War of the Roses Playtest for Cold Wars

     At last Friday's club meeting I ran a 6 player War of the Roses game as a playtest for the upcoming Cold Wars Convention in Lancaster, PA.  I used the under-development Feudal Patrol rules, and 28mm figures.

      The scenario featured a trio of Yorkist supply wagons heading toward the main body of the army.  Upon hearing a Lancastrian force pursuing the Yorkist army is speeding up the road, the contracted civilian wagon drivers run off, abandoning the wagons.  The Yorkists have now dispatched a force to head back and retrieve the wagons, as the lead elements of the Lancastrians rush forward to snatch the wagons for themselves.

Lead Lancastrian elements advance towards the closest wagon, as others move off to flank on their left.

The Yorkists move forward, securing the closest wagon, and begin to take long range fire from the enemy archers.

Likewise, the Lancastrians secure their closest wagon, as their most forward elements come under fire from the Yorkist longbows.

After a desperate cavalry skirmish near the middle wagon, the Lancastrians briefly take control of it.  Then a heroic Yorkist knight rushes forward and clears the wagon if it's Lancastrian captors, and begins to drive off with it.  While he eventually falls to enemy longbow fire, he gets the wagon far enough behind the enemy lines to ensure its safety.

     In the end, the game was declared a Yorkist victory, as they had secured two of the three wagons.  Also, in the last turn of the game the Lancastrian commander fell, causing panic to sweep through their force (All units go pinned when an army commander dies), guaranteeing that any attempt at regaining the wagon was doomed.

     The game was a lot of fun, and there were a number of heroic actions and see-sawing fortunes.  As a GM, I was able to learn a lot about the scenario to help tweak it for the convention to make it even more enjoyable.

Swiss Pikemen Unit Joins War of the Roses Project.

     This past week I completed a 10 man unit of Swiss Pikemen for my growing War of the Roses Project.  These are plastic multi-part figures that I assembled and painted from the Perry "Mercenaries, European Infantry 1450-1500" boxed set.

  As I mentioned before, I am going to be running a 6 player game using the Feudal Patrol rules at Cold Wars in Lancaster PA this March; so I am frantically trying to get all he figures I need assembled and painted.   More pressingly though, this coming Friday I am going to be running a first playtest at our club meeting, so I'm trying to get as much finished as I can.

   I am currently working on a unit of French Crossbowmen from the same boxed set to also join the ranks of my armies.  I hope to have them done in time for my game on Friday!

Burgundian Handgunners Unit Join War of the Roses Project

     This past week I completed a 10 man unit of Burgundian Handgunners for my growing War of the Roses Project.  These are plastic multi-part figures that I assembled and painted from the Perry "Mercenaries, European Infantry 1450-1500" boxed set.

      I am going to be running a 6 player game using the Feudal Patrol rules at Cold Wars in Lancaster PA this March; so I am frantically trying to get all he figures I need assembled and painted.

      I'm a fan of multipart plastics for the amount of variety and conversion one can accomplish with the many pieces, though I have to say it is rather time consuming to have to build each figure you need.
     I am currently working on a unit of Swiss Pikemen from the same boxed set to also join the ranks of my armies.  I hope to have them done later this week.

"Battle of Barnet: 14 April 1471" Game at Historicon

Saturday morning at Historicon I ran my "Warring Roses in the Mist game, which featured the Battle of Barnet fought 14 April 1471, using "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" rules and 10mm figures.  In the battle, King Edward IV arrayed his Yorkist army to fight against he Earl of Warwick and his Lancastrian army on a foggy morning; so foggy in fact that the two armies lined up offset, so both had dangerously threatened flanks.

The game begins, as commanders begin to move their units.

One of the main features of the battle, other than the visibility limiting mist, was several hedges that cut through between the two armies, hindering their movement.   In the game,  the Lancastirans were able to advance their longbowmen to these hedges providing them some cover as the Yorkist army also moved their archers forward.

Exeter's longbowmen rush for the hedges (center of the photo), as Gloucester's men advance (left of the photo).

   The archery duel commenced and after a couple turns the Lancastrian army had received the worst of it, loosing the achery duel in front of all three of their commands (Exeter on the left, Warwick in the center, and Oxford on the right)  As their remaining Lancastrian archers fell back the Yorkist archers poured fire into the Lancastrian foot soldiers as they now tried to move up.

The height of the battle

     The Duke of Exeter on the Lancastrian left, who was badly outflanked by the Duke of Gloucester across from him, quickly found himself in a bad position and his lines began to get badly decimated.  Exeter was slowly pushed back and Warwick found his troops in the center now threatened.

Exeter is pushed back from the hedges by the advancing Gloucester

Meanwhile on the Lancastrian right, the Earl of Oxford, who outflanked his opposite, Lord Hastings, despite having his archers mauled was able to advance across the hedgerow and held his own for a while, but he was unable to maintain any momentum in his attack, and he too found himself slowly pushed back.

Warwick (seen in the center of the photo) with enemy units drawing close, concedes defeat and vows to return another day.

Once the writing was on the wall, Warwick conceded, and the game was called as a Yorkist victory.  All the players said they had a great time, and several said they were eagerly looking forward the the rules being published early this Fall.  As a GM I enjoyed running the game for a super group of players.