The chevauchee (or Just one more river to cross)

[Erpingham]

Today saw another interesting skirmish by a river.  I'd been reading a few scenarios in blogs and so I thought I high time I tried one myself.  This is a variant on a classic which I've tried to plot out many times over several years but never quite got it on the table.  It also gave me a good chance to get out my medieval baggage train.

It's the 1360s.  A band of Anglo-Gascon routiers are heading home with their loot.  However, before they can cross into friendly territory beyond the river they must see off their pursuers drawn from local garrisons.

The armies
Routiers
1x MAA on foot
1x Companions (lesser MAA, elite foot in rule terms)
2 X Longbows
1 x Ribalds
1 x Mounted Gascon sergeants
6 X Baggage units

French
4 X Mounted MAA
1 X Garrison crossbows
1 X Brigans
2 X local skirmishers

Scenario
The Routiers must pull their wagons of loot back over the river, covered by their rearguard.  The lead wagon is three moves from the ford when the French appear.  Wagons cross the ford one per move.
French bring on two units per move.  Their objective is to recapture as much loot as possible, which they do by contacting a baggage unit (assume drivers, animals etc. are killed).

Deployment
The routiers formed a line parallel to the road with their men-at-arms and companions on their left covering the ford, longbows and ribalds to the right.  The other longbow unit hid in the copse to the left of the line and the sergeants were close escort to the baggage.
The French brought on their cavalry, then their skirmishers then infantry. 

The game
The map shows the position at the end of move three.  The two groups of cavalry have formed a line (I decided not to commit piecemeal).  Technically, the infantry are just off table waiting to come on.  The wagon train has just reached the ford.

Next move, three cavalry units make contact, having braved the arrow storm.  The fourth unit was blocked and could only charge the wood which I decided against.  The units that hit the better routier foot were basically stopped in their tracks but the leftmost charged down the longbows and broke the line.  Morale remained solid.

At the start of next move, only one wagon was across the river – it was a sticky situation for the routiers.  The cavalry breakthrough contacted the last wagon.  The sergeants charged the French in the flank and the ribalds came in behind.  Amazingly, the French just survived and one wagon was down.  A second wagon crossed the ford.

Move six and the MAA from the French right arrived to try and aid their comrades on the left, charging the ribalds.  The French infantry and skirmishers found themselves blocked by their own cavalry.  The bloody fight at the rear of the column continued.  The ribalds failed, as did the first French cavalry unit.  The two French units in the centre were having the worst of the fight and were getting close to breaking.  Three wagons across.

I pulled back the two battered MAA units and finally some French skirmishers could see a target.  The sergeants and the other French MAA were hard at it.  Four wagons.

As the French MAA at arms pulled back from the centre, the right most was exposed to a volley from the longbows.  They decided they had done enough for the day and left the field (two hits took cohesion down to zero).  Their comrades made it out to rally out of archery range next move.  The companion infantry now came under fire from the crossbows (at last) and one of the skirmisher units.  Not immediately deadly but, in their battered state, it couldn't go on for long.  I began pulling them back.  Last wagon remaining across.

Although the Routiers had achieved their objective, I played on for another move, when finally the sergeants were broken.  The Routiers passed their break point, so essentially game over.  If I'd played on, I would have withdrawn the Companions next move and then fell back to block the ford with the dismounted MAA.  Neither French MAA unit could be risked at this stage either in longbow range or combat, so things would peter out with shooting, unless I risked the Brigans in an attack on the ford.

Comments
This was only a skirmish – six proper units a side, plus some skirmishers – so it played through in an hour over nine moves.  I did cheat and set up at the end of move three as per the map though, so six rounds of fighting.  Terrain set up was simplified because I mainly used what was left from the "Rivers of Burgundy".  Note that, like Rivers, this fight really used a corner of the table – about 3ft X 4 ft in this case – for a 25mm battle.  The forces were unbalanced according to points value but the fact the French couldn't use everything at once balanced this a bit.  If refighting, I might give the Routiers another unit of baggage guard and perhaps started the wagons another move or so further back or add extra baggage (but I don't have any – I may need to buy more wagons).
Obviously, the scenario isn't too rules specific.  A version of it for Lion Rampant would be easy enough, for example.