Imperial Ambitions Thwarted

 A new game for me on club night, well I say new but it wasn't as it is yet another branch of Warlords rule sets covering everything from cavemen up until the Bolt Action era, yes my prejudices are showing. Anyway it was Wars of the Roses played with Hail Caesar.

Matt kindly let me in on the game (Dower, not Smith or Crump) and I took command of a Yorkist division on the right flank opposite Michael, the figures were all Matt's and very nice they were too, many I recognised from my own Swiss and WotR armies in the distant past, lovely sculpts. Michael came at me from the start so I decided to meet him in no mans land. We clashed very quickly and I seemed to have the upper hand, but Michael now managed to continually hold on by regularly making sixes and fives turn up on his morale throws. 

The Roses line up.

 

My Division of Yorkists.

My assault stops.

This fight now see sawed back and forth, I did lose a small and elite(?) unit of men-at-arms in the initial clashes but held my own as my boys retreated, the whole game for us went like this, I was helped by Matt bringing over a household unit to shore up my line. Over on the left the German and Irish mercenaries opposite each other continued for most of the game to ignore all commands, Matt was set upon by the Lancastrian centre and again the fighting was confused with no one getting the upper hand.

I try to bribe my mercenaries to try harder.

The unenthusiastic Germans.

Just as the clock ticked down I managed to break Michael's division but had nothing left myself and may even have been broken but we were unsure. The centre fight was still a draw and although the left had now managed to get into some vicious combat which I believe was going the way of the Germans. The game was good fun and we had a laugh, I actually thought the fighting suited the period with the commands wrestling for a win and the to and fro of movement, perhaps it was too difficult to actually destroy or force a command to retire. And of course the old bug bear of commands sitting doing nothing raised its ugly head, now and again this is a bit of fun, but when you spend almost two hours of club night basically doing nothing it is less funny.

Warlord rules are a fact of life at our club and luckily the members make it easy to join in, so you will see me doing these again whether SYW, Naps, ACW, Colonial or even WotR.

 It was time to fit in the monthly Italian Wars game with Julian. I decided to go with the rule books army lists this time, I know some wargamers detest army lists but I do not have that problem although I do prefer properly researched lists with maximums and minimums to at least give the army some kind of historical bent. I decided to use an Imperial force and used the Spanish list but also added Landsknechts as a choice, I have no idea why these would be left out of what is basically an Imperial list, perhaps in hindsight I should have used the Holy Roman Empire and added Spanish foot to it, anyway I intend to look a lot closer at the armies involved, or at least the ones I use when I get time.

So, after a call to Julian he said he would use the French as he had just painted up some Swiss pikemen, we settled on 500 points which would give us decent forces for Furioso. I took some ditches as I wanted to put some of my infantry behind defences, I messed that up as a ditch is an obstacle but not a defence. I then took a large Landsknecht pike block and a small one, then a small Spanish block and decided to try out my idea of a Spanish Colunella with a pike and shot unit, I took four units of mounted men at arms one of which was Condottieri these were supported by some Spanish light cavalry and the rest of the army had two shot units and two field guns. My plan was to keep my centre behind the ditches while shooting the enemy to bits while my cavalry overwhelmed the French right flank.

Spanish on the left, French on the right.

 

The Swiss are coming.

The French right flank.

I had modified my War and Conquest terrain chart for Italy but the dice gods scuppered both Julian and I, we got a stream and several hedges along with a wood, most of the difficult terrain was in Julian's half of the battlefield, but as I was not planning to attack it could be ignored, apart from the stream of course as the French put a large part of their army behind it.

The game opened as the French knelt for prayers, this had an uplifting effect which might benefit them in combat later but it did mean the army was late to the field and depoyed further back than the Imperials, again as I was not moving it did not matter in the grand scheme. The Swiss though decided to go straight at the enemy, this was just what I wanted as my large Landskecht block moved up to the prepared ditches, one more ditch was on their left but the diggers were a lazy bunch and could not be hurried up to complete it.

The French come on in good style.

 

A major clash over the ditch.

The French right ford the stream.

The French infantry were happy to advance as was their left flank cavalry the right stood waiting behind the stream. I moved to defend my right happy that my Condottieri would see off the enemy heavy cavalry supported by my Italian shot. I moved my men at arms up to the stream and again confident that their heavy armour would win the day decided to cross, the crossing between a nearby wood and a hedge turned out to be too narrow and it took me too long to get across and form up for an attack, both my light cavalry and elite knights were disordered by the water. I did manage to chase away some mounted crossbowmen and despite their disadvantage my knights knocked back the French heavies, but not fast enough and another French unit ploughed into their flank as they celebrated, thus destroying them. Thereafter we both glowered at each other across the stream. My Condottieri also failed to live up to the faith I had put into them and failed to beat the enemy, although my arquebusiers managed to wipe out the mounted crossbows to their front.

Desperate fighting in the centre.

The Spanish centre has gone.

Now for the massive clash in the centre as the Swiss approached the Landsknechts behind the ditch and had their formation disrupted crossing, this was what I had hoped for and the bitter melee began. The Swiss took heavy casualties but their morale held steady and the fighting continued. The rest of the French infantry splashed through the stream and more hand to hand combat ensued, although one disordered pike block was routed they had more than enough men to continue the fight. On my right the Colunella had been dealing out casualties from their shot but now that these had withdrawn for the clash of pikes it settled into another slog.

In the centre despite the loss of troops the Swiss now turned the tables on the defenders and they broke and ran, my centre had gone and a huge hole had opened between both wings of my army, I reluctantly left the field.

What a cracking game, halfway through the pendulum of luck swung in favour of the French as Julian's dice improved, not hugely but enough to ensure my defeat. My cavalry on which I had hoped would give the French trouble in the end were pathetic, partly my own fault for trying to squeeze them through a small area. We had a few events throughout the game, the French prayers being answered was one, then any Swiss troops would retire due to non payment of dues and I sighed for a moment, but it did not effect units already in contact, this would have been disastrous had they not gone impetuous and still had to close the Imperial line, damn. The last event meant one French unit became fatigued which again turned out to be toothless. I really like these touches. What happened to the diggers you ask, well it became obvious that their ditch was going to be more of a problem for me than Julian, so I told them to down tools and sent them packing to the rear.

I have some Steel Fist Landsknecht arquebusiers ready for painting but as I am away for a bit I decided to leave them until I return. These are gorgeous figures full of character with some fearsome beards.

My computer woes seem to now have been put to bed, mate Simon has delivered a super machine and helped me with any questions which have arisen, my Wacom problems also, touch wood, seem to have been cured by the new machine. As an aside the keen eyed among you might notice my second monitor sits on a box set of Def Comedy Jam which I got years ago as I enjoy stand up comedy, this muck is now at last useful.

Our tribulations over the now defunct Post Office are still not over, seemingly we need the government to approve our change from business rates to domestic. So we are dealing with civil servants sitting at home dunking Hob Nobs into their morning coffee while watching daytime TV who probably have no idea where Warton is. They are unable to ensure we have power over the coming winter but will fight tooth and nail to ensure I pay more than my dues in rates.

I am now going dark for a few weeks.

Why Wargaming 7

Having put the wine bottles in the proper recycle bin I decided I had to get somewhere local or localish, I looked online for clubs in the area, anything I found was at least an hours drive away and driving around the Lake District is not easy of a winters evening especially not in the Batmobile which I am sure has skates and not wheels for three months of the year.

Then of course the penny dropped or the light bulb above my head came on, you get the idea, Lancaster! I checked them up online to ensure they were still operating and found out they were and HQ was still Lancaster Grammar School. I phoned and found out that they played Dux Britanniarum and was also informed someone else played X-Wing, so that was a good start, I was also invited to come along and see for myself, which I decided I would.

Like someone going on a first date I showed up, was welcomed and slotted into a game of Sails of Glory, during game play I quizzed the players and generally managed to enjoy a few hours with people who talked my language; history, soldiers, rules, games etc. I had also arrived just at the time a Dux B campaign was about to start, my troops were given land in Northern Britain and prepared to hold it to the last drop of their blood. All in all an excellent new beginning.

However, being human I still felt something was missing, the club tends to play multiplayer games and no one is left behind but I still wanted to fight big battles and looked at my now almost complete War & Conquest Dark Age armies and wondered if they would ever get out of the boxes. I noticed on the Scarab forum that a tournament was being organised at Wargame Foundry and for other reasons as well as wanting to play I decided that I would go for it, launch myself into the unknown, never having actually played the game being a minor problem. I was told the list was full, too bleedin' late.

I don't know what happened but a slot was found, perhaps due to my enthusiasm on the forums I don't know, but I was grateful, booked my hotel and impatiently awaited the big day.

I turned up at the hotel early as I met an old Navy buddy for lunch, I fretted away in the room until I thought it was the right time to go and look for a bunch of wargamers in the bar, I took a suitably military book with me for identification purposes and sat where anyone who looked would obviously see me as an old hand. I think what they saw was an old guy pretending to read a book making furtive glances around the place looking for a like minded soul, it was a mercy I was not told to move on. Then an opening, someone shouted 'Reece' at a guy at the bar, one of the players was a Reece, how many Reece's could there be in a pub in Newark on the night before the tournament. I gathered my courage, tucked my book under my arm, grabbed my by now lukewarm pint and trotted over to 'Reece', the blank looks on their faces said it all, there apparently were two Reece's here and this wasn't the one I expected. Mumbling wargames stuff, apologies and something about mistaken identity I retreated to my room, feeling the stares at my back.

The next morning I hesitantly approached breakfast, again looking for wargamers when I was confronted by a chap seemingly organising some other guys at the buffet and due to the miracle of the internet I did recognise from forum pictures "Phil Turner I presume?" The rest as they say is history.

Well there you have it my journey so far through a life of wargaming. I have now reached an almost perfect stage where I have a thriving local club and outside that I have had the good fortune to be involved in the War and Conquest world of a great bunch of people. We all know that wargaming never stops and plans for the future concern possibly two more W&C armies, a Muskets and Tomahawks force and I still feel a pull from WWII due in the main to the lovely figures and vehicles available, also when the PO does close I have a huge area to turn into my wargame room/study. Thanks for listening.

Goodbye, thanks for all the fun

I have someone coming today to take away my Wars of the Roses army, this will be the fifth army I have sold in less than a year, in my whole wargames career spanning almost fifty years I have now sold eight armies, all from the middle ages. The only one I did not regret selling was a Norman army which was useless, they didn't like me and I didn't like them.

Lord Hastings.

The only reason I have a large Wars of the Roses army is that when I came down here to live among the Auld Enemy I got the chance of a pile of metal fairly cheaply and as I liked the period I took the plunge. I used Poleaxed 2, a good set of rules written for the period but it was hard to convince people that the rules were exciting, basically once you had set up and given orders the battle was literally handed over to the troops on the table. What influenced things thereafter was the loss of commanders and disarray, this part was exciting but it was not enough. The thing which always annoyed me was 'disarray' it was an important part of the rules but unrealistic at times, for instance, why would a battle of several contingents walk forward against an enemy only a couple of bowshots away and not be able to keep a straight line? I could have used them with a different set of rules, but the basing was wrong and I didn't have the time or will to rebase them.

Despite the sales I still have a lot of wargame armies and stuff left and along with the new Romano-British and Early Saxons intend to add Mid-Imperial Romans, and probably Muskets & Tomahawks somewhere along the line in the next couple of years, and maybe someone to fight against the Romans.

I have started the Harry Sidebottom novel "Warrior of Rome" and am enjoying it, after all those years of non fiction (comics aside) I deserve some light entertainment. Oh, and the "Guardians of the Galaxy" is doing my head in, you need a degree in quantum physics to work out what is going on.

Well on the way with the new map project sneak peak below.

The defence of Hue, 1972

Based on Mortimers Cross

There was a try out of 'Maurice' last night which left three of us at a loose end, so I volunteered to put on a Wars of the Roses game using Poleaxed 2, I would umpire as best I could as I do not play the game often enough to be completely au fait with all the mechanics. Granted there are not a lot, but there are subtleties which should not be forgotten, no doubt I did. Anyway I went for a scenario based on Mortimers Cross and as with all those movies, it was very loosely based on the real story. As Rob and Paul had not played before I evened up the sides as the Lancastrians would otherwise have had too hard a struggle to win, the Yorkists still had a small edge but nothing as drastic as in the real action.

There was a river on one flank and hills on the other as far as we can tell, so the table edges represented both, it would be quicker to pack away. The Lancastrians simply marched forward loosing arrows as they went, the Yorkists wanted to threaten two of the enemy battles while throwing their main battle forward, possibly for a quick victory then a flank roll up. Thomas Howard spoiled this as he went pell mell for the enemy line without waiting for his peers.

 The Yorkist line minus Thomas Howard who has advanced ahead of his friends.

 Thomas Howard way out in front about to make a fearless charge.

 The rest of the army catches up and a general melee ensues.

 An incredibly vicious fight for such a small battle, Blount is the first casualty, but as he gasps his last breath his men surge forward and capture a badly wounded Percy then rout his retinue.

As the general melee continues more commanders die, De la Pole, John Howard and army commander the Earl of March on the Yorkist side, Blount, Grey and Owen Tudor on the Lancastrian. Roos is the luckiest man of the day as twice his armour saves him from death.

The only Yorkist success of the day, De la Pole wins the centre, but the army loses both flanks.

The opening phase of the battle as both sides face off and the end as the Yorkist flanks disintegrate.

The scenario was taken from The Poleaxed Source Book and the coats of arms used on the map from Heraldic Banners of the Wars of the Roses, both Lance and Longbow Society books, and both excellent material for wargamers.If you do know the battle and the names of the commanders do not add up, then I substitute my own guys for the real ones as it is easier then to recognise who is who on the battlefield, I also put the coats of arms on the casualty sheets.