Although this is a huge era, I generally take it to be from the time of the Norman conquest to the Wars of the Roses of the 15th Century. The Normans brought with them an army structure that we associate with what we term the Medieval period.
Dark Ages armies almost always fought on foot . The Normans moved away from the culture of individual warriors and divided their armies up into distinct units such as heavy infantry, light infantry, cavalry, mounted knights and units of archers. Saxons and Vikings only used archers in small numbers as part of a missile throwing shieldwall – probably because culturally the bow was not regarded as a noble weapon.
The Normans brought with them from Spain much larger horses than the ponies found in Britain and their knights had perfected the art of fighting from them and using very long spears(early lances) to sweep aside foot infantry in the classic cavalry charge. The Normans were certainly a formidable fighting force and their victory brought with it a revolution in the way Britain was governed.
Temporary wooden castles were quickly built on the sites of Dark Ages hill forts and controlled by a baron and garrison of soldiers . They were quickly able to control the leaderless English subjects. The Saxon’s warrior culture meant that with King Harold dead – his retainers (the noble elite) stood and fought to the last man at Hastings long after defence of the hill was impossible. The Feudal system with which we associate the medieval period was then introduced by the Normans.
For two centuries there was very little change to this Norman style of warfare right up to the Barons’ War of 1265 except minor changes to armour and the introduction of heraldry and coats of arms. A major change occurred with the longbow and its use in massed ranks. It was this and its devestating affect upon the French in the Hundred Years War that brought about rapid changes in armour with the advent of full plate armour and with this changes to weaponry that could pierce this new armour. Ultimately the effectiveness of full plate armour led to the early handguns which were just as likely to kill the firer as the target.
With the Wars of the Roses knights fighting on horseback and great cavalry charges with lances became a thing of the past. Knights would dismount and fight on foot alongside almost equally well-armoured professional soldiers or men-at-arms. Categories tended to blur and it was archers and lighter troops that tended to be mounted. Troops fought in tight units distinguished by livery colours and an army of this period composed of 10000 men was likely to consist of 7-8000 longbow, 1000 foot knights/ men-at-arms, a few hundred light cavalry and the rest being spearmen/ billmen drawn from the shires.
The medieval period really appeals to me as it has everything from peasants revolts to greedy barons, treachery and betrayal to nations such as France, Scotland , Wales and Ireland fighting for their independence from England to civil war in England with the Barons’ Wars and the Wars of the Roses!!!
It is perhaps not considered the most popular period of history if the wargames magazines are anything to go by but is unrivaled in sheer colour and spectacle and best of all if you are patient you can build up armies pretty cheaply by making the most of the bring and buy sales at shows and on the web. I decided to wargame this period in 25mm because I feel the figures have far more character in this scale and give the option of using them for skirmish games. Another important consideration if you wish to represent the historical heraldry of this period is have you the patience to paint very ornate shields / livery badges and horse coats in 15mm scale ?
The cost of new 25mm figures is a bit off-putting but if you have patience you come across some real gems. My best buy was 30 mounted Essex knights and 30 foot knights for £10 at a B&B. These would have been nearly £70 new!!!!
If you are tempted to game in 25mm scale be a bit careful as Essex, Front Rank and the old Grenadier figures are 28mm while Foundry , Old Glory and most others are strictly 25mm and next to the 28mm figures they can look small and slightly built. I would thoroughly recommend Front Rank figures as they have all the troop types you will need for 100 Years War and Wars of Roses and at 75p are excellent value and in my view the best.
I have chosen to base my figures for DBM but find the rules too picky and cumbersome and in need of modification and simplification. For basing as I use modern 28mm figures and not the old fashioned 25mm I have made all bases for foot infantry 6cm x 3cm and never have more than 3 figures per base regardless of troop type. For mounted figures such as Essex it is not always possible and looks quite ridiculous with 3 figures crammed onto a 6 x 4 base so I have based 2 figures only on 6cm x 5cm bases which looks much better and allows you to field bigger armies – thus saving you money so it can’t be bad.
Basically I don’t think there is a perfect set of medieval rules (ie none of them successfully deal with massed ranks of longbow) and rules are always there to be broken so why not make up your own or modify those available to suit your purposes ?
Another bonus with medieval wargaming is that it was very rare for a battle to take place in a village or town so you don’t have any added expense with buildings.
High quality banners/flags covering every conflict of the 100 Years war and Wars of Roses are available from Freezywater Publications in the UK at £2 per sheet of about 10 flags per sheet.
Wargaming with medievals is great fun because the various troop types are not always controllable as more modern armies are, an example being the impetuous French knights at Agincourt pushing forward and totally ignoring their CinC. Driven by glory and greed the army did not work as a tight unit as the smaller English army did. On the face of it if the French had sent forward their crossbowmen first with pavasiers to provide cover while they reloaded – the outcome would have been very different. As it happened the crossbowmen never fired a shot and were forced to enter the fray as foot soldiers.
Any of the many historical battles could be gamed or alternatively you could select leaders with different strengths and forces and create your own scenarios. One interesting option is to have a force controlled by the umpire which could enter the battle on any side as happened decisively with the Stanleys at Bosworth when they intervened at Richard III’s charge in favour of Henry Tudor.
By the time of the Wars of the Roses almost all troops were professional battle hardened soldiers and although their leader could change allegiance mid-battle, they were not likely to flee the field unless a flank totally collapsed. Any of the earlier Medieval conflicts relied heavily on feudal levy and these troops could prove totally unreliable when push comes to shove as could artillery which had a fair chance of exploding and killing the crew. Most battles could go either way and it is this very uncertainty that makes medieval wargaming so appealing.
For more information on the medieval period, try the following:
