This was a throw down Wars of the Roses scenario that I played some time ago when familiarising myself with the Hail Caesar rules. At the time I wrote a full AAR, which for anyone interested, here is the link;
https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2023/10/taking-hail-caesar-for-spin-wotr.html
Today, I am going to use the same simple scenario to try out the Irregular Miniatures Ancients rule set on cards that they published in 1989, which I covered here in the previous post, when trialing a very small and contained Wars of the Roses action.
We are on a 6´ x 3½´ table and with the 28’s, I will double all measurements, as movement rates in the game feel too slow for the visual of 28mm.
(Above - the Lancastrian centre) At the start of each turn both sides test for initiative, this will matter in some turns as Player A moves before player B during the joint Movement Phase, so one side could reach a terrain feature first or contact an enemy before they have had time to move away, for example archers needing to change places with their billmen contingent to better survive against a charge that is coming in.
(Above - the Yorkist centre) Units each have an ‘at start’ strength, I am giving all melee troops 6 strength points, all archers and cavalry get 4 points and skirmishers / Cannon get a very fragile 1 point. Losses will drop those strengths. Dismounted Men-at-Arms will be B class, so they run everything off a D10. Everything else is C Class, running off a D8.
The sides start outside of extreme bow range, but within cannon range.
On the opening turn, both sides move forward to get into longbow range and that is fine, but an oddity reveals itself as ‘simultaneous fire’ allows the each sides cannon to destroy the other. That mutual destruction probably needs a house rule, perhaps based on whoever has the initiative, gets the hit first.
(Above - handgunners reach Skenfell Mere) In the second turn, the Yorkists get the initiative and that allows them to get their handgunners into Skenfell Mere. On the other side of the table, Lancastrian handgunners occupy Devil’s Ditch. The archers are within effective bow range this turn, so they don’t move, avoiding a shooting penalty.
(Above - Devil’s Ditch is also occupied, this time by the Lancastrians) In the centre, the Lancastrian crossbowmen, that are covering the advance of the French ‘long spears’ are seen off! Despite the Lancastrian longbow men now being outnumbered 2:1 by the Yorkists, it is the latter who are getting the worst of the arrow shower.
On the Yorkist left, their heavy cavalry and billmen charge forwards. The heavy cavalry find the Lancastrian light cavalry and inflict the greater number of hits on them, so the light cavalry must take a Panic Test, which they pass. The fighting is not decisive and the melee will continue into the next turn.
(Above - the view from behind the Lancastrian centre).
(Above - the Yorkist left wing charge the Lancastrians)
In the centre, the Lancastrian M-A-A are goaded into advancing against the Yorkist line, but they have a lot of ground to cover. The idea was that they would advance together with the French long spear, but in the rules, if archery fails to hit by just 1 point on the dice, the target is forced to halt in the following turn and that is what happened to the French mercenaries, so the M-A-A advance alone!
(Above - the Lancastrian dismounted M-A-A end up advancing on their own). Some units across the battlefield are now dropping below half strength, so are having to take Panic Tests, if they fail the test, they will rout and then all friends within 100mm (200mm in our game) of the router will then have to take a Panic Test, meaning they could also rout and the potential domino effect of collapse is clear. However, at this time all units pass, but these stress points are starting to enter the battle.
(Above - The centre sees the battle going in different ways). In the Yorkist line (nearest the camera), the two archer units on the left have taken such heavy casualties that they are compelled to fall back behind their billmen. Those billmen are now exposed to arrow fire, so themselves are compelled to advance towards the enemy line. On the right of the centre block, the Lancastrian Men-at-Arms are now very close, so the Yorkist archers there retire to a position behind their billmen. The right most archer unit is facing the French mercenaries, but they are still some way off, so the archers (rather effectively!) carry on showering the French with arrows.
While the centre is becoming a complicated picture with no clear advantage to either side, the flanks in contrast have seem some decisive action. On the Yorkist left, they have seen off the enemy cavalry, enveloped the flank and then seen off a unit of billmen. The remaining Lancastrian archers fall back. On the Yorkist right, there is a reversal of good fortune and there the Yorkist wing is in retreat, trying to increase the distance from the enemy arrows.
There are some nice little nuances in the game. For example charging just happens … unless the proposed charging unit has less strength than the defender, in which case the charging unit must first pass a Panic Test. If they fail, the charge is cancelled and they lose an additional strength point. Since Panic Tests are based upon casualties suffered to date, the further we get into the game, the bigger problem that we have with ‘tired’ units starting to lose their cohesion ….. and the player is discourage from abusing them, otherwise they will suffer.
(Above - Centre, Yorkist billmen are about to hit the enemy archers before they can retire through their own bill).
In the centre, the Yorkist left hand two melee units are now approaching the Lancastrian line, who have bowmen still out in front …… ‘Oh No’! Shouts the Lancastrian commander as the Yorkists get the initiative and move first, making contact with the archers before they have chance to retire behind their billmen!
During the next turn the Lancastrians find their position untenable. Despite their archers in the centre standing firm against the Yorkist assault and things moving to a second round of melee in the next turn, the writing is on the wall for them. Additionally, their own strike against the Yorkist centre line has badly unravelled. The M-A-A have already suffered 50% casualties and the French Mercenaries have routed. This combined with the loss of their wing at Skenfell Mere, sets the scene for the Lancastrian withdrawal from battle.
Conclusions.
Well that was very enjoyable. I like many of the subtle clever things that the cards are doing, but probably in an effort to get a full system onto the cards, they can sometimes feel a little short-hand, plus there is constant referral for the various modifiers, but both these things would probably improve with further outings.
Which did I like better, the card system or Hail Caesar? Well, for several reasons, I am tempted to say the cards, but the language feels a bit more focussed on the classical period and I think if sticking with the cards, I would write a cheat sheet specifically for the Wars of the Roses period, plus make a few notes on those points that I ended searching through the various examples to answer.
I did like that in the centre, even though the fight became split with the Yorkist left advancing and the Lancastrian left advancing, that the divides in the centre did broadly remain within two identifiable blocks of troops, while I felt in the Hail Caesar game, the troops in the centre ended up all over the place, looking very disjointed.
The Hail Caesar rules are more cohesive and complete and the terminology does work across a wider range of periods and ultimately, they might be a bit faster and that might just be the point for me to jump off the fence in their favour …. Specifically because I am still having problems with my back and I found towards the end of the game, my back was straining with the standing and leaning forwards, enough that a couple of days later, I am still sore.
Now while this is not the fault of any system etc, it is a real life force that is causing me to consider how I wargame and what I play.Towards the end of this game, I had had enough and just wanted it to stop and that can’t be a good approach to gaming.
With my boardgame collection, I have now got rid of all my two map games (except 1 gorgeous one!) to prevent over stretching and by their nature of being bigger games, having longer playing times. It is now time to do something similar with the figures and look for systems that essentially play quickly. That is not something I would have chased at one time, but it is taking on increasing importance, but this is probably a subject for another time.
It was in any case lovely to re-visit the Wars of the Roses troops.
I have a sister website called COMMANDERS, which usually gets some new content every few days and is a bit more snippet based than here.
LINK;
https://commanders.simdif.com/dear_diary.html
