Pendragon

In general, Geoffrey was fairly indifferent on whether the knifers survived or not but this campaign had just begun, and men lost today would mean a more difficult battle tomorrow.

"If the foot soldiers took up defensive positions after engaging them, that would increase their chances of survival and delay the enemy forces long enough for us to flank them."

A frontal attack sounds good, so long as we don't chase them into a trap.

Soooo...I’m on the fence. My gut says we should attack from the front since we have numerical advantage. No need for fancy measures here just go for the jugular. That feels right for Cedwyn.

Thoughts?

Your troops should be able to hold against them, provided the knifers hold up, at least long enough for the other forces to get into position. However, if you kept the flankers to just knights, you could do a lot more damage, and have a much larger element of surprise. Troops marching on their flank would give the enemy commander a chance to pivot before his forces were engaged, though he's be in a much less advantageous position. The centre of the valley would become a killing ground, likely for both sides, but you have the numbers to overwhelm them. Also, if you did force a pivot, they would have a much harder time escaping, and would therefore be more likely to break.

In summary, troops marching likely means more casualties, but has good odds of producing a significant victor, possibly destroying the enemy force entirely. Knights on the flank would be safer (for the foot soldiers, not necessarily the knights), so fewer casualties, but the enemy would be more likely to escape.

That's the tactical analysis of the chosen overall tactic. There's also a standard battle array - it would be a quick fight, and you're pretty certain you could force the enemy to withdraw without much effort. If you get lucky, they could even break, but you casualties would be lower.

"Sir Cedwyn." the knight began.

"The Franks await us below the line of a hill.  My guess would be they plan to catch us while on the move and before we can form ranks to defend ourselves.  There were six banners on display and they number about one hundred, however they are fairly well armed and armored.  Our hired Irish will likely not stand up well against them.

Unfortunately I was not able to locate their camp or another route around them before we were spotted and attacked by a patrol.  One of the patrol was able to flee so we were forced to end our reconnaissance and return."