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.