Saturday, August 3, 2013

Some WOTR action

I just wanted to quickly post up a couple pictures from a recent battle fought in my living room at our new place in northern Virginia.

The wife and I fought out a hypothetical War of the Roses battle the week before Historicon (I hope to do a more detailed post with pictures from that soon). The set up was based on C. S. Grant's 'Making the best of a bad situation' scenario. The Lancastrians, marching up country, stumble into a smaller encamped Yorkist host presenting significant challenges for both sides: the Lancastrians are all deployed in lines marched halfway across the table, while the Yorkists are outnumbered and in a disorganized clump behind a hill.

A smaller action was fought on a separate table that would eventually lead onto the main table, in which an offshoot of the Lancastrian vanguard has to split off to delay a group of Yorkist reinforcements.

The rules were my own period specific variant of Hostile Realms by Piquet, which I have taken to calling Hostile Roses. I am continuing to develop these and there is still much adjustment to be made. The wife graciously offered to play the Lancastrians (since she knows I despise the usurping dogs!!), while I took command of the Yorkists.

The result was a decisive Yorkist victory. The Lancastrian vanguard  did an excellent job of keeping off the Yorkist reinforcements, but back on the main table the Yorkists crushed the center of the Lancastrain army.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester and his men are hard pressed to relieve the embattled Yorkist main force due to a fierce effort by John, Lord Wenlock's men, including some hired Welsh spearmen (center).

Back on the main table, Edward IV sweeps down the hill to crush the Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset before he is surrounded on his right by the other half of Wenlock's vanguard (temporarily under the command of Edward, Prince of Wales while Wenlock fights his delaying action).

It was an enjoyable afternoon/evening with the wife; much fun was had by all.

Si valetis bene est,
-The Fox

6 comments:

  1. Great looking figures, the game sounds like fun as well. Don't write the Lancastrian off as defeated, I have seen Mrs Fox roll at H-Con.

    Thanks for sharing, hope to see more.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good to hear from you, Joe. We missed you at Historicon this year!

      Delete
  2. Looking good! Hopefully continued playtesting will lead to some WoTR at Historicon next year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Always great to see some Late Medieval action.

    How did you find the Hostile Realms rules for the Wars of the Roses?

    Darrell.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I find that they work quite well for both ancients and medievals sans the magic system. As I said in the post I have been developing a small set of supplemental rules for the period, which adds commander traits to the character system and deals with things like the bill and bow block for instance.

      Delete
    2. Oh, and I want to add that I still love a game of straight Piquet using Band of Brothers (2nd). Hostile Realms allows for a Piquet-Lite type game, while still providing a bit more 'granularity' than the Field of Battle rules. What's more Field of Battle doesn't really cover the periods I own and play; Pulse of Battle, the forthcoming ancients rules from Piquet, are soon to be released from all recent reports.

      Delete