A Clash of Iron - War of the Roses

 Continuing the theme of heavy metal forces pounding each other, Will and I put away the tanks and dug out the medieval figures (after a long search for the cavalry, which were hiding in plain sight in a shoe box!). We used Command and Colors rules for this battle. The cards were to play a devastating hand.

The game was based upon a non-historical theme, having divided the armies into two, consisting of two feuding barons; Baron William and Baron Robert.  The field was largely open with the odd copse and some hedges:

Both sides exchanged fire from their archers, with William pushing his light troops forward.  Initially there was little effect, but eventually Robert's forces gained the upper hand ( I had a card that said 'darken the skies' that gave my archers extra firepower), this with a couple of cavalry charges pushed the enemy light troops back.

William ordered a major attack on Robert's right flank and for a moment things looked difficult, however lady luck played her hand again, seeing Williams heavy cavalry destroyed.  This left the flank open and Robert's cavalry smashed into his infantry, supported by those pesky archers in the woods.

With William's left flank in tatters, Robert pushed his infantry forward in the centre, supported by cavalry.  In the clash that followed Williams remaining cavalry unit is destroyed along with more infantry.

William's forces are checked in the centre as enemy heavy infantry steadily advance.

Robert's cavalry are now free to roam the field and sweep into William's left flank, which crumbles under pressure.

In a last ditch attempt to reverse the situation William himself leads a charge but after some heavy fighting he is surrounded and his best troops are cut down. He drops his sword and kneels in surrender.

It is all over, a short but bloody encounter.  William's forces are smashed with a score of 8 - 3 to Robert. The figures are all 28mm plastics and were originally from the collection of the late Alan Cook.

Battle Report Towton 29th March 1461

 Having got a better grasp of the Command & Colors Medieval rules, Will and I decided to have another go at a game.  This time we chose the battle of Towton with the two armies drawn up on the table:

I played the Lancastrians, nearest to the camera, who kicked off the battle in the usual way with each side's archers raining arrows on the other.  The Lancastrians were more successful, causing casualties and forcing some of the Yorkists back.

The Yorkists began to push forward on the Lancastrian left, but this advance was blunted by Lancastrian archers followed up by a swift cavalry charge.

Over on the right some Yorkist cavalry advanced towards their enemy, but a counter charge saw them pushed back.

On the left, a second advance by the Yorkists pushed the Lancastrians back, but was held off and the assault was forced to retire.

The battle then swung over to the Lancastrian right as they began a major attack by heavy infantry, supported by archers and cavalry.

This attack gained momentum forcing the Yorkists back causing them serious casualties.

A similar attack by the Lancastrians in the centre was equally successful.

A major battle developed on the Yorkist left which soon began to crumble.  Sustaining heavy casualties the Yorkists began to flee the filed.  A win for the Lancastrians.

Having mastered the rules the result was a fun, fast moving and enjoyable game. The figures are all from the collection of the late Alan Cook - and how splendid they look!

Britains Herald Knight - Refurbished

 I have quite a few of the old !/32nd scale Herald figures sold by Britains.  Many are in poor condition with missing or broken weapons and poor paintwork.

When the mood takes me I get out the brushes and have a bit of fun.  One such figure was this  medieval pikeman:

His original paintwork has been applied roughly and is a bit battered.  Also, his pike is broken, so I wrote off to Ian Kay at Irregular Miniatures and he supplied me with some cast metal weapons.

After a quick paint job and a new weapon he is ready to go into battle once more:

Battle Report - Mortimer's Cross 2 February 1461

Will came over for  a game yesterday and for a change, we thought we would have a go at a Medieval battle using the Command & Colors set of rules.  Looking through various sources I selected the battle of mortimer's cross as, what appeared to be, a fairly balanced deployment with few features on the ground.

The troops were laid out as shown here, with the Yorkists at the top and Lancastrians nearest to the camera.  I wasn't sure of the various banners so it may be we had some of the wrong troops fighting for the two sides - but they often changed sides during the Wars of the Roses.  Of note is the low hill and woods on the left and the marshes top right in the low ground leading down to the River Lugg.:

The Lancastrians opened the battle with several volleys of arrows, which were returned by the Yorkists:

This was followed by a major Lancastrian advance of cavalry and men-at-arms, supported by archers, to take the high ground on their left:

Initially this went well, but a Yorkist counter attack quickly blunted the advance:

The die were not working well for the Lancastrians, who began to suffer heavily, and importantly began to lose cohesion.  In this version of C&C cohesion is very important in preventing units from breaking.

Also at this point we realised that we had been interpreting some of the rules incorrectly and made adjustments as required.

In order to try and draw off troops from the Yorkist counter attack, the Lancastrians advanced on the their right flank between the road and the river.  This move was countered by some cavalry and infantry, as Lancastrian heavy knights pushed into the Yorkist line:

The battle on the right flank went on for several turns with the advantage swinging back and forth.  However, having lost heavily the Lancastrians cleared this side of the field.  Here is an overview of the battle at this point:

However, despite the small victory on their right, the Lancastrians were in big trouble.  The left was crumbling and casualties continued to mount and the Yorkist advance continued:

Then it was all over, the Lancastrians collapsed and began streaming from the field, with cohesion lost and having been forced into fighting a number of isolated actions against a solid Yorkist line:

The battle turned out to be very enjoyable, after a stuttering start as we began to better understand the rules.  The final tally was a 6 - 4 win for the Yorkists  - I played the Lancastrians :-(

The figures, mostly Perry 28mm, were largely painted and based by the late Alan Cook and it was a real joy to see his troops back on the table once more.

We adjourned for lunch, after which we played another game - the battle of Towton.  More on this soon.

Play Testing Command & Colors Ancient/Medieval Rules

 Bob Black visited today and, during a fun day, we played a short game with my Britains Medieval figures.  I have had Command & Colors (C&C) Ancient rules for some time and I recently downloaded some of the Medieval expansion, but I had never properly played them.  Today was a great opportunity as I always think that testing rules works much better when you have an opponent.

The game was set up to represent a battle between medieval Western vs Eastern forces on a featureless flat table.  The figures are mostly Britains plastics, along with a few cheap toy figures:

The Eastern army consisted of medium cavalry and infantry with five units of light archers.  On the other side the Western army had heavy cavalry and a mix of heavy foot knights and medium men-at-arms, as well as four units of light archers.  The battle kicked off with an exchange of arrows across the board that pushed back three of the Eastern light and caused some casualties on both sides.

Then the impatient Western knights launched a mounted attack on their right flank:

Immediately, three units of Eastern medium cavalry moved forward to counter the knights.  The Eastern cavalry came out on top, destroying one unit of knights and damaging another.  They also rolled up one of the Western archer units (we forgot to 'evade'.).

Attention then shifted to the other flank as more Western knights galloped forward supported by medium men-at-arms.  Once again, although causing damage the Western army came off worse for wear.

The battle flowed back and forth with losses and gains being made by both sides.

The Western army became very broken up and their slow heavy infantry in the centre was unable to make much progress, relying on the medium infantry to take the battle to the enemy.

The battle then reduced to a series of smaller skirmishes across the field with the Eastern army gaining the upper hand.

By now the Western army was totally fragmented and reached its exhaustion point.  The Western army capitulated, but with the knowledge that some serious damage had been done to the Easterners.

I am not sure we did everything correctly and in accordance with the rules.  We did not use leaders, which would have added a new dimension and I am not sure we always got the retreat aspects correct.  Having said that, it was a fun fast moving game that we would like to try again.

Medieval Mayhem 2 - The Cavalry

Sorting out the mounted men took longer than anticipated.  The mangled heap of metal has been slowly bent back into shape, broken weapons replaced and paint touched up.  Unfortunately just one of the standards survived, but I may add some more later.  The majority of the figures are Minifigs 25mm but are a mix from the various ranges.  They will now go into storage at ground level!

I also rebased and renovated thes two groups of dismounted men at arms, by Hinchliffe, I think:

Medieval Mayhem

Ever wondered what happens when a box of lead soldiers is dropped from 7ft from the top shelf?  Well it is not a pretty sight.  That is what happened to me a year or so ago.  I was repainting, renovating and basing around 100 Medieval figures when the disaster occurred.  I was so annoyed that I simply put them back on the shelf and forgot about them.

A couple weekends ago I opened the box and tipped out the contents.  Most of the figures were just paint chipped and twisted.  A few lances and pointy bits had broken, especially the standards. The cavalry were worse off and I am still working on those figures.

Anyway, having finished off my ECW project and in between other things, I have been working on restoring these old figures. They are mainly 25mm Minifigs War of the Roses and Hundred Years War items.

Most of the infantry has been sorted out:

A Commotion Within the Shire

Now Cuthbert is a bad man, he and previous generations of his family, through theft, violence, forced marriage and swindles, have gained vast areas of the shire amassing huge wealth. However, Cuthbert was invited by the King to partake in the war in France, where he and other nobles formed a contingent of the English army.  While Cuthbert was away at war, his main rival and neighbour, Rupert, decided to move. After a few skirmishes much of the land taken by Cuthbert is recovered. However; Cuthbert soon learns of these developments and gains leave from the King to return to England.

On arrival at the shire Cuthbert is greeted by a small army consisting of aggrieved nobles and hired knights blocking his path along a low ridge.  Cuthbert deploys his men and the two forces prepare for battle. His forces are at the bottom of the table.

Both sides have a mixture of foot and mounted knights and men at arms, archers, Rupert also has some crossbows. Looking along Cuthbert's right flank:

And Rupert's left left:

The two leaders ride out to confer and decide on how the battle should be fought, but this soon breaks down into loud cursing and swearing:

The leaders return to their lines and Cuthbert orders his archers to deploy forwards:

There follows an exchange of fire and both sides take some casualties amongst their archers and crossbow men.

After a few volleys of bolts and arrows Cuthbert's cavalry move forwards on both flanks, feeling confident as they outnumber Rupert's mounted knights, the two sides clash:

A cavalry melee develops on both flanks and Rupert's men take more casualties, here is the other flank:

And Rupert's cavalry breaks:

As this is going on, the archers continue to fire and Cuthbert orders some of his foot soldiers to advance to take the high ground:

A bitter struggle ensues and initially Rupert has the edge, but more of Cuthbert's men join the fray:

Over on his right flank, seeing his cavalry turn tail, Rupert deploys some pikemen to deter the cavalry from turning his flank:

Only just in time as Cuthbert's knights storm up the slopes:

but, the horses are blown, and take many casualties fighting a wall of pikes uphill.

Cuthbert orders more of his infantry forwards and  a series of melees occur across the field; the crossbowmen are badly beaten and flee.

Then, Rupert's cavalry on his left flank break and this allows Cuthbert's knights to swing around the flank;

The mounted men sweep away Rupert's archers and in behind his lines:

At the same time riding at the head of his reserves, supported by his archers Cuthbert moves into the centre. Rupert decides that the day is lost and he and his knights flee the field. There will be terrible retribution at the hand of Cuthbert!

All figures are 1/32 scale. Cuthbert's troops are Britains Deetail, while Rupert commands a mix of herald, Revell, Italeri, Timpo and Accurate figures.  I borrowed the fast play rules from the internet, adding some morale and fire factors.