Conclusion of Phase 1 - England

This post is a technical post where the situation on August 1 is used to generate an expeditionary force for phase 2. It is posted in the open in case that anyone is interested, and shouldn't be considered part of the narrative part of the wargame.

Recruitment
Archers: Base size is 12 (~4000).
Base:11 (likely)
Premature departure (-2), small fleet (-2), lots of funds (+1), Gruffyn's leadership(+1)
Target:8, roll:12, MOS:-3. Final size:11 (~2000) Penalty @-1 size per -2 MOS

Spearmen: base size is 10 (~1000).
base:11 (likely)
Premature departure (-2), small fleet (-2), lots of funds (+1), Above target (+1), explicitly included in ferry plan (+1), Gronou's leadership (+1)
target:11, roll:11, MOS:0. Final size 10 (~1000)

Knights and men-at-arm: base size is 12 (~6000).
base:11 (likely)
Premature departure (-2), small fleet (-2), lots of funds (+1), Above target (+1), Exceptional response (+1)
target:10, roll:8, MOS:+2. Final size 13 (~8000)


Horses base size is 13
base:10; shortage(-2), small fleets(-2)
tgt:6, roll:7, MOS:-1. Final size is 12: archers and spearmen on foot as well as ~2000 men-at-arm planning to purchase horses in France.


Human Factors
Discipline
base:10; bad start(-2); selected few(+1), promise of riches(+1), strict discipline(+1)
tgt:11, roll:18, MOS:-7. Abyssmal.

Loyalty
base:10; promise of riches(+1), PoW commands respect(+1), strict discipline(+1), shortages(-2), discipline issues in Plymouth(-2), those selected are the chosen few(+1)
tgt:10, roll:8(archers), 10(spearmen, chosen few during riots makes them a tgt:11), 5(knights).

Funds are staying to plenty:
base:10; surplus(+1), wartax(+1), Plymouth's dammage payout(-2), exceptional measures for drinks (-2)
tgt:8, roll:13, MOS:-5 (plenty to high, high to suitable)

State	Status	Supplies
Order of Battle Archers: ~2000 men (11) Spearmen: ~1000 men (10) Knights : ~8000 (13) Overall : ~ 13K (13) Horses : Location Atlantic, transit. Activity Sea ferry. Skill levels Maneuver : untrained Operations : untrained Melee : untrained Human Factors Discipline : Disfunctional (riots). Loyalty : strong (archers, spearmen), devout (knights).	Glad to leave Plymouth. The chosen few selected to embark. Eager to get rich, quick.	food: low fodder: suitable wine: very low Weapons : suitable bows, strings: high Armor : suitable Funds : suitable

The above is the axiom table for this unit.

08/01/55 - Prince of Wales

An evening in Plymouth with 10,000 of your closest
sober friends.

Personal Situation

The Prince of Wales is currently based in Plymouth, riding through town to quell the unrest unleashed by Plymouth's tavern running out of booze.

Situation
Things have had a turn for the worst in July as the beer shortage triggered brawls throughout the location. Stern discipline was distributed the following morning as ordered. Unfortunately, local loyalties got in the way and discipline was not exacted uniformly. On the following night, the Prince of Wales ordered the Welsh spearmen to break the brawls in town. Desperate attempts to find lodging out of town were unsuccessful, exceptional attempts to source beers from other shires also were futile. The civilians in Plymouth are asking for protection from the Sheriff, but the castle is already overfull with knights and nobles.

There is no headcount at the moment, but there are more knights, baronets, earls and Dukes in Plymouth than anyone could have anticipated. The expeditionary fleet is small, but ready. There are piles and piles of hurdles and gangways on the docks, but not enough ships to retrofit. The food supply is holding on, but barely and largely because the Prince of Wales is getting the archers to hunt during the day so it is easier to clean up the mess from the previous night.


The next update will be in September 1, at the planned departure time, for a final tally of the mobilization.

Mobilization outlook

1. Troops
1. Archers (3000) : On target.
2. Welsh Spearmen (1000) : Will be there as expected.
3. Knights and retinues (6000) : Overwhelming response.
2. Victuals
1. Food : short, due to larger numbers of knights accumulating in Plymouth.
2. Wine/beer : We're now entering the rioting phase.
3. Fodder : Plenty harvested and purchased.
3. Supply
1. Archery (bows, arrows, strings, heads) : Plenty.
2. Horses : shortage, not enough for archers.
4. Navy
1. Acquire shipping : Slow, but steady.
2. Staff ships : All arrived ships are ready, not enough ships.
3. Retrofit ships (gangways, hurdles.) : All arrived ships are ready, not enough ships.
5. Embarkation
1. Billet troops : OK for now.
2. Discipline : Not good, will get worst without drinks.
3. ETA : Sept 1, 1355 may be delayed by shipping.
6. Funds
1. Level : Plenty!
2. Creditors : The investors have contributed. 
3. King's funds : Arrived.
4. War tax : Funds are in.

Instructions
Consider your situation and prepare a list of things to focus on, in the order of importance. Refer to the post on strategy to help formulate your instructions. Here are a few notes:

1. An almost full size force could sail now if you decides to go this way. 
2. You may expect desertion to become a factor in the following few weeks as morale is about to plummet.
3. The sea is good at the moment.
4. Welsh spearmen have been acting as MP for you, but this makes them even less liked by the Englishmen in the force. 
5. The archers are the main source of brawlers.
6. Knights and men-at-arms are forming the bulk of the men on the ground, they are not above reproach here. Nobody likes to wait in an overcrowded place while sober.

07/01/55 - Prince of Wales

Edward of Woodstock, enjoying a shaved face
for the last time in a long long while.

Personal Situation
The Prince of Wales is currently based in Plymouth, overseeing the retrofitting of the navy and the billeting of the expeditionary force in and around the port town.

Situation
The whole kingdom is droning with activity. Between the Duke of Lancaster in Britanny, the King preparing for Calais and the Prince of Wales for Aquitaine, everyone in England has war on their mind. The nobility and knights are responding in numbers larger than anticipated: baronets are showing up with larger retinues, older knights are accepting indentures when they were not expected to. This is good new except for the fact that the procuring of victuals isn't following the recuitment. Worst, Plymouth has been drank dry and the purveyors can't find enough beer and wine to supply the expeditionary forces. The supply is barely a few days ahead, not a stockpile of a few weeks as we'd prefer. The harvests are good, however, and we have much more fodder than we need for our horses.

As for shipping, our aggressive efforts to impress ships and crew has picked up, but remains slow. We have large piles of gangway and hurdles for retrofitting ships to ferry horses, but most of it is waiting for ships to work with. However, we have a small fleet of ready ships waiting in the harbor and ready to go. There is not enough horses here for our archers, we may need to purchase horses on the continent to solve both the horse and the shipping problem.

A number of civilian tradesmen have answered the call, arrived in Plymouth. However, the shipping situation and the shortage of drinkable stuff (wine, beer), has convinced many to turn back to their residences. Should we pursue the policy of bringing civilians to France?

The next update will be in August 1, at the height of arrivals of soldiers into Plymouth.

Mobilization outlook

1. Troops
1. Archers (3000) : On target, momentum lost.
2. Welsh Spearmen (1000) : Will be there as expected.
3. Knights and retinues (6000) : Overwhelming response.
2. Victuals
1. Food : short, due to larger numbers of knights accumulating in Plymouth.
2. Wine/beer : Major problem here! We can't go to war sober...
3. Fodder : Plenty harvested and purchased.
3. Supply
1. Archery (bows, arrows, strings, heads) : Plenty.
2. Horses : shortage, not enough for archers.
4. Navy
1. Acquire shipping : Slow, but steady.
2. Staff ships : All arrived ships are ready, not enough ships.
3. Retrofit ships (gangways, hurdles.) : All arrived ships are ready, not enough ships.
5. Embarkation
1. Billet troops : OK for now.
2. Discipline : Not good, will get worst without drinks.
3. ETA : Sept 1, 1355 may be delayed by shipping.
6. Funds
1. Level : Plenty!
2. Creditors : The investors have contributed. 
3. King's funds : Arrived.
4. War tax : Incoming (ETA: Aug 1)

Instructions
Consider your situation and prepare a list of things to focus on, in the order of importance. Refer to the post on strategy to help formulate your instructions. Here are a few notes:

1. The SOP is to sail only once. You may be tempted to ferry some right away, but there is not a lot of troops ready by now to go. It takes 15 days per legs, so a month turnaround time. Only a small force is ready to go, but fodder is ready to go. There could be maybe a 1000 knights and men-at-arms ready to go right away. A small fleet is vulnerable to pirates and French patrols.
2. Drinks should be available in, of all places, Bordeaux.
3. You are bathing in money at this point. Finding stuff to buy is the real problem.

15/06/55 - Prince of Wales

Few artwork depicting navy ship from the 14th century
has survived. This is a painting of the battle
of Sluys, 1340. 

Personal Situation
The Prince of Wales is currently based at the tower of London, where war supplies are piling up. He is preparing to travel to Plymouth where he will reside in a local Castle and oversee the pre-embarkation maneuvers.

Situation
The Prince of Wales personally has devised a network of counter spies to monitor the troops in Plymouth. Normal practice is to forbid all outbound maritime traffic from all English ports until the army sails. Therefore there are some counter-intelligence agents on site already, but this plan is novel. It seems that it will be effective, mainly because it was implemented long before Plymouth is teeming with bored soldiers. Here is the report from various aides:

The response from the shires is extremely positive. We should meet or exceed our targets in archers, knights and their retinues of men-at-arms. The tower of London is filled to the brim with grosses of arrows and spindles of strings as well as bow sticks. We are, however, unable to source enough horses, either destriers, palfreys or sumpters, from the coastal areas. We are going to scour the hinterland, but the price to get them to Plymouth will be greater. This is the same story with all kinds of victuals. This isn't a problem because we are running a surplus for now. However, if we don't provision Plymouth and find enough billeting space, we are going to have a troop morale problem.     

 More worrisome is the poor reports from the King's agents recruiting merchant shipping into the navy. The prediction are that we may not be able to ferry everyone. We may have to allow some of the men to purchase their horses in France from the base in Bordeaux. Prioritizing horses from the Nobility is also an option, although a foot-borne body of archers would make us very slow.

Mobilization outlook

1. Troops
1. Archers (3000) : Enthusiastic response
2. Welsh Spearmen (1000) : No news yet.
3. Knights and retinues (6000) : Enthusiastic response
2. Victuals
1. Food : shortage
2. Wine/beer : shortage
3. Fodder : shortage
3. Supply
1. Archery (bows, arrows, strings, heads) : On target.
2. Horses : shortage
4. Navy
1. Acquire shipping : Dire reports from the Admirals
2. Staff ships : Slow, lack of ships to staff.
3. Retrofit ships (gangways, hurdles.) : Order sent, no news. 
5. Embarkation
1. Billet troops : Not enough billeting space found.
2. Discipline : Shortages and space: signs of troubles.
3. ETA : Sept 1, 1355
6. Funds
1. Level : Suitable
2. Creditors : The investors have contributed. 
3. King's funds : Will be on time (ETA: July 1)
4. War tax : Excellent forecast (ETA: Aug 1)

Instructions
There is a difficult decision to make: source what is missing from afar and pay a higher price in shipping or be more aggressive with what can be found in the coastal areas. Surplus of funds will attract even more men to the venture, but we have to be careful to ensure that we can feed them, keep them from mischiefs and get them into boats on time. Once the men arrive in Plymouth, we must pay 6 months of service in advance: this is mostly where the funds will go in the coming few weeks.

To address the shortage of ships, we may want to raid the French coast for shipping: after all, the ships have to be somewhere out in the channel. The downside to this is that some of the civilian ships would have to be used as raiders instead of being retrofitted for transportation. This is a gamble, but an option.

01/06/55 - Prince of Wales

The tower of London, today.

Status

Location London's Tower, Residence

Status Indebted, Resting.

Mandate

The King of England is mandating the Prince of Wales to assemble an expeditionary forces drawn form his estate and from arrayed spearmen from Wales. All knights and man-at-arm of the land are called to join the armed force to resume the war against the King of France. The Prince of Wales has all authority to lead the expedition, establish discipline and reward men of valors. He also has the authority to negotiate treaties considered pertinent to the campaign, including surrenders of his own forces. If the Prince of Wales finds himself in need of help, the King of England is committing to provide the promptest help possible.  The expedition is to assemble in Bordeaux to link with the Gascon nobles that have requested the King of England's support. 

Mobilizing England for War

Mobilizing is an extremely complex operation that has been done many times in recent memory. In order to trigger the process, the Prince of Wales only need to say so and the dozen of gears will engage according to a sound plan.

This is June 1 1355. The mobilization plan aims to assemble 10,000 men, roughly equally distributed between  knights, men-at-arms and archers on horseback. It also calls for over 1000 welsh spearmen on foot in support. It will take 2 months to assemble in Plymouth while a navy is commandeered and ships are staffed and retrofitted. The sea should be favourable in early September for the 12 days voyage to Bordeaux. 

The Prince of Wales should be aware that there are three significant issues that can complicate the plans. The most important is that in order to array archers and recruit nobles, we need a lot of coins. Our funds are currently low, but we are expecting to have cash from creditors within two weeks. If these funds are not released, this will cause a serious setback to our plans. The king should also release funds within the month. Finally, a steady income from special war taxes should become significant before we sail to France. The second concern is that it is always unlikely that we will be able to commandeer enough shipping to ferry all of the horses to France. We will monitor the progress of this operation closely. The third traditional concern is to maintain discipline at the embarkation port where the troops will be billeted. Let's hope that we can sail promptly before we run out of food, fodder, or coins to keep the troops from marauding our own towns and villages.

Longbowmen of olde, circa 1415

Mobilization outlook

1. Troops
1. Cheshire Archers (3000) : Likely
2. Welsh Spearmen (1000) : Likely
3. Knights and retinues (6000) : Likely
2. Victuals
1. Food : OK
2. Wine/beer : OK
3. Fodder : OK
3. Supply
1. Archery (bows, arrows, strings, heads) : OK
2. Horses : OK
4. Navy
1. Acquire shipping : unsure
2. Staff ships : OK
3. Retrofit ships (gangways, etc.) : OK
5. Embarkation
1. Billet troops : OK
2. Discipline : unsure
3. ETA : Sept 1, 1355
6. Funds
1. Level : Low
2. Creditors : Likely (ETA: June 15)
3. King's funds : Likely (ETA: July 1)
4. War tax : Likely (ETA: Aug 1)

Instructions

At this point, there is not a lot to do from a player's POV unless the Prince of Wales wants to take special action to address any of the three main concerns. If you do, simply state which concern that you want to focus on for the next two weeks, and possibly how (use the comment feature of this blog to do this).

Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales (Black Prince)

The Black Prince

The Black Prince is the main protagonist of this simulation. His challenge is to lead the main expedition to enrich associates, humiliate the King of France and advance his father's claim to the throne of France.

Axioms

1. The Black Prince is an effective military leader and administrator.
2. He has a weak health.
3. He commands respect from his subordinates.
4. Lack of experience: he relies on a handful of advisors such as Sir Chandos and Sir Audley.
5. Indebted but still in the favours of creditors.
6. Commands Loyalty: famous reputation as a generous leader.
7. Free access to men and resources in Cornwall (as Duke of Cornwall).
8. Traditional access to Cheshire Archers.
9. Access to spearmen in Wales.
10. Experience running counter spy Operations.