Category Archives: War Of The Roses

Wargames Illustrated were running a second ‘Lion Rampant’ event day at WI headquarters here in Nottingham. I had originally thought that I would be unable to attend but a last minute change in family plans left me with a free weekend. There was a place available and so it seemed sensible to sign up.

Dan, from Wargames Illustrated starts the day with a briefing and wonders how he will keep 18 gamers under control!

I had my retinue  ready to go and after a couple of games the week before the event, my knowledge of the rules was refreshed. My army was ready to take to the field of battle. My Retinue is based on a War of the Roses English Army and consists of:

Leader and 5 Foot Knights 6pts
Unit of 12 Foot Sergeants            4pts
Two Units of Expert Archers     12pts
unit of Bidowers                             2pts

My Lion Rampant Retinue

The army is essentially a defensive unit, that although lacking maneuverability, given the right position, can hold it’s own against the more aggressive and mobile armies that are often fielded in the game.

Set up complete – players now check the rules…

The Lion Rampant day was themed around the 9 Bastards of the previous king ‘Jeffery’ from the first Lion Rampant day and involved each of the factions doing battle with the view of conquering their opponent thereby forcing them to switch allegiance to the victors faction. There would be three battles to see who won the day and as usual, Dan from WI had built in some twists and turns to the scenarios to keep the day interesting and balanced. I represented House Wagner – it was time to join battle!

The first battle is ready to commence

BATTLE 1 – BLOODBATH

My first battle was against Sir Mike who was fielding an army consisting of 2 units of Mounted Sergeants, 2 units of Crossbowmen, a unit of Foot Knights and a unit of Bidowers.

Sir Mikes’ army immediately advanced, with his mounted troops leading the way. One unit of Sergeants attempted to flank my army, the other going straight for the archers in the centre. The Crossbow men had moved up in support and his  Bidowers made for the woods on my other flank, where they would attempt to harry my army from cover. My reply was somewhat slow, having failed a couple of activations but my Foot sergeants formed Schiltron on the Left flank, effectively stopping the Mounted Sergeants in their tracks. My Bidowers charged into the woods to meet the enemy Bidowers and hold them. Whilst in the centre, My Foot Knights stepped forward under the cover of my Archers to meet the other mounted unit.

The Schiltron holds!

A fierce encounter ensued in the centre, resulting in the elimination of the first Unit of Mounted sergeants. Although my Foot Knights had taken casualties they turned to face the enemy foot knights who were now ominously approaching. The encounter in the woods between the two Biddower units got off to a slow start. There was a suspicion of a party going on, but obviously at some point, someones cider was spilt and the fighting started. The result being that my Bidowers were routed and killed.

Foot Knights into battle whilst the archers await.

Although penned back on my start line, thing were not going too badly. I was helped by the fact that after a shaky start, my archers were now firing consistently at every turn, inflicting ever mounting casualties on the enemy. The other unit of Mounted Sergeants was destroyed by arrow fire as soon as it came into range, being no match for 24 English archers!  My fire superiority was helped by the Foot Knights, who were standing in range of the enemy crossbows, taking fire every turn but fortunately, their armour held and they shrugged this off. The only real threat now came from the enemy Foot Knights as they were determined to close with my troops. As the archers at last saw off a Crossbow unit, they turned and fired at the Foot knights, slowing them and reducing them to half strength, even killing the leader but unable to prevent combat with my Foot Knights.

The enemy Bidowers in the back ground are feeling a bit exposed!

In the brutal fight that followed, my Foot knights prevailed but only my Leader, Kenneth Hotspur was left standing. He was then struck down by a final shot from the last crossbow unit – the cry went up ‘They’ve killed Kenny!’. Despite this, the archers avenged his death by forcing the last Crossbow unit to rout. Only the enemy Bidowers were left on the field and given their precarious position in the open in front of the Archers, they threw down their weapons and surrendered. Victory to House Wagner!

Battle 2 – The Messenger

Before the start of the second battle, we were given the chance to spend some of our victory points ( represented by Chocolate coins!) on small upgrades for our armies. I decide to speculate to accumulate and purchase an extra unit of Bidowers. I think these are very underrated by some players and can be quite a nuisance if deployed carefully. I had already noticed that there was plenty of cover on the tables and Bidowers and cover go well together!

The Messenger scenario involves escorting a messenger from one end of the table to the other, with the opposing player doing his best to stop you. Deployment is in opposing corners of one end of the table, with the player trying to stop the messenger allowed to deploy 6 points of his army at the far end of the table ready to meet the messenger! A further complication is that there is insufficient room in the deployment zones to get all of your army on the table, so some units start off table.

My opponent for this game was Sir Phillip, who had the following army: 1 unit of mounted Knights; 1 unit of Mounted Sergeants; 1 Unit of Mounted Sergeants with Crossbows, 1 Unit of Crossbows with Pavasis. A very mobile army but despite this, I decided to elect to be the attacker and to try and stop the messenger. I had a cunning plan…

The messenger had to be attached to the Mounted Knights, and Phillip deployed them and his two other mounted units on the table ready for the off! I sent one unit of Bidowers to the far end of the table along with my trusty foot sergeants. As the game got underway, the mounted units of Sir Phillip moved off and started their journey down the table initially leaving my foot sloggers behind. However, this soon changed as my Biddowers took up position in the Woods near to the exit point and my Foot sergeants formed schiltron, blocking the exit. As Sir Phillip desperately tried to bring up support (His Crossbowmen repeatedly failed their activation roll and stayed off table), my Foot knights found their ‘running shoes’ and had almost reached the far end of the table in support of my detached units.

You mean we have to charge those Bidowers again?

It was now that my cunning plan began to work. Sir Phillips mounted knights had to pass within 10 inches of the Bidowers in the woods. This would force the knight to make a ‘wild charge’ at the Bidowers. At this stage I was hoping merely to delay the messenger but my Biddowers in cover actually out diced the Mounted knights (the bonuses gained by the bidowers in cover put them on even terms with the mounted knights) causing them two casualties and making them fall back. Sir Phillip was not happy! As the Bidowers had held their nerve, they were able to fire on the mounted Knights in their turn, causing yet another casualty. Enraged, the Knights had to charge back into the woods again, only now they were down to half dice facing a group of confident Bidowers rolling twice as many dice in combat on even terms.

Once again the Knights were beaten back losing another casualty and once again, the bidowers stood firm in their woodland haven and poured arrow fire and scorn onto the Mounted Knights! Of course, whilst this was all going on, my Foot knights had gradually made their way to the scene of all the commotion and were now in striking distance of the messenger. Elsewhere on the table, Sir Phillips mounted sergeants had tried in vain to hold up the march of my archers whilst his crossbow men, having eventually appeared on the table were engaged with my other unit of bidowers ( in cover of course!) and my second unit of archers.

The killing blow was landed by the my Foot Knights, who although somewhat tired from their long march were strong enough to kill the last mounted knight and capture the messenger. Victory to House Wagner!

Battle 3 – the Final Encounter, Double Bloodbath!

The final battle saw four players fighting a last battle to secure the field for their faction. In theory, units from either player on one side could engage any opposing unit on the other side. In practice, it was a case of first deal with your immediate opposition before sending units to help elsewhere. Of course the real danger would be from missile troops who could take a shot at whatever unit happened to be in range.

The Final Battle!

My immediate opposition was from Sir Ben, fielding an army consisting of 2 units of Fierce Foot, 2 Units of Foot Knights and a unit of archers. I was somewhat wary of the Fierce foot. They are devastating units when charging and do not suffer from being in cover or moving through rough terrain. Despite this I sent my two units of Bidowers out as bait to draw the fierce foot into bow shot where they are very vulnerable.

The enemy are out there somewhere.

The game this time was somewhat stop go for me. I failed a number of activation tests and was barely able to move my army. I watched with increasing trepidation as the Fierce foot bore down on me. However, Sir Ben had allowed his army to become divided and thankfully, just as combat began, his fierce foot were unsupported. Even better, the first unit of Biddowers that he charged managed to skirmish their way out of trouble causing the now not so Fierce Foot to retreat! My archers now decided that they would join the battle and sent flight after flight of arrows into the enemy causing a rout in the enemy ranks, both units of Fierce Foot were destroyed.

We’re not moving – they’ll come to us!

Although victory now looked likely, my army once again refused to move with any urgency and was unable to exploit the carnage caused. Gradually, we moved up the table and every now and then the archers would take a pot shot, wearing the enemy down. Eventually, another unit of Foot Knights were left looking like pin cushions and the opposition archers decided that they had had enough and took to their heals! Victory, albeit in slow motion, once again for House Wagner!

So three battles fought and three battles won was a good return for the day. Despite our good performance, House Wagner did not finish on the winning team or accumulate quite as many victory points as some of the other players at the event. Nevermind, though, we had a fine hoard of chocolate coins and had been fully involved in a superb day. You can read the full account of the day over at the WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED web site.

Should you have the opportunity to attend one the future WI days, I would heartily recommend that you do so. The team at WI are great at creating a friendly atmosphere in which to play the games organised and whilst there is a narrative running through the day, it is not about individual competition but on a team result. Great fun, all in all – now I’m off to eat my chocolate coins!

If you would like to try the Lion Rampant rules they are available in the Arcane Scenery shop. Even better, I’ve put together a little bundle of the rule set with a box of Perrys War of the Roses Infantry and English Foot Knights for just £50, post free, world wide of course! There are more than enough figures for you to build your own retinue. If you would prefer, Mounted knights instead of Foot knights, just add a note to your order and we will swap them over for you – watch out for wild charges though, they can get you into trouble….

LION RAMPANT BUNDLE DEAL – RULES SET plus 2 Perry Plastic boxed sets

So the big day arrived on Saturday, the Lion Rampant event at Wargames Illustrated HQ. As with past events, the day was very well organised, with plenty of refreshments on hand and after the briefing and the mandatory mug of coffee we were off to fight the first battle! The day would consist of three scenarios, the first a pitched battle, the second, a random scenario chosen from the rule book and the third, a final battle with set objectives. In the first battle, we could support an ally by donating a unit to him at any point in the game. The second battle was as per the scenario and the third Battle was an eight player (four a side) grand battle with objectives. We had been split into two groups, Rebels & loyalists and with each scenario, it was possible to score ‘advantage points’ for our team as well as accumulating kill points which would boost our individual retinues.

The question was how would my retinue perform?

Scenario 1 – Pitched Battle

At last! The Retinue advances!

I had drawn Karl as my opponent, a familiar enemy from the club, so no surprises as far as his retinue went. He had a mixture of  Crossbowmen, Archers, Bidowers, Mounted Sergeants and his command group of foot knights. The big problem was my command rolls – I just could not roll to get my retinue to move! The one time I managed to advance, Karl retreated and the frustration was building! After a brief arrow fight, I goaded Karl into advancing, although by now I think that he had seen me fail so many command rolls that it looked as though he would run me down with his mounted sergeants. At last, my archers decided to loose! The ensuing carnage saw Karl’s mounted units wiped out and his missile troops retreating as they failed their rally attempts. However, both of our command units proceeded to commit mutual destruction and in all the excitement,  I forgot to use my special ability to automatically pass rally tests, meaning that my leader also fled the field.

I had killed or routed the majority of the opposition when the game ended, losing ‘only’ my foot knights & bidowers but alas, my victory was tarnished by losing the boss unnecessarily.

Scenario 2 – Meet The Neighbours

Loose!

After a very relaxed lunch break (more on this later), it was on to the second scenario. The scenario involved getting your retinue across the table to exit from the opponents deployment zone whilst stopping your opponent from doing the same to you. My opponent was Wayne, no less a personage than the Wargames Illustrated Sub Editor! His retinue was very similar to Karls with a good mix of mounted & missile troops. The game started for me where I had left off previously. I could not pass two command rolls in succession! I was beginning to become more frustrated with my dice rolling rather than focusing on the scenario. In my eagerness to at least do something, I moved one unit of archers straight down the board, unsupported,  to engage the enemy. Well they moved and inflicted a few casualties but they did very little else until they were ridden down by the enemy…

Fortunately, those few casualties were enough to slow Wayne down and at last the other unit of archers joined the fight. My other success was that my defensive dice rolling with the foot sergeants in Schiltron meant that Wayne’ s attacks had ‘bounced’ leaving him vulnerable to failing his rally rolls. With a few hits from my archers, his mounted troops routed or were wiped out, along with most of his retinue. However, by now he had moved one of his units off of the table, his foot Knights, leaving just one unit of archers in my way.  At last  my retinue started to move and with two units just one move away from the edge of the table and two other units close behind, all I needed to do was to keep his archers out of the way.

I couldn’t resist a final shot at them though…. I passed the command, rolled for hits. I rolled 8 fives & sixes out of 12 dice, my best roll of the day so far. Four casualties inflicted in one go. Brilliant! Except it wasn’t. Wayne, of course, failed his rally test and the unit routed off the table, immediately ending the game. He had won the scenario as he had moved more of his units off of the table, one unit to my nil! Doh!

Well, my kill points were accumulating nicely, but that was about it.

Scenario 3 – Final encounter – capture the buildings

The last battle.

My Final opponent, Duncan had a Caliphate Army with a 50-50 split between mounted troops & foot troops, supported by 2 units of bidowers. Where he could, he had upgraded all of his units with bows or spears so that all of his army could fire missiles at 12 inch range. As well as capturing the buildings, the scenario was played over an open table so you could target and attack any enemy unit, regardless of who controlled them.

Once again, my command rolls were letting me down. It felt like I had failed 66% of my command rolls during the day, when it should have been closer to 33%. I think the day was summed up when my Foot sergeants took just one casualty from a bidower unit. They needed to pass a courage test of 5+, I rolled 3 and they became battered and moved back. I tried to rally them next go – I still need a 5+, I rolled 4, so they moved back again and lost a man. I tried to rally them again. I now need 6+, I roll 5, so they lose a man and go back. I try once more for a rally, I now need 7+ and yes you’ve guessed it, I roll a 5 again and now they have run out of table, so good bye Foot sergeants…

The rest of my command rolls are about the same, so whilst Duncan outmaneuvers my troops, attacks my ally and generally seems to go where ever he wants to, my army stands to one side, like the Stanleys at Bosworth, occasionally firing and inflicting the odd casualty. However, at last my luck turns and once again, the archers do the business, killing anything in range ( which is pretty much everyone by now!). So once again my kill rate is high and apart from the cowardly Foot sergeants who ran away from the bidowers, my army is intact. As regards the scenario, I captured just one building and two are required to score victory points. Oh dear!

Post match analysis

On the positive side, there’s no doubt that my retinue is a killing machine! Two units of expert archers can inflict deadly casualties when acting together. The down side is that the retinue lacks mobility, even allowing for my poor command rolls. There is no doubt about it though, I let my poor dice rolling cloud my judgement and as a result I lost my leader in the first scenario and the second scenario was lost outright. Had I stayed cool and worked with what I had, I would have won the first two scenarios, which would have given me a much stronger position for the third. On the day, the rebels were vanquished and the King was securely on the throne!

Armour On!

As regards the overall day, it was one of the best that I had attended. Superbly organised with plenty of refreshments and a superb Medieval meal of Beef stew, Ham, Pease pudding & cheese all served in a huge loaf or trencher. We also enjoyed a demonstration of how Medieval Armour was put on and the chance to handle some authentic medieval weapons. I cant wait for the next event!

Ready for Battle

Helmet on!

Let battle commence!

Last Thursday I went to Battlefront HQ to play in a Lion Rampant rehearsal day. The ”rehearsal’ was to see if a big multi-player game of Lion Rampant would work and also to check out some ‘house rules’ for the big Lion Rampant day being held on 31st January. It was of course a good opportunity to see how my retinue played against the competition and to hone my tactics for the day. Well the evening went reasonably well and lesson were learnt by both the organisers and players!

The big battle suffered from the usual problems of keeping 12 noisy war gamers in order and somehow coordinating the turn system so that players at one end of the table knew when it was their turn to go. The other issue was that although I knew what was happening either side of me, it was very difficult to know what was happening elsewhere. In a way, this final problem isn’t so much a problem as a reflection as to what really happened in a battle in the middle ages. With no radio or mobile phone you would have no idea how your allies were doing until a messenger managed to find you and even then, the information would be out of date. So as a commander you could be winning your part of the battle, only to find elsewhere things hadn’t gone so well and a large force of very angry enemies were charging into a flank that you had previously thought secure.

I’ll leave Dan & Wayne, the organisers, to figure out how and if to sort out these complications and focus on the lessons learnt from my own battle. My retinue, now complete, consists of  a Unit of foot knights ( including the leader), two units of expert archers, a unit of foot sergeants and a unit of Bidowers. It’s a typical English skirmishing force circa Agincourt to the Wars of the Roses ( if there is such a thing) & very much a defensive retinue. With no mounted units, I’m not going to be swiftly maneuvering around the battlefield, picking off the opposition. The expert archers are the killing units but they are fragile if caught in the open. Mounted knights will just ride them down. So the trick is to protect them whilst drawing the enemy into range.

So my tactics will be to keep the two units of archers in a central position as close together as possible. Any unit that comes with in range will have to face an onslaught of archery! I’ll protect the flanks and the front by positioning the Foot knights ( with the leader) to one side and the foot sergeants ( forming Schiltron) to the other side. My leader, Harry (Kane) Hotspur, should be close enough to add a point of courage to the archers in any morale test. Of course, I will use any rough ground to help protect the archers without compromising line of sight. The last of my units, the bidowers are there for two reasons. At worst ( for them!) they will be bait to draw the enemy into bow range. If all goes well, I will use them to skirmish and either add strength to a flank or wear the enemy down by fighting from cover.

Now all of that sounds great. I have a plan, what could possible go wrong…?

Well, on Thursday there were two problems. Firstly, I couldn’t roll the dice to get my units to move! It must have been six moves before I actually got within bow range of my opponent. By which time he had given up attacking me ( he wasn’t going to risk the archers even with my terrible dice rolling) and was attacking my ally on the right. By the time I started to move it was too late, my ally had been out numbered and slaughtered. The only good news was that because my troops had stood around impersonating the Stanleys at the Battle of Bosworth, the army was still intact. My ally on the left had suffered the same fate and had been all but wiped out, so I now had to fight three damaged enemies on my own.

The dice gods now intervened and at last things started to move and I was able to close with the opposition. The problem being that I was now trying to fight an offensive battle with a defensive force and all thought of a cohesive attack had disappeared, along with my allies.  The battle ended in a sort of a victory. I had killed the opposition leaders and reduced their forces to a few half units but it did not feel like a victory, more an avoidance of defeat. The other issue was that on this occasion, the terrain was as much of a problem to me as it was a help. There’s nothing like a battle with the whim of the dice throw to remind you that war gaming is not chess! Ah well, I still have a plan and I’ll stick with it for now. Despite the set backs, I dont think that I could fight with this army in any other way and it’s too late now to change.

The final parting shot from Dan was ‘whats all that stuff on your bases?’ ‘Well it is a War of the Roses force Dan….’

I’ve managed to wean myself off of playing Black Powder for a few weeks! It can get a bit stale playing the same rules set, although I am addicted to Napoleonics for the time being. That said, I have wanted to build a collection of army’s and have been looking for inspiration elsewhere. I have been very tempted by the American War of Independence, as I like the look of the Muskets & Tomahawks rules but the thought of painting more redcoats doesn’t appeal whilst I’m still working on my Napoleonic army.

A recent rules set arrived in stock that did take my fancy and it would give me the opportunity to start another different army from a different period. The Rules set was ‘The Lion Rampant’, a medieval skirmish rules set. Skirmish games are a great way to get you into a period and allow you to play with just a few figures. The Lion Rampant is ideal in this respect as you need about 30 to 50 figures and you have a reasonable retinue with which to play the game. I think that with a box of Perry’s Foot Knights & Mounted Men at Arms I will be able to make a decent retinue. I’ll also have a look at the options from Fireforge games. Their figures have been tempting me for some time now!

So when I was invited to play a game at the local club, The White Hart Gamers, I jumped at the chance. As I thought, it was a straight forward rules set that allowed easy play, just right for a club night game. We played on a 4×4 foot table with 4 retinues all doing battle. It ended with all four leaders meeting their end in glorious combat! In fact we probably overplayed the game but by the end of the game, we were all familiar with the basic rules and enthusiastic enough to sign up for a campaign day in January next year. So I have another project to add to my list. In the meantime, if anyone out there is looking for a new game to play, I can very much recommend the Lion Rampant! Here’s a few pictures of our game.