Maidstone Wargames Society

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

Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s Wednesday again and here we have this weeks offering from the members.

Above Stephen has painted up some Elves from the Oathmark range of miniatures.

Next up Mark J has continued to expand his Saxon army.
And a mdf towerblock for a Judge Dredd game he is planning.
And finally for this week Eric has painted up a team captain of the Draconis All Stars neo-bot team for Dreadball.

Also Eric has painted up a rather impressive 3D printed miniature, apparently this is Helgor Haim from CustomForge UK.
See you next Wednesday.

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.

Tony’s Viking Warriors vs Andy’s Anglo Danish Hearthguard – battle joined!

Tony’s Viking Warriors – the aftermath, where did the Hearthguard go?

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.

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”

WIP Wednesday 20/07/2022

A round up of our members’ recent work.

First up this week, Marcus has been finishing off several items. Above we have the two Brigade Models Shamen tanks featured as WIP last week.

He’s also finished off a hybrid, a Bars hull with a Sohei turret, also from Brigade Models.

A bit of a mash up, a Brigade Models Bars hull with the turret from a Sohei

And a couple of APCS from Old Crow, these have magnets inserted in the turret rings for various turrets not shown.

Finally from Marcus, a group of old Tin Soldier Orcs, purchased some 25 years ago. (Ed: I wonder if that makes them the longest running project featured in our WIP Wednesday posts?)

Stephen has been working on some 15mm ECW figures, although the horrid hot weather has brought an end to most painting and modelling, so things have stalled. He still has two more pike and shot units and a unit of highlanders planned.

The figures are shown on his new, A2 sized, cutting mat which he also considers a work in progress, to quote him: “A new cutting board is a new relationship. And, like all relationships, it takes time and effort to develop a meaningful relationship. You have to share the good times, and the bad times. There needs to be spillages, and injuries. There needs to be difficulties and struggles. And only then can you say you have a life bond together.”

And finally, Tony has finished off yet another version of Gandalf, the ‘you shall not pass’ version, with some supporting Elf Archers.

That’s all for this week folks, not sure what next week will bring, as the excessive heat does tend to sap the will to paint.

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.

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.

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.

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.

WIP Wednesday 13/07/2022

We have a few items to show this week, some members are slowly getting back into their painting, where others find this hot weather not conducive to painting.

Above we have Eric’s last 5 Imperial Roman Legionaries (28mm), which might get used in Broken Legions in the future.

Next up, Marcus has been working on some 15mm Brigade Models Shamen Hover Tanks. These were pressed into use last weekend in a What a Tanker game, there will be a write up of which shortly.

Finally, Mark H has managed to get back to the painting table to finish off some 6mm French figures he started a couple of years ago. One and a half regiments of Cuirassiers, a foot battery and a batch of generals. Paintwork now finished, varnished and based. Just base texturing and flags left to do.

That’s all for this week.

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.

The Sins Of The Father

Stephen reports on a solo game of Outremer.

It had been a while since I’d had a game of Outremer, so I decided it was time for a quick bash.

Although the rules are set during the Crusades they also work as a generic set of medieval skirmish rules. So my games are set during the Barons’ War of the 1250s and 1260s.

I played the hostage scenario in the rules. Young master Perkin Adlington had been kidnapped by the dastardly knight, Sir Giles of Gretchley. No doubt taking advantage of the upheavel during the rebellion and hoping to make some money off the ransom.

Sir Richard Adlington, with his closest bondsmen, set off in pursuit to rescue the young lad. After two days in the saddle, following trails and clues, they finally found Sir Giles and his men. Dismounting, they made their way on foot through the woods to snatch Perkin and take him back home to safety…

The table was only a small one – 2’x3’. The two opposing sides had six men each.

With Sir Richard Adlington was his household knight, Sir Gieffroy de Metz plus Jarrard and Remon la Vielle (a pair of crossbowmen, and Will Fuller and Wilf the Strong, sergeants at arms.

With Sir Giles were Berwick, Ailwin Smith, Keaton Taylor, Pasquier l’Espee, and Burne Brewster.

The table was set up with woods and a couple of hills. On one side of the table was Sir Giles’ camp where Perkin was being held. Under the rules of the scenario, the hostage can not take an action all the time there is a guard within 4”. So Keaton Taylor was detailed with keeping an eye on Perkin. The two crossbowmen, Pasquier and Burne, took up sentry positions on the hills over-looking the approach. This left Sir Giles with Ailwin and Berwick to relax in camp.

Sir Richard led Jarrard and Will Fuller from one corner, and Sir Gieffroy led Remon and Wilf from the other – so they could make a two-pronged approach.

The game started. Turns take place with a pack of cards. Each character has a card in the deck, these are shuffled, and one card is drawn at a time. When a character’s card is drawn that character completes all its actions and the next card is drawn.

Sir Giles took his men through the woods, to stay in cover. And Sir Gieffroy did the same. Pasquier and Burne, armed with crossbows and away from the camp and away from the boss, sat in the bushes enjoying a bit of peace and quiet.

Burne Brewster settles down for an easy day

Jarrard skirted around the sides of the woods, hoping to sneak up on Burne He took his time, ensuring he stayed hidden for as long as possible. Then he loaded his crossbow, levelled it at his target, and let fly.

He missed.

This made Burne jump and sound the alarm. Roused, Sir Giles and Ailwin made their way over to Burne. Berwick moved toward Pasquier, in case there were others about. Perkin soon perked up as well, but Keaton kept a firm hold of his charge.

Sir Giles and Ailwin picked up pace and made their way over to Burne as fast as they could. Burne loaded his crossbow and took aim at Jarrard, to return the favour. Except this time Burne hit, and Jarrard went down with a bolt sticking out of his chest. This meant that Sir Richard and Will would have to charge in quickly or else be subject to sniping shots from Burne’s crossbow.

Over on the other side Remon had now moved up into a good position where he could see Pasquier on top of the rise behind the bushes. He let a quick shot out that hit its target but did no damage – Pasquier’s armour saved his skin. Taking good hold of his gigantic sword, Berwick stood alongside Pasquier to see what was out there.
Sir Richard and Will strode forward to push the attack against Burne. As they approached, Burne ducked down behind the bushes trying to reload as quick as he could. But as they advanced all of a sudden Sir Giles and Ailwin Smith came out of the woods in front of them. Sir Richard smiled at his luck and both he and Will charged the two abductors!

Over on the other side Wilf decided to take matters into his own hands and charged up the slope to cut down Pasquier. But Berwick stepped forward with his two-handed sword, engaged Wilf, and with a single wild swing cut down the loyal retainer!
An epic fight began between Sir Richard and Sir Giles, and Will Fuller and Ailwin Smith. Sir Richard got in an early lucky blow against Sir Giles and wounded him badly. But Ailwin was equally lucky, and got in a deadly blow against Will. Ailwin, the coward, then came to Sir Giles’ aid and the two of them attacked Sir Richard.

A similar state of affairs was taking place over on the other side. Remon began rapidly loading and shooting his crossbow at Pasquier, and Pasquier did similarly against Remon. Whilst Sir Gieffroy, an experienced knight who had seen many combats, was not so easily intimidated by Berwick mighty sword, and he advanced against Berwick meaning to kill him or chase him off!

Back with Sir Richard and things were looking dicey. With both Sir Giles and Ailwin setting about him he was taking injuries and being pushed back into the woods. Then realising that his days may soon be numbered, Sir Richard broke off and made a run for it – fleeing the field! Later, back home, he would say that he was merely making his way around to support Sir Gieffroy and Remon. We can only take this man of honour at his word.

Fate was going the other way back with Sir Gieffroy. Remon’s crossbow took down Pasquier, badly wounded, but out of the fight. Sir Gieffroy took a slight wound from Berwick, but in the end this goodly knight prevailed and down went Berwick. The way now lay open into Sir Giles’ camp and the rescue of master Perkin!
Burne Brewster had pulled back into the camp whilst Sir Giles and Ailwin chased Sir Richard. Sir Gieffroy advanced as quickly as he could, trying to lure Keaton forward to Perkin could break free and make a run for it. Remon moved up behind a bush, took careful aim, and let fly at Keaton.

A miss! But Keaton was rattled. Forward came Sir Gieffroy, and he gave Keaton the chase to yield or die. Keaton could see both Sir Giles and Ailwin making their way back, so under the eye of his lord, and hoping for some support, he gave no ground and engaged Sir Gieffroy in melee.
More fool him, because Keaton soon fell beneath the knight’s blows.

Sir Gieffroy gives Keaton a choice – yield or die

Perkin Adlington was now free and under the protection of Sir Gieffroy! All they had to do was get away. But both Sir Giles and Ailwin were not far away. They soon intercepted Sir Gieffroy and, cowardly once again, Ailwin Smith joined Sir Giles in attacking Sir Gieffroy!

Sir Giles and Ailwin assail Sir Gieffroy

For a while it looked like Sir Giles may get away with it. He was pushing the two of them back. But eventually numbers would tell. Sir Gieffroy found himself under a terrible rain of blows. It got so bad that all of a sudden…he decided to flee!

Poor master Perkin! Let’s hope the lad doesn’t grow up with abandonment syndrome.

That was the end. It had been close. They so nearly got away with Perkin. But the wicked Sir Giles and his men prevailed – Perkin Adlington would stay under his guard and doubtless Sir Richard would be expected to pay a higher ransom to make up for the losses.

Return to Tatooine

The good weather appears to have slowed down member’s painting and modelling activities, so instead of a WIP Wednesday post, here’s Tony’s account of the Society’s game at Broadside.

At the recent Broadside show in Gillingham, the club resurrected an old game from many years ago – its first outing was way back in 1997. Originally named with the simple but descriptive title of ‘Tatooine Droid Hunt’, it was rebadged as ‘Utini!’ for this outing, which is a Jawa exclamation of shock or surprise.

The game centres around a Jawa sandcrawler during the opening scenes of Star Wars:A New Hope. Imperial stormtroopers are hunting for C3P0 and R2D2 amongst the droid waifs and strays which have been collected by the sandcrawler crew. Back in the day we didn’t take any photos of the game in action (it was before the days of camera phones) so this was a good chance to fill a gap in the club’s historical record.

The sandcrawler was scratchbuilt by Phil, the stormtroopers and Jawas are long-OOP figures from West End Games painted by Tony F and the droids are from the Galoob micro-machines range. Phil is going to write-up the sandcrawler build in more detail for the website, but for now here’s a gallery of photos from Broadside taken by Andy.