Today, I am choosing to create a scenario for the Battle of Patay, a crucial battle during the 100 Years’ War that shaped modern France and Europe. I know a far more famous and influential battle took place on June 18th. Here’s the deal: 10,000 people like me have written a slew of wargames regarding Waterloo. Most of them are far better than I could ever come up with. My biggest idea would be allowing the Prussians on the field and having the French try to hold off their assault while the rest of the French army attempted to defeat Wellington.

The Battle of Patay is a classic example of a small superior force taking on a larger, ill-trained, ill-equipped army. The English attempted a similar strategy as had worked in Crecy and Agincourt, relying on their longbows to decimate the heavily armed French Knights and infantry. The French identified the potential ambush and slaughtered the archers before approaching the main line.

Order of Battle
French
La Hire
180 Knights
1300 Men at Arms

English
John Fastolf
2000 Archers
3000 Infantry

Scenario
Baron’s War or other Medieval-style skirmish game
2 Players
50 or 60 models
Heavily wooded terrain
8×4 Table

Objective

After discovering the ambushers, French need to escape the board to French lines to report the position of the English longbows.
English, prevent the scouts from escaping.

Set-Up
10 French outriders should be set up on the furthest edge of the table. The English should randomly assign groups of five archers to different points on the board. I’d create a grid on the table, each section being 1′ by 1′. The English should have ten groups of 5 archers each assigned to a random grid part.

Game
When the French outriders enter a grid that contains English archers, they appear on the table and begin play.

Special Rules
Ambush, when the outriders enter a grid section containing the archers, they appear and get a surprise attack on the outriders.

Line of sight. Getting an open longshot in a dense forest is hard, the archers will need to work to contain the outriders.