Wars of the Roses Game

 Sunday’s game was a Wars of the Roses battle.

I set this game up along the lines of a game played several years ago where each player has a battle of four units: one of foot knights, one of halberdiers and two of archers. Each comes onto the table at at different location, without having declared an allegiance. Then Henry and Richard arrive on the table, each with a unit of mounted knights and one of light cavalry. The other players then have the option of declaring allegiance to one of the rivals or remaining neutral. 

Also available are seven mercenary cards (placed face down) representing five mercenary units. Two of those cards are blank. Whenever a player comes within 200mm of a card it is turned over to reveal whether the unit is crossbowmen, handgunners or pikemen and 1xD6 is rolled and with a score of 4+ the unit will join the player and if failed the player can attempt again in another turn or another player can approach the unit and attempt to take control of the unit.

The game was originally set up for six players, so when we suddenly had ten available, thee was a bit of a scramble to get enough figures together.

So how did the game run? Well as soon as Richard and Henry raised their standards two battles joined each of them and four battles remained neutral. Meanwhile everyone raced for the mercenaries.

Horray for Harry!

Richard rides the line to inspire the lads!

Within a couple of turns another two battles had joined Richard, two remained neutral and four out of the five mercenaries were snapped up by Richard and his battles.

The mercenary crossbowmen take position

“Oi! Watch where you’re pointin’ that arrow mate!”

It took a bit of time to develop but the serious action developed on Richard’s right between one of his battles and two of Henry’s. One of the neutrals stayed in a fixed position on the Lancaster left while the other moved around their right, intent unknown.

The Knights clash

The battles advance (above and below)

One of the Yorkist battles paused for a while and resumed neutrality, but when the Yorkist cavalry formed so that he might ride a significant part of the force down, the error of ways was admitted. 

Then one of Richard’s battles decided to attack the neutral battle on Henry’s left and has some initial success. But his opponent rallied and struck back with a force that sent the Yorkists reeling and despatched them from the field. In fact things were seriously in the balance here as Richard faced capture. Only a lucky activation result got him clear of danger.

The Yorkist deployment on the left

Charge!

A mean looking bunch!

Meanwhile the battle on the York left continued as another of their battles joined the fray until suddenly two of Henry’s battles gave way.

Although one of the neutrals had been brought into the battle on Henry’s side by default, and did remarkably well, no one knew what the remaining neutral was going to do and Henry decided that victory could come another day…if he could keep his head.