Blood 'n' Roses - A Play Test

Jonathan at Palouse Wargaming has been doing some deep thinking about the development of rules for his War of the Roses collection see his post, Challenges to an Authentic Medieval Wargame.  Well, he has produced his first version and kindly invited me to playtest the his rules - Blood 'n' Roses.  

Units from Jonathan's lovely collection.

I'm no medievalist and my knowledge of the Wars of the Roses is limited.  So, I'm guessing that Jonathan's invitation was because he knew that his chances of a victory would be good!

For the test, each side had three Battles (or Wards), each consisting of longbowmen, dismounted men at arms and retinue billmen.  I took control of the Yorkist army - closest to the camera.  From left to right their leaders were rolled up as cautious, brave and inspiring.  These characteristics would determine how easy it would be to change their Ward's orders, how many rerolls would be available each turn, and on rallying.

The opening dispositions.  I put all my Wards on reserve order and let the Lancastrians come to me.

Which they did.

This gave me the opportunity to attempt to change orders to engage and move into combat with my centre and right hand Wards.

Engage orders oblige the Ward to move a full 3 hexes.  Charges can only take place under this order.

Early Yorkist charges meet with some success.

It looks like the Lancastrian advance has been stalled and set into reverse.

At this point I liked the feel of the battle.  My archers had been shooting at the enemy, but once the decision was made, the men at arms and bill pushed through and contacted.

The Wards are squaring up.  However, with melee and archery fire the combat effectiveness of the Wards decline. 

As the battle drew on there was a real ebb and flow of fortunes as different parts of each army saw their ascendancy rise and fall then rise again.  With each attack the challenge was not just about acquiring the right orders, nor was it all about winning the combats, it was also about how and when to rally troops from disorder and to recover some combat effectiveness.

After some to-ing and fro-ing, the Lancastrians were slowly being driven off the field of battle.

However, some titanic defensive work from the archers of each Ward managed to blunt Yorkist attacks whenever they went in for the kill.

Both sides were becoming increasingly brittle as their effectiveness was worn away.

In the end the Lancastrians managed to outlast the Yorkists.  With two of the three Wards broken the rest of the army made best their escape.

Afterthoughts
My impression of warfare in this period is that the archers shot until either out of arrows, the weather was against them or the time for the hand to hand to begin in earnest arrives.  For me, this game reflected that nicely.

I always think of combat in the War of the Roses as something akin to a scrum.  Everyone gets stuck in, it's difficult, long, and it's attritional.  Well, this battle proved to be all those things.  It was a hard slog.  But a very entertaining one.  What is difficult in a period which is largely defined by the notion of "line them up and charge" is to produce a game that has this but also gives challenges and decisions for the player to make.  Amidst the "slog" were the decisions about what orders to give, when to rally and when to rotate troops - for example pushing the melee troops ahead of the archers and when it would be best to swap the men at arms out and the bill in.

For a wargame, there must be a sense of plausibility and that this is what the armies may have done.  It must also be fun to play.  Jonathan provided both the "war" and the "game" in this outing and with these rules.  It felt right and was great fun with something happening all the time.  It was close and the final decision uncertain right until the end.

We chatted at length after the game.  I believe Jonathan had much of his thinking confirmed but also took away a little food for thought.  He will no doubt reflect on this game and how to improve it further.  However, he should also reflect with pride on a game that I would certainly play again.