War of the roses 2

So here is my Yorkist force for the battle of Barnet to go with the Lancastrian force I posted earlier . Most historians
place Gloucester on the right Hastings on the left and Edward leading the central battle  (keeping an eye on his brother Clarence who was also Warwicks son in law and had only recently defected to Edward )
 However the first history written after the battle places Gloucester on the left and Hastings on the right, the same as the battle of Tewkesbury later that year, as the left battle was outflanked and took a fair bit of damage maybe the Yorkist put a spin on it later on and said Gloucester was on the right all along?
Gloucester, Edward and Clarence all had they're retinues in the same deep red and blue livery

Here we have Edward with his standard and a herald. 

And from the back.

Here is a unit of dismounted men at arms flying the royal banner and the banner of Lord Sale which can be used as an alternative command unit. 

A unit of archers and of bills in the royal livery.

Some Flemish handguners Edward is reported to have brought over with him from burgundy. 

Gloucester's battle, a unit of men at arms ,with his banner and personal sign ,a bull.  The spears who were definitely at Tewkesbury have been given lord Audleys banner which is probably not accurate but at least he was at Barnet and Tewkesbury. 

Lord Hastings battle is the final one archers bill and cannon under his distinctive, graphic banner and a shot of the whole army .I will be adding to both armies even though they are only now finally finished with bases and flags. I have the Perrys plastic dismounted men at arms box and I fancy doing some more bills and bows as I don't think either army is really big enough for hail Caeser which is what we will probably use. 

Oh and for Tim here is my kitchen, I've just finished painting the walls, ceiling skirting newel posts, spindles and units. 

Now it's all about the Analogue painting challenge and of course Merry Christmas! 

All the best Iain 

War of the roses 1

So here we have the first of two armies for the war of the roses a Lancastrian army  for the battle of Barnet easter 1471.
 These two armies started out as two basic impetus armies from the now inaccessible army lists and I had most options, however the pikes for the Yorkist force got press ganged into my Italian wars pike blocks , I'm also not convinced about the Lancastrians having crossbow men but they were in the list. I also had an army for Richard the third which I have split between the two armies.
Let's start with the Lancastrian force first. Medieval forces were split into 3 battles  (formations ) the Lancastrian right battle was led by Oxford

Oxford's battle his coat colour is red but I shied away from putting the star emblem on as there are lots of red coated retainers of various masters and I didn't want  to do lots of tiny stars! There is an additional unit with even less specific uniform who can be on either side, useful in a civil war! All these figures are based on 1p pieces and then sabot based in warbases splendid mdf bases 

So these are closer shots of the rest of Oxfords battle including Richard the third standing in as Oxfords horsemen that some sources say he had on the day.

The next battle is the central battle of Montague, Warwicks brother, their banners are very similar and both complex, Warwick was not entirely convinced of Montague's loyalty as he had been close to Edward in the past, Montague convinced Warwick to fight on foot as he had ridden off in the past when things hadn't gone well, it is reported that Warwick started on horseback and dismounted later, I've shown him mounted. 

I've converted Warwick with one of the heads from the plastic mercenaries combined with the Henry Tudor body to try to come close to the illustration of Warwick above. 

The ragged staff was one of Warwicks emblems and his livery colour was red.

 There was an artillery bombardment overnight by the Lancastrians , the Yorkist moved forward while the missiles passed harmlessly over them in the dark, although it must have been difficult to sleep! So I needed at least one gun and it was in the basic impetus list! 

The left battle is lead by the Duke of Essex 

There is a unit of crossbow men in the impetus list for the Lancastrian army, I'm not entirely convinced ,so they're here but I think like the pikemen they'll be press ganged into my Italian wars armies and be replaced with longbow men. Also in this battle are the only non Perry figures, a unit of Black tree bill men, really more hundreds years war but come on, close enough? Nice figures chunky and different from Perry but very nice . So that's the Lancastrian host. 

So next up, the Yorkist force, there's a glimpse of them in the last two pictures! 

Best Iain 

One hour wargame

Well, I've made a hash of this, I'll tell a story and you can guess which order the photos go! 

We had a go at one hour wargame the other evening and decided to use our medieval forces as they haven't had a run out for ages it's all been pike and shot, not bad but  we fancied a change. 

We also wanted to try a different system. With 1 hour wargame it's a 3'x3'square, 15turns,and each unit has 15 hit points. We started with scenario not which had a  crossroads and a hill and the aim was to be in control of both by the end. Now the other aspect of this system is you roll for what your army is and we both rolled up 4 units of mounted knights each, now our late medieval war of the roses forces don't have many mounted knights, they're predominantly foot.  Luckily I had plenty of gendarmes to stand in together on my side with a unit of levy  (bill ?) and missile, I used crossbow men, Des had dismounted men at arms and a unit of levy, knights are great in attack but not as resilient as dismounted maa missile fire is pretty effective and flank attacks are devastating.  The first game lasted 15 minutes, Des didn't have any units left combat is brutal but surprisingly subtle, on a number of occasions archers and levy stubbornly held up maa and knights when we both expected them to dissappear! 

The second game the aim was to be in control of two bridges at the end of turn 15. We rolled the same armies as before.  I held one with my crossbow men the other I was battling levy with my knights but Des's levy were on the bridge so a draw. 

Third game was bridge head  , blue  (Des) starts with one unit on my side of the river by the end of turn 15 there could be no blue units on my side in order for me to win , every go a unit of blues would turn up, every other go two of my units would turn up and I'd have to dice for where they were, this time I had less knights, two units of crossbow and a unit of maa, I was pretty lucky with the arrival points, Des's maa failed to perform and it ended up the last turn with some damaged knights taking out the last unit of levy to give me the game. Great fun pick up game, I'm sure we will be playing it more I've got to finish the house then I'll be able to clear the shed and double the playing area to 8'x6'before then I really need to finish off some terrain. 

 

 

Well I hope you have been able to work out which is which. Next up War of the roses Lancastrians I think. Next time I'll sort the order out before I upload it! 

Best Iain