The Battle of Swanage Bay, 1471- A War of the Roses AAR

Postie summoned the Rejects to his shed to fight a fictional War of the Roses engagement, the Battle of Swanage Bay.

The context for the game was that, after the Battle of Barnet, Margaret of Anjou returned with an army and treasure to assist the Lancastrian cause.  Storms had driven her fleet to land on the peninsular at Swanage Bay.  King Edward, aware of Margaret's arrival rushed to "greet" her.

Lee and Surjit commanded the Lancastrians.  Colin commanded the bulk of the Yorkist troops while I led the Yorkist left against the town.

This would turn into a game dominated by exception (extraordinary!) dice rolling.

The Lancastrian occupied the town and the left of the field.  Two Yorkist battles faced the disembarking Margaret, while the third (commanded by me!) faced the Lancastrian right flank anchored on the town.

Surjit's battle defending the town.

Colin's two battles ready to drive Margaret back into the sea.

Two Lancastrian battles disembarking.  These were controlled by Lee.

The left of Edward's (Colin) troops.  The plan was to expose the gap between the town and the Lancastrian troops by the ships and force them apart.

Hastings' (me) battle facing the town.

This is going to be a tough nut to crack.  Archers behind hard cover defending the town.

Hastings' troops start their slow advance.  The defending archers shoot with deadly effect against my longbowmen.

... and so the exceptional dice rolling begins.

First, despite the Yorkists having an edge on initiative, the Lancastrians gain it to move and shoot first.

As Edward's men began their slow trudge across the field.  The Lancastrian obtained the hills and rained arrows down on the Yorkists.

Second, Completely defying all rules of probability.  The Lancastrian archery wiped out about a third of the Yorkist bowmen before they could reply.  In these rules, if you move first you shoot first.  Then the return shooting is based on what you have left to shoot with.  In response, the Yorkist longbows could barely scratch a barn door.

Hastings continues his advance.  The defenders' missile fire cripples a retinue bow unit.

Further down the field, Edward's men are dropping like flies.

Third.  Yet another chance distribution curve defying moment.  Edward's troop can't move without being mown down.  Causing Colin to have to make his first of a number of Battle morale checks.

Lancastrian shooting drives the retinue bowmen back.  However, the Yorkist shire bowmen unleashed a good volley to destroy a defending unit of archers.  This was shock enough for the whole defending battle in the town to recoil and leave their positions.

Hastings now took the opportunity to get his remaining archers to the barricades and shoot into the rear of the Lancastrian billmen.

Meanwhile, the other two Yorkist battles were struggling against mounting losses from the enemy archery.

So devastating and targeted was the missile fire from the Lancastrians that one of Edward's battles had to take another morale test and failed.  This led to a rout off the table...

... Game over.  A great and emphatic Lancastrian victory.

After thoughts
Well played by all involved.  Games of this period never permit tactical finesse and manoeuvring.  In that sense, nobody played a good or bad game.  The table was lovely to look at and the figures gorgeous.

Lee's dice rolling was phenomenal.  He was scoring hits in numbers that was incredible and utterly unbelievable unless you saw it with your own eyes.  It would be true to say that such extraordinary dice rolling made it impossible to play against Lee.  It made the game almost unplayable for anyone opposite Lee.  Kudos to Lee.

We actually started playing the game at about 10.30am.  It was over by 1.00pm!  Probably the quickest game that I've ever played in the shed!

On the plus side, it meant that we enjoyed a pleasant, chatty and leisurely lunch.

For a fuller report, have a look at Lee's blog when he posts it.

The figures were all 28mm and the rules were Stuart's own.