Starting a new Pocket Army for Dodgy Backs!

Well, there is a bit more to it than that - it is connected to some ‘thinking’ - Oh Dear!

It is a Pocket Army because its size will be contained, but it is also a three foot army because I am speed painting and viewing at the three foot rule is a guiding principle. It is also a …. Oh what should I call it! …. A restricted mobility army for those occasions that my back / leg problems have a flare-up and I need to sit at the table with just a small game in front of me. It is also an experimental army to bring all of the above together for some sort of assessment of feasibility on how best to proceed.

Since doing the 10mm infantry in 2 ranks on 3 bases, I am now looking a 3 ranks on 2 bases, but having a similar total frontage of 110 - 120mm.

Pocket Army - 5 x infantry, 1 x artillery, 1 x light horse and 1 x heavy horse per side will be the object of the exercise. Last year I cut a couple of neoprene gaming mats down to 4’ x 2’ and I would see these armies operating in that sort of space.

Three Foot Army - Painting with the three foot rule in mind. I have been doing some test bases, where the figures are primed and then glued into positions on bases ….. and then painted - fast! I have never previously thought this a good idea, but it certainly forces you away from getting involved in all of the detail. 

Just get a general impression and the paint only goes where the brush and the eye can go and it is a faster way to paint. I don’t enjoy seeing the results close up, but at gaming distance (three foot), there is a lot of forgiveness. I know this sounds a terrible thing to say, but without the usual love poured into them, it allows me to tell the family that when I’m dearly departed, not to worry about them, they can even be thrown away! They will be as disposable as any football or concert ticket.

So far I have painted a group of Pendraken 10mm bases and now a group of these Epic bases. At the conclusion of that, I think it just comes down to personal preference, though I think the looser 10mm artillery looks better to the eye than the very fixed Epic poses with the gunners in rigid positions, but I like the Epic infantry better (I will rebase by 10mm to the same look and see how I feel about that). The cavalry fight it out on equal terms.

Restricted Mobility Army - I am having problems standing for lengthy periods at my gaming table. It is 40” off the ground to reduce bending, which is good, but being on my feet in a fairly static position can soon bring discomfort that lasts for a few days. Sitting at the dining table brings some relief, but not if stretching across it, so the idea of having a 2 x 4 mat under my nose, while sitting, holds some appeal - restrictive, but sometime you can’t have a cake and a bun!

Long (long) term, more of my gaming may come down to this sort of play, so perhaps having a couple of Pocket Armies on stand-by for that eventuality is not such a bad idea.

Experimental Army - I have a potted history of jumping back and forth between scales, systems and table setups. There is of course a financial cost to this, but equally important a time cost, whether that be painting or moving between systems etc, so I am just feeling my way along with this project, to see where it goes ..... if anywhere! 

One of the benefits of going with the ‘three foot army’, with most things being painted while on their base, I can build all of the bases of the whole Pocket Army ahead of time and game with them unpainted, pushing them into the painting queue one at a time as the fancy takes me, until the armies move slowly from being mostly unpainted, to painted.

This a critically more effective way of seeing whether a project suits and settling upon the right set of rules, rather than having to paint everything first.

In my minds eye at the moment, is a game with relatively big bases and fewer moving parts. Having tried variations on this theme, I quite like the latest iteration as follows.

Infantry - For Napoleonics, taking the British aside, the formations can be represented 3 ranks deep, so even if I go for a smaller frontage, the extra rank keeps the number of heads in the unit high enough for a good visual presence.

Above - This is a three foot photo of a 3 foot unit .... it looks okay to my eyes! (actually, in truth, it does withstand closer inspection).

2 bases are needed per unit as I want to be gaming at the more tactical level, where the difference between line, assault column and square can be shown. My first unit off the production line to have these traits are Epic Prussian musketeers, with each base measuring 55mm x 35, the whole unit occupies a frontage of 110mm, with a total of 60 heads, which gives a fair sense of mass.

Above - the same two infantry bases now in column. 

The only thing I am not sure about yet is whether the ranks might be better positioned slightly closer together on say a 30mm deep base, but the deeper base makes assault column look ... deeper! Anyway 5 or so such units on the 4 x 2 should work okay. 

Cavalry - These are set on 80mm x 60mm bases in two ranks of 6 to give 12 models. The example here are Epic French Dragoons. When I did the same base in 10mm, for the same ‘look’ it allowed two ranks of 7. Both look good. 

I intend to use the cavalry as a single base per unit and not concern myself with formation, their class of light, heavy, lancer etc will be what matters. Three bases can represent a whole brigade, say 2 up front and 1 behind, with a frontage of 160 - 180mm .

Artillery - These (above - Epic) are set as 3 guns on a 80mm x 40mm base to represent a battery. In my games, usually 2 guns are used for a battery, so the 3 models offers a bit more real estate. 

However, if I compare the Epic base to the 10mm base (above), In my view, I think the 10mm looks better. The guns have more room to breath and the crew are scattered more randomly over the entire base. My Epic version by comparison looks a bit too rigid. I will likely try and do a separate limber base, to represent the guns when on the move.  

Anyway, as stated, this is a plodders project, that may or may not bloom! 

1471 Campaign Concludes

The final act of the 1471 Campaign has just concluded and I was pleased that the campaign pulled me in directions that continued to surprise me.

There is a full write up over on my Commanders page of the campaign in chronological order (link below), if you are familiar with the opening bits,  just scroll straight down to Turn 3 (use the above photo as a visual marker in that text).

Above - Queen Margaret of Anjou inspects and inspires her troops.

LINK

https://commanders.simdif.com/campaigning_1471.html

1471 Campaign Turn 1

Note - the last blog post set out a campaign engine for running a 1471 Wars of the Roses game. The ongoing delays in Blogger resulted in the post not being published for 27 hours, by which time, the posts likely slipped out of view on many readers lists. 

A lot of work went into the post and it is now clear to me that the efforts of posting big pieces of work here are no longer worthwhile until such time as Blogger gets itself sorted out. 

For now, I am resolved to stop posting on Blogger and just update my COMMANDERS site instead.

HOWEVER, having played the first turn of the 1471 campaign, I am posting the result here, in the hope that Blogger publishes it reasonably quickly, giving readers another chance to see the last post that delivers the campaign engine (link below), …. I am not holding my breath and now care little as my own (paid for) Commanders site can better be relied upon for promptness etc and this stuff will be posted there today anyway.

Anyway, for one last time, here we go!

1471 Campaign Turn 1.

Having set down the game engine, in the last blog post, for running a themed campaign for Wars of the Roses 1471, the campaign is now up and running and the first turn has been played. [link to the game engine post below].

One of the key elements of the campaign is that instructions are written for the forces in each area of the map, folded and put into a draw cup and then one at a time they are drawn and acted upon, so the order that they are drawn becomes central to driving the campaign narrative and it proves to be a very solo friendly way of running a campaign.

First though we roll on the event table ...... Queen Margaret of Anjou can arrive at either Southampton, Devon or Kent, though the location must be either Lancastrian controlled or neutral. She brings foreign forces to support the Lancastrian cause. 1 x Pike, 1 x Melee, 1 x Handgunner.

Next, orders are written for all locations that contain a force. This, including Margaret, turns out to be 6 locations, so 6 sets of orders. 

Now we go on to drawing those orders. This is going to be interesting because Warwick wants to strike at Howard before the main army under Edward arrives at Nottingham.

Above map - at start positions, red is Lancastrian, white is Yorkist. Yellow is independent and garrisoned (Durham). All the black dots are neutral.

Drawing from the cup

1st Order - KENT. Fauconberg marches to Southampton, where he is to meet with Margaret and combine their forces. Southampton’s allegiance changes from neutral to Lancastrian.

2nd Order - LONDON. Suddley continues to garrison the city, protecting King Henry VI.

3rd Order - YORK. Edward is here with the main Yorkist army. Hastings sends 1 x militia and 1 x artillery up north to besiege Durham. He sends 1 x melee to Shrewsbury to Garrison it. The attack at Durham fails, but Shrewsbury’s allegiance turns Yorkist and now has a Yorkist garrison force.

Edward takes the rest of the army and marches south to join Howard at Nottingham.

4th Order - COVENTRY. Warwick, with the main Lancastrian army, attacks Nottingham. Though Hastings in Edward’s army has sent some units to Durham and Shrewsbury, Howard's forces, already waiting at Nottingham, make up for that. 

A significant battle results (detailed below).

5th Order - OVERSEAS. Queen Margaret of Anjou lands at Southampton with her reinforcements. Her forces combine with Lord Fauconberg. Southampton's allegiance becomes Lancastrian.

6th Order - NOTTINGHAM. Howard was to start preparing defensive positions, but Warwick’s arrival (order 4) has pre-empted him now being able to do that.

The Battle at Nottingham (rules used are Test of Resolve).

While Warwick deployed under the typical three battle formations of vanward, mainward and rearward (Clarence, Warwick and Oxford), Edward deployed into four battles.

Hastings, who had sent detachments to Durham and Shrewsbury took the reserve position behind Edward in the centre, while Edward's left was held by Howard, who had fewer melee troops. Gloucester was on the right.

Seeing fewer flags on Edwards left, Warwick’s plan was to advance his army quickly and hope to unhinge Howard before the Yorkist reserve could move over to support him.

Edward was content to make maximum use of his archers before any contact was made and he sought a more defensive stance.

Edward’s and Warwick’s battles in the centre were the first to clash, but Warwick quickly got the upper hand. Disastrously, during the initial fighting, Edwards Men-at-Arms turned tail and retreated, pursued by Warwick’s men, who caught them and continued to inflict heavy losses.

Along the Yorkist line, contingents started to rout, first archers running in panic, followed by the guns being overrun. There was significant pressure from the Lancastrians everywhere.

Losing his Men-at-Arms to rout was the last straw for Edward. he decided the army needed to retreat now to save itself, but disengaging was difficult and more losses followed. Edward stayed on the field until the last possible moment, to see the last of his archers and billmen escape (In consequence, in future actions, Edward will be rated as an inspirational leader).

Gloucester’s entire wing had routed (dispersed in Test of Resolve terms) and he (side note - the future King Richard III) just about escaped with his life (rolling on the post game loss table).  

The remnants of the Yorkist army retreated back up the road towards York. This had been a terrible opening of the campaign for Edward, his shattered army would not withstand another head-to-head with Warwick.

Above - this is what the campaign map looks like at the end of Turn 1 (you can click on it). Edward is getting squeezed. If we add the Victory Points of allegiance at this stage, the Lancastrians are leading with 7 points to 3. Can Edward hold on?

Warwick has the initiative and what happens next will be of his making! His prime objective is to put Clarence on the Throne, so does he turn south, take London and capture Henry VI or does he drive north to deal with the much weakened Edward .... or something else altogether? 

Turn 2 is already under way.

EDIT - for anyone now reading this, the campaign has been concluded and is presented in chronological order at my Commanders site at this link;

https://commanders.simdif.com/campaigning_1471.html

 

Resources;

The blog post that delivers the campaign engine is at this link -

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/08/practical-campaigning-1471.html

COMMANDERS is my other bit of webspace. It is a bit more snippet based than here, more updated more often - LINK

https://commanders.simdif.com/dear_diary.html