Today I got to have a ‘proud papa’ moment. The two Wars of the Roses English armies I finished recently faced off for the first time in a real battle.
I served as the ref to help the players get the rules down, plus gave tactical advice to both sides to best use their units.
The Yorkists (on the right in the first pic) met the Lancastrians (on the left). Edward IV faced off against the Duke of Somerset in some good fighting.
I set up the terrain in the interest of saving time, with a couple forests (green blobs), a small gentle hill (the brown blob), an open field (dark brown), and an enclosed field (tan). These were done in an impartial ‘typical’ set-up. The Yorkists had the initiative.
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- Yorkists advance. Knights led by Richard of Gloucester. Edward leads the center Archers.
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- Lancastrians played more defensively, with Exeter leading the Knights on the extreme left flank. Archers and Crossbow move through the woods.
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- Yorkist Archers and Royal Guard advance.
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- Lancastrians under Northumberland take the crest of the hill.
The game was a learning game. This resulted in a few bad placements and risky moves, but they seemed to have fun. The Yorkists decided to advance with everything, trying to bridge the gap as soon as they could. The Lancastrians were content to wait for them; forward movement was to the top of the hill and the edge of the forest on their side of the table. Once on the hill the Archers placed their stakes- no one was going to dislodge them.
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- Yorkists close the gap. Burgundian Handgunners score hits on the Footmen, then retreat.
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- Mercenary Pike advance into longbow range.
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- 6 hits on the Pike from 2 Archers groups. It got worse…
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- Lancastrian Footmen threaten the Yorkist center. To the right, arrow fire from the woods scores damage on the Knights.
As the Yorkists got into range, fire and arrows darkened the sky. Yorkist Pike came under several turns of arrow fire from the Archers on the hill, losing half their bases from murderous fire over 3 turns (at effective range the Archers were throwing 9 dice). On the other flank, arrow and crossbow crossfire took out a Knight as they closed with their Lancastrian counterparts. In the Knights melee, the Yorkists came out on top, until the Archers took a cue from Agincourt and charged out of the woods into their flank.
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- Yorkist Archers somehow tank the Footmen!
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- Yorkist Knights break and run for their lives, leaving the Lancastrians in the dust.
In the center, things got serious. A poor placement meant the center Yorkist Archers got charged from 2 Footmen groups. Both sides’ generals joined the fray. The Archers lost the impact phase but held on, and avoided losing any bases. In subsequent combats the Archers actually rolled out of danger, beating both Footmen units, disordering one and fragmenting the other! On right flank the intervention of the Archers tipped the fight to Lancaster, breaking the Yorkist Knights, who ran off.
After that we ran out of time. Technically a Lancastrian sort-of win, with 1 broken enemy BG. The Lancastrian center was in the potential of collapsing, and the left flank still had plenty of fighting to do, so hard to say how it would have ended if we had more time. The players enjoyed the game, and recognized mistakes they made in placement. Looking forward to next time.
Bughaus Miniatures 