The following battle took place during our group's campaign team tournament. The armies consisted of two randomly selected allies each fielding a maximum of 800 points, with no charge for 1 general figure and his standard. This game was fought to completion in seven bounds on a weekday evening In the author's basement.

Based on the random draw for this. the second round of our tournament, the sides consisted of the Later Feudal French under Jim McIntosh and the Early Medieval Irish (with Scots allies) under Craig Bowser - versus the Scots Common army under the author's command and the Early Anglo-Irish under the command of Mike Butler. The French/Irish went primarily for open terrain for their knights, and wound up only with a woods on their extreme left flank and a steep rocky hill in our rear zone. We placed two steep, rocky hills in our right center and two brush areas in our right center. The French-Irish force outscouted us by 23 points to zero, and so got to view our deployment first.

The map reflects the force dispositions at setup:

The first bound saw each force marching into position. We sought to take advantage of our terrain features, and therefore much of the action took place near the center of the board. During the second bound we continued to maneuver into position. The only action occurred on our right flank, where the frish light horse charged our hobilars (disordered due to dismounting), rolled up 3, and routed them. Fortunately, no friendly units were nearby too see this disaster and the hobilars spent the rest of the game routing to the rear.

Bound three saw the start of serious action. The map at right shows the positions of the units at this time:

During bound 3, a Feudal French knight unit (7) entered the center brush to escape longbow fire from the left of the Anglo-Irish line. He then charged the right hand Highlander unit (E) impetuously in column. The knights rolled even, the Highlanders (irregular A front rank) rolled up 1, and the knights were beaten. They chose to break off, and rolled down, leaving them rallying, tired and disordered, 120 paces from the (now bloodthirsty) Highlanders.

During bound 4, the melee in the brush really heated up. A French knight unit (6), and a Scots knight unit (E) charged each other impetuously. The Scots rolled down 4, and were forced to recoil. The bloodthirsty Highlanders impetuously charged the rallying knight unit (7) they beat last turn, and were in turn charged impetuously by a fresh knight unit (8). In a dramatic reversal of fortune, the rallying (irregular A) knights tossed a plus 3 and the (suddenly timid) Highlanders tossed a minus 3. The Highlanders were forced to recoil disordered and tired, and both knight units followed up. Minor skirmishing continued between the two Irish forces, as they were seemingly content to let the Scots and French bash each other independently.

Bound 5 saw continued Scot-French pummeling. The continuing Highlander/knight melee saw mixed results, as the Highlanders finally threw a plus 2, and beat one knight unit (6), forcing it to recoil. The other knight unit remained unbeatable, tossing an up 4, and the Highlanders continued their recoil.

The Scots cleverly maneuvered a spearman unit (B) onto the flank of the other continuing melee, between another French knight unit (6) and a Scots knight unit (0). The plan backfired, however, as the French threw up 1 and the Scots knights threw down 3, and routed. The spearmen failed to dent the French - throwing down 2 - but did prevent their pursuit of the routing Scots. The Scots were starting to feel rather snakebit.

Bound 6 saw a heavy escalation of the French/Scots fighting. To protect the now vulnerable flank of his spearmen unit (B) in contact with the flank of the victorious French knights, the Scots were forced to commit their CiC's knight unit to the fray. Robert the Bruce promptly rolled down 2 while the French CiC rolled up I with his irregular A front rank, causing Bruce to rout ignominiously from the field. The Scots' heavy spearman unit (A) became shaken from the shock of seeing Robert's banner head to the rear. Fortunately for the Scots, the center French knight unit (6) failed its counter to face them, but they again threw down and failed to dent the knights.

In the brush, the Highlanders became timid again to their cost, as they tossed a down 2 which, coupled with yet another up roll by the French knights they were facing (8), resulted in their rout. At the end of the bound. 3 of the four units in the Scottish main command were in rout or shaken, so the command went to retreat orders at the start of bound seven.

Bound 7 saw the winding down of the action. The Scots command had been shattered. Their last unit in good morale status, the medium spearmen (B), were now faced by their opponents as the French made their counter. True to form, the spearmen threw down 4 in the ensuing melee and the knights threw up 4, pushing the spearmen back.

The final act of this Scottish tragedy took place on the extreme left of the Scottish line, where a large Highlander unit with the Highlander Ally-General had been staring out of its brush at a French knight unit (3) and a 24 man heavy crossbow unit (5). Enraged at the wholesale destruction of the Scottish center and right. the Highlanders surged impetuously from the brush at both the knight unit and the crossbow unit. The urge to avenge their kin was strong, and the Highlanders rolled an up 1, routing the crossbowmen. Although the French knights also rolled up, and beat the Highlanders facing them, they shook on the waiver test due the the rout of the crossbowmen, allowing the Scots to salvage some pride from the action.

Finally, worried that the French would claim all of the credit for the victory, the Medieval Irish unleashed their CiC's knight unit (13) impetuously into an 18 man Anglo-Irish bormacht unit (L). Though the bonnachts inflicted 9 cpf on their prep shot, they shook in response to the charge and were routed in hand to hand combat.

Finally, dusk settled over the littered field. The final scoring was as follows:

The Scots killed 247, the Anglo-Irish killed 0, for a team total kills of 247. The French killed 550, the Medieval Irish killed 169, for a team total kills of 719.

The tournament scoring system awarded points for kills (to 400 max), and for a positive difference between a team's kills and their opponents (again to 400 max). The French and Medieval Irish players therefore each received the full 800 points, and the Scots and Anglo-Irish received 247 points each.

Overall, this was an exciting and fast paced battle, and all of the participants agreed that it had been entertaining. The Scots want a rematch with the French....