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:
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| Yorkist Left |
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| Yorkist Centre |
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| Yorkist Right |
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| 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:
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| Lancastrian Left |
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| Lancastrian Centre |
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| Lancastrian Right |
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| 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.
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| 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].
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| 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?
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| 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].
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The Yorkist Reserve Goes on Strike |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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].
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| Wot No Wings? |
This left just the Lancastrian Centre facing the entire Yorkist army, so they also fled the field in rout!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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