Lancastrians Get Their Chance ~ WotR's 1st Game

After spending the past few months painting up my Lancastrians array, I finally got to put them on the table and roll some dice in anger. They had a great first outing against Tom's Yorkists and they didn't die in drove as might be expected of a new army. 

We played Never Mind the Billhooks and I really liked the game. I had my reservations about Billhooks as I've based all my troops Hail Caesar but I needn't have worried and I was very pleasantly surprised. I had this idea that Billhooks was very bloody with lots of casualties. It was, but not to the extent or the way that I expected.

Leading my army I had the Dukes of Somerset and Exeter with Jasper Tudor. I also had Lord Roos leading my mounted knights but I needed a separate commander for them and the only command base on horse that I have is Lord Henry Percy so he got drafted to lead the heavy horse.

I was facing King Edward IV, Earl of Warwick, Lord Fauconberg and some minor noble leading the kings mounted knights.

Tom put this fantastic piece on the table. It looked far better than this picture gives credit. I recognise the tent as being from Eureka Miniatures. They use to cast them several years back. Tom said the figures are from various Perry WotR command sets. Great work.

And here we are deployed. Exeter on the far left with Jasper Tudor. This side of the stream: Somerset and Percy. We also had two units of skirmishers. Tom had Burgundian crossbows and I had two units of French handgonners.

Facing Exeter and Tudor was the Earl of Warwick whilst the Duke of Somerset had to deal with Edward and Fauconberg. The mounted knights faced each other across boggy ground that was not really suitable for mounted troops.

The initial manoeuvre phase is really good. It allows you to quickly & easily get your troops to where they can start to come to blows. First blood came when my French handgonners shot at Warwick's archers. Thus ended the manoeuvre phase.

Initially both sides continued to advance with some exchange of arrows. The Yorkist mercenaries moved up on both flanks. One band into the little village on my left and the other on my right threatening my knights. As a result I was cautious about moving my knights forward.

But on my left Exeter's archers moved up boldly and shot an arrow storm at the Burgundians in the village almost wiping them out whilst Exeter himself lead lead his men-at-arms through the hedges and into the village where they proceeded to harass the livestock.

We rolled for our commanders at the start of the battle and I ended up with Somerset rolling a 6 (Hero!) but I also rolled 1 for Jasper Tudor (Dolt). In the centre both sides peppered each other with arrows but Somerset decided to take the fight to King Edward the usurper and charged in leading his men at arms. A big scrum took place where Somerset was able to bring his billmen up into Fauconberg's troops but only after his archers had been wiped out.

The boggy ground between the heavy horse was a problem. Tom was all for getting rid of it. I thought it would be interesting. You know: Fog of War and all that stuff. There are plenty of instance in the histories of troops deploying in poor positions. If we had both made better choices we'd both have avoided deploying in front of a bog. But we didn't so we'd just have to suffer the consequences of poor judgement.

On the left Exeter lead his men-at-arms into the village where they tramped about causing havoc and mayhem. In the centre, Tudor was having trouble commanding his troops, His archers did some good work against Warwick but his men-at-arms just stood around getting shot up by the cannon facing them until they took to their heels and left the field.

Eventually the mounted knights clashed when Percy led his troops into the fray. They were out numbered but did sterling work driving off the King's knights with minor losses. Unfortunately they were now prime targets of the Burgundian crossbows.

Somerset's attack was running out of steam but they almost took down Edward. During the attack the King was almost killed and only survived with 1 wound left... and that last dice was a 2 so he was only saved by one pip on the dice. Saved by a whisker.

At this stage Tom was ready to concede defeat but we played one more turn because we had plenty of time. This turned into two turns... Then three... Edward had a band of men-at-arms on the bridge which he now brought across to face Somerset. Somerset's billmen were thrown back by Fauconberg's foot knights and Somerset's knights were wiped out by Edward. Somerset retreated towards the billmen.

Exeter came to his senses and left his men-at-arms to their merrymaking in order to take command of his archers and billmen. On my left Warwick lost his archers and was heavily out numbered so decided to retreat back across the bridge under several fights of arrows from Exeter and Tudor archers. Exeter advanced.

Somerset and his remaining troops made a slow retreat in the centre as Edward and Fauconberg attempted to catch him up. I had one chance and that involved Jasper Tudor turning his archers into Edward's flank and losing a storm of arrow (I had a reload card). But he did nothing. Twice in a row his card was the bottom of the deck meaning that it didn't get drawn. So he didn't get to activate his troops. He truly was a Dolt for this game. 

As a result Somerset retreated off the table giving York the win. They were almost done. They were seriously on the ropes and, as mentioned earlier, Tom was willing to call it quits. Unfortunately Somerset's attack ran out of steam because he didn't have any reserves. Percy's horse got caught in the boggy ground and couldn't manoeuvre fast enough to make a difference. They buggered around and got shot up by crossbows until they routed. And Jasper Tudor was just having a very bad day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Conclusion:

I thought the game was a blast. I really enjoyed it. I was unsure about NMTBh but I kept an open mind and I'm glad that I did. I'd play it again in a heartbeat. Our club's last meeting for 2022 is next week and I have a Napoleonic game planned. But 2023 will be here soon and I'm hoping to play Billhooks again as soon as I can. 

And a "thank you" to Tom for a great game. 

The only question now is: Should I keep doing Lancastrians or should I start painting York?

Edit: Some extra bonus photos taken by club member Russell: