This week we had decided to have a 10mm wars of the roses game with a collection belonging to a friend of mine. The battle was designed to represent the latter stages of the battle where king Richard ran his knights straight for Henry Tudor determined to kill him. But Richard was dragged from his horse and slain as he cried "treason". We are starting at the bit where the two kings are riding for each other with their forces.
Henry Tudor and his Nobles ride out to meet the king of England in open battle.
Richard III rides beside his knights, intent on a charge to slay the usurper Henry Tudor once and for all.
For this game we were using the Basic Impetus rules (
http://www.dadiepiombo.com/basic2.html can be downloaded here), they have been recommended to me before but after taking a brief look at them I had concluded that they were too much like Warlord game's systems to be any good for medieval, but with a large scale 10mm game it was the perfect opportunity to try something other than WAB.
The models are Old glory and Pendragon.
Henry Tudor's force was composed of a unit of knights, a unit of men at arms, two units of welsh billmen, two units of welsh longbowmen, a unit of French crossbowmen and a unit of handgunners.
My Yorkists were composed of a unit of knights, a unit of men at arms, two units of billmen, one unit of longbowmen, one unit of light cavalry and a unit of Scottish borderers.
I deployed with the cavalry on either flank and the infantry in the centre, where as the lancs put theirs the other way around.
I started off with some very risky moves. The light cavalry which had been facing off against the french crossbows and the men at arms along with the borderers moved towards the hill, riding straight at it. It was very risky as whilst I was on the hill I would be much more vulnerable having been disordered as I ran up it, but I thought it might work because it was just so foolish and unpredictable.
The enemy line moved forwards slowly in the centre but the men at arms moved to guard the crossbow's flanks as though they still expected a charge from the light horse. Meanwhile the Handgunners made their way behind the woods forming a flank guard to the army.
With the Light horse and borderers now atop the hill it was clear that our intentions were to use the gap left by the lancs as they moved around the hill to penetrate further in to their lines. Meanwhile the billmen and men at arms drew up in a line to the right of the hill and advanced. The knights on the right continued up the right flank with Richard at their head.
The Light horse took some flanking fire from the French crossbowmen, but they held their ground even though disordered upon the hill, If the Lancs didn't close the gap the horsemen would soon be amongst them.
It appeared that the Lancs were employing Agincourt like strategies as they held their ground and let loose at us with their arrows. But this left their line open as the light horse (disordered and taking casualties) charged down past the billmen and towards the longbows behind. The rest of the yorkist line began to form a crescent advancing on the Lancs. But on the right flank Richard and his knights were charging for the handgunners, lances down!
The element of surprise awarded by the lunatical charge over the hill was well worth the damage caused by the charge, as we were now in the thick of the action.
The lancastrian men at arms tried a flank charge on the light horsemen but they were beaten off by the horsemen and took casualties. However the borderers weren't so lucky as they broke, scattering from the charge of the welsh billmen.
Alone but unchallenged the light horsemen were now free to set about butchering the welsh longbowmen, for one unit that had done what many had thought impossible (crossing a hill before fighting off the Lancastrian men at arms) they were performing very well.
Behind the woods on the flank, King Richard and his Nobles set about killing the handgunners who were guarding the flanks. The Knights easily overpowered the handgunners and sent them scattering.
Now the yorkist knights were free to roll up the lancastrian line.
Unfortunately the light horsemen were beaten off by the welsh longbowmen, sword and bucklers in hand, and their unit scattered. It had been a feat of military tenacity and courage, but although the horse had done no more than bash the men at arms a bit, they had greatly disrupted the lancastrian formation and put Henry Tudor in a diffiult spot.
Our English men at arms had also charged the welsh billmen and had broken them. But now the heavy infantry were facing off against Henry Tudor and his revel barons.
The remaing Welsh billmen charged their Yorkist counter parts, but were forced to retreat and were cut down and scattered as the Englishmen forced them to turn and fight. The Lancastrian force was suffering badly with the loss of all the billmen and the handgunners. But with the Scot fled and the light cavalry slain Richard's smaller force was also dwindling.
The men at arms had taken Henry Tudor's charge and had been beaten in the combat, fleeing only to reform on the ridge of the hill. But Henry led his knights on and the men at arms were forced to fall back over the hill top with almost 50% casualties.
The men at arms quickly marched down the hill to try and reform and regain order on the other side. Meanwhile Richard led his nobles into melee with some of the Welsh longbowmen, cutting down many and sending the rest packing. His Billmen and longbows were now closing in on Henry Tudor and his knights.
It was clear now that Richard had executed the classic flank turn manoeuvre (not something I had intended) and the foes were now facing each other from north to south.
Henry reacted to the threat to his flank by turning his own knights and riding down a unit of English billmen. The rest of his Welsh and French mercenaries turned to face Richard and his charging knights.
Henry's charge had punched a hole in the Yorkist line and he could now use his heavy cavalry to roll it up towards Richard.
The Two leaders, king and pretender, could now see each other face to face across the field of battle, but the patriotic Englishmen would pose much more of an obstacle to Henry Tudor than any Scottish schiltron would!
And the Englishmen proved their worth! The billmen charged into the flanks of Henry's nobles, hacking at the armoured horsemen with their bill hooks. They were also supported by longbow fire from the English archers, and one of these shots hit home in Henry Tudor's chest, the pretender falling from his horse into the mud.
Perhaps it is fitting that a Welsh invader should be slain by a weapon invented by his own people.
With the loss of their leader, the lancastrian knight's spirit seemed broken, and many of them fell to the billmen's pole arms. Eventually they were forced to fall back, but with the men at arms on their rear, the longbows in their flank and the billmen advancing on their front they didn't have much of a hope of survival but they would fight to the last in defence of Henry's body!
Or so it appeared until the Yorkists got hold of them. They charged the longbows and inflicted some damage forcing the Englishmen to fall back, but they were eventually sent charging off after they took heavy casualties from the billmen's flank charge.
Meanwhile Richard had been battling with the lancastrian men at arms whom he had sent packing with heavy casualties. However he himself had lost some knights and the last French and Welshmen were forming up to prepare themselves for a charge.
Richard's knights took a flank charge from the men at arms, but the infantry broke and fled the field. However Richard's knights had taken some knocks and it seemed unlikely that they would be able to break the fresh archers standing in their way without heavy casualties, which may endanger the king!
However the last Lancastrian knights were dragged from their horses and hacked to death by the English peasantry. The French mercenaries and Welsh bowmen quikly decided that with their leader and all the nobles slain they would have to admit defeat and the field was Richard's! Long live the king!
It was a great game and the basic impetus rules worked a treat, though I would say that if you are planning on doing a game with larger than 15mm models that you should probably use Warhammer ancient battles or a similar system that works round casualties rather than morale.
The casualty/morale debate is a big one and there are many arguments for and against it. The thing is that hardly a single battle in history was ever won by one side annihilating the other, so the idea of units being removed once their morale has broken is a very inventive idea of representing this, also for periods after the latter ages of the pike and shotte periods (post ECW) rules like black powder, pike and shotte and impetus work quite well as the era is all about braking the morale of your opponent.
However before this period, unless you are playing in 15mm or smaller you are only replicating a small skirmish where the objective would have been to kill as many of your opponents as possible so WAB is much better for this (it does include rules for fleeing as well but it is not quite as essential as for games such as hail Caesar).
My personal beliefs can be summed up as follows: Post ECW and other periods smaller than 15mm, rules that revolve around breaking morale are good.
Pre ECW, small skirmishes and larger than 32mm rules that revolve around casualties are best.
