I must fully support Ed Tonry WRT how to keep archer effective.
Yesterday I fought a wargame with this as the primary theme. I had 9 bases of Good quality light archers and 6 bases of Good heavy infantry. Our objective was to get off the other side of the field with minimum loses. Key features were a defended ford about a third of the way down the table.
Against us were (initially) 1 base of Knights (my biggest headache) 3 bases of average archers, 3 bases of average medium infantry and about 18 bases of peasant levy.
My biggest problem was to reach the ford without being flanked. Since the knights kept playig tactical manouevering rather than charging home I was forced to slowly wheel pushing the peasants before the left flank. Having gained the ford I and neutralized the opposition (except the knights) I was "delighted" to see the opponents reinforcements arriving across the river! They had a further 3 bases of knights, 9 bases of medium cavalry and more peasants than I could count (I guess about 45 bases!).
The only recourse was to dig in at the edge of the ford with the heavy infantry and try to repulse all comers. Naturally, it was the knights and medium cavalry who charged through the ford. This worked, despite a very nasty incident when the original knights finally charged home. And we managed to hold out long enough for our relief of 3 bases of elite knights templar to come to our rescue! Actually, the masses of peasant levy did not play much of a part and left after their leaders were killed.
It was a pretty dramatic victory, we destroyed about 32 bases for a cost of 2 bases of heavy infantry. However, it was touch a go several times and I am sure we could easily have been overwhelmed if the opponents had managed to charge their masses home.
But overall it showed three things:
Cheers
Lewis
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