Nash and I had played the Battle of Crecy just minutes previous, but now we were swapping sides and doing it again! Ah, the joy that is BattleLore - quick games, lots of fun!


Looking out from the English lines gave me a much safer feeling than from the previous game where I was playing the French. There's something about having longbows. Lots and lots of longbow. Unfortunately, I didn't have Nash's dice-rolling skills, so my initial volleys were rather less effective than his were.

Meanwhile, Nash started to draw up his forces on my right into lines of attack.



This was worrying, especially as his crossbowmen were now in range and able to attack my archers as he continued his manoeuvring; it was obvious that Nash was planning a sustained assault on my flank, and I needed to counter that! With somewhat a lack of tactical options in my hand, I began to move my cavalry out into attack positions, into the plains where they wouldn't be hindered by the hills.



Nash's attack, when it came, was scary: a Mounted Charge with two heavy horse and two medium cavalry into my archers. That was not something my archers wanted to see. No surprises when the crossbow-depleted unit folded immediately, but I was very gratified to find the rest of the archers were not immediately destroyed!



My cavalry came up behind his charge and the infantry moved into the hole left by my retreating archers and attacked his horse. The orderly lines of battle had vanished, and confusion reigned. He'd gained three flags from that charge, and there was fierce combat everywhere!



After a couple more rounds of this, I finally managed to eliminate his forward cavalry - as he did mine - and we began to reform our lines. Now, Nash had five flags and was on the verge of an unexpected victory, but I was still in the contest myself, gaining another flag to tie him on five. The next flag would win the day! My archers were crushed, but I'd inflicted my own wounds on him, and I just hoped I could resist his next attack.



I had a secret weapon, though: an "Evade" lore card. I left one of my light archer units exposed in the field, and Nash took the bait: charging it with two cavalry units. I played my card, and retreated my archers back to the hill, leaving Nash's cavalry wondering where their target had gone and unable to follow up on an non-existent attack!

I was glad to see my plan had worked, and celebrated by taking down Nash's poor infantry unit, and winning the battle, 6 flags to 5.



This had been an extremely difficult and closely fought battle, with all praise to Nash's strategic and tactical acumen. As it stood, after our two battles, the English had won both, but Nash had gained a total of 11 flags to my 8, and was the overall winner.

I very much enjoyed these games of BattleLore, and I hope to play quite a few more with Nash in the near future.