Nasty Hedges

[Sean Clark]

Ive left my rulebook at the club, so indulge me with this query.

Does a unit that is defending behind a nasty hedge claim a bonus for a save roll during a fight?

I know they can claim it during shooting, and the assaulting unit loses dice for fighting across it. Just couldnt remember whether there is a save bonus too...i.e. a trained unit saving on 3+ rather than 4+.

[martin goddard]

No save bonus in a fight.

martin

[Sean Clark]

Thats how we played it 

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Before the C18 Enclosure act I'd argue that ALL hedges were 'nasty'. They were all designed and maintained to be livestock proof to stop them straying onto crop fields. Any of the hedges with banks you see in the English countryside flanking lanes are technically 'bocage' though we know the term from WW2 Normandy - they were widespread stout medieval boundaries and not the weedy apologies for hedges we see today. If there are special rules for bocage they should also be applicable in this situation...

[Sean Clark]

I may be alone in this, but I find the Enclosure Acts fascinating. It took the common land that had been farmed for the common good for centuries amd put that land into the ownership of the wealthiest and most powerful families of the country. Its impact is such that today 0.06% of the population own half of the land of this country.

Nasty Hedges is a phrase usd in the Regiment of Foote rules and is a terrain choice. 

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

And that was after the Black Death 'thinned out the herd' so that there was more room for sheep (but being far fewer the survivors could command higher wages). It took the Highland clearances of the 1750s to early 1800s to make way for sheep rearing north of the border...

The medieval landscape fascinates me... The myth of Sherwood Forest extending from Epping to N Yorks is down to the application of 'Forest Law' rather than the assumed abundance of timber. Strictures on land use, keeping foraging livestock under control, even the simple act of collecting firewood were subject to harsh penalties if seen to be abused. Rather than villages being open and fields bounded by hedges like today it was mostly the other way round... kitchen gardens and smallholdings in the village were fenced off to keep freely roaming livestock from scoffing the veg. Smaller fields were bounded by livestock-proof hedges. Droving roads were used to move livestock securely from one area to another and the landscape was dotted with small pens and shepherds' bothys. Only at night and in winter were they kept in byres, sheds and sties...

Pleshey in Essex owes its name to 'plessis' the wooden palisade that bounded the settlement as part of one of Geoffrey de Mandeville's manors. The boundary ditch is still a considerable obstacle even today...
The only decent walls were around religious houses and manor houses. I found out that while Salisbury cathedral had impressive stone boundary walls during the C14, the rest of town had to make do with a fosse and wooden palisade...

'Nasty hedges' puts me instantly in mind of Naseby... simple well established boundary vegetation could provide an excellent defence as allied troops found out in Normandy... a N European equivalent of the zariba in N Africa and Sudan.

[Panzer21]

Having just finished Stuart Reid's "All the King's Armies" a military history of the ECW, the use of hedges lined with musketeers seems to have been a fairly standard tactic with such terrain features specifically sought out as a defensive feature, especially if outnumbered.
Bocage style hedges can be seen in the Cornish "lanes".
Neil

[Colonel Kilgore]

Fascinating stuff from Neil and Neil - thank you both!

Simon

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Between Biggin Hill and the M25 the landscape resembles parts of Devon with small sunken lanes and hedgerows amongst the hills...

[Bankinista]

and to go slightly off topic. They played a significant part in the Prayerbook Rebellion of 1549.

Bankinista

[Leman (Andy)]

I may be alone in this, but I find the Enclosure Acts fascinating. It took the common land that had been farmed for the common good for centuries amd put that land into the ownership of the wealthiest and most powerful families of the country. Its impact is such that today 0.06% of the population own half of the land of this country.

Nasty Hedges is a phrase usd in the Regiment of Foote rules and is a terrain choice.

Some things, it would appear, never change.