A quick game of Wars of the Roses

 With Ian and I spending some time sorting through the 'Old School' Fantasy figures recently gifted to me by an 'old school' friend (see upcoming blog on that subject for more info) we decided to just play a quick, 2 divisions per side game with randomly generated leaders and forces. We used some of the suggestions in the excellent Wars of the Roses supplement to help us. I let Ian arrange some simple terrain then we diced for deployment and set too. 

Ian and the Yorkists on the left, my Lancastrians on the right. 

Each side was allowed two divisions each of 2x Household bill and bow, 1x bow only and then we diced on a simple random chart I had created to allocate upto 2 more units per side. These could range from more household infantry to cavalry and even light artillery. This gave us two quite differing forces, probably not even the same points. 

The view from Ian's commanders position as he starts a steady advance towards me. 

Plenty of Arrow storm's were loosed to good effect by both sides.  

Ian fires his light cannon at my troops, two dice allowed needing a 5 or 6 to hit at that range. 

 Look what he threw!

My light cannon did not score a single hit all game. 

On my right flank, my commander (a newly painted command base of Sir Henry Holland) went on the attack. I expected the usual disaster from any newly painted forces.

 To my surprise he did very well. 

In the woods just visible to the left of this photo my handgunners were able to chase of Ian's bow armed light troops that were hiding in there. The handgunners then killed the artillery crew and got rid of that threat. 

There is Sir Henry Holland waving his banner having just broken the Yorkist division facing him.

Look at the fleeing Yorkists in the background, what a lovely sight!!!!  

My Lancastrian Mounted Men at Arms were told to go off on a flanking maneuver. It took me until turn 3 to actually get them moving but they soon broke the red archer unit that had turned to face them. 

With only three units left, two of which were shaken, Ian chose to withdraw his troops and concede the game. I had not lost a single unit although I did have three badly shaken units. 

Once more we had a great game with the Wars of the Roses becoming one of our favourite periods to play with the Hail Caesar rules. 

28mm Macedonian Progress.

 With no game this week due to me being full of cough and cold I took the time to finish off basing a unit of 28mm Macedonian Cavalry that I had recently completed. It therefore seems like a good time to give a progress update on my 28mm Macedonian army first started in January of last year. Initially the army is based on Macedonians under Philip II at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC will but eventually expand well beyond that into all of Alexander the Great's campaigns and even the Successors!

This unit of Macedonian Companion cavalry is an all metal figure unit.

 I am not sure which make though as I got these figures from ebay. 

No, they are not running away, just a photo of their rear to show off their cloaks. 

All 8 units and two command bases (Philip on foot and Alexander mounted) that I have painted so far. So this is a slow grow project because as usual I am painting up figures for several projects (and scales) and keep swapping about. 

The army is a real mix of Warlord and Victrix plastic figures with a few metal figures dotted about. (Mainly command figures and characters). 

At this rate of painting I may get them on the gaming table before the end of this year. 

Alexander leading his Companions. 

Victrix light cavalry ahead of 2x Warlord Games Phalanx units, each of 32 men. 

Next up I have another unit of Mercenary hoplites to finish plus a hoplite command base, an all metal unit of pike and another metal unit of Companion Cavalry to paint.

Many more still in the box (lead and plastic mountain). 

2nd St Albans

 Continuing our flurry of Wars of the Roses games we opted to refight the Second Battle of St Albans this week. This scenario gives an interesting situation where the Yorkists deploy facing the wrong way, tucked behind their specially prepared defences but the Lancastrians had done a sneaky night march through the town to enter on the Yorkists flank. After a quick discussion we deemed the Yorkist well prepared defences would be hard to maneuver through so would cause disorder on any troops who tried to cross them from the front. 

Here we see Northumberlands men still advancing through the town. 

Luckily for the Yorkists they won the dice off for who took first turn. Ian and Nigel decided to turn the Yorkists to face the advancing Lancastrians and also withdraw to allow them some space before the Lancastrians came steaming in. Ian managed to throw low on his order dice earning himself 3 moves to get into position. It seems that the few Yorkist troops left in the town must have raised the alarm to alert the Yorkist command that the Lancastrians were approaching from an unexpected direction. 

We didn't have much to represent prepared defences so we spaced out our few bases of stakes to cover the front of Warwick's and Montague's divisions. As it turned out no troops actually had to cris the defences during the battle so we removed them after a while. . 

These are the positions right at the start of the game, the Yorkists on the left, facing the camera, the Lancastrians pouring out of St Albans on the right. 

Turn 2 saw Trollope advancing on Montague's division with Percy marching his men in column down the road. A few arrow storm's were exchanged. Somerset was a bit slower to advance over on the Lancastrian left.

At this point the Yorkists were trying to narrow the frontage of the battle to compensate for the fact they were outnumbered as Norfolk had not turned up yet. Turns 2-4 also saw the effect of drizzle preventing the Yorkists from using their gunpowder weapons. 

By turn 3, things were going well for the Lancastrians, breaking one of Montague's units and forcing another back off the table. All orders were being passed and the Lancastrian arrow storms were proving very effective. Then we stopped for tea and cake!

As Northumberland deployed in line and ordered the advance he was also able to recapture Henry V!th who was found singing whilst sat beneath a tree. The Lancastrian high command decided not to execute the two Yorkist knights who had been guarding the king (although they were beheaded in real life). 

After tea and cake, Trollope in particular struggled to pass a single order which was very annoying as Montagues division were in real trouble but I could not get in close enough to kill them off. Maybe I should not have put the kettle on!

Over on the far left Northumberland was slowly picking away at Warwick's division. On Turn 4 Norfolk arrived and was able to move into position behind Warwick's. With Warwick's division now poised to break with the loss on one more unit Nigel swapped those two divisions around to frustrate that ambition. 

Turn 5 saw the drizzle cease allowing the Yorkist artillery to fire but to no great effect and Northumberland's men destroyed one gun with an arrowstorm. 

On turn 6 Northumberland was injured in the melee and so was replaced by the Duke of Exeter. We had enough time to play a 7th turn but not a lot happened other than one of the Yorkist units of handgunners were shaken in melee and pushed back. This left Warwick's command in real trouble. So with two Yorkist divisions being very close to breaking and they had lost possession of the king plus not a single Lancastrian unit lost yet we called it a hard fought win for the Lancastrians as the Yorkists now withdrew.  

It has to be said that Ian and Nigel as the Yorkist command did very well not allowing me to make my greater numbers overwhelm them. I was slowly picking them off but the Yorkists did very well in frustrating my ambitions for a quicker and easier victory.