Monday 28 June 2021

War of the Roses 3 The battle of Barnet with Hail Caesar

 Finally a face to face game with my nephew, we dug out our war of the Roses figures and I dragged up some 25mm hundred years war archers, we also ended up with Warwick and Oxford playing on both sides as I have collected both sides whereas Des in a typical display of Lancastrian prejudice only collected the Lancastrians. I set up originally with Barnet and Monken Hadley and realised I didn't have enough buildings so on the morning of the battle I quickly built and based coated 4 more meaner buildings with smaller footprints, in the end we changed the set up but it's given me most of the dark age village I've been planning for a while!

We set up with three battles on each side Oxford on the Lancastrian right,Montague in the centre and Essex on the left all under Warwick,with Monken Hadley on the Lancastrian left and Old Ford Manor House on their right.  The Lancastrians were heading south towards Barnet, the plucky Yorkist under Edward were heading north with Clarence in the centre, Gloucester on the right and Hastings on the left. We were using a warhammer ancient battle scenario I had found years ago and printed out, so that there was a  special rule for fog and treachery. 

The Yorkist side had the  first go,Hastings battle declined to go Clarence's veered off in the fog Gloucester's left most unit failed to identify who was in front of them and attacked and caused casualties to the bill and bow unit who returned the favour, it wasn't going terribly well!






 




 








We both advanced as much as we could, shot arrows and (largely ineffectualy) cannons, I initiated a  number of actions that I  came off worse with and found I needed to support my rock hard men at arms or even they didn't last long, lost my left flank,almost destroyed the other flank but by then it was too late! It was great fun,  in retrospect we got a lot wrong but Hail Caesar is forgiving enough to give us a decent game in spite of that! No doubt the new buildings will feature in a blog post, however I have 1st St Albans to think about next ,another Hertfordshire War of the Roses battle,at least I  have enough buildings!
All the best 
Iain 

38 comments:

  1. Awesome to see face to face gaming again, Iain. Worthy opponent too!

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    1. Thanks Dean! Great fun,first go on the big table too!
      Best Iain

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  2. Great you managed to get a face to face game in Iain, and the whole set up looked excellent. Good you got a couple more buildings finished as well

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    1. Thanks Dave! Still got to finish the buildings but at least they had a couple of colours on the day!
      Best Iain

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  3. Back to F2F gaming for you! Great news! Good to see your WotR troops out on table. Perhaps next time a victory?

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    1. Thanks Jonathan! Perhaps, it was pretty close at times, to be honest it was just good to roll some dice and have a laugh!
      Best Iain

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  4. Must be good to get back to face-to-face gaming Iain.

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  5. Nicely done Iain, and hopefully plenty more to come now the UK is getting back to something approaching normality. We had two community cases her in Queensland overnight which has precipitated another three-day lockdown, so a game we have planned for the weekend is looking doubtful.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence, that's bad news,we are getting to the stage where even my teenage daughter has got her first jab booked, I think after that we will mostly back to normal ish!
      Best Iain

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  6. A nice looking game during a nice period, glad to see the 'real' battles again!

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  7. Congrats on having such a great and fun face-to-face game! Miniatures and buildings look awesome!

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  8. You may have lost but the real victory is actually getting a face to face game in at all these days. Well done, great looking battle!

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    1. Yes just having a game was enough in my book!
      Best Iain

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  9. Ah, great to see your enemy :))
    Fantastic battle.

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  10. Enjoyed your game and AAR, the Church building with its suitably sized footprint is a lovely addition to the table.

    My Men of Iron boardgame has a Barnet scenario, which has some interesting elements, not least the fog, so you have move that up on my list of things to play :-)

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    1. Thanks Norm! Good to hear you're pushing Barnet up your playlist!
      Best Iain

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  11. Well done getting a game in and the scenario must have lead to some hilarious (?) or frustrating moments.

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    1. Yes we had a few laughs at each others expense!
      Best Iain

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  12. Nice game Iain, must have been great to get in an FtF game after such a long break, even if you did come off second best to the dour one eyed Lancastrian!

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    1. Yes great fun all round, win,lose or draw!
      Best Iain

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  13. Looks like you had fun! Still waiting here for a couple of dry days to get a game set up outside. Figures look great - and you can never have enough Warwick ;)

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  14. Great looking game and hurrah for F2F gaming!
    I think HC would do nicely for WoTR.

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    1. Thanks Stewart! Yes,works well I think!
      Best Iain

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  15. Great Stuff Iain, nothing like all the bill and bows of a Wars of the Roses clash. I look forward to seeing the St Albans game.

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    1. Thanks Oli! Yes nothing like it, just need to finish the buildings a bit more!
      Best Iain

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  16. Impressive as usual, nice looking pics!

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  17. Splendid looking game Iain and I know exactly what last minute terrain construction is like I sometimes have to warn people not to touch a particular piece as it is still wet ! Good to see a proper battle !

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    1. Thanks Matt! I did have to deploy the terrain hair dryer!
      Best Iain

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  18. Looks very good, Iain! I've played a ton of (remote) WotR the past year via Zoom with David (and Tim hosting) in Scotland.

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    1. It was great fun! I thought you'd worked through most of the major battles, did you make it to Barnet?
      Best Iain

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  19. Glad to see you getting in some ftf game mate! Sounds like a frustrating but fun affair too

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    1. It was just good to be back to real time gaming!
      Best Iain

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