Wars of The Roses - Edward's Dilemma

It's been quite a while since I posted any update on my long-running re-fight of the Wars of the Roses, so here's the latest installment.

The campaign is still running strategically on Columbia Games' excellent 'Richard III' board-game.  The map is actually shown above, marked-up to show how things currently stand. 

The situation above is a little recap of the last place we left it.  In the last in-campaign battle we played, Warwick was holding both London and King Henry VI.  One catastrophic defeat later, and Warwick held neither - to say nothing of having to flee into exile with only a tiny band of followers.  His spectacular defeat puts the invading Lancastrian faction back into power in the capital and at court, which means if Edward of York has any hope of enforcing his claim to the throne, fast action is called for.  

The map above shows the situation clearly, as the Yorkists are fast becoming the filling in a Lancaster-sandwich.  Edward has the largest Yorkist army which he raised in Wales and has brought it back into England around Gloucester, but he's too far from either Lancastrian army to engage quite yet.  The second Yorkist army, under the earls of Rutland and Salisbury, will be crushed if it remains standing-still by both the Lancastrians combined.  As such, the course open to them is clear - they will need to move themselves against the smaller northern Lancastrian army, positioned around Derby.  

This is a risky move as crossing the line of the river Trent forces them to discard their own levies to move fast, meeting on little better than even terms.  However, leaving the pro-Lancastrian north in enemy hands means that delay will merely strengthen the red-rose faction and weaken their own chances.  Time to re-fight the army they beat once before at Thoroton, and make it fatal this time!

I'll shortly be posting the battle photos and report, which shall be the first full game I've tried using the 'Peter Pig' rules "Bloody Barons."