Sword and Shield 1st attempt with a few units a side

The games we play on holidays. That should have been the title as this is one of a few games from different rules that I have recently had whilst on my long break from work. A bunch of us from the club made it to CanCon and either bought too much or not enough and another post in a few days will display my loot but I thought that it was about time the old medieval minis made it onto the table again.


I had heard a lot of good things about the Sword and Spear rules and though rules and dice had been purchased, measuring sticks had been made and even a whole new army painted I still had not had a game. So last weekend one of the club members also known as my gallant son wanted a proper game with me. (must be after something). A quick check over the minis, drag a handful of terrain out and plonk it all down on his games mat. We were off.

French vs English HYW during the first turn. Only 8 units a side just so we can get our heads around the rules.

We both set up blind, with a large board placed between the two of us. Sort of like a confrontation after the fog lifts.

Note the sneaky English Hobilars making there way with a general through the woods. They moved slow but not so slow that they got bogged down and they forced me to peal away some of my heavy hitters.

Slowly coming together. The large artillery could shoot quite far but just did not seem to cause me much harm.

Notice that my  knights on the left flank have somewhat evaporated. Good shooting there me lad, good shooting.

The sneaky hobilars are about to meet their match.

My dead knights from the archery.

The left flank is about to get messy.

French Knights 1, English Hobilars 0 but I could not get the general too.

At the end of the game the French came out victorious but when we tallied up the starting points we realised that at 8 units a side my French had around 50  points more than the English. Not a really fair battle but better odds then Henry got at Agincourt.

So were the first edition rules for Sword and Spear worth it? Absolutely. Sure we messed up the odd rule or two and I ripped my son off around 50 points in a small game. But the game itself plays fast and feels quite sensible. Even my son wants another game of it so that can't be a bad thing. Now I wonder if I can get the club lads into the game.