Another practice game for Gordon's ADLG competition efforts saw my HYW English take on his Medieval Scandinavian (aka Swedish).

The English face an army consisting almost entirely of heavy spearmen with some knights in the centre:

They rush forwards to engage the enemy on the right while sending some bowmen out to slow down the enemy on the left:
The armies close:
On the left the English form a defensive line while pushing ahead on the right where they seem to have an advantage:
Arrows and crossbow bolts fly!
The troops the Swedes have detached to block the English attack on the right are caught in the flank:
Mopping up the remnants: 
In the centre things are not going so well with the Swedes breaking through in numbers:
On the right what was a promising situation for the English has gone badly wrong:
The English fall to a defeat, though it was a close one with the Swedes having taken some losses. The failure of the attack on the right contributed to the defeat as did the brittle English centre when charged by the elite Swedish knights. A fun game and I always enjoy using the English even if they don't often manage a win! I'd probably be better off playing them as Free Company but that would involve buying and painting more figures...

The third outing for the HYW English, this time against Sean's Florentine Italian Condotta.The terrain consisted of a waterway on the English right with a hill enclosed by fields next to it and a couple of other fields.

The English deployed with the Black Prince on the right, King Edward III in the centre and the Earl of Oxford on the left. The Florentine army consisted of knights, crossbowmen and some hired Swiss lackies:

The English advance quickly on their right where they feel they have an advantage:

The Black Prince continues to attack driving back the Florentines facing him:

On the left though things are not going so well and the English line is being outflanked:

The Florentines begin to attack the Earl of Oxford:

With both armies winning on one flank it will be in the centre where the Swiss are station that the battle will be decided:

On the left only the Earl of Oxford himself fights on:

The Swiss begin to cut through the English foot while now that the Earl of Oxford's command has been wiped out the King's command is under pressure from the Florentine knights as well:

The Swiss are triumphant and the English army breaks:

This was a fairly close game, Sean's army had taken quite a few losses and for a while it looked like it could go either way. I made at least one simple mistake that had a bit of an effect and need to try to cut out that sort of error in future. I should pay for better quality generals as well as the 'Ordinary' ones I use didn't get enough movement pips on a few occasions. Back to the drawing board!

The second outing for the new(ish) HYW English army saw them take on Stan's HYW French at 200pts this time.

I went for two mixed foot commands and a small command of mounted knights. The terrain included an impassable river, a lake and a couple of woods:

On the left the Black Prince moves over to face the French crossbowmen and mounted knights while the Earl of Oxford leads the English mounted knights towards the centre:

On the right King Edward III faces a mass of dismounted French knights and the possibility of an ambush lurking in the woods:

The initial shooting goes in favour of the English:

The lines close on each other. The French foot knights are tough opponents but have some gaps in their formations which the English might be able to exploit:

The opposing forces clash in the centre! Though outnumbered the French foot knights cut down an English mounted knight. Surprisingly the English longbowmen hold the initial French charge:

As the King prepares to engage the French on the right a horde of Brigans rushes out of the woods. Though mediocre in quality the English only have a single Hobilar and the two Irish Kerns to face them:

In the centre and left the English hold on as they attempt to work the flanks of the French knights. So far they are doing well:

Disaster follows though as much of the Black Princes command is routed in a single turn. On the right the King's men are in combat:

The Black Princes command is reduced to a few scattered elements. Vicious fighting on the right sees both armies sustain losses:

The French mop up the remains of the English left flank:

The Black Prince leads a desperate charge against some French crossbowmen but does not damage them and will soon be hit in the flank by French knights:

On the right the King is slowly gaining the upper hand assisted by the Earl of Oxford. Both armies are close to breaking:

Further combat sees enough English cut down to break the army with the French teetering on demoralisation themselves but surviving for the win:

For a long time the battle seemed winnable for the English but a couple of bad turns saw the Longbowmen collapse against the French knights very quickly. In reality the Longbowmen are quite poor against the foot knights, to shoot them they need to overcome a two factor disadvantage while in combat it is even worse so they perhaps did well to last as long as they did.

I think perhaps I should have taken my mounted knights as impetuous as well, without impact they are not great against foot knights being on equal factors but only needing 3 hits to die instead of 4 plus the effect of the 2HCW.

Another enjoyable game anyway and I'm certainly getting some use out of the English army!

In all honesty I thought there was a good chance the pub where our club meets would not reopen. However, nineteen weeks after my last game at the club enough Covid19 restrictions had been lifted to reopen the pub and allow us to play again.

On the left the English line overlapped the Scots with a force of Bidets and Irish Kerns poised to outflank the Scottish line:

Some Scottish (or maybe French) mounted knights deploy in the middle of the Scots line:

On the right the Earl of Oxford faces a large number of Highlanders:

Both lines advance though the Scots try to refuse their right flank slightly:

The Black Prince readies his men to face the Scots attack:

On the left King Edward presses forward to make his numbers count:

The English longbowmen start to pepper the Scots line causing some losses:

Sir John Chandos and the Black Prince are quickly engaged as well:

The Scots/French mounted knights break through the Black Princes longbowmen:

Hobilars move to fill the gaps caused by the longbowmen routing:

On the left King Edward's men start to cut their way through the Scots foot:

The entire line of battle, both sides inflicting and taking losses:

King Edward's men have destroyed the entire Scottish left flank almost:

Sir John Chandos' battle has had mixed fortunes while the Black Prince and the Earl of Oxford are under heavy pressure:

However, the Black Prince and Oxford are struggling and will be overwhelmed soon:

Chandos makes more progress but the Earl of Oxford is cut down and the Black Prince has few men left:

The final turn results in a mutual destruction with the Scots breaking easily while the English are just tipped into breaking exactly: