Records: the Champagne Campaign

## **Edwardian tactics eschew traditional battles**

The Edwards continue their war ride, but this isn't the fabian tactics of resource attrition. Instead, for the targeted political leadership, this has been a terrifying series of direct strikes.

Whether it was influenced by Ricardian tactics at Poitiers is unknown at that point, but to the outside view, it was a calculated and efficient stroke that saved the lives of soldiers on both sides. With both father and sons engaging in this kind of warfare, it also had potential foes shrinking in their boots a bit.

There was a different calculus to the combat objectives. England was making money hand-over-fist, and if the alchemy was true, *they were literally making money*. In that respect, the traditional guarantees of chivalry: ransoming captured prisoners, was not a guarantee. In this case, it was worth more to just destroy the opposition.

It would be a new calculus for opponents of the Plantagenets. Would they get *Blood and Thunder*, who would destroy the entire army before they had a chance to surrender? Or would they get the *Magus*, who would simply decapitate the command element of an army?

### **Uncorking the Champagne Campaign**

The two-regiment campaign took a slow roll through Champagne, itself already a possession of House Valois. The title of the Count of Champagne had merged with the French Crown in 1314 when Louis I, king of Navarre and count of Champagne, became king of France as Louis X.

Paris was very well defended, heavily populated and an otherwise difficult objective. King Edward requested, and received, assistance from the Aquitaine Le Mans and Burgundy Regiments, who took positions on western and southern gates.

Edward quietly took Troyes, the capital of Champagne, and slowly tightened the noose around Paris. The idea was to ratchet up the tension to the point that Paris simply broke on its own.

## **The Depletion of France**

From the the Valois view, this was after the failed Invasion of Arundel, the leadership loss at Battle of Poitiers, the devastation of the Battle of Calais, after watching the Edwards storming Normandy, and after the "last stand" of Amiens. Still, Paris would be another story.

The Valois had done their best to whip up every available military-age man into a line of defensive. The propaganda machine had been strong, but even that was crumbling as the survivors and relatives brought their own stories.

The Plantagenet were now walking a fine line. The idea was to eliminate fear of a new Crown, but amp up fear of fighting the Plantagenet Arms. It wasn't *too* hard, if only because France had been very selective about head-on engagement because of the English Longbow. The new cannons and guns amplified that by a factor of ten.

The key, especially for a smaller force like these Prince Rick-designed Regiments, was that it had to be a disproportionate amount of damage. At just shy of 2,000 soldiers, the regiments were not designed for a war of attrition. This was not a 40,000-strong city of marching men at arms who could produce deep waves and complex flanks at a pitched battle. The Rolling Regiments were designed to destroy the core of the enemy and avoid the counterstrike.

The French had figured that out, so Charles was willing to risk an Edwardian siege. Wading into a street-by-street city battle would be bloody for everybody, but the cannons were not conducive to capturing a city – and foot soldiers would eventually run out of ammunition.

From the other side, if Edward could drag it out long enough, there would be enough anticipation and grim tension within the walls that Charles would risk rebellion if he didn't surrender. Especially if seemed like Edward was content to just park outside and reduce to Paris to rubble at a distance.

For the Edwardian Army, then, it became a dance as they drew closer and closer to Paris. Every movement was visible from French eyes, and every movement had a purpose. For the last two weeks, the cannons would set and volley a new breach into the walls. Other times, they would line up precision howitzer strikes down emptied avenues. Not a single casualty but for the Parisian will to fight.

By the end of March, the cannons were in place, the war wagons parked, and the massive, stainless-steel pauldrons of the English and Aquitaine Royal Armies prepared to bring violence to the streets of Paris.