Medieval Warfare [MW] is a tactical game. That means the astute MW general must learn details abstracted in other games. Let me tell you the first axiom of winning in MW:

• You must make every effort to get every positive modifier possible for every unit at all times, or you will not win - not even with the devil’s own luck.

The first point to begin gathering all these modifiers is at deployment. Because most MW armies have few Trained troops, they are difficult to re-deploy. Therefore, a thorough deployment scheme is essential to gain every advantage for your troops. How to deploy feudal commands, or battles, of units is what this article is about.

Although each army has strengths and weaknesses, and troop types vary in quality and availability from list to list, there are general schemes that can be thought out and even practiced in advance. But how do you learn this without getting a sound thrashing during those few opportunities to play? The small blurbs written above the lists give some general ideas, but no specifics. They don’t answer detailed questions such as, ‘What is the best deployment scheme for attack and defense?’ ‘What are the dimensions and distances for deployment?’ Game time is not the best time to learn how to deploy, and most of us probably do not rehearse deployment schemes at home. However, this is both instructive and necessary. But if you are new to the game, or to the army you are using, or if you just don’t have a lot of time to devote to ‘drill’, maybe this article (and responses to it) will help you. For now, I am limiting myself to irregular knights armies, because I have little experience with either the trained armies of the Byzantines and such, or the horse armies of the steppes and Middle East.

TYPES OF KNIGHT ARMIES

Most of the MW armies fall into two broad categories: early irregular knights armies and later irregular knights armies. The early ones are composed of knights in heavy or fully mailed armor (HC or FMC) and are supported by regular bows (effective range 6”, long range 12”) and mediocre spearmen. These include the vast majority of Western European armies up until about 1100-1200. Then there is a slow but steady trend towards the crossbow and the longbow (effective range increases to 12”, long range 16” for both weapons), the spearmen get heavier armor and long spears or pikes, and the knights start to become armored cavalry (AC) and fully armored cavalry (FAC). This period is from about 1200 to 1500. While the missile weapons improve and the armor gets thicker, the fundamental tactical concepts of both these periods are the same:

• Knights are the main striking arm of the army, and victory depends on their charge,
• Missile weapons are mainly to prepare targets for the charge of the knights,
• Spear and other foot units without missile weapons are there to support knights and missile units.
• In any scenario, but especially in a tournament, this needs to be done as quickly as possible. If you do not destroy a third of his units first, you will lose.

So in other words, if your knights do not successfully charge and beat an opponent, your army has a slim chance of winning. In a tournament, time constraints demand that you pick an area to attack, move to it as fast as possible, and then CHARGE! After that, good die rolling is your best friend (if you bought a priest, good praying on his part will help once per turn!). But if you can’t roll like fate smiles on you, maybe a carefully thought out deployment scheme will save you (and your little lead men).

What is the proper deployment for a command, or ‘battle’ in Medieval Warfare? The first key dimension is provided by tactical range. With large bases this is 16”. This is the distance at which a general issues an order and at which a supply wagon can re-supply missile units that run low or out of missiles. Half tactical range, or 8, with large bases, is the distance at which a general gives a ‘+1’ morale benefit to friendly units. The second key dimension is support range. This is the distance that units offer support for one another. Units need both flanks or a flank and a rear support to count as supported. Failure to support units leads to a ‘-1’ to their morale. Support range is defined as one-fourth the tactical range or 4” with large bases. I assume that we want all our units to get a ‘+1’ to their morale for the general and to avoid the ‘-1’ for being unsupported, a net 20% bonus with a D10!

Therefore, the deployment zone for a command of 3-6 units is about 16” wide, with a general in the center no further than 8” from any of the units. Furthermore, each of the units is within 4” of two units on their flanks and rear. All receive the bonus for the general and avoid the penalty for being unsupported.

Now that we have the proper dimensions in which to deploy the battle, what is its composition and how does it look on the table? A command will usually be preparing to fight one of two enemies, that I shall label static or dynamic. A static opponent is usually composed of infantry that are holding some sort of terrain feature. Classic examples are the Saxons, the Welsh, the Flemish, the Scots, et al. Dynamic opponents are cavalry armies that are going to fight in a similar way as you are, with knights charging and possibly, some support units. For a static enemy, I prefer a mixed deployment of unit types, and for a dynamic opponent I prefer a command with more cavalry. Either may work, however. I am just going by what my experience has shown produces better results more consistently. And sometimes the better deployment and the occasional ‘+1’ or ‘+2’ makes all the difference.

Deploying the Feudal Host Medieval Warfare Techniques

Introduction
Mixed Deployment