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).