FLOWER OF CHIVALRY DESIGNER NOTES

by Bruce McFarlane

[Order Form, Main Menu, Flower of Chivalry]

Habitants and Highlanders has enjoyed such popularity (and accompanying brisk sales) that both Keith Martens (the developer and editor) and I concluded that the concept of a miniatures "package" had struck a cord with gamers. At the time when we were considering our next project, a number of mediaeval miniatures rules had just been released and many miniatures manufacturers were releasing new mediaeval lines. So, a miniatures package on the topic seemed to be in order.

Flower of Chivalry follows the same format as Habitants and Highlanders. There are fifteen pages of information related to the mediaeval period, brief histories of the Scottish Wars of Independence, the Hundred Years War and the Wars of the Roses, thirteen scenarios and, of course, miniatures rules. Our attempt was, again, to produce a "package" of all the basic information that a beginner would need to start gaming the period but provide enough detailed scenarios so that the veteran would find the package a useful addition to his own rules and figures.

The information presented in Flower of Chivalry is broad and general due to the nature of the era. The book covers a number of armed conflicts over two hundred years of military evolution. There are chapters on the fall of the chivalrous knight, orders of chivalry, strategy and tactics. Painting guidelines presented a bit of a problem in that there were no uniforms in those days of yore. However, we included chapters on weapons and armour, as well as a primer on mediaeval heraldry, which should give the beginner a good idea of how to paint his figures.

The rules themselves are short (only 6 pages), simple and quick to play. With the possible exception of DBA, Flower of Chivalry is the first set of mediaeval rules that approaches the era at the grand-tactical level. A level where the key to victory is the commander's decisions on deployment and mass troop movement, rather than decisions on weapon types and melee tactics. In order to game large battles like Agincourt, Crecy and Bannockburn we felt we needed a game at this higher level where the tactics of close combat were de-emphasized and abstracted but the factors of army morale, battlelust and mass movement were emphasized

Flower of Chivalry uses the Action Card mechanism introduced in Habitants and Highlanders. This not only allowed us to balance such lop-sided affairs as Bannockburn and Agincourt but allowed the commander's personal abilities (so important in the age) to be directly reflected in the actions of his troops. Henry V's English move and fight with great facility; Edward II's army dithers in front of the Scots.

Another major feature of Flower of Chivalry is the Reaction Chart and the accompanying Battlelust mechanics. As the chapter on tactics points out, kings did not issue orders, they set some general guidelines and then requested some consideration of these guidelines in the course of the battle. Knights were not on the battlefield to obey superiors. They were there to gain glory, honour and especially hostages to exchange for ransom! For this reason Flower of Chivalry players choose how aggressive they wish their troops to behave in the coming turn. Then they roll to see how the troops respond. You may want then simply to move forward a couple of paces but your troops use the excuse to charge across the field, putting themselves out of position and wasting their energy.

Much of a unit's effectiveness is measured in battlelust; energy or as our group insists on referring to it "heat". If the unit rushes around the field too much it tires (becomes "overheated") and loses fighting ability. If it continues to rush about it becomes exhausted and is useless in combat. On the other hand, if a king has units standing around in their cold, uncomfortable armour, when they would rather be out gaining glory and ransom, they become grumpy and disheartened (they "cool off") and their morale drops. If they continue to see no action they become downright demoralized. In our experience, commanders rarely let their troops get into such drastic conditions, but that's because they have adjusted their battle plans to maintain balance within their units. The concept becomes critical to all decisions made in the game.

Flower of Chivalry is really about scenarios, however. There are thirteen scenarios presented, from Stirling Bridge (1297) to Bosworth Field (1485). Each scenario contains a historical background to the battle, commander's briefings, Orders of Battle, special rules, gaming table layout and a number of historical "what if's". In addition, three scenarios (Bannockburn, Agincourt and Bowworth Field) have full alternative scenarios. In each case the traditional histories of the battle are somewhat in question. For example, turn of the century historian, Hans Delbrück, claims that the actions of Henry V's army before, during and after the Battle of Agincourt would indicate that his force was more numerous that the French. This is in direct contradiction to most traditional histories. We, therefore, present Delbrück's scenario, along with the traditional scenario, so gamers may explore and reach their own conclusions.

Since we wish the scenarios to be played regardless of what the gamer thinks of our rules, we have included conversion charts so that the scenarios can be played with Tactica Medieval, DBA, and other major rules systems. Finally, Flower of Chivalry provides army lists for a great variety of Dark Ages, Crusaders and Mediaeval armies. If the gamer likes the Flower of Chivalry rules, he can develop his own scenarios or expand the rules to other periods. In all, we feel we have designed a package that meets our objective. Flower of Chivalry should provide all the information needed to get started but also contain enough gems of information and anecdotes, as well as thought-provoking scenarios, to be of value to the veteran mediaeval miniatures gamer.