AGINCOURT SPI / by J.Dunnigan Review: M.Boone BACKGROUND "Agincourt" covers of the decisive battle that occured on 25 Oct 1415 near Agincourt, France during the Hundred Years War between France and England. Where at, King Henry V and 6,000 men-at-arms and archers defeated a much larger French force of roughly 20,000. Causualties for the French numbered 10,000 compared to 100 for the English. The common reason put forth for such a lopsided victory was that of the superiority of the English longbow against the French knights. However, there were several other factors contributing to the French loss. The French suffered from lack of any clear chain of command and a lack of any plan of attack besides a frontal assault. Such an attack caused much crowding at the front, due to successive lines of attack piling up from behind plus a general focusing of attack on the English knights instead of the longbow men. Attacks were focused on the English knights because the French knights would gain no honor by attacking the lowly longbowmen. The muddy terrain slowed the cavalry and also wearied advancing infantry and those fighting in it. The French also had archers (shortbow and crossbow), but faile to utilize them in any productive manner. So, the French more or less lost the battle by their own mistakes which the English decisively capitalized on. CONTENTS The components found in the box are: a 22x34" map, 270 counters, and a 32 page rulebook half of which is devoted to historical background. The scale of the game is: 3 minute turns and 34 yards per hex. The French units represent about 1000 men, while the English are 250-500 men. Agincourt uses a percentile die (1-100) for all table results instead of the usual six-sider. The map represents the battlefield of clear terrain flanked by forests on either side, for a total of 41x34 hexes. Elevation levels are marked every 5 meters from 110-135 with different colors. The forests are impassable and the elevations impede movement and LOS for fire combat. Otherwise, there are no combat benefits to be gained from terrain features. The combat counters represent leaders, men-at-arms, cavalry, and archers (longbow, shortbow, & crossbow). Most of the counters are informational in nature, representing: line strength, arrow supply, fugitives, and dead. Leaders have a combat strength (used for melee and leader combat) and a ransom value (for victory points). Men-at-arms and cavalry just have a combat strength for melee; cavalry can double this when charging. French shortbow and crossbow units have only an archer side. The English longbow units can switch between archer and yeoman sides. Of note, are the 30 French double size combat units which take up two hexes. The two hex size makes it much harder to maneuver the unit towards the front, plus avoid fugitives, and make facing changes. All combat units also have a line strength which represents the number of lines/ranks it was organized into. French men-at-arms are 7 lines, cavalry 2 lines, and shortbows/crossbows 3 lines. English units are mostly 4 lines. Lines are removed through fire and melee combat as well as due to morale. Once all the lines of a unit are eliminated, its counter is removed from the map. Regardless of the line strength of a unit, its melee strength remains the same, though the unit becomes more fragile to morale effects. MECHANICS A game-turn sequence consists of a French player turn, followed by the English player turn. Each player turn consists of the following steps: 1 - Fugitive movement phase 2 - Movement and enemy archery phase 3 - Morale phase 4 - Leader combat phase 5 - Melee phase 6 - Enemy fatigue morale phase Movement is broken into 3 impules, each 1 minute long. An impulse consists of the player moving his units and then the opponent firing any of their archery units. Cavalry have 2 mp per impulse and all other units have 1 mp. Usual terrain cost is 1 mp (Clear, muddy). So in general, most units get to move 1 hex then get fired upon each impulse. Moving up slope costs an additional movement point which requires 2 impulses to move that 1 hex. Needless to say, this allows for ample enemy fire opportunity while your units plod forward 1 hex at a time. Fire combat is resolved by cross-indexing the unit firing and the target unit with the range in hexes to the target. Then the firing unit can select how many volleys to fire at the target (from 1-6). Each volley number has its own line of percentage hits. The more volleys fired, the greater chance of hitting the target and causing more than 1 hit. From 1-4 hits (strikes) may occur, but usually just 1 hit will occur. Each hit on a target reduces it line strength by one. Each volley fired also reduces the arrow supply for that unit by one. English longbows have from 15-24 volleys. Arrow supply can be replished by stacking with a dead marker as yeomen and retrieving 2 volleys per impulse. A nice touch is that of leader combat between adjacent leaders. Two leaders fight for 5 rounds. Each round a type of attack is selected (6 choices), these are indexed to determine the percentage chance of either or both leaders taking a hit. If a leader takes hits equal to his combat value, he is captured; a capture can also occur on the combat table. The attack choices are: (attacking/parrying) combined with (advance/standing/retiring) creating six combinations. Melee combat occurs between adjacent units. Combat values are calculated for each unit and a differential determined. For each side, one leader can add their combat value to the total. Negative modifiers are applied if the unit is being crowded or is stacked with any dead markers. Also, a one time bonus can be given if the unit is making its initial melee of the battle. The final differential is indexed with the defender's line strength and percentile dice rolled for hit determination. A hit causes loss of one line-strength. After melee combat, the enemy unit undergoes a morale check. When a units suffers a combat loss through fire or melee, a dead marker and fugitive marker are placed on the map for each hit suffered. As casualties mount, the map becomes littered with these markers. Fugitives are moved at the begining of the player turn, and retreat back to the friendly edge of the map. They move their full allowance in a straight line. If they run into a friendly combat unit, they stop, but this also prevents that combat unit from moving in the ensuing movement phase. Fugitives can be captured by enemy combat units moving into their hex. Morale also plays a key role, this is checked after the move/fire phase and after an enemy melee phase. A morale point total is calculated for each unit, things checked are: line loss, crowding, arrow hits that turn, nearby dead and fugitive markers, etc. The higher the total, the more likely the unit will suffer 1 or more line losses. Such losses are represented as fugitive markers. As units advance though dead, fugitives, take arrow hits, etc., they tend to melt away and are greatly weakened when they do reach the front lines. Additional rules allow for the French suicide squad, English yeoman rules, cavalry charges, use of stake counters, army demoralization, etc. SCENARIOS There are four scenarios: Historical, French free deployment, King Henry's folly, and Open field of battle. The historical one has pre-programmed French movement and recreates the actual battle results quite well. This scenario is a good introduction to the game mechanics and is also suitable for solitaire play. The other scenarios each remove a disadvantage from the French and allow for a more balanced competive game. The second scenario allows the French player to freely deploy their units however desired. This should allow the French player to develope some kind of coordianted plan of attack and take advantage of their shortbow/crossbow units. Also, the ground is dry (not muddy) allowing for greater movement. The third scenario covers the situation of an English attack on the French lines. At the start of the day, both armies were facing each other expecting the other side to attack. After several hours of no action, the English advanced and with longbow fire proded the French into attacking. The final scenario covers the case if the French had attacked the English two days earlier on the open field south of Agincourt, instead of granting the English the choice of the battlefield. This allows the French to take advantage of their superior numbers and outflank the English line instead of being chanelled by the flanking forests of the actual battlefield. TACTICS The French player must plan some kind of ordered advance on the English line without pushing too many units forward at once and to minimize the effects of fleeing fugitive units. Aggresive use of French archer units can weaken English units and help cause a breakthrough. The English player can be content to stand behind their stakes and beat off each French attack. Mounting dead markers and crowding will make this all the more easier. Caution must be used in deciding when to move archers as yeomen to capture fugitive and replish arrow supply, so as not to reduce your fire strength too much. Also, decisions between arrow supply and volleys fired must be made. The English can usually weaken the advancing French enough through fire combat that the effects of morale and melee combat will eliminate them completely. The game adequately recreates the mass confusion of the battle for the French and the various disadvantages they had to overcome. The longbow can wreck havoc on the French units even before they get within melee range. On the down side, one minor thing I disliked is that the mass of units and markers on the map make it very cluttered, but I guess you can chalk this up as confusion of battle. Also, it can be somewhat tedious calculating the morale points for each unit during the morale phase. Also, I could not see how the French can every get a high enough melee difference to realistically cause a line loss. The percentage chance of causing an initial loss was around 10%, often it was 0%. A French unit only has one chance to realistically cause a line-loss in melee, and that is on its first melee attack when it can get the +7 initial shock bonus. After that, the combat difference is usually 0 or negative. Capturing a English leader in leader combat would help a great deal, but is a rare occurance. The best chance for the French is for the English to fail their morale checks, which can be a 30% chance. Therefore, the French player must persavere high losses just to have a chance to cause a single loss to an English unit. Agincourt, as one would expect, is lopsided somewhat towards the English. Even with the balancing scenarios, the French player is hard pressed to cause any real damage to the English. The game definately creates high body counts (for the French) and should satisfy even the most blood-thirsty of players. Though repeat play may be limited, it is certainly a good addition for any Medieval enthusiasts and a good introduction to the Hundred Years War era for other wargamers.