Category: 15mm Wargaming

Wars of the Roses – Battle of Wakefield – Battle Report

The fourth battle in our long standing campaign to re-fight the Wars of the Roses (details can be found on the campaign page) brought us to Wakefield. Going into this battle the Yorkists were 2-1 up but with Wakefield being a historical disaster for the Yorkist cause there was every chance that lead was about to end.

Stephen takes us through the battle from the Lancastrian point of view with additional details from Jeremey for the Yorkists.

Battle of Wakefield
Wakefield was a decisive battle in the Wars of the Roses – Richard of York would be killed, thus blunting the Yorkist pretensions to the crown. Well, it would, wouldn’t it.
It was a very decisive victory for the Lancastrians, whose army greatly outnumbered that of York. Richard of York found himself encamped in and around Sandal castle, just outside Wakefield.

Queen Margaret led the Lancastrian army and as they approached the castle the Duke of York led his men out to meet them in battle. Estimates have the army of York at around 5,000 and the Lancastrians at about 12,000, with the Lancastrians fully surrounding the Yorkists. The inevitable happened.
Arguably, given that situation, it might not make much of a game, so to give the Yorkists a fighting chance we increased the ratio – the Lancastrians had 925 points and the Yorkists had 750.
Turns out they didn’t need them!

Let’s say it right at the beginning – the shame of this one lies on my shoulders. No excuses.

Anyway.
Since the Lancastrians had a numerical superiority we split them up into three commands – myself with the Duke of Somerset and all the cavalry – 4 bases of mounted men-at-arms, 2 bases of currours, and 2 bases of border horsemen. The flanks were split between the Earl of Wiltshire (Andy) and Lord Roos (Tim). Wiltshire and Roos had the same: 1 dismounted men-at-arms, 3 retinue billmen, 4 retinue archers, 2 militia archers.
Jeremey would take sole command of the Yorkists.

Jeremey deployed his troops in a very orderly U shape. I deployed the cavalry in the middle, with Wiltshire and Roos on one flank each. The plan was simple – the classic Zulu battle tactic of the horns of the bull attacking first, followed by the bull’s charge in the middle.

Seeing how surrounded he was, Jeremey immediately tried to re-deploy some of his troops, notably his currours swinging to face Wiltshire with the hope of driving off the archers.
(Jeremey – at the start of the battle I panicked, I was already facing an enemy on three sides and had screwed up my deployment, I started deploying my units as a block decending from the centre line but a quick check of the ambush deployment scenario in Sword and Spear said all of my units had to be closer to the centre line. I hadn’t even put my archers facing the flanks or front! So thinking the battle already lost I thought I might as well see if I could catch out the archers on my right flank by surprise).

I’d strung my cavalry out, directly facing Jeremey’s men-at-arms. Both the Yorkist and Lancastrian mounted men-at-arms are equal in ability, so realising that any contact between the two of us would be a 50/50 chance of winning, and since I had twice as many mounted men-at-arms, I started moving my cavalry into a double line – thinking that if he broke through one line, the chances are he wouldn’t break through the next. I could take the loses, he couldn’t.
(Jeremey – seeing I would be outnumbered if Stephen charged down the middle of the field, especially now that I’d moved some of my cavalry out to the flanks, I tried to move up some infantry units to support the centre).

Out on the flank, the archers moved forward and sure enough engaged Richard’s army. First blood went to the Lancastrians!
Jeremey continued to sort out his deployment, realising (quite naturally) that he had multiple fronts to deal with. He seemed to have a few commanders in the army, which would help since an attached commander means a unit can manoeuvre with a lower activation dice. It still looked very messy in the ranks of Richard’s army.
(Jeremey – It was a mess, I wasn’t getting the activation dice I needed and my initial deployment was looking like a fatal mistake. I had a general and two captains and started attatching them to units to reduce the activation score needed to get my units moving).

Wiltshire and Roos seemed to be falling into the trap of giving too much attention to those units engaged, and not enough attention to moving up their second line. I think there’s a good reason for that, and I’ll address that at the end. This could prove crucial, because at some point the Yorkists would have to charge the Lancastrian archers rather than just take the arrows, and without that crucial second line of billmen, the archers could suffer.

That said, at this point, it wasn’t looking too bad. I felt confident of a victory – we had the numbers and the position.
(Jeremey – my initial cavalry charge out to the flanks did not prove as successful as I’d hoped for, trying up some of my cavalry in a protracted melee. But the fight was also drawing in other Lancastrian units which meant they were not attacking my disorganised flanks).

I think Jeremey could see I was preparing for a cavalry charge. Truth is, I wasn’t. Like I said, our plan was for the flanks to hamstring his army and then the cavalry to charge in. But I think I made them look too threatening. So he swung some archers around who started to shoot at the mounted men-at-arms. It was tempting to launch my charge at that point but, like I say, that wasn’t the plan. So instead I moved up the border horsemen, who were quicker, and perfectly capable of dealing with that threat.
He was obviously unconvinced.
(Jeremey – I honestly didn’t know what Stephen was doing, my greatest fear was facing a cavalry charge at the same time as an attack against the flanks. I just didn’t have the units to cope with that).

My first mistake – I’d moved my cavalry just within charge range. I didn’t mean to do that. So on his turn he decided to take matters into his own hands and, with the impact bonus, launched his mounted men-at-arms at mine. Can’t say I blame him.
I was secretly happy about that – let’s get it over with sooner than later, I thought. I was fairly confident my multiple lines would stop him and if he lost his mounted men-at-arms then that would probably be it for the rest of his army, having lost their back bone.
(Jeremey – this was my first lucky break in the battle, with Stephen’s command divided into three it meant his cavalry were often left with few activation dice being drawn compared to mine. As such I found myself facing his cavalry without any activation dice. So I loaded up my cavalry with dice and charged).

Now, at this point it’s worth saying that I truly don’t think I’d done too much wrong with the Lancastrian tactics. Yeah there’s always one or two things that could have gone better. But, as any commander will tell you, no military plan lasts longer than the first contact with the enemy.
There was one other, very important, factor to this game. Jeremey seemed incapable of rolling anything other than 6s. He could roll four dice and three of them would come up 6 with the other one a 5 or 4. No matter how good the plans, how many troops you have, it’s hard to fight against that. That’s not an excuse (like I said at the start – I take responsibility for what happened, and I will address that at the end), but it is a simple fact that I am sure Jeremey will be gracious enough to admit.
(Jeremey – to be fair I did have a good dice game, but I wasn’t having it all my own way. After all my initial cavalry charge against the archers failed, I had suffered the lost of most of my own archers at this point and if I hadn’t retreated some of my billmen units I’d have lost those as well.  Part of what led to the idea I was getting lucky with the dice was due to the destruction of Stephen’s cavalry. But when you consider I was able to place activation dice on my units giving them a bonus, plus getting the charge in first and against enemy units with no activation dice. The result was truly in my favour).

So, the cavalry charge.
It didn’t go well for the Lancastrians.
He hammered through the first line, pulverised the second line, and was finally stopped (somehow) by the third line. Although on the next turn the third line would also go!
There, I’ve said it.
The entire Lancastrian cavalry wing destroyed, without taking any of the enemy with it. Even as I type this I’m still not sure how that happened. Two units of Yorkist mounted men-at-arms, took out 8 units of Lancastrian cavalry, without loss.
Such are the fortunes of war and the stories that history is made of.
(Jeremey – see my above point. Having played a fair number of games of Sword and Spear, the golden rule is to get your cavalry charge in first. Preferably with a bonus dice as well. My cavalry charge was as good as it could have been in game terms). 

So let’s turn to the flanks, because that was the end of the centre.
Both Roos and Wiltshire continued their pressure. Andy had realised it was time to move up his second line, and put Wiltshire in direct command of them to get them moving. Tim succumbed to the temptation of allowing himself to funnel too many men (and activation dice) into small scraps, so I sent the Duke of Somerset (who had miraculously survived the Yorkist cavalry) over to him to lend some command and control initiative.
(Jeremey – on my flanks I’d lost my archers and so while the cavalry battle raged, I had started to try and consolidate my infantry units. This didn’t work as planned but actually led to a similar situation as the cavalry. Some Lancastrian units got close enough to charge and therefore I again decided to act boldly and charge).

Jeremey had tried to charge Wiltshire’s archers, but Andy had supported his line with billmen and dismounted men-at-arms, and Jeremey’s currours were bounced off (one unit routed and the other ‘re-deploying to the rear’). It was looking strong on Wiltshire’s flank and, so long as no more serious loses were incurred by the Lancastrians, they could still scrounge a slight victory. Then something surprising happened – Jeremey advanced a unit of dismounted men-at-arms against Roos’ militia archers. OK, so that sounds like a good match for York, but the Yorkists had little support for this charge and the militia had other archers, billmen, and men-at-arms, in the immediate area who could help bolster them. Not sure what Jeremey was thinking – was it hubris, was it spontaneity, was it something else? No idea.
(Jeremey – I spent most of this battle just waiting to lose, I was fighting for pride and the chance to give a good account of myself given the points difference, and poor deployment. As it was the lack of coordinated attacks from the Lancastrians gave me the opportunity to take some risky moves).

What did happen is that the militia manage to stop the charge (Jeremey – I thought I was only rolling 6’s?). This would prove vital, because now both sides started funnelling units in to this fight to offer support. What had started as a whimsical charge, a simple fight between two units, promptly escalated into a fight for that wing! With Somerset now lending Roos a hand, Tim managed to push some archers and bills forward, slowing down the Yorkist cavalry that had destroyed the Lancastrian cavalry, from charging into that flank.
(Jeremey – this is the point that the battle started to turn against me. Despite winning the cavalry fight I now needed the activation dice for the melee on the flanks. Which left my surviving cavalry strung out across the battlefield and out of this crucial fight).

With some relief, the Yorkist casualties started mounting up. However, so did the Lancastrians. In fact, the Lancastrians were the first to reach their morale point – an army wide morale roll was needed. But only a turn or two later, this was also the case for the Yorkists.
Over with the Earl of Wiltshire, and Andy could see the Yorkist mounted men-at-arms making their way over to him, so he started to straighten his lines, ready for a charge.
(Jeremey – I’d managed to recall some of my cavalry and the battle had reached the end stages. Despite their loses the Lancastrians still outnumbered me and so I decided I’d done enough to leave with my pride intact. As a last gesture I tried another charge but this time I was checked by my opponent).

Meanwhile, over on the other flank, the fight between the Yorkists and Roos’ men reached a climax – a unit of Lancastrian bills charged into the flanks of the Yorkists, finally routing them. This had been a desperate fight indeed and the loses that Richard of York’s army took helped prevent a humiliating Lancastrian defeat.

It was now more or less over. On the same turn both sides had reached their broken level.
We sat back and it was declared a draw!
Well, a tactical draw it may have been, but in reality it was an overwhelming moral victory for the Yorkists.

So what went wrong?
Two things really.
Firstly, Jeremey was doing some cracking dice rolling. There’s not much anyone can do about that. It’s simply the case that he was just rolling 6s all the time, and we weren’t!
(Jeremey – as I’ve mentioned the Yorkist ‘good’ rolls have disguised a fairly even fight in other areas).
Secondly, I must take responsibility for not thinking about command and control. I gave the Lancastrian army just three commanders – three generals. Each command had one general to take full responsibility for command and control. Now, that was actually adequate for the cavalry, the smallest command, and closely deployed in supported lines. But the two flanks would be more strung out, meaning it was hard to keep them all in command range (actually, both flanks often had troops out of command). This made it difficult (nigh on impossible) for the Lancastrian flanks to keep their second line of billmen up with the archers to respond to any Yorkist charges. Ideally, each flank needed two commanders – a general and captain. This would have meant the Lancastrian battleline would have been stronger to repel Yorkist charges, meaning fewer loses.
I have to take full responsibility for that. Any successes the Lancastrian army had to force a draw rather than utter defeat are to the credit of Andy and Tim, not me.

Anyway, a draw it was.
(Jeremey – I was expecting an early bath on this one. My initial deployment stiffled any attempt to take the battle to the enemy. Archers in the wrong place, slow moving infantry stuck in the middle and an initial cavalry charge that went no where. But the Lancastrians just didn’t press the attacks on the flanks. Maybe by splitting their command into three meant each commander was trying to preserve their own small force? Whatever the reason I’m glad I didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and took some very bold moves and effectively won a draw).

Yorkist Loses
4 Units of Longbows (12 points)
2 Units of Militia Longbows (6 points)
3 Units of Billmen (12 points)
3 Units of Currours (12 points)
Total loses 42 points (Army break point 39)

Lancastrian Loses
4 Units of mounted men-at-arms (16 points)
2 Units of currours (8 points)
2 Units of border horsemen (6 points)
1 Unit of dismounted men-at-arms (4 points)
3 Units of retinue archers (9 points)
3 Units of militia archers (9 points)
Total loses 52 points (Army break point 49)

Battle Declared a Draw

Society Meeting, October 22nd

It’s been a while since we posted any pictures of society meetings, but here are some from our latest meeting, which had a good turn out with five games in progress and around 20 members present.

First up we have a 2mm Ancients game using Strength and Honour rules, Republican Romans vs Germans.

Marcomanni & Suebi Warbands clash with the Auxilia
Same clash, different angle
Close up of the Suebi Warband
Line of battle

Our second game was a clash between a 100 Year’s War English army and some Ottoman Turks, this time in 6mm using Field of Glory rules

Archers flanking Men at Arms
Close up of Archers
Archers holding the hill
Cavalry charge the Men at Arms
Men at arms punch a hole through the line of Archers

Slightly later historically we turn to the War of the Roses, and a game based on the Battle of Wakefield, this time in 15mm using Sword and Spear rules.

Battle of Wakefield, starting positions. Jeremey feeling somewhat surrounded.

In the background you can see Stephen’s representation of Sandal Castle, you can see an article on its construction here.

Close up of the Yorkist right flank.
Lancastrian Left Flanking force
Yorkist Archers, the small dice show the remaining strength
Uneven archery duel, all units started at strength 3.

Our fourth game, chronologically, takes us to the East End of London, where things go bump in the night. A Victorian Gothic Horror game using “A Fist Full of Lead” rules in 28mm.

Just another day in the East End
A bit of a barney
Hello, hello, hello, what’s going on here aaarghh
It’s not even safe indoors
A Hansom Cab
Police raid a house of ill repute
They’s big n hairy & I be afraid of ’em

And finally, we go to Vietnam, with a 1:600 scale Air game using Thud Ridge rules.  Only a couple of photos of this game unfortunately.

SAM-2 site protecting a vital bridge as a Skyhawk attacks.
Close up of the Skyhawk, pursued by MiG-15s

 

An Englishman’s Home

Stephen guides us through a big build.

This building project is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while but never got around to it.

That’s mainly because I didn’t know what I wanted for this model, how much effort to put into it (in relation to how often it would be used), or how to go about building it with the above restrictions in mind.

But recently two events occurred that focussed my mind – I achieved painting backlog nirvana (I had nothing outstanding to paint!) plus, in our War of the Roses refights, we had the battle of Wakefield coming – the backdrop to which is Sandal castle.

With hobby time and motivation on my side, I decided now was the time to commit!

With any terrain building project the first thing to think about is storage. It’s easy to get carried away on a big build, but where are you going to store it? I made up my mind the model would have a footprint no bigger than A4 so I could store it in a box a ream of A4 paper came in (at this point I should add that it’s going to be used with 15mm miniatures!).

Right, decision made on that one.

Now for the actual build, and construction decisions that need to be made. I knew I didn’t want this to be just a tower, I wanted the bailey included. That’s going to be a potentially fiddly build, because I need to think about all that brick work. I thought about the Wills Scenics embossed sheets, but they’re really scaled for HO/OO railway models, so would be too big, plus the cost of buying all those sheets would make the model expensive for how often it would get used. I thought about a paper model, because all the other 15mm buildings I use are paper models so it would fit in stylistically. But the paper models I found on the internet were either too basic or too complicated.

However, after my recent build of lots of skyscrapers for a Stargrave game where I used simple boxes covered in printed textures, I thought that’s what I would do.

So, I scoured the internet for stone textures I liked the look of. I re-sized them, so the stones looked about right for 15mm miniatures and printed out loads of sheets. I also used MS Paint to put some arrow slits on them as well, and some sheets had doors, of various sizes printed as well.

First thing was to lay out the design of the castle. A piece of A4 modelling ply was cut and on that I drew the design of the castle – a keep on a mound, plus walls and towers. A classic (later) motte and bailey castle.

The best laid plans.

I cut a piece of expanded polystyrene for the motte and stuck that down. When that was dry (and PVA takes a while to set when gluing EPA) I carved the mound, keeping in mind that I had to leave enough space on top for the keep.

I started with the keep. I wanted to make it a round keep, but I couldn’t find a tube the right diameter. Oh well, this particular castle would have to have been originally built in the 12th century – square it would be.

Foamboard keep walls.

Construction proved remarkably simple and remarkably quick. The main structures were built from foamboard and then lagged with the printed sheets. Once that dried it was a matter of cutting out the battlements.

Keep and gatehouse in place.

I was keen to get the first bit done so I could get an idea of how effective the printed textures would look on the model. It was hard to say when I saw it, and I think this was because it was just the tower in isolation with the rest of the model completed to give it context. When I looked up-close I was impressed with the effect, so I decided that once complete, en masse, it should look alright.

The Keep and the steps to the keep door.

The rest went up a lot quicker than expected. This was mainly due to simple shapes and also because once up, they would be done – there would be no painting required (beyond the edges of the battlements where the foamboard and white cut edges of the paper showed).

The walls start to go up.

To give the model some semblance of being an organic structure that would have been built over time with improvements and changes, I made the towers slightly different sizes. You will also notice that one of them is round (a toilet roll insert!) – perhaps early in the castle’s history it was attacked and a tower was brought down, only to be re-built in latest round style? (Ed: Shades of Rochester Castle?”

The assembled castle

Yes, using printed textures was a good idea because, at scale, it looked like stone, but also because there would be no painting required which meant the model was finished much quicker than if I’d made other modelling decisions.

The round tower

To finish the base was given a coat of khaki paint and then covered with model railway ballast. And when that was dry some static grass was added – I didn’t put so much in the castle yard since that’s where it would have been trammelled by feet.

Adding the flock.

And that was the model complete, ready for Wakefield, and ready for any other games to be a backdrop for a proper medieval setting.

The finished article

Wars of the Roses – Battle of Northampton – Battle Report

This is the third battle report in our long standing campaign to re-fight the Wars of the Roses. Details can be found on the campaign page. Three battles into the campaign it’s become a tradition for the winner to write up the battle report. Which is why Jeremey takes us through the battle of Northampton (spoiler!)

Battle of Northampton
History tells us this was clearly a defensive battle for the Lancastrians, however history also tells us that due to the treachery of Lord Grey the battle apparently only lasted about half an hour. So we dispensed with that aspect and went for the Lancastrians taking up a defensive position. The Lancastrians were allowed enough stakes to cover their front line at no extra costs, but to provide the attackers with a chance this battle was our first game of unequal sides.

Given the Lancastrians static defence Stephen decided to take on full responsibility of command. I as the Yorkists had originally divided up my force to accommodate a guest commander but ended up dividing the army in to three battles to accommodate an additional commander!
Therefore for this battle both Andy and Tim joined my Yorkist forces.  For this battle the Lancastrians had 520 points to the Yorkist 700 and we played using the Sword and Spear 2nd edition rules.

The start of the battle saw the Lancastrians in their defensive position with a front line of archers and two artillery units. Andy took command of the Yorkist left with Tim in the centre, I took the Yorkist right near the abbey.

The first couple of turns were all about the Yorkists getting their units moving. The initiative system in Sword and Spear makes it tricky to get everyone moving at a steady pace. You can do a group move of units but that is still dependent on drawning activation dice from the bag and rolling enough to start the group move. It was soon clear some units were being left behind.

Meanwhile the Lancastrians had little to do but wait for the enemy to come within range of their guns and archers. The Lancastrians also had a camp which would allow them to increase the reach and potency of their missile fire through the Resupply strategy.

I advanced my force at a break neck speed outdistancing my subordinate commanders and setting a fine example of how a real commander should lead. Although a pause was required to allow some of my units to catch up. While I did this Tim also managed to advance in the centre, but Andy had the furthest to travel so was somewhat behind.

Realising you can’t make an omelette without breaking any eggs I advanced my archers within range of the Lancastrians taking the chance that they could withstand a volley (or two!) and return the complement, to try and create some holes in the Lancastrian line.

However it was not to be. Some good dice from Stephen and poor dice from me saw both my archer units wiped out before they could even loose an arrow! This made me pause in my advance fearing that I’d have no chance of reaching the Lancastrians with my slow moving billmen and men at arms.

In the centre Tim decided to just go for it and continued his advance. Stephen thought it was worth trying a few ranging shots, but didn’t quite have the distance.

A turn later and Tim and Stephen were able to exchange fire. Tim’s forward units of billmen and spearmen took a bit of damage from the Lancastrians but in return they managed to destroy some of the Lancastrian guns and open up a hole in their defensive line.

Spurred on by this Tim adavanced his units even further. Unfortunately this proved costly with the spearmen succumbing to more artillery fire. Luckily Tim’s captain attached to the unit survived to be able to support the remaining units in the continued attack.

Tim’s bold advance saw the first of the Yorkists units reach the Lancastrian defences. For Tim this was his dismounted men at arms. Unfortunately Stephen had plugged the gap left by the loss of his artillery with some dismounted men at arms of his own. With a supporting unit for the Lancastrians and their sharp stakes taking away the Yorkist impetus, this turned out to be a tough fight that would last for a few turns.

Being slightly embarrassed by one of my subordinate commanders getting into melee first, I decided I’d spent enough time regrouping and launched an attack with my billmen. I had some rather useless cavalry and so I put them out front as cannon fodder to at least take some of the incoming missile fire away from my heavy infantry.

On the Yorkist left flank Andy had finally got his forces in range and was able to start making holes in the Lancastrian defence thanks to some good archery. This forced Stephen to think about plugging more gaps, but he held off this time fearing Andy could just stand off and continue firing on the defensive line.

Meanwhile in the centre Tim had managed to get a unit of billmen into melee to continue the assault. This added much needed support to his hard pressed men at arms.

Following this change in momentum, and thankfully because I rolled some good activaton dice. I managed to get my men at arms and billmen into melee against the Lancastrian archers. Even with the stakes taking way my impetus, the archers were no match for my heavy infantry. These Lancastrian loses pushed them over their Morale threshold forcing Stephen to make tests for each unit. Unfortunately for the Lancastrians this resulted in the loss of a few more units.

Andy was still causing trouble on the Lancastrian right flank, forcing Stephen to move up his billmen to prepare for an assault from Andy’s infantry.

With the Lancastrian line crumbling and more Yorkists arriving the battle reached a final stage. Although the Yorkists were at this point only one unit away from their own morale test point.

But there was to be no last minute Lancastrian revival, Tim’s billmen broke through the Lancastrian defensive line and engaged a unit of militia archers. The blue dice shown are Tim’s Yorkist scores against Stephens black Lancastrian ones. This lost unit pushed the Lancastrians over their break point with the remainder of the turn seeing enough other Lancatrian loses to make the battlefield look like a resounding Yorkist victory. Truth be told there was a moment it was clearly in the balance.

That leaves the campaign at 2-1 to the Yorkists, but Wakefield is up next.

Yorkist Loses
3 Units of Longbows (9 points)
1 Unit of Spearmen (4 points)
2 Units of Billmen (8 points)
Total loses 21 points (Army break point 35)

Lancastrian Loses
2 Units of Dismounted Men at Arms (8 points)
1 Unit of Billmen (4 points)
5 Units of Longbows (15 points)
4 Units Militia Longbows (12 points)
2 Units of Artillery (4 points)
Total loses 43 points (Army break point 31)

Yorkist Victory

Society Meeting August 13th 2022

A short photo round up of the society’s last meeting.

Our opening salvo (above) is from Alan’s 15mm War of Spanish Succession game using Maurice rules.

French Infantry hold the town
Allied Infantry advance
Kings of the hill
More Allied infantry
Cavalry clash

Now on to World War Two, John ran an introductory game of Chain of Command, Germans vs US.

German Infantry take cover
US Infantry advance
Shermans!
Germans take position upstairs

Our next game(s) are naval actions using the Galleys and Galleons rules, run by the other John and Colin.

The first of these games was set in the Mediterranean sea, and uses 3D printed ships.

Mediterranean Galleys
Close up of one of the ships
The fleets close.
More galleys

Their second game was set in the South China Seas, using John’s scratch built ships.

Chinese treasure fleet intercepted by pirate rowing boats
Treasure fleet ambushed

And finally, off to Middle Earth with Tony & Andy playing a couple of Dragon Rampant games, both set in the Shire.

In the first game Tony’s Hobbit militia, with some help from Aragorn and some Dúnedain Rangers defended Hobbiton from Andy’s Goblins and Warg Riders.

Nice, quiet Hobbiton
Warg riders approaching Hobbitton
A somewhat battered Aragorn
Aragorn flees after an encounter with some Goblin Light Foot

Tony successfully defended Hobbiton in the first game.

In the second game Tony turned to the dark side (sorry for mixing film tropes) and fielded Saruman and his Orcs, while Andy fielded a Dwarf contingent. Somehow we only got one picture of the victorious Dwarves.

Dwarves take back Hobbiton

Honours were even on the day, one game each (although the “Good” side won both games)

Wars of the Roses – Blore Heath – Battle Report

This is the second battle report in our long standing campaign to re-fight the Wars of the Roses. Details can be found on the campaign page. Jeremey  takes us through the battle of Blore Heath.

Battle of Blore Heath
I had originally put this battle down with the Lancastrians as the defenders. Accounts of the battle have the Lancastrians arriving first and taking up a defensive position along a stream. The Yorkists then arrived and being outnumbered took up a defensive position in turn at which point the Lancastrians attacked. But my opponent Stephen put forward the arguement that the battle was essentially a Lancastrian attack and so that’s what we went for.
As with the first battle we had two guest commanders, this time Andy joined the Lancastrians while Tim joined the Yorkists. For this battle both sides had 750 points and we played using the Sword and Spear 2nd edition rules.

For the start of the battle I took up command of the Yorkist left while Tim took the right. This left me facing Andy across the stream and Tim facing Stephen. One of the house rules we had for this battle was that the Lancastrians had to have at least four units of cavalry, as that was a feature of the historical battle. In the end Stephen had six cavalry units of various types and kept them all under his command. The Yorkist forces were an even mix of archers and billmen distributed evenly between the commanders. The only difference being I also had some guns in the centre.

The start of the battle saw the Lancastrians waste no time in bringing forward their archers in the centre ground and cavalry on the Lancastrian left. Seeing this I pushed up my guns in the centre knowing they outranged the archers.

Being in keeping with the historical nature of the battle, Stephen decided to charge his cavalry straight across the river. Despite never having played Sword and Spear, Tim managed to put his archers into a good position to cover any attempts by the Lancastrians to cross the river. These made short work of the light cavalry before they could charge into contact.

In the centre it was a different story with the Lancastrian archers getting the upper hand. The Yorkist guns were the first outright casualty while the other archer units also took some damage. Due to this I moved my billmen and men at arms back from the river and out of range. This was immediately called out as a cowardly move by the Lancastrians.

As more Lancastrian cavalry approached the river. This time mounted men at arms, Tim encouraged by the ease at which the last attack was repelled moved some men at arms up in response to the treat.

On the Yorkist left flank I had positioned my cavalry as a diversionary tactic. I was hoping Andy would commit some of his units to counter the threat rather than strengthen the centre. But then having gained the initiative by quite a big margin Andy rolled the dice to see which of his units he could activate. The roll was a complete disaster leaving Andy with only one unit receiving an activation.

Seeing the lack of action on the Lancastrian right and because I was losing the archery duel in the centre I took the bold step of committing my cavalry across the river unopposed with the view of taking the battle to the Lancastrians.

As mentioned the Lancastrian archers were winning in the centre. Despite being Militia units they were outclassing my retinue archers. This led to more tactical (ahem) retreat moves from the Yorkist billmen units.

Meanwhile the Lancastrian right went from bad to worse. The Yorkist cavalry charged in against the opposing billmen with the resulting dice throws ending is a swift defeat for the billmen. In the above picture you can see the Yorkist dice roll (blue dice) versus the Lancastrian (yellow/red dice). Given the impact rule charging cavalry get such a roll saw the billmen destroyed rather than take a couple of wounds.

The second Yorkist cavalry unit did just as well (helped by having a 6 played as the activation giving a boost to the combat) meaning the original diversion of the cavalry ended up breaking through the Lancastrian right and able to turn and threaten the Lancastrian archers in the centre.

In contrast the Lancastrian mounted men at arms on the Lancastrian left failed to run down the Yorkist dismounted men at arms even with the support of the Lancastrian general and outnumbering them.

Luckily the lancastrian general survived the destruction of the cavalry unit they were attached to. Here we see Stephen “repositioning” his general in a backwards direction which the second cavalry unit fights on.

With potentially more cavalry on the way Tim started to move up more units in support, including his own cavalry.

The battle in the centre came to an end with archery from Andy landing the final blow on my Yorkist archers that had already been suffering under Stephens. Despite all of my archer units being wiped out, in the last attacks I was able to make I did manage to destroy a couple of the Lancastrian militia archers that had caused so many problems.

However at this point in the battle the Lancastrians had suffered heavy loses and wer close to breaking. They only lost one unit in the first morale check, but with the Yorkist cavalry rampaging on their left flank, the Lancastrian cavalry being repulsed on thier right and with a distinct lack of targets in the centre, their options were limited.

Trying desperately to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat Stephen charged the last of his cavalry across the river and against Tim’s mounted men at arms that he had managed to get into position. The following melee of light cavalry versus mounted men at arms with another unit in support went as expected pusing the Lancastrian army over it’s break point and handing victory to the Yorkists.

Yorkist Loses
3 Units of Longbows (9 points)
1 Unit of Crossbows (3 points)
1 Unit of Spearmen (4 points)
1 Unit of Guns (2 points)
Total loses 18 points (Army break point 38)

Lancastrian Loses
2 Units of Mounted Men at Arms (8 points)
4 Units of Currours (16 points)
2 Units of Billmen (8 points)
2 Units of Militia Longbowmen (6 points)
2 Units of Welsh Longbowmen (6 points)
Total loses 44 points (Army break point 43)

Yorkist Victory

Society Meeting 23rd July 2022

A short roundup of the games at our last meeting.

Four periods/genres were staged at the last meeting.

First up, a couple of games of Field of Glory, using 6mm figures, Early Alans vs Selucids.

Stephen, Tony & Andy played three, three sided SAGA Age of Vikings games, using the Battle Royale scenario from the Book of Battles. Victory is normally decided by Survival points in this scenario, and that’s how we played the first game. In the second game we decided to use Slaughter points, and in the third reverted to Survival Points, but with 5 points for controlling the central objective (the building) and for each charge made.

The first three sided battle.
Stephen’s Hearthguard
Tony’s Vikings
Vikings and Scots clash
Tony’s Viking Warriors vs Andy’s Anglo Danish Hearthguard – battle joined!
Tony’s Viking Warriors – the aftermath, where did the Hearthguard go?
More Scots and Vikings

The first two games finished with the same result, Stephen won, Andy came second and Tony came third. The third game was a tie between Stephen and Andy, with Tony bringing up the rear.

Alan staged an Early WWII game using the I Ain’t Been Shot Mum! rules.

Germans advance through the woods
British Anti Tank Gun
German combined arms
German advance

Finally, Peter ran a 75mm Lord of the Rings skirmish game. This is a participation game set in the Mines of Moria, with players controlling one main character and one Hobbit each. They must buy time for the NPC Gandalf to cast a delaying/blocking spell on the escape route – before the Balrog turns-up! There will be a more in depth report on this game in the near future.

The initial onslaught, “They have a Cave Troll”
They had a Cave Troll!
Gandalf concentrating on his spell.
The Balrog arrives.

What a Tanker – Saturday 09/07/2022

One of our newer members, Eric, reports on a What a (Grav) Tanker game run by Marcus at a recent meeting.

Today I was fortunate enough to play a modified game of “What A Tanker“. Rather than use the original rules published by “Two Fat Lardies”, my opponent and host, Marcus, had adapted them for a sci-fi setting. I was advised from the off that it was a “beer and pretzels” game aimed at having fun and rolling dice rather than anything with any complex hardcore mechanics and depth. Marcus explained that what we were playing was still very much a work in progress and had only ever played in solo mode. There were kinks to iron out and rules to be tweaked, but what he has done with it so far worked well. I get the impression that it’s not meant to have the scope of some small-scale future skirmish games (e.g., Hammers Slammers) – troops and heavy weapons weren’t present in our game. Maybe that is something that will appear later as Marcus works on the rules.

The original Lardies concept is a one-to-one ratio with multiple players fielding one tank each, and in an ideal situation you would have more than two players. However, Marcus’ adaption allows for two players with an increased unit count and the ability to scale up/down players/tanks if desired. As this was essentially a play test, we had several tanks each to command and the rules would be fluid and subject to change as we went.

We used 15mm tanks – the main battle tanks (MTB’s) were a combination of Old Crow miniatures tank chassis with Brigade Models Rapier MBT turrets.

The wheeled, light tanks were Ground Zero Games Paladin II models.

To add to the atmosphere (and create interruption for lines of site), there was some truly brilliant scratch-built scenery supported by alien flora, which looked suspiciously like plastic home aquarium plants (something that was used in Marcus’ sub aqua game). You can have a house point if you can figure out what the basis is for the 15mm buildings.

The rules were quite simple and easy to pick up. Each tank generates a dice pool which in turn is used to generate power that is allocated to different functions – movement, firing, shields, repair and so forth. This provided a level of complexity which meant that it wasn’t just rolling dice and saying “BANG! Your tank’s been destroyed”. Management of the power available to you is an important factor in making effective use of your tank and how it operates. The dice rolled at the beginning of each activation also determine what actions you can perform, with a wildcard number being available (should you generate one) which could be used to facilitate any one of the other functions. For example, you might generate the numbers needed to acquire a target, aim, fire and reload, but not necessarily move. Clearly this is a hindrance if your enemy has snuck behind that abandoned generator shed with the annoying graffiti, and you can’t get a clear shot. This is where the wildcard can be used to perform any of the prescribed game actions. At this point, you would logically trade it for the opportunity to move your tank to get a better shot. The same can be said for any of the other actions that you might need to perform. The wildcard number can also be used to repair non-critical damage.

Unlike other games that rely on a move -> shoot -> melee formula that you don’t normally deviate from, you can issue the commands for your tank in any order you choose. Instead of moving, aiming and firing, if you’ve already acquired your target and have line of sight, you could fire, then move away and reload. This of course, all depends on the previously mentioned power that you have generated via the dice pool and how you have pre-assigned it to different functions.

Let battle commence!, Game 1.

For our game, I was given command of three Paladin II wheeled units whereas Marcus had two heavy/MBT’s. Whilst the heavier tanks looked like they had the edge, we were in fact quite well balanced by me having three units to his two.

We deployed either end of the table with the intention of getting close enough to acquire each other as a target and then aim and fire. All the time, lines of sight were hampered by the local vegetation and buildings, making it tricky to get a bead on one other without exposing ourselves to a barrage of shells/lasers/railgun rounds.

After a while of getting used to the rules (for my benefit) we managed to engage in combat with one of my Paladins taking a couple of hits from Marcus’ MBT. Damage comes in two forms: critical and non-critical. Both types strip you of dice from your pool. If you were to have five dice in your pool and you took two hits; on your next activation, the dice pool would be reduced from five to three. Critical hits can’t be recovered from; these represent non repairable damage, but non-critical ones can. In your next activation round if you generate a wildcard result, it can be traded to remove one non-critical hit, thus restoring a die to your pool. Without those dice it’s a lot tougher to generate the actions you want and provide the power for them each turn.

After several turns of skulking through the undergrowth I finally managed to get into position and land a good couple of solid hits on one of Marcus’s MBT’s. He fired on me but with power management points applied to the shields, I successfully negated any damage he would have caused. The subsequent turn, I trundled into a kill position and finished off the already crippled MBT. This awarded me a special card which could be used in that game or saved and carried over to a future skirmish.

As it looked like our game would turn into one of cat and mouse between Marcus’s remaining tank and my Paladins, we decided to end it there.

The red Paladin takes down Marcus’ MBT, drawing the first game to a close

As there was still time on the clock, we decided to play a second game.

Game Two

This time Steve and James joined me, so we had a Paladin each, while Tony joined Marcus controlling one of the two MBT’s. The scenery set up remained the same and the deployment as was as the last time, with both teams starting at opposite ends.

James took the left flank, Steve, the right and I went down the middle. Tony had managed to work his MBT into a spot where he could snipe on me and stripped away a couple of dice worth of power which made my next activation extremely difficult. It wasn’t long into the game though before we had our first casualty, me! Trying to shield myself next to a building did no good and a second round of firing from Tony reduced my tank to a burning wreck without me even getting a shot off.

Smoke billows from the blue Paladin after receiving catastrophic damage from Tony’s MBT

Meanwhile Steve moved up the right-hand side of the table exchanging fire with Marcus whilst James tried to outmanoeuvre Tony. Steve took some hits which would have meant he was seriously compromised but managed to recover all the damage he had suffered (including any critical hits) with the help of a special play card. Unfortunately, he subsequently succumbed to fire from Marcus, meaning the MBT’s were in a superior position and dominating the battle, leaving just James to try and slug it out with the two MBT’s on his own.

Steve attempts to take the right flank – Marcus’ MBT is just out of shot

James, still on the flank, his Paladin now damaged and functioning at 80% capacity, managed to get into position which gave him a clear shot at Tony. A hail of fire destroyed Tony’s tank, while Marcus looked for a firing solution against James. Marcus fired, but the shells glanced harmlessly off the Paladin thanks to some wise use of power management to his shield. With only Marcus left and in a clear line of site, James reciprocated Marcus’ salvo after winning initiative. The hits were enough to cause some non-critical damage but with the help of a special play card earned from taking out Tony, James’ shells found a chink in Marcus’s armour and truly ended the battle with a bang and winning the game.

James’ Paladin makes its way up the left flank

I’ve deliberately neglected to include some of the rules that were used – for brevity’s sake and because it’s Marcus’ project it’s undoubtedly subject to change.

I can say in all honesty, I look forward to Marcus getting the rules fully realised and written up as this makes for a great pick-up game, with more subtle complexities than would first appear. With the planned revisions that he has this has all the markings of being a great little game. It’s certainly made me want to buy some 15 mm sci-fi tanks now!

OPEN DAY 2022 – CROSSFIRE

John (well, one of our Johns, we’ve got a few) reports on the Spanish Civil War games he ran at our recent open day.

Crossfire is an innovative ruleset for World War 2 concentrating on infantry actions for Company level. There are no fixed game turns and no rulers, the player with initiative moves squads (bases) from terrain item to terrain item. As the squad moves, it can be subjected to reactive fire from the opponent and if suppressed the initiative is transferred to the opponent. Small arms range is anywhere on the playing area so doesn’t need to be measured.

The game is terrain intensive and true to form the pieces were ready at the 11th hour.

During lockdown a series of mini scenarios had been published on Stephen’s Bagalan website based on a 2ft square board, each scenario lasting about an hour and Open Day seemed an ideal opportunity to try out the rules. I’d last played Crossfire in 2005 and having painted some Peter Pig Spanish Civil War figures was keen to give the rules another go.

Each scenario begins with the same forces:

Defender
One platoon – three rifle squads, a platoon commander, a heavy machine gun, a small on-table mortar and a sniper. There is a forward observation officer for an off-table mortar and a minefield. The defender deploys his troops hidden.

Attacker
Two platoons – each of three rifle squads and a platoon commander, plus a heavy machine gun, an Engineer rifle squad, a small on-table mortar and a forward officer for an off-table infantry gun. The attacker deploys on table and starts with initiative.

During the day we managed to play three scenarios, so how would two relative beginners get on?

Scenario 1 The Woods
The attacker used 6 fire missions from the off table infantry gun to lay smoke screens which prevented the defender targeting a platoon which was used to attack the defender in the flank. The further use of smoke and close assault eliminated outnumbered squads. It proved to be a convincing win for the attacker though the defender was hampered by the placement of the minefield and some unfortunate dice rolls.

In the woods conclusion

Scenario 2 The Hill
This was a much closer game where the attacker got bogged down and made some poor tactical choices. The two woods closest to the hill were selected as jumping off points. In the rules there is a tactic called ‘recon by fire’ where the attacker fires at a terrain item hoping to flush out hidden defenders. Failure to employ this meant that the two attacking platoons got bogged down with pins and suppressions. The attacker hesitated to eliminate a revealed forward observer and paid the penalty when one of the platoon commanders was killed. The attacking platoons were recovered under smoke before the hill was finally taken. Again, better placement of the minefield would have proved costly for the attacker.

The hill conclusion

Scenario 3 The Town
This was over very quickly and immediately afterward we wondered whether the scenario was unbalanced.

For this scenario the attacker had checked out ‘recon by fire’ and used this tactic to great effect. The forward officer for the off table mortar was quickly located along with a supporting squad. Under cover of smoke the church where they were hidden was assaulted and they were eliminated. The defender’s on table mortar suppressed one squad but was itself eliminated when the initiative changed. Hidden squads and empty buildings were identified by ‘recon by fire’ then assaulted under cover of smoke. Short and brutal. In retrospect, the defender had deployed his forward observation officer in an exposed location and it’s early elimination made the game easier for the attacker. Perhaps the defender should have deployed the minefield in front of this building to slow the advance.

The town conclusion

Conclusions
The game has a good flow where the players have to think about tactical options as the game unfolds and by the end of the third game we had a good grasp of the infantry rules. It appeared to be easier for the attacker and it would be good to replay these scenarios with different ideas for defender deployment. The game proved interesting to other club members and I’m sure that further reinforcements from Peter Pig will appear in coming months.

 

Society Meeting 9th July 2022

A tad late, but here’s a short pictorial round up of the games staged at our last meeting.

Stephen and Tony G ran a game of Sword & Spear (Romans and Germans) in 15mm.

Paul also ran an Ancients game, using his own rules for 3mm figures.

 

And finally, Marcus and Eric played a game of Marcus Sci Fi adaption of What a Tanker, using 15mm tanks. There will be an article by Eric on this game shortly.