The Battle of Wakefield, 1460 - A War of the Roses AAR

Jonathan Freitag and I took to the remote gaming table to stretch our hands across the Atlantic and fight his interpretation of the War of the Roses Battle of Wakefield (see here for his details).

An in-play photo, courtesy of J. Freitag

I took command of the Yorkists while Jonathan led the Lancastrians.

The initial deployment.
Rutland's archers overseeing the wagons en route to the castle.  The Duke of York rushing out to engage the Lancastrians.

While the wagons move slowly, York's Battle advanced aggressively towards Somerset and the newly arrived Northumberland.

Yorkist reinforcements arrive in the guise of Salisbury and his Battle.

Meanwhile York, hoping to gain a swift advantage, charged Northumberland's troops.  However, things do not go to plan.  Northumberland repels York's efforts but his men force him to fall back to reorganise.  Somerset now crashed into York throwing him back further.  But at the moment of victory, Somerset is wounded and has to be carried from the field.

With Clifford having arrived on the field to support the Lancastrian left, Northumberland hurled his men at the Duke of York's faltering Battle.  The melee is brutal.  In the crush the Duke of York is struck down, dead!  York's Battle is now a broken unit.

Rutland's archers on the Yorkist left keeps up a constant rain of arrows but to limited effect as Somerset and Clifford move to strengthen the Lancastrian battle line.
Salisbury moves forward to support the remnants of York's tattered Battle and shield the creeping supply wagons.

Hoping to reverse the situation, Salisbury launched his men at arms into Northumberland's depleted Battle.  

Northumberland's men at arms are annihilated as Salisbury's warriors sweep forward.  However, little do they realise that in the swirl of melee Salisbury is struck down and mortally wounded.  Seeking to wipe out Northumberland, Salisbury's now leaderless troops pursue and crash into Somerset's men.  The Yorkists are thrown back at great loss...

... and back again as Somerset is relentless in the pursuit.

The remaining Yorkists are not given a chance to rallying as Somerset's men deal out more slaughter.  Salisbury's Battle breaks under the strain.

With two of the three Battles broken, the Yorkists flee the field.  This has been a disaster for the Yorkist cause.  Two leaders dead on the field.  One of them the Yorkist leader himself!

Afterthoughts
By choosing to play the Yorkists, I knew that this was going to be a very tough battle to get a victory.  However, that did not stop this game being a tremendous amount of fun.  The challenge was to better the Yorkist performance.  Alas, I believe history was repeated.

A thoroughly enjoyable game.  Well done, Jonathan.