Pointy Sticks and Shifty Shields

In the One Hour Wargames medieval rules, archers get a +2 bonus for shooting but a -2 penalty in combat, reflecting their firepower but also their vulnerability. In order to factor in the use of defensive stakes and pavises in the Hundred Years War, I've decided to add a couple of rule tweaks.

Longbows

Longbow units may deploy defensive stakes but must be stationary and not shoot for one turn to do so. This will cancel out the -2 penalty in combat but only against mounted opponents. After they are deployed, the unit may not 'up sticks' and carry them off to redeploy somewhere else 

Crossbows

Crossbow units may deploy pavises but will also have to be stationary to do so and may not shoot in the process of deployment. This will count as cover, having any hits, but only against missile fire. Unlike longbow units, the pavises may be 'unstuck' and carried away but the unit will have to be stationary and not shoot for an entire turn to do so.

I think this will work without unbalancing the system but also accurately reflect how things were done in the Hundred Years War. I'm also going to modify the range of missile weapons, with longbows shooting out to 12 inches and crossbow range reduced to 9 inches, which seems a bit more realistic.

The Battle of Mauron in 2mm

I've been looking for a suitable historical scenario to try out the One Hour Wargame medieval rules using my 2mm Hundred Years War armies. This small battle was fought very near to my French in laws, who live ten minutes down the road, so it's an obvious choice. In fact, I've actually driven right through it, inbetween the lines of the French and English armies, without actually realising it was there!

The forces on both sides were limited to a few thousand, with dismounted men at arms and longbows for the Anglo-Breton defenders, while the Franco-Breton force consisted of men at arms on foot, backed up by mounted men at arms on the left flank. Its likely that the French also fielded spearmen to back up the men at arms, as the army outnumbered the defenders three to one. 

I'm considering a four unit army for the Anglo-Breton contingent, consisting of two men at arms and two longbow units, with a six unit army for the Franco-Bretons, probably consisting of three men at arms on foot, two spear units and one mounted men at arms. This may change but I think will reflect the disparity in numbers on the two sides and still give the Anglo-Bretons a fighting chance. 

The English are currently on the workbench and I have already glued together three units for the French, so I'm just waiting for a resupply of Antonine Miniatures to get that sorted. The terrain will be a quick fix using my Hexon tiles but I'll leave the town of Mauron itself off the set up to avoid having to model it, especially as it didn't actually play a role in the battle.

You can read about the background to this clash and the battle itself here:

https://www.britishbattles.com/one-hundred-years-war/battle-of-mauron/

2mm HYW Longbows Test Base Finished

It's not going to win any prizes but the test base of longbowmen is finished, taking less time than I thought and looking good enough for wargaming purposes. These are the core of the Anglo Breton army but fairly dull to look at, given their utilitarian clothing and equipment, with no colourful liveries or banners to brighten them up. I have three more bases of these to paint, as well as two men at arms on foot, so will get started as soon as I've textured the bases.

Trying Out Torpedoes and Tides

I'm looking forward to trying out the newly published Torpedoes and Tides coastal warfare rules soon, using my old 1/600th scale models that have been gathering dust for years. These are a mix of the Skytrex, now Heroics and Ros, and Tumbling Dice range, with some merchant shipping set aside for painting too. They need rebasing and a bit of tidying up, perhaps adding some masts from brass wire, but otherwise they're good to go. It's a bit of a diversion from my medieval focus but why not?

2mm HYW Test Base Painting

A bit of trial and error base painting this evening, using a range of paint shades and washes that I've used before on my 2mm ECW units. I'm not completely happy with the end result but it's not too bad and will do the trick, at least for this project. The next step is to block in the figures in matt black as a basecoat for painting at the weekend.

Torpedoes and Tides

This new set of rules for coastal warfare, based on the Galleys and Galleons system, is now available on Wargame Vault. I've been following the play testing for this for a while on The Stronghold Rebuilt blog and it looks really good. I'm going to grab a copy, print it out and see if I can dust off my old 1/600th scale early war coastal forces for a few try out games over the holidays in a couple of weeks. You can read more about the rules and how they work here:

https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/2025/08/06/designing-torpedoes-tides/

2mm HYW Longbowmen Test Base

Fiddling about with a test base for the 2mm early HYW Anglo-Breton Army to see how I can achieve a realistic yet straightforward result. The base was given a coat of fine sand then spray undercoated with Halfords Ultra Matt Camo Brown. After this I wet brushed some very cheap and very old Earth Brown acrylic artist paint, as a basecoat, followed by a heavy dry brush in Vallejo USA Tan Earth. 

The question now is do I use fine flock to cover the whole base, leaving a few earthy patches, or do I use another wet brush / dry brush approach for the grass? In the past I've just used flock patches for my Strength and Honour bases but they were for Parthia and similar arid locations, so probably not a good option, considering the HYW project will focus on an often soggy Brittany.

I'm going to try a three stage wet brush and dry brush in Vallejo green colours, which I've tried out on my 2mm ECW units before, with a final wash of Citadel Athonian Camo Shade for definition. If this looks okay, I will then add a few patches of light grass flock to represent bushes, brambles and other foliage, just to give the whole thing a more organic look. 

If it looks rubbish...I'll have to try Plan B!

2mm HYW English / Anglo-Breton Army c1350

A slight change of plan for the next couple of weeks, as I put the Lion Rampant / Ecorcheurs army to one side and paint up this lot. Here we have an early Hundred Years War or War of Breton Succession army, using the Antonine Miniatures Strength and Honour 2mm range. 

At the front there's a single unit of mounted men at arms, with two dismounted men at arms units to the immediate left. At the back left are two units of spearmen, Welsh or otherwise, while on the right are four units of longbowmen in wedge formation. 

I'd add another unit of dismounted men at arms but I've run out of the bits I need for that, with an order placed today for some additional pieces to use for the French - Breton side. I've already put together a base of mounted knights for them but need more pieces to do the crossbows, spearmen and so on.

The rules for this are a bit sketchy to say the least, but I'll start off with Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames, albeit tweaked to add a bit more detail or even mashed together with his Ancient and Medieval rules? I might even write my own rules, who knows? The plan is to use my neglected collection of Hexon terrain as a quick fix, so that I can try out the rules for some solo wargaming as soon as possible.

Lion Rampant Longbows Blocking In

I've completed most of the blocking in on the Perry Miniatures longbowmen, with just the leather bits, arrow sheafs and longbows to do. They look a bit odd in terms of colours but this is the basecoat and will be followed by one or two lighter shades, using my very old but still serviceable Foundry triad pots. I'm hoping things will speed up a bit after the blocking in is completed, but I'm a very slow painter, especially in 28mm having not painted anything this big for years!

Longbows in One Hour Medieval Wargames

In the One Hour Wargames rules, there are four unit types including Knights, Men at Arms, Archers and Levy. The Archers are actually crossbow equipped, gaining a +2 for missile fire but a -2 modifier for hand to hand combat. I could use this profile for English longbows, which would be a simple way to incorporate them in the system, but it doesn't seem quite right to treat crossbows and longbows as exactly the same weapon type?

Instead, I'm thinking of using the same profile but giving the longbow units an additional casualty modifier against mounted opponents, representing the use of defensive stakes - this would half the number of hits inflicted by cavalry against the longbow unit. The unit would have to be stationary to benefit from this bonus and so could not have moved in the previous turn to be eligible.

The other option is to extend the range of longbows to 18" but then remove the +2 modifier for missile fire, reflecting the lesser stopping power of longbows compared to crossbows and their greater effective range. I would also incorporate the casualty modifier for defensive stakes with this to create a bespoke option, the two things giving longbows a distinctive tactical profile.

Thoughts? 

Incidentally, I'm also thinking of ways to represent bills and bows as unit types for the Wars of the Roses period, but that's another story....