The Battle of Ferrybridge:
Clifford Tries To Take The Bridge
This was another game that happened awhile ago but we didn't do the post till now.
Its was a made up scenario, but I found that it was very similar to Lord Clifford's cavalry charge to take the bridge before the battle of Towton.
The forces were as follows:
Lancaster (me M)
12 men at arms with hand weapons and armoured horses.
12 men at arms with lances on unarmoured horses.
I had 10 horsemen on the road, 5 lancers and 5 men with hand weapons.
7 lancers in the centre led by Clifford "The Butcher" and seconds in command.
and 3 scouting men at arms with hand weapons led by a old commander with hand weapon.
York (B)
20 livery men with pole arms
16 mercenary pikemen led by 2 captains
13 men at arms led by Fitz Walter
8 mercenary hand gunners
York had the Livery men on his right centre,
the pike men on the road,
the hand gunners and 8 men at arms including Fitz Walter on the far left,
and 6 men at arms including Warwick's half brother and a French military advisor beside the pike men.
We used a medieval version of our Napoleonic skirmish rules. The commanders only had rules concerning morale tests, and were other wise the same stats as the ordinary men.
Set up.
Close up of my force. Only 24 men to the yorkist 72! But I was relying on quality not quantity.
The Yorkist host guarding the bridge over the river Aire
A bright morning in late winter.
Suddenly a cry of "horsemen!" brakes the quietness in the early morning air and the Yorkist camp erupts into movement as a line of mounted men bridges the crest of the hill, their armour flashing in the cold sun light.
As the Lancastrian horse lines up, the camp quickly arms it self, men rushing to their positions. The Lancastrians make a swift advance, the men on the road racing to the bottle neck between the two houses, The pikemen (the only ones armed as they had been on a patrol) were ordered to take the horse men head on, a bloody clash was imminent.
Clifford's contingent rode through the half harvested crop fields with the chaff flying about them. A butcher of farmers crops too!
Scouts under the command of an aged captain advancing on the left, leaping the low stone walls...
The German pike speedily close up the gap, as their own men at arms cover their flanks.
The mounted men at arms hold back, unwilling to charge the pikes.
Clifford makes as if riding for the livery men.
The pikemen are ordered to advance into the cavalry in front of them, who are forced to make some sort of counter charge. The Germans under the command of a Englishmen push the horsemen back but kill none, the lancstrains defend themselves well, keeping their distance with their lances.
Suddenly Clifford, with a cry to his men to follow him, charges the now exposed flank of the pike men with a group of his lancers.
The rest of his men make a great and traditional cavalry charge on to Warwick's brother's men at arms. Lances well couched and leaning forward in their saddles they thunder through the corn and barley, the dust flying up behind them. Topping the hill, on which the dismounted men at arms brace themselves, they crash into them with cries, the whinnying of war horses and splintering of lances.
The horsemen on the road, seeing the confusion caused by Clifford's charge and the line of pikes thrown into disarray, the mercenaries not knowing which way to point their weapons, charge the pikemen in front of them.
The Germans were now engaged to their flank and front. Having beaten many, but not killed any, of the horsemen in their initial advance, they are cut to pieces where they stand.
Warwick's brother's men at arms are thrown into disorder as they are smashed by the Lancastrian mounted men at arms. Warwick's brother is killed with a blow to his head, falling along with another man.
The livery men, seeing the men at arms fighting for their lives by the hill, quickly turn and march on the mounted men at arms' flank. The battle was still young!
Fitz Walter orders his men at arms to rush into the fray, leading his house hold troops in to the bloody melee against the Lancastrians.
Seeing the danger of being flanked, the skirmishing horsemen start to harry the block of bill men on the left. Riding past and striking at the sides of the block as they pass, cutting down two of the livery men.
The first of the horse men goes down. His horse killed, he is hauled from his saddle and killed by an Italian knight from the remains of Warwick's brother's men at arms, fighting bravely under their banner.
The road by the two houses is now covered in blood as the fight continues. Clifford's Squire (the one in part gold armour waving an axe) is set on by three men at arms, just as well armed as himself. He strikes one in the face killing him, forces another back and, with the spike of his axe, smashes through his helm killing him too before beating the other to the wall! With this under the eyes of his Lord Clifford, he is knighted after the battle.
It is now when the battle could turn either way, and all depends on who breaks that commanders do great and brave things! Clifford riding about in the swirling melee cuts down one of Fitz Walter's house hold troops with one great blow from his sword.
One of the cavalrymen is brought down by the German pikemen. Fitz Walter himself, in the heart of the fight, throwing back the horsemen as a great example to his men, lifts up his visor to see better and to show his men that he lives and is caught in the face with a lance by a skilful thrust, and killed outright!
The old captain takes the only, and suicidal, option. Gathering his men to him he calls the charge on the bill men who outnumber them three to one! lowering their lances they career into them and fling them into a panic, killing a good number of them.
With Fitz Walter killed, the pikemen and men at arms withdraw, badly bloodied and with almost half their men lost, though the horse men had had a hard time of it to.
Over on the right the billmen break formation and swamp the knights pulling several from their horses and stabbing them on the ground, but the captain, although attacked by four billmen, beats them all back with shear swordsmanship.
The pikes brace themselves grim and silent for another onslaught.
Only two of the dismounted men at arms are still alive, one holding on to the banner with all his might, while the other fights back against heavy odds. Meanwhile the bill men are still too tied up with the other cavalry to come and help them.
Some of the horsemen make as if to ride through a gap between the houses on the other side of the village.
Clifford and his men, leaving the men on the road to deal with the pikemen, charge off to relieve the rest of his men from the billmen. The old captain had succeeded in holding up the billmen till the relief force came.
Clifford and his squire engage the two men at arms.
The Yorkist commander on the road seeing he might be flanked sends men from the main road to the gap, thus weakening his line. He also brings up the hand gunners.
Their formation lost the bill men are ripped to shreds by the cavalry.
Clifford's squire beats his opponent but Clifford is beaten back by the heroic knight, who had held on so long, and is stabbed by him.
The weakened line of pikes is charged by the lancers!
The last great charge is to much for the brave Germans who break, the horsemen pursuing and hacking them down as they run. Their pursuit leads them right into the men at arms who also break before the might of their charge!
As the cavalry thunders into the square there is a crash of gunfire from the hand gunners who open fire on the horse men killing a some of them as they ride in.
Not heeding the gunfire the mounted men at arms continue to pursue the pike men and men at arms riding them down and hewing and hacking at them with their swords as they run.
With all the pikemen dead or fled the horse men swing round of the gunners who give them another destructive volley killing more of them, no armour withstands gun powder and shot.
The remnants of the bill men flee and are pursued as well. But the men at arms by the hill still hold on, fighting for their standard.
A riderless stray horse gallops though the Yorkist camp. The man at arms' banner man is finally cut down by Clifford's squire and the other brave knight, seeing now that there was nothing to fight for and all was lost, ran also. But as he ran he was caught by a pursuer but managed fight him back!
The last gun man is rode down by lancers as he runs.
The heroic knight saves himself and escapes. but the other man at arms from Fitz Walters' house hold troop is cut down by the bold squire as he runs. The last of the bill men is also brought to bay and killed.
The victorious Lancastertrains burn the Yorkist camp and take the bridge.
A Lancastrian victory
(or Yorkist, as it was before we changed the battle!)
by M
