Battle of Guinegate

[RogerCooper]

I decided to recreate randomly-chosen historical battle. My choice was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of ... ate_(1479), an interesting fight between two very late Medieval armies. You can read the Wikipedia article for the details of the battle.

The article provided some contradictory information about the numbers engaged but was able to come up with reasonable list. Both armies are found in Meshwesh, Hapsburg Burgundian and French Ordonnance. What was unusual is the most of the French infantry were archers, while the Burdgundians were mostly pikeman. In order to accomodate all the named contingents I used as scale 650 foot (325 horse) per unit. The Burgundians deployed in 2 large infantry formations, so this naturally works as 2 player on a side battle.

Burgundians
4 x Archer (a mix of English longbow, crossbow, arquebus and other archers)
3 x Javelin Cavalry (Coutiliers)
3 x Knights (Gendarmes, they dismounted in the middle of the battle)
17 x Pike (Flemish pikemen)
2 x Artillery (Coulevriners)
1 x War Wagon (Operated in Hussite fashion)

French
12 x Archers
1 x Artillery
6 x Javelin Cavalry (Coutiliers)
6 x Knights (Gendarmes)
1 x Archer (Mounted)

The French army is 103 points, the Burgundian army is 100 points.

To actually play this, I only deployed half of each army, starting them up against the edge. Terrain was not mentioned in the account of the battle and the battlefield is pretty flat even today, so I didn't use any terrain.

Triumph handled this well. The French cavalry superiority is offset by the Burgundian infantry superiority. The French won, mostly due to better dice. I think that the Burgundians have a better balanced force and a bit of an edge.

Archer vs Pike is an odd match-up, as Pikes don't get rear support against archers so the Pike only has 3 vs 2 advantage. The infantry fight was as quick as the cavalry fight, due to the low combat factors of the infantry.

Some observations

1. I am not sure that late 15th century Gendarmes should be Knights. They were better armored and better disciplined than their grandfathers. Cataphracts would seem more appropriate.
2. Gunpowder weapons did not play a big role historically, but there was a reason they were used. Perhaps the Arquebus should have the Marksman and Slow cards.
3. It seems hard to believe that the French infantry were all archers. Historically, the infantry battle was slow. Perhaps some of them were Heavy Foot.
4. Neither army broke historically. I would suggest a break point of 50% rather than 33%.