The Battle of Hedgeley Moor, 1464.

 There were three of us gaming today, pooling our figures to play the Battle of Hedgeley Moor scenario from the new 'Hail Caesar' Wars of the Roses book. The map for the scenario gives an open field of play and a bit of research of my own confirmed this as just open moorland, perhaps a little marshy in the SE corner and a slope rising away on the western flank. I also added a few trees and bits of rough ground as scatter terrain to help create a more interesting looking table plus there was the North Road running from north to south.  

A map of the battle site I found online. 

I took control of the Lancastrians (on the left) with Ian and Charlie sharing the command of the Yorkists (on the right). Deployment was as per the book. 

Lancastrian deployment.

Yorkist deployment and Ian and Charlie also won the initiative and opted to move first. 

The Yorkists went for a rapid advance but Scrope failed his command test so his division (nearest one to camera) failed to move. 

The view from behind Somerset's position. 

Percy gets ready to face the Yorkists. 

Charlie has very cleverly given his command bases plain spears and he can then place any flag he wishes on the flag staff as he wishes. Thus most commanders had the correct banners or as close as we could make it. 

The 'cowardly' Hungerford and Ros watch with glee as Stanley blunders and moves back instead of forwards.  Hungerford later died during an arrowstorm. 

Things soon heated in the centre and right. Lots of arrow storms were being used to great effect. 

In our games yellow counters depict shaken units and red counters are for dis-order. 

Suddenly a gap appears at the front of the Yorkist line as Montague's Household Men-at-arms unit is broken by bow fire. Montague's was the only Yorkist division to be broken although by using the 'Where is your Courage' rule he managed to salvage a unit and remain on the table. 

Charlie leads the rest of Scrope's division into melee against Percy's men forcing them back. 

Percy held on until the final move of the game when his household retinue fled the table and he was killed as his division was broken. Somerset was also broken in the same turn leading to a Yorkist victory. We felt it was quite ironic that the only Lancastrians left on the table were led by Baron Ros who ran away early on in the actual battle. 

Once again we really enjoyed the game. We quite fancy trying a campaign game soon using the rules in the new supplement but for next week we meet at Charlie's house for another WOTR battle. 

More 28mm Hail Caesar Wars of the Roses.

 Just Ian and myself again this week, so we played another small game of Hail Caesar Wars of the Roses. For this week's game we used some of the ideas for setting up a game from the new Hail Caesar supplement. So the terrain was set up by using the chart on p50 and then we used the random throws for weather, reconnaissance and favours. These all added greatly to the period feel of our game. 

New troops for the Lancastrians, a unit of shire levy longbow. They even survived the battle...just.

(Perry Miniatures 100yrs War figures). 

We were limited to just two divisions each again due to the size of our painted collection despite both painting new troops. For this game we used two historical commanders each. Ian's Yorkists were led by Edward IVth and the Earl of Warwick and my Lancastrians were led by the Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Northumberland. The differing traits and special rules assigned to the historical characters were great fun to play and certainly had an impact on the game. 

The Duke of Somerset prepares for battle.

The Yorkist deployment.

Yorkists on the left, Lancastrians to the right.

Ian sends the Yorkist light cavalry off on a flanker again. 

The Yorkists advance. 

Yorkist skirmishers confront the Lancastrian line, they didn't last long. 

We use the stats for small light infantry units from the WOTR lists in v2 of the main rulebook for our skirmish units, only one per division allowed. 

Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland and his men confront the troops of the Earl of Warwick and benefitted from his 'Feud' special rules. 

My Lancastrian light cavalry worked their way around the flank of Edward IV's division. Edward pulled back a Household unit to warn them off, this became a stalemate for a few turns. 

Trollope's Household troops are charged by some Yorkist Men at Arms and get battered. 

Ian's mounted Men at Arms charged through another of my household units and on into one of my light guns. The Yorksist seem to be getting the upper hand. 

Percy personally leads a household unit into melee and is victorious. 

My Men at Arms charge into Yorkist infantry and are repulsed. I pulled them back to rally them.

The Yorkist light cavalry came storming over the bridge, destroying my skirmisher handgunners and on into a household infantry unit which they also destroyed. I was now in trouble on Percy's flank, I could not afford to lose any more units on my left. 

The final big clash of the game saw the Duke of Somerset attack the Infantry led by Edward IV.  Somerset looked like winning the 1st round of melee until Edward the Fourth invoked one of his special rules to re-roll failed attacks in the first round of any melee, scoring 5 extra hits. and turning the melee in his favour. This battle lasted 4 turns with some incredible dice throws on any break tests that were required. In that 4th turn Somerset was forced to fall back but with both sides shaken there was no follow up. Edward 4th was injured in the fighting and was forced to withdraw. At this point, with time running out we called it a well fought draw. 

This was a fantastic battle with both sides having chances to claim victory but never quite managing too. We both really enjoyed the game and all the extra fun the period specific rules added. The Wars of the Roses supplement is a big hit with us. 

Trying Hail Caesar 'The Wars of the Roses' supplement.

 Just before Christmas the new Hail Caesar supplement for the Wars of the Roses arrived and I have to say I am pretty impressed. There are lots of ideas within the 144 page book to help players add WOTR specific flavour to your games.  There are also numerous historical scenarios and a simple campaign system that our little gaming group really must try. 

Thus inspired more WOTR figures soon found their way to my painting table to be assembled and painted. There are at least four of us within our group with lots of figures already painted and based for the 'Never Mind the Billhooks' rules which are going to be ideal for this game too. We used the armylist out of the new supplement but added in the small light troops from the lists in v2 of the main rulebook to give us some skirmish style troops, limited to one unit per division. 

Here is how we will represent a Household unit, a 'Billhooks' base of 6 figures of billmen with a base of longbowmen on each side.

The longbowmen are from Trollope's retinue and are fresh off the painting table...but would they suffer the curse of newly painted units?

Happily, an opportunity arose to squeeze in a quick, last game of this year. Ian popped round with his figures for a quick trial game using just two divisions a side and randomly raised commanders per the rules on p.47 of the new supplement. So here is a truthful and honest account of the infamous battle of 'The Battle of the Broken Manor'. (You won't find that battle in any Book!). 

So our randomly generated commanders created Lord Percy Thrower and his aide Lord Summer in charge of the Lancastrians (led by me) and Lord Trevor Cleverly (Clever Trevor) and Sir Archie the Bald  commanding the Yorkists (led by Ian).

Yorkist deployment, note the light cavalry at the bottom of the photo. 

Both sides deployed. 

Lancastrian deployment. 

As Ian started the game, a blunder saw his own skirmish crossbowmen forced to retire almost off the table. They then blundered again next turn moving to their right. We both laughed at this. 

Ian held his line but raced his light cavalry around the woods to threaten my left flank. I was fairly confident that my Household unit with support from the crossbowmen in the woods would soon sort out the enemy cavalry. How wrong was I, the arrowstorm from the household unit was pretty ineffective and so were the crossbowmen. Ian then charged his cavalry into the household unit and with some truly appalling dice throws from me, they routed them from the field.  

Inspired by the success of Ian's light cavalry I quickly advanced my own unit around the wood on his flank. This turned into a complete disaster and my cavalry was destroyed having had very little impact on Ian's household foot.  Ian was the only one laughing by now. A blunder by Lord Percy Thrower saw his own household foot wander left, blocking the line of sight of my cannon's. Trollope's newly painted archers failed a Break Test caused by enemy missile fire so broke and fled the table as predicted. 

Ian's light cavalry then dismounted and attacked my skirmishers in the woods, supported by a skirmish unit of his own. My skirmishers gave up without much of a fight and then threw a very poor score on the Break Test so off they went.  

Desperate times call for desperate measures so I tried to get my mounted Men at Arms across to threaten Ian's advancing troops on my left. This just caused Ian to advance his left hand division too and with some very effective archery and cannon fire and yet another dire Break test throw from me, my Knights broke and took the rest of their division with them. 

My Men at Arms about to become pin cushions. 

So a clear victory for Ian and his Yorksist's but a fun game despite my awful dice throwing. The new rules in the supplement certainly add period flavour to the game and our randomly generated characters with their varying traits influenced the game. Overall we like the supplement and hope to play again next week. This time we will be a little more historical and try the Battle of Hexham scenario on p88.  

Back to Billhooks

 Today we played a 4 player game of 'Never Mind the Billhooks' as our last game before Xmas. We hadn't played Billhooks in quite a while so it was fun to return to this game. With the Hail Caesar 'Wars of the Roses' supplement due any day it will be interesting to both play and compare the two systems. 

Today's scenario was quite simple. It was a basic encounter battle with a twist. The twist was created by writing a few cards with objectives on them then each side had to pick one. To win, you needed to defeat the enemy and achieve your objective. Simple fun at 150 points and two players per side. 

Lancastrians (Nigel and myself) on the left and Yorkists (Ian and Charlie) on the right. 

Nigel and I had to try and gain control of the central crossroads whilst Ian and Charlie had to try and get their commander off the opposite side of the table (as well as win a battle of course). 

A few Yorkists bowmen get ready to give battle.

My Lancastrian cavalry, who proved to be as brittle as ever. 

The Yorkists advance.

End of turn 2 and troops are moving into missile range.

My light cavalry charge some Yorkist skirmishers and due to some shockingly poor dice throwing get beaten.  

So my knights get into position to show the light cavalry how it is done.

Lord Clifford's archers throw 11 dice needing '6's to hit and get five!

The Lancastrian artillery exploding as usual.

The battle was a very close fought affair despite some interesting differences in troop choices. Ian and his Yorkists had more men at arms, bowmen and skirmishers but no artillery. My mounted Knights and their Light Cavalry support were next to useless although they did survive the battle...just. The Yorkists lost a couple of units quite quickly which narrowed their missile advantage but their two units of Men at Arms seemed to be turning the battle their way. Nigel on the Lancastrian right was doing very well and I just managed to hold my position on the left. 

As the game was coming to a close (the Yorkists ran out of Morale tokens in turn 6) Ian rushed his commander forward (leaving his badly mauled troops behind) and off the table to claim his objective. The Lancastrians won the battle but were not in possession of the crossroads as these were actually surrounded by the few remaining Yorkist units.

This 4 player game was great fun and could have gone either way. We were a bit rusty on a few of the rules but fudged our way through and really enjoyed ourselves.  

Trying 'RAMINSEAS', another set of ancient naval rules.

 After last week's disappointing game of Ancient Naval Warfare we tried another set of rules today. American gamer Tim Wineland got in touch with me after reading my blog last week and he very kindly offered to share his self written set of Ancient Naval rules' Raminseas'. Thankfully this is only a few pages long and after a quick read through Ian and I opted to choose a small equal number of ships (in two squadrons) and play a simple first game scenario of just trying to destroy each other to get used to the game mechanics. 

At the Recon wargames show on Saturday I purchased two 3D printed island harbours and managed to get them painted up quite quickly. They didn't actually get used today but looked good on the table. 

A simple deployment set up. The dice indicate and record how many 'Action Points' (AP) a ship has left. Various movement rates, and actions such as ramming or grappling cost varying amounts of AP so spend them wisely.

Movement is quite easy. The blue and green markers depict tokens for each sides squadrons  and the numbers the order in which they were drawn. This denotes then the order of play for each squadron (as we played it, not 100% sure we got this bit right?). 

Ian gets in the first strike by ramming me. 

Note here we switched Ian's colour of dice representing AP to red to help differentiate whose ships were whose. 

Pretty soon ships were engaged in melee all over the board. 

The different colours of counters represent different types of damage which a canny general can use AP to 'Repair'.

Ships can also catch fire for which we used cotton wool. 

The dice were very much on my side today as my fleet destroyed 3 of Ian's ships and were in the process of battering his two remaining ships when he graciously conceded the game. 

Ian and I both agreed that these rules gave us a much more enjoyable game even though we were using less ships. Each ship does trail quite a few counters and dice behind it but we will look at a way of simplifying this. Being a first game we came across a few situations that we need a bit of guidance on so a series of questions have been sent across the pond to Tim who will hopefully let us know how best to proceed in our next game. Our idea is to create a 'ship list' for the various Greek, Persian and Macedonian fleets to match our little 1/1200 scale models and our wargames armies in case we tempt ourselves into a campaign where the Naval aspect of war can play a part. 

Our thanks to Tim for sharing his rules with us, they are great fun and they will see much use in our future games.