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