Go Down You Blood Red Roses, Go Down

The usual 'what next' discussion after our last game saw John suggest a Wars of the Roses game using his 'Blood Red Roses' rules, published by the Society of Ancients (SoA).

I'd not come across these before (it's very many years since I was an SoA member) but the rule mechanisms and general concepts really piqued my interest, so, that was what we decided on for this game using my 15mm armies.

This was very much a play-test, and little effort was put into beautifying the game - I didn't even attach any flags to the troops, so I'll apologise now for the complete lack of spectacle.

The first step was to draw cards defining what retinues of troops each army was composed of, and what leaderships factors would modify their performance.  These cards are then sorted into 2 to 4 'Wards' (or 'Battles' if you prefer).

I opted for 4 wards for my Yorkist army, one being an off-table reserve as follows:

Yorkist Left

Yorkist Centre

Yorkist Right

Yorkist Reserve

Each ward starts with a 'Cohesion' factor of 6 modified by any 'Leadership' cards, this gave me cohesion levels of 8, 7, 8 and 7 for the Left, Centre, Right and Reserve respectively.

John's Lancastrians had also opted to share out their cards between 4 wards as follows:

Lancastrian Left

Lancastrian Centre

Lancastrian Right

Lancastrian Reserve

The game is played on a 5x5 grid of 'boxes'; wards are deployed in the three central zones and only move forward or back; the outer two, flank, zones are only available for a reserve to use.  For our game we used boxes that were 12" wide and 6" deep.

As we were using the generic battle rules, the terrain was diced for and we got: 1x wood; 1x hedged area; 1x village; and, 1x hill - all on the Lancastrian side of the table as can be seen in the diagram of the table below.

Diagram of Battlefield Deployment and Terrain

I was troubled by the terrain layout, as being a defensive player, it looked like all the cover and higher ground, favoured the Lancastrians.  So, reckoning John wouldn't be tempted out of cover I decided attack was going to be my only option.

The next stage in game is the pre-battle bombardment.  I had the only artillery on the field, in my Left Ward, but its line of sight was blocked by the wood[1].  But as the Yorkists had more gunpowder weapons (artillery and handguns) than the Lancastrians I gained 1 point of cohesion for one ward, I chose the centre to bring all my wards, except the reserve up to a starting total of 8.

The battle proper, then started with both sides allocating tokens to indicate any desired change of 'Stance'[2] by the wards[3].  Whether or not the ward will actually change its stance to that desired is subject to a 'Mettle' test, succeeding on a d6 roll of 4+.  I opted to get all mine to 'Advance'.  It took me a couple of turns to get into the swing of the rules, and the image below is of the table after two turns, when my Right was close enough to be shot at by the archers in the village[4].

The Yorkist Right is Advancing Alone!

The troops floating in the background is Lancastrian Reserve that has not yet been brought on the table and could enter anywhere.  The white markers (aquarium stones) indicate the baselines of the field of battle i.e. the notional table edge.  As can be seen, while all three of my wards are now on 'Advance' (3), two, the Left and Centre, are still where they deployed.  This is because wards not only have to test to change stance but also, when on advance, have to test to see if they move forward - mine were proving rather reluctant (as was John's Centre and Right, the latter just off the left of the photo).

Next, I accidentally ordered my Right, the only ward that was advancing to stop; I put a 'Hold' chit face-down next to it instead of an 'Assault' - whoops!  Luckily John was also having issues getting his men to advance.

I decided then that I had to 'go big or go home', and ordered my Right to Attack and the others to 'Assault'!  Only the Centre successfully changed stance to move into combat, while the Right, on Advance also, contacted the Lancastrians in the village.  Note also my Left, still stuck on the baseline and refusing to move; could it be Northumberland leading that Ward?

Battle is Joined - well 2 out of 3 anyway

It was now the impact of Stance really made itself felt as John, on Hold opted to shoot while my Right on Attack was able to do more damage with a mêlée attack.  In the centre things were even more favourable, as while it costs cohesion to use Assault stance it is very effective in mêlée.

At this point I should point out that 'Happenstance' cards, gained at various points in the game can allow some cohesion to be recovered, or alter combat outcomes.

In the next turn the Yorkist Right managed to switch to Attack, as did the Lancastrian Centre, but with the initiative[5] the Yorkists were still outperforming them[6].

From the Lancastrian Side for a Change

If the ward troop formations appear unusual, it was to ease the calculation of combat power for shooting and mêlée.  Each troop type has a different value and these can be modified by the type of attack and Stance.  To make it easier to keep track the different troop types we separated them out (there are two blocks of apparently identical Bills as some are 'Retinue' Bills and some are 'Array' Bills).  For the Yorkist Left (still stuck on the baseline!) these are from left to right in the image below: artillery, retinue bills, household (2nd row), retinue bows, array bills (2nd row), array bows, crossbows, and handguns. 

Yorkist Left - Still Going Nowhere

At this stage we both sought to bring on our off-table reserves; both failed their Mettle test and refused to appear.

The Yorkist Reserve Goes on Strike

The Lancastrian Reserve Follows Suit

More surprisingly, well it surprised me, the Lancastrian Right changed stance to Advance, but then failed the Mettle test to actually advance out of the wood.

Going Nowhere Seems to be the 'In Thing'

The next turn the Lancastrian Right did advance out of the wood, just as the Yorkist Left, now on Attack[7], actually moved forward and into combat.

Better Late Than Never!

The armies were now furiously hacking away at each other all along the line and the Yorkist Reserve had arrived in the Assault Stance on the baseline behind the Yorkist Centre - I was worried about how well they were holding so wanted to reinforce them with the Reserve.  By contrast the Lancastrian reserve were still refusing to show up for the fight.

One turn later, it was all over!  The Yorkist Reserve had joined their Centre making far less at risk, but the two wings broke their opposite numbers.  The Lancastrian Left had hit zero Cohesion and broke, while their Right was down to 1 point of Cohesion and broke as they were overwhelmed[8].  

Wot No Wings?

This left just the Lancastrian Centre facing the entire Yorkist army, so they also fled the field in rout!

 

 My Kingdom for a Red Bull!

And guess who never turned up for the fight?  No doubt this was thanks to the 'Treacherous Intent' of their leader - see the allocated Leadership card in the earlier photos showing the different wards in each army.

The Lancastrian Reserve - Reserved for What?

Post Mortem

The game was very enjoyable, and I found all the results very convincing from a historical narrative viewpoint.  The mechanics are simple and work well, apart form the calculation of ward strength, dependent upon Stance, when attacking which I found a bit onerous.  However, I reckon with some aids, like a peg-board for record keeping and accounting I could make it easier for Bears of Little Brain like me.  

I had hoped the game would run quicker, but I think that was mainly due to being my first time, and I'm sure we'll get quicker.  In fact, I was so impressed I logged on to the SoA web-site to by myself a copy.  Unfortunately, they no longer seem to sell all the cards[9] that are so useful so I've held off buying a copy for now.

I'm definitely going to play again, and try some historical refights to see how they go - watch this space.

Notes:

[1.] Artillery can only engage targets in the boxes in front of it, not to either side. 

[2.] There are 5 stances that go in sequence: Assault (1); Attack (2); Advance (3), Hold (4) and Retire (5).  Attempting to change stance requires passing a Mettle test which, if failed, will lose the ward 1 point of cohesion if attempting a change of more than one position in the sequence. 

[3.] All wards start with their stance on 'Hold'.

[4.] Luckily for me shooting at, and from, villages is penalised, something I thought quite sensible as in reality one would be in cover and the other unable to freely use all their bows. 

[5.] Diced for on a d6 at the start of each turn, if a draw, the initiative goes to the side that did not have the initiative last turn.

[6.] In the Shooting phase, and the subsequent Mêlée phase, wards attack (shooting or mêlée, but never both) one at a time, in the same sequence as their Stance, except the order is reversed in the shooting phase.  If two adjacent wards in the same stance the one with initiative goes first.  Combat losses, and any Mettle test for loss of cohesion, are applied immediately, i.e. before the ward going second adjudicates its attack.  

[7.] With the Yorkist Left continually refusing to advance, I decided I had to change their stance to Attack as that will always advance (no test required); it paid off big-time.

[8.] Wards on a Cohesion of 1, and outnumbered in companies (bases in out game) by three-to-one or more will rout.

[9.] There are free downloads for the cards, QRS and Stance markers in the store for you to print off your own.

A Rough Wooing

For a long time I have been wanting to try out a hex-based rule-set for the Italian Wars from Issue #7 of Battlegames called 'Sans Peur et Sans Reproche' (SPeSR).

Neither John nor I have armies for the Italian Wars but John does have some for the Tudor period and we opted pit his Scots, commanded by me, against his English in a battle a little bit like Flodden?  The set-up below shows the Scottish army to the right atop a steep hill, with the English army, arrayed facing them, to the left.

The armies consisted of[1]:

Unit Type	Order	Scottish	English
Pike Blocks	Close	4 (Large)	2
Missile Foot	Open	3	5 (Longbow)
Gendarmes	Close	1 (Poor)	3 (1 Elite)
Light Horse	Open	1	1
Missile Horse	Open	1	1
Artillery	Open	2	2

The Scots pike blocks, like the one below, and had Panic and Disperse[2] levels set as if elite to represent their large size, but they were not elite in any other way. 

For 28mm figures, the Hexon terrain tiles are quite small so, we allowed units to spill over into an adjacent hex and enforced a unit separation (between units on the same side) of 1 hex to allow space to do this.

Not wanting to change the rules too much, and create a new 'Bill unit' type, we gave the English just 2 pike blocks, but allowed their Longbow units, like that below, to move and shoot without penalty and increased their shooting range by one hex.

So, without further ado, both armies got underway[3], the English advancing their Bowmen towards the centre and their more numerous cavalry against both wings, while the Scots advanced towards the edge of the steep slope.

As expected, there was little action in this turn except for some fairly ineffectual shooting.

The following turn things got underway with English gendarmes charging some missile horse who neatly evaded[4]. 

At this stage the Scottish pike remained content to sit as the 'king of the castle'.

The Scottish missile horse then came bounding back to shoot at the gendarmes that had chased them off, while the artillery and missile foot tried to shoot down the next English gendarme unit.  Also, just visible at the bottom of the image below are the lances of the 'poor' Scottish gendarmes coming out of reserve to prop up the flank.

On the opposite flank the Scottish light horse (Borderers) charged their opposite numbers, supported by some missile foot and another artillery unit.

In the centre the Scottish pike remained steady despite the clothyard shafts raining down on them.

But the King was beginning to have second thoughts about desirability of just sitting there as such a large, static target.

Clearly, with the wheels coming off his battle-plan, the Scottish King was fully absorbed in deciding what to do next and as a result forgot to take photos.

So, we rejoin the fight after the Scots have decided to come off the hill and break the English centre before their wings get overwhelmed.

As can be seen in the above image the Scottish right flank has gone pear-shaped.  The missile horse have been chased off table (and will not return), the artillery is bout to be overrun and the Scottish gendarmes are losing their fight against their opposite numbers.

On the Scottish left flank things are not a great deal better, their light horse have been beaten back and the missile foot are in grave danger of being run down by the English gendarmes

And just to put a cherry on the top, in the centre the Scots lost one pike press and only drew the other.

And that's pretty much how the rest of the fight played out.  On the Scottish right it ended with the last unit being chased off by the English missile horse.

On their left, their light horse, after a brief rally, was chased off by the English light horse, but at least in this case the English Border Horse pursued them off-table and did not return - no doubt both came to an agreement to join up and loot everyone's baggage.

In the centre the pike slugged it out ...

... but the first to break was a Scots block.

While it took three Scottish pike blocks ganging up to break the other English block.

We then hit the agreed turn limit and with the English army now twice the strength of the Scots the Sassenachs took the win.

Post Mortem

Trying to hold a strong position against a foe that outmatched one in both shooting and cavalry (to turn the flanks) was a very poor decision.  Then when the Scottish pikes were let off the leash, they immediately took some disorder for having to descend the steep slope.  What's worse, is that units cannot rally while moving so, that disorder plus all that from shooting that they had picked up and received advancing to the attack saw them enter combat in a rather ragged state.

As for the rules, we both enjoyed the game and the rather different mechanisms used and will try them again, albeit I am not sure it gives a better game than other rule-sets.  That said the simultaneous movement did make a nice change from I-Go-U-Go.

Notes:

[1.] I'll stick with using the unit type names as in the rules.

[2.] Units acquire Fatigue Points (FPs) from shooting, combat, routing/retreating and moving across difficult terrain.  These can be rallied off but when the FP total hits the Panic level the unit must take a Morale Test, and if it ever reaches the Disperse level the unit disbands and flees the field.

[3.] Movement is simultaneous in the rules and wherever there is a conflict ("if you do that, I'll do this") then the conflicting moves are sequenced by the unit with the highest priority, or failing that the higher quality, and finally by a D6 roll.

[4.] Evading is compulsory for open order (OO) troops charged by close order (CO) troops unless in difficult terrain or behind an obstacle.

Old Boys Weekend - Game 1 of 3

It's been a while since the four of us (Steve, Martin, Keith and I) got together so it was great to meet up for another weekend's gaming.  To not waste any precious gaming time, apart from the Friday evening which was, as tradition demands, spent down the pub, the first game was already set up and ready to go - see here.

We diced off to determine the order in which each of us got to choose which command we would take in the game: the right or left half of the Seleucid and Ptolemaic armies.  I went second and snapped up the powerful Seleucid right which surprisingly wasn't the first one picked.

So, on to the game - the account of which will focus on the wing where I was busy and thus didn't see much of what was happening elsewhere.

The Battle of Panion 200BC

The Ptolemaics won the toss for initiative at the start and let the Seleucids take the first turn; this meant their movement distances were all halved[1].  The right wing under my command, with a plentiful supply of PIPs, moved forward as far as it could; Steve commanding the left wing was more cautious as the enemy had the edge in troops on that side of the field.

In their first turn, the Ptolemaic left (Keith) decided that boldness was the best option and advanced his whole command.  This boldness perhaps went too far when he also decided not to delay the clash with my superior cavalry but charged right in (action nearest the camera).

I thought he was committing suicide, especially as my cavalry were all uphill of his, but the results were disappointing (to me), with one draw and the other unit only being forced to recoil.

On the other flanks things were going much slower ...

... as the Seleucid left (Steve) was hanging back and the Ptolemaic right (Martin) was suffering from a lack of PIPs, which was going to become one of the enduring themes of this game.

The next turn saw my wing advance in the centre and the cavalry (and cataphracts!) charge in, and this time they destroyed both of the opposing units (posed as running away for the photo below). 

This, was how I had imagined it would be in my dreams.

In reality, it was primarily driven by my rather good dice rolling and Keith's poor combat throws, which were going to be the other theme running through the game.

While the Ptolemaic right seethed with frustration over a paucity of PIPs ...

... the battle on their left got into full swing with pretty much all units being engaged, apart from the excess Seleucid cavalry now seeking to turn the Ptolemaic left flank.

After further moves the armies on the Seleucid left still had not come to blows.

By contrast, Antiochus III had led his battalion of the phalanx to burst all the way through the opposing pike[2], but was still a long way from breaking anything.  

The next bit of excitement on my wing was the destruction of a Ptolemaic mixed spear and elephant unit.  This meant, thanks to my rule changes[3], that before being removed elephant would rampage through all in its path, starting with the light infantry directly behind it.

But light infantry are meant to elephant killers, and so it proved, with the rampage being stopped almost before it had begun.

With the demise of this spear and elephant unit, and the defeat of the remaining cavalry on that wing, the flank of the main Ptolemaic phalanx was left fully exposed.

Meanwhile, across the river the battle had so far been limited to light units fighting for possession of the rough and difficult going on the opposite flank to the river.

The writing on the wall was pretty clear at this point, and so it proved with the combat between the light troops on the Seleucid left / Ptolemaic remaining indecisive while the Ptolemaic phalanx shorn of flank protection was hit from all sides and promptly collapsed.

All-in-all, a pretty good match to the account on which this battle was based.  

Post Mortem

While the set-up and rules threw up a few issues, it was fast and furious, and fun.  All was finished, and the troops returned to their shelves[4] before lunch.

The rules worked pretty well, but recoiling a whole box breaks up an army's line by too much and too quickly, so will have to be addressed in future games.  Also, the changes to overlaps, reducing their occurrence[5], made pikes combat almost impossible to break without a flank attack to help you out.  I shall have to do some reading to find some historical cases of where this wasn't the case and if so, amend the rules to allow for what is probably an unlikely occurrence.

The set-up favoured the Seleucids, but that was historical and deliberate although the dice Gods clearly decided to back a winner and my combat dice were consistently better than Keith's.  

On the other side of the battle, I had not given enough thought to how the Ptolemaic force was deployed, and Martin was hampered by a command that needed a lot of PIPs to get moving.  Again, the dice amplified my errors, as Martin's PIP die always seemed to roll low.

Nonetheless it was enjoyable and quick, which was just what I was hoping for, allowing us to get on with setting up and playing the next game, a Lord of the Rings game using Dragon Rampant.  

But that will have to wait for the next post here.

Notes:

[1] Using 6" grids, each equating to 100 paces, means troops move much further than they do in DBM and not limiting the movement of the side that goes first could see the side that goes second pinned from the start against their baseline by the enemy's mounted troops.  This rule means that troops should, except foot facing mounted, be able to meet up about half-way, PIPs permitting.

[2] Recoiling a whole grid square just doesn't feel right when it disrupts the phalanx as much as this.  This is not helped by DBM ruling that pike will always pursue.  I think I need to amend this for future games.

[3] I ruled that elephants will flee a full move, plus 1 box, back towards their baseline attacking all units they pass through, unless they are destroyed.  The owning player rolls a D6 for each box of movement to determine the direction:

1 = it moves diagonally in a direction chosen by the opposing player.

2-5 = it moves straight ahead.

6 = it moves diagonally in a direction chosen by the owning player.

[4] Ikea Billy Oxberg bookcases with glass doors.

[5] Overlap cannot be provided by a unit in combat or in an enemy zone of control (ZOC).