The Watcher's Diary, a Newbie France AAR

October 14, 1824, Vreeschwijk

Your Majesty,

In the year 1419, when the first historian commenced work on this work of history, the political situation in France didn't look anything like it does today. Provence, Auvergne, Bourbonnais, Orleans, Brittany and Burgundy were all states of their own, although the nobles ruling them officially owed fealty to the king of France. The king of England had a claim to the French throne, but a council of French nobles had decided that the Dauphin, who also had a claim, should inherit the throne instead.

A war ensued and at the moment the book starts (1419) England was in control of Gascogne, Poitou, Normandy and Caux. Burgundy and Brittany recognized the English claim, while all the other French states acknowledged the Dauphin. Large English armies commanded by Henry V and his brother John, duke of Bedford, were stationed in France, opposed by forces loyal to Charles VI. Charles was tragically insane, but his forces were commanded by the able Bertrand V, count of Boulogne, whose fief was under English rule at the time.

Early in 1914 the English army under Henry V moved to lay siege to Orleans. Bertrand was still assembling his forces near Paris. Although his army was already twenty thousand strong, another ten thousand cavalrists, mostly lower nobility, were still making their way to the army. A second army under command of the Duke of Valois was making it's way towards Orleans from Languedoc while the forces of France's vassal states defeated the Burgundian army and put their capital under siege.

To make things worse for the French, Aragon and Gelre both entered the war on English side. Aragon dispatched a force into Guyenne and dug in to starve the defenders. The writer of the tome doesn't seem to know where Bedford went in the meantime, but he is quite clear that the French armies launched a simultaneous assault on Henry's army at Orleans although Bertrand had not yet received his reinforcements, destroying the English cavalry before retreating across the Seine toward the camp at Paris.

The demoralized army held it's ground at Paris for a month while the reinforcements trickled in, while Bertrand and de Valois made plans for the next assault. The decision was made to cross the Seine uncontested by moving through Caux and Normandy, assaulting Henry's army from the Normandian flatlands instead of an assault across the river. The army marched to Caux, already preparing to cross the river when scouts came in with dire news: Bedford was spotted in Normandy, marching his army straight toward the French!

The exact course the battle took is not known to the writer, but the result was a shattering defeat for the English. The duke of Bedford himself fell in battle, his army shattered, with minimal losses for the French. Bertrand of Boulogne immediately commanded his army to cross the Seine, before English reinforcements could contest it's passage.

Bolstered by their victory over John of Bedford, the army marched along the Seine, preparing to attack Henry in Orleans. The battle that ensued, right under the walls of the city, was short but bloody. In a brilliant display of tactics, Henry beat back the much more numerous French army and continued the siege. Henry was down to a mere eleven thousand infantry now though, and another seven thousand cavalrists were ready to join Bertrand's army near Paris.

Although Burgundy was not doing well, about to lose it's capital, the rest of the English alliance was scoring victories across the board. A Britton army under the command of Humphrey, duke of Gloucester and another brother of Henry, had moved into Maine and taken position around Le Mans, preparing for a long siege. The siege of Orleans had still not been broken, and the city was running out of supplies, and although Guyenne was holding out, the Aragonese weren't about to get into any trouble, their supply lines secured when Navarra joined the war of their English friends.

Translating from the archaic French used in the book is slow, and this is all I've managed to translate in the weeks since my last letter, but I will be sure to send another letter soon.

Humbly yours,

At the start of the game I moved my DP land slider up a notch, because I think morale should be my number one concern at this moment... production and science are all very nice, but for now I will be fighting non stop for a while... best to get my morale as good as possible.

I am reasonably happy with how things are going. Bedford is gone, Henry is down to 11k infantry, and my army lost some battles on morale but didn't lose all that many units. I've only built cavalry so far because they are eight times the shock of infantry at only two and a half times the cost. I still have enough infantry to gobble up most of my losses, so there isn't really any use to build more at this point. The sieges of Guyenne and Maine will last a long while yet, but if the next attack on Orleans fails, it will fall and get annexed before I can attack again... sure hope Bertrand (general leader) can pull it off this time.

Regards,

Gerardus III​

edit - typoes