Hold The Pass!

It was winter in 1544. France and England were once again at war and King Henry VIII had laid siege to Boulogne.   When word came of an approaching relief force, the Earl of Belmont was sent out to stop them. 

The English scoffed at a bunch of Frogs and Germans but then scouts reported a contingent of Scots, eager to seek revenge for Flodden. Well, the English were used to beating Scots as well Frogs. The Duke deployed his army on a ridge at the head of a pass through a hilly, wooded stretch of land.  

The French, their allies, and mercenaries, pressed quickly forward on a broad front. The main force consisted of three blocks of pikemen one French, one Landsknecht and one Scots. A screen of light cavalry and shot covered the gaps and did their best to weaken the English archers, 

The French and Mercenary pikes were held by the Billmen but there were not enough of them and the Scots rolled over a line of Bowmen and a handful of billmen.

Both the French and Landsknects were forced back but the Scots were now unopposed as they wheeled to pursue. The sun was sinking and the Earl began to feel that he could still hold out if he was careful. 

While the French were reforming and renewing their attack, the skirmishing by light troops resumed and numbers began to tell. The Duke decided to pull back slowly hoping the French would stop at dusk but his casualties had been heavier than he thought and his army was ready to break, so he sent over a herald to request a meeting while ordering his army to retreat quickly but in order, ready to fight.

There would be another place and another day for him to stop the French.  

Note on the figures: These armies are 40mm, about 2/3 are home cast most original sculpts but some based on conversions of Meisterzinn homecast figures The rest are from here and there including a number of slightly smaller Elastolins, many from kits rather than the original factory painted ones. I included the smaller figures because they are so wonderful. The armies were started for a game co-hosted with Rob Dean at Cold Wars 20 years ago.