The Battle of Bosworth 1485 - A 6mm, Test of Resolve, Quick Strike Battle Report

On Saturday I finally got my Wars of the Roses / Bosworth game on the table in the shed-o-war for the Rejects. It's been a long time coming, but it went well, with just a couple of issues I will discuss later in the week. Before the game I gave the players a briefing of the rules, but also an outline of the scenario and why I had chosen to represent the battle the way I had.

The location of the Battle of Bosworth has been debated and plotted by antiquarians and historians many times in the 539 years since the battle took place. For several hundred years it was linked to Ambion Hill where Richard probably camped the night before the battle. This seems logical because it is one of the highest points in a semi-circular range of hills, with good visibility for miles around. However, few artefacts had been definitively found to tie the battle to this location, and core samples of the surrounding terrain revealed no evidence of the now-famous marsh in which Richard lost his life.

 

Between August 2005 and August 2009, the Battlefields Trust undertook a major new study of Bosworth battlefield, on behalf of Leicestershire County Council. Combined with new analysis of documentary sources, this analysis shifted the location of the battle away from its traditional site to a position two miles southwest, on either side of Fen Lane. A wealth of artefacts was uncovered, including the single largest collection of medieval cannon balls ever found, numerous sword hilts, buckles, spurs, horse tackle and the by-now famous Boar Badge which would have been worn by one of the king's closest entourage. All of these have definitively identified the site of the engagement and indicated the orientation of the battles, the location of the guns and even the infamous marsh. This game is based on this most recent interpretation of the evidence.

UPDATE: The Battle Reports of Richard and Ray have more excellent pictures of the game:

My Wargaming Habbit: Bosworth AAR and Don't Throw a One: Bosworth Batrep

Sergent O'Reilly's Charge - A CoC Battle Report

I've decided to give some of my old games a second life by turning battle reports from my blog into a series of Quick Strike AAR videos. This week I'm revisiting a solo game of Chain of Command that I played in 2020. These transformations into video content are only possible because I take so many pictures during games that most never made it onto the blog, so have never been seen before. My back catalogue of pictures from games and shows currently stands at over 90,000 pictures...so I have plenty of material I can share!

Lake Trasimene: The Largest Ambush in History

The Battle of Lake Trasimene was another crushing defeat for the Romans and was Hannibal's second major victory on the Italian peninsular. This Quick Strike, After Action Report, tells the whole story and reveals my recreation of the battle using 6mm Punic War miniatures and the To The Strongest! rules. 

TtS! is played on a Grid but for this game I marked out the grid in a fan, radiating out from the shoreline of the battlefield. This meant that I could move units as per the rules while accentuating the idea of the Romans being surrounded and attacked from all (landward) sides. As with previous games, the grid was marked with dots so it is barely perceptible - especially with the 'fog' overlaid. This is an idea I may use again in future games.

This battle report has been a long time coming, but now that it is done, I hope you enjoy it. Planning the game and work on the script began in the Summer of last year, with the game taking place in November! I continue to love the Quick Strike format, but editing a game to under ten minutes is a really tough challenge. It takes a lot longer to knock into shape than making a long-format battle report and kept letting myself get distracted!! 

Caesar Award Finalist: Thank You!

This afternoon I learned that one of my videos had been named as a finalist in the Quick Strike Category of the Little Wars TV Caesar Awards 2022. I'm really blown away by this, especially when I know how good some of the other contenders were because I nominated many of them myself! Thank you to everyone that nominated my Operation Caravan video and please got to the LWTV list of nominees and check out some amazing filmmakers in our hobby. 

Quick Strike AAR's - What shall I do next?

Earlier this year Little Wars TV challenged wargaming vloggers to make video AAR's that were shorter and more concise than the usual format seen on YouTube. The brief was deceptively simple but also devilishly difficult; to have a full battle report with a running time of 10 minutes or less but with some historical context, a scenario summary, and a recap of the game at the end. Given that normal video battle reports often run for over an hour, the concept of editing that down to just 10 minutes gives you some idea of the challenge.

The Battle of Trebia - A Quick Strike AAR

A Quick Strike After Action Report of the Battle of Trebia using 6mm figures and Simon Millers To the Strongest ancient & medieval wargame rules. It is December 218BCE and Hannibal has invaded Northern Italy. He is outnumbered and needs a victory to steady the support of local tribes. But he has laid a trap for the Romans and is confident of victory.

This AAR has been in production for a long time, mainly because holidays and work commitments have eaten into my time a bit this summer. I have learned a whole new set of skills making the film, including finally getting to grips with some sound editing software to improve the audio. I'm still not 100% happy with the sound, but I had to draw a line under this project at some point or it would never have got finished! 

I shot a load of pictures while making the video and thought I would share a few here (it was a pity not to use them) as a teaser for the film. 

Blow that Bridge! A Quick Strike AAR

D-Day 1944 and a force of British airborne troops try to hold a vital bridge long enough to lay charges and blow it sky-high. Of course, the Germans are going to try to stop this, they need the bridge for a counterattack on the British landing zones. This is my first attempt at a quick-strike after-action report trying to tell the whole story in under 10 minutes!

Hopefully, my next Quick Strike AAR will be slicker and better edited...this is a learning process! If you enjoyed this short format please let me know in the comments below or on my channel, Miniature Adventures. And of course, if you did enjoy the video, please like, subscribe and share.