I now had the measure of my army. Narrowing my frontage meant my choice of a waterway. Before you go accusing me of “cheese”, regular opponent will know that defence is not my natural predisposition. A waterway and terrain for my missile troops. After just seven hours of games, I finally had a plan. Unfortunately Dave Allen had been left unplugged all night and so it was a little confused on the Sunday morning. I eventually sat down opposite a very late Byzantine force with more bloody Mongols!

The terrain was ideal, the shooty cavalry of the Byzantines would be channelised. I had enough troops to mount a stout defence. The Byzantine foot weren’t going to come into the open and my mounted Knights could match the lance armed Greeks.

Gamely, the Byzantines close in on me. Could they find a weakness?

Well, the answer was no. Most of my line was dismounted Knights. In Art de la guerre terms, they have to roll very badly to suffer from mounted archery. My crossbows had found a natural home in the shrub on the coastline. It wasn’t heroic but I was killing more units than my opponent. I survived with a draw! A gourmet meal and on to my last game, medieval Scots…

It would have been wall to wall Scots but some local rascal had stolen the army from the back of his car on the previous night. I did feel sorry for my opponent. I can’t help hoping that the thief would be disappointed with his haul of a toolbox full of figures and not tools.

My opponent had come to the same conclusion as me. A tight formation between terrain, but with heavy artillery to boot. I was wondering how to prise open the Scottish hedgehog and divided my force to avoid the cannonballs. It wasn’t to be my afternoon. I separated my corps too widely and the Scots advanced to bring the battle to me.

My poor medium infantry were torn apart and devastating flank attacks took my dismounted men at arms down. 

Post match analysis- read the bloody advert. I saw the year of the armies and mistakenly believed that I would be fighting battles of the Hundred Years’ War. The free company is a tough army but mobile cavalry are a force to be reckoned with in 15mm games. I do need to familiarise myself with the rules. Even after all these games I forget important rules like the Scottish arty being unable to move in the last game. 

I loved the venue and the atmosphere over the weekend. I’ll definately being attending next year but with more preparation perhaps? ( I know it’s doubtful)

More Easter games to follow……