If you do not
have AvD you can throw a D6 and count 1 as 3, and 6 as 4.
A table top or other playing surface large enough to accommodate the number of contingents in
use. Dining room tables are usually a bit too small for larger games so you will most likely have
to get hold of some boards which can be laid on top of a normal table to give a larger playing
area.
Three dimensional terrain to represent:
hills;
linear obstacles such as streams, hedges, ditches, fortifications; and
rough terrain such as woods, marshes, soft ground and towns.
Suitable markers to indicate actions which would be helpful if they were visually indicated on
the table. Where figures are used as markers the bases should be shaped or textured to
differentiate them from contingents. Suggested markers include:
Disorder Markers
- small pebbles or pieces of gravel (easily obtainable from pet shops)
to indicate disorder points (DPs - see p17). Contingents will accumulate and loose these
points throughout the game. Pieces of gravel make especially good markers for this
purpose since they can be more easily handled than counters and blend in better with the
battlefield terrain. Alternatively very small six sided dice could be used.
Halt Marker
- a small counter (counters from old board games work well), painted or
textured to blend with the battlefield to indicate contingents which may not move.
Archery Markers
– a counter, single archer figures or sheafs of arrows to indicate
archers who have shot intensively.
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Thursday, 26 April 2012
Herald Marker
- a single mounted figure to act as a herald or messenger.
Leader Marker
– a single mounted or dismounted captain to represent a leader who has
temporarily left his retinue to join another contingent.
Horse-holder Marker
- a single dismounted figure and one or two horses, to mark the
location of horses of dismounted troops.
Organising Figures
Each stand mounts a number of figures of the same
troop type, armour class
and
status.
Each
troop type has characteristics and abilities which are are expressed as
Attack (A)
and
Defence
(D)
factors, and
Shooting Ability (S).
These are know as
Combat Factors.
Attack factors represent élan and willingness to close to combat, combined with weaponry
and armour. Defence factors are represent staying power and unit cohesion. Troops with a
missile capability (S) are able inflict significant damage on an opponent at that distance. The
range for missile weapons may vary.
Troop Types
Skirmishers:
lightly armed men who fight in loose or dispersed formations to harass the
enemy at a distance with light missile weapons. These include bidowers, Irish kerns, and
some Spanish foot. They are usually armed with javelins or slings, although some could carry
weak bows, crossbows, or even handguns.
Mounted Skirmishers
include Spanish jinettes,
Venetian stradiots and some Irish, Gascon and Grenadine horseman. Shooting ability is the
same for all skirmishers regardless of the weapon they carry.
Combat Factors: Mounted A2/
D0/S; Foot: A1/D1/S.
Light Horse:
lightly equipped mounted men whose main role is scouting and operating on
the flanks. They include mounted hobilars, currours, scourers and prickers.
Combat Factors:
A3/D1
Missile Troops:
massed longbowmen, crossbowmen and handgunners whose primary role is
to soften up the enemy before close combat but who also have limited hand to hand fighting
abilities. Their shooting effectiveness will vary depending on the weapon they carry.
Combat Factors: A1/D2/S.
Men at Arms:
Primarily nobles, knights, esquires and other men of rank armed with lances,
pole arms or similar heavy weapons, They may fight either mounted or dismounted. A stand
of men-at-arms could be assumed to contain men of rank in the front backed up by a number
of lesser serjeants or coutiliers.
Combat Factors: Mounted A5/D2; Dismounted A4/D3
Heavy Infantry:
Men who fight hand to hand in close order with spears, bills, halberds or a
mix of pole arms. They will usually have at least some form of basic protective armour. These
include town and communal militias, professional retainers, English billmen and Swiss
halberdiers. A stand of foot soldiers could include a few dismounted men at arms in the front
rank.
Combat Factors: A3/D2
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Thursday, 26 April 2012
Pavisiers:
Men on foot armed with spears and very large shields, some of which can be set
up as a free-standing protective barrier. They would normally be mixed contingents with
crossbowmen or handgunners. They may be used as ‘shield bearers’ carrying the pavises
forward, setting them up to protect the missile troops and then withdrawing to the rear, or
they may be used as static infantry on their own.
Combat Factors: A0/D3.
Players may also
choose to deploy mixed stands of crossbowmen or handgunners and pavisiers mounted on
the same base. In this case their combat factors are
A0/D2/S
and they count as
understrength
(see below) for shooting purposes. In all cases troops behind pavises count as being in cover
when shot at from the front.
Light Infantry:
Lightly equipped men who fight hand to hand in loose order with a mixture
of weapons. These include brigans, jacquerie, ribaulds, sword and buckler men and many
Welsh, Scottish and Irish foot.
Combat Factors: A2/D1
Pikemen:
Flemish, Swiss and Scottish foot fighting in close formation with long spears or
pikes. They gain significant bonuses in in combat due to their formation and are particularly
effective against mounted troops.
Combat Factors: A1/D1
Artillery:
light bombards and field guns. They have no combat value (see p33)
Men-at-arms, Heavy Infantry, Pavisiers and Pikemen are collectively termed
fighting troops.
Under-strength
stands may be used to represent about half the usual numbers of troops over
the same frontage as a full strength stand of the same type. They reduce attack and defence
factors by one (minimum 0) and halve the number of stands able to shoot. They are most
useful to represent dismounted men-at-arms stands on the same frontage as their mounted
equivalent or contingents which are heavily outnumbered and therefore have formed a
shallow line to cover more ground with less depth. Mixed stands of missile troops and
pavisiers count as under strength for shooting purposes only (as they have half as many
shooters).
Armour classes
Each stand is classified as one of the following armour classes:
Full Harness:
All men in full plate armour
cap à pied.
If mounted the majority of their
horses must also have full protection to count as full harness.
Armoured:
All men with good protection such as brigantines, mail and jacks, with some in
full or partial harness. Mounted men in full harness but riding horses without full protection
also count as armoured
Unarmoured or lightly armoured:
Men with little protection beyond a helmet or jack or a
mix of men with some in armour and some without. Armoured men are classified as
unarmoured if mounted on unarmoured horses.
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Thursday, 26 April 2012

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