Author: Jeremey Claridge

After 11 battles our Wars of the Roses campaign has finally reached the defining battle of Bosworth Field. With the Yorkist having an unassailable lead of 8 victories to 2, the Lancastrians (now Tudor) forces were fighting for pride.  Given the significance of the battle we decided to go big and have 1000 points per side, with each side divided up into three commands. Stephen commanded the Tudor forces as Henry himself, with Andy as the Earl of Oxford and simply because he was the last player to arrive Tony F played the part of the Stanleys already declaring support for the Tudor cause.
As usual I commanded the Yorkists with a new player to the campaign Mark W acting as the Earl of Northumberland. Our other player couldn’t make it so as well as commanding Richards forces I also took charge of the Duke of Norfolk.

As with the other games in the campaign we looked for anything of historical note that influenced the battle. For Bosworth we decided both players must have at least four mounted units and some artillery. As for the battlefield we had a set of hills for the Yorkist forces to start on with some marshland on the Yorkist right.

I divided the Yorkist army so that Northumberland and Norfolk had equal amounts of archers, billmen and mounted men at arms to guard the flanks.
As per history Northumberland was on the Yorkist left with Norfolk on the right. With Richard in the centre I went for a very mixed force of artillery, cavalry, pikemen and dismounted men at arms.
Stephen had done something similar with his Tudor forces with Stanley and Oxford having similar forces while Henry had only cavalry. Stephen also placed Henry on the Tudor left, Oxford in the middle and Stanley on the right.

The battle got underway and the Yorkists won the first initiative. In a change to Northumberland’s inaction historically Mark  immediately advanced his archers into the marshland to take the fight to Tony and the Stanley forces.

With Norfolk on the Yorkist right flank I started with a steady advance as well rather than wait for the inevitable cavalry charge. Stephen had mounted men at arms in a front rank and currours behind, I wanted to try and get a few volleys from my archers to try and soften them up.

I don’t think I needed to provoke the Tudor cavalry, Stephen took the first opportunity to close the distance. I rapidly advanced some dismounted men at arms and my cavalry to threaten the Tudor cavalry in the flank if it charged the archers. A volley from the archers had little effect.

With the Tudor cavalry on the move, King Richard rode to the artillery to get them into action but the first shots failed to cause any damage.

After a run of bad activation dice, Tony finally managed to advance his archers. This delay allowed Mark the chance to charge in on the far left flank and managed to rout some of Tony’s archers.

Back on the Tudor left flank and Stephen’s cavalry charged against Norfolk. The first charge actually went in against the Yorkist men at arms and came close to routing them. Seeing the danger I took the unusual step of charging some archers into the melee, but failed in turn to rout the cavalry.

In the Tudor centre Andy began to advance his archers and men at arms. Andy also had some artillery that began to creep forward.

Despite managing to get a few shots off the Yorkist artillery was charged and routed by Henry Tudors knights.

After another round of melee Stephen’s cavalry managed to rout some of Norfolk’s archers putting the flank in danger. The Yorkist men at arms would have to do their best as the rest of Nofolk’s units were also locked in combat with the Tudor forces.

On the Yorkist left flank Mark and Tony were beginning to exchange volleys but neither were causing much damage. Mark’s cavalry had continued on pass the Tudor flank forcing Tony to act. In the centre King Richards forces were also starting to trade volleys, I’d brought my mercenary crossbows to make up the number but they had never really done very well for me.

Although they did give a good account of themselves this time, they were the only missile troops in the centre, leaving Andy unopposed attacks against the my infantry. They had managed to dispatch a unit of men at arms so I had no choice but to charge my other dismounted knights forward.

Tudor cavalry in the centre had routed the artillery and in their pursuit also routed a unit of knights, I still had a unit of mounted men at arms. Rather than try and turn them round to counter Stephens cavalry I chose to have King Richard accompany them on a charge straight down the centre against Andy’s archers.

The charge swept the archers aside and to my horror I found history repeating its self, I had forgotten about the pursuit rule. Richard continued charging across the field and into some Tudor billmen. This charge however did not manage to defeat the billmen and so Richard was deep in the enemy’s side of the battlefield, with other Tudor forces closing in.

Meanwhile Stephen’s cavalry in the centre had found its self in melee with a large unit of mercenary pikemen and some militia billmen. Normally this would have spelt doom for the cavalry but the knights were going to prove almost impossible to dislodge.

Things had gone better for Norfolk out on the right flank. A number of Stephen’s cavalry had been destroyed. This freed up some archers who were in a position to fire on the second line of Tudor cavalry making an approach.

I also (with much ridicule from the enemy) moved King Richard from the stricken cavalry charge, back to the centre to support the attack against Andy’s archers. Tactically this also brought Richards forces back into command range.

On the Tudor left flank Stephen managed to get part of his second line of cavalry to charge some billmen who were supported by Norfolk himself. The charge didn’t manage to rout the billmen but also didn’t result in the destruction of the cavalry. But the move did mean I suddenly found my last unit of mounted men at arms facing the flank of Stephens second line of cavalry that had yet to charge.

On the far left flank of the Yorkists Mark had managed to cause Tony’s forces some damage but had eventually come off worse, even the flanking cavalry had succumbed to Tony’s billmen. Mark took the decision to consolidate his infantry and move towards the centre of the field in support of King Richard.

Despite getting a volley off Norfolk’s archers were still charged by the Tudor currours, but unlike the previous charges they failed to rout the archers. They had some billmen in support but they were not needed and the melee was locked in stalemate. However elsewhere on the field the Tudor loses were enough to push them to their first morale test.

Stephen finally managed to get his last unit of mounted knights into combat by charging the mercenary pikemen in the rear. But it wasn’t enough to destroy them and the counter from the pikemen managed to rout the cavalry. But in a close game it was the turn of the Yorkists to also test their morale.

King Richard was once again in the fray supporting his billmen against Andy’s archers in the centre, and remarkably the mercenary crossbows managed to score some good hits on Andy’s dismounted men at arms.

At this point the battle was reaching it’s final stages and both sides were trying their hardest to push the other to breaking point. Mark had advanced his dismounted men at arms into the centre and immediately came under fire from the Tudor artillery. Andy had done quite a lot of damage with his guns but despite having a two bonus dice failed to cause any damage to Marks knights on this occasion.

It was at this point that I managed to get Norfolk’s knights charging against the flank of Stephens remaining currours. The luck of the dice had changed (literally, because after a few bad rolls I swapped my dice), destroying the first currours for no loses and dispatched the second unit pushing the Tudors to their breaking point and handing a close fought victory to King Richard and the Yorkist cause.

This battle ended up being quite close, the score don’t show it but we’ve not had many battle where both sides passed their first morale checks. Stephen did much better in this battle with his cavalry, but that also put them in a position of being outflanked. For Richards command I should not have had such a variation in unit types. Between the guns, cavalry billmen and archers it was hard to co-ordinate things. North sides had some good and bad luck with the dice, but what was noticeable were the amount of failed activation dice in the game.

Although the Yorkists have changed history and won the campaign we will be visiting Stoke for the last battle of this period, just for completeness and to give the Tudor forces one last attempt for glory.

Yorkist Loses
3 Units of Mounted Men at Arms (12 points)
5 Units of Longbows (15 points)
2 Units of Artillery (4 points)
3 Units of Dismounted Men at Arms (12 points)
Total loses 39 points (Army break point 56)

Lancastrian Loses
2 Units of Northern Boarder Horse (6 points)
4 Units of Currours (16 points)
4 Units of Mounted Men at Arms (16 points)
6 Units of Longbows (18 points)
1 Unit of Militia Longbows (3 points)
1 Unit of Dismounted Men at Arms (4 points)
Total loses 59 points (Army break point 57)