The Battle of Northampton 1460

I've been struggling recently to get on with my Wars of the Roses painting, mainly down to the struggle to get enough 1p coins to base the remaining half and then start painting them. However, one army is done, I've a set of rules to try out, and I've at least assembled the unpainted army. To the tabletop!

The situation is 1460, where the Yorkist faction led by the Earl of Warwick has landed in Kent and taken London, before marching up to Northampton where the royal Lancastrian army is assembling. Warwick is aiming to see King Henry VI and explain that he's raised an army in rebellion just so he can speak with the king and reassure him he won't raise an army in rebellion, erm, and that's sort of it. I know it's crazy-sounding, but as Henry VI was only tenuously holding on to sanity this is actually how it all went at first! If Warwick wins the day, he can basically take possession of Henry and get him to agree to anything he wants.

I got this situation by playing the campaign game out, which then gave me a vaguely historical situation for the first battle. Since this was my first try of the rules I did without any fortified camp or historically accurate map, just making one up as I went. The campaign game did give me rules on assembling forces though, so here is the army each side brought to the bash:

Yorkist host (7800 men in total)

Vaward (Right Wing) under viscount Bourchier

Main (Centre) under the earl of Warwick

Rearward (Left Wing) under Abergavenny and Fauconberg.

Lancastrian Host (7420 men - pretty much equal strength!)

Vaward under the duke of Exeter (and bloody Clifford)

Main under the duke of Buckingham

Rearward under the earl of Shrewsbury

The battlefield at the start, with the Yorkists as the painted, nearest-the-camera army. Thanks to a small stream the armies were forced to offset slightly, but Warwick planned to hold back with his left while his centre and right attacked and crushed the enemy line. The Lancastrians prepared orders to sit tight and fire arrows for a bit, before advancing out to fight.

"I will speak with the king or I will die!"

The battle started off with the Yorkist advance forward, as Abergavenny refused the left as per the plan. Sadly the enemy battle under Exeter and Clifford began turning in to face them. Also, as the offset in the armies became apparent it meant that the luckless Yorkist left took most of the incoming archery fire. Luckily they remained steady!

The advance in progress (the game is card-driven, hence all the bits scattered around!)

As the above pic shows, I'm pretty pleased with the painting effort! I think I cared too much about the livery colours however, as they quickly get lost in the chaotic jumble! Beyond an appropriate standard, I doubt you'd care! Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the start of Warwick's plans going wrong! The pic above shows the Yorkist right hitting a small patch of woodland, which threw their advance off. The fleet-footed mobility to avoid it seems to be beyond our two howling mobs! Rather than flanking the enemy, Warwick's line is being compacted into the centre.

Contact! The Lancastrian host matches the advance and the two sides collide in a monster-sized scrum. Looks like it's going to be settled point-blank, by the two lines going head-to-head!

On the Lancastrian left, one of the minor magnates present gets personal! Yes, the Percy-Neville feud gets an airing as the sworn foes Thomas Percy, Baron Egremont and Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury make it a grudge-match. Percy cries "I have singled thee alone!" and wounds Salisbury, as well as getting pronged himself. The magnates are dropping like flies in the fight here - viscount Bourchier is killed, handing command to Salisbury just as he gets wounded; and on the Lancastrian side Shrewsbury dies too - the Yorkist right and Lancastrian left both lose their leaders, with other nobles taking over the job. Frankly, next to 'the bloody wood' on this part of the field, anybody that doesn't get stabbed in the face just isn't pulling their weight.

"I guess I don't speak with the king, then!"

Then, catastrophe in the centre! Warwick is cut down in the thick of it, trying to lead his men on one last desperate heave to break through the enemy horde. Now that he's down, the Yorkist morale begins to sink like a stone.

Good grief - what a tangle! There's cards everywhere as the monster headbutting match continues. It begins to dawn on me that possibly this first 'try-out' session of the rules was a good idea, just to size things up. I formed my wards into single massive formations, with all the nuance and subtlety of a breeze-block through your window. If I'd had several smaller companies I could have broken some by now, and turned flanks for maximum execution. Oh well, that's for next time. For now though, the massive grinding-match nears it's end!

"They flee!" the Yorkists decide suddenly they've something better to do today. After losing bases for a while they suddenly crack and are slaughtered wholesale in the rout. On the flanks things quickly degenerate too, and the remainder flee!

Most terrible slaughter!

We are abandoned!

The bloody day comes to an end - almost. Buckingham is killed at the very moment of his victory, and the remaining Yorkist magnates are swept up in the retreat. Sadly, while the likes of Salisbury go straight into imprisonment for defying the king, the barons Abergavenny and Fauconberg (who held off Exeter for so long) learn that crossing Henry Holland, duke of Exeter is not lightly done. The man whose violent tastes when Constable of the tower of London saw the rack dubbed "The duke of Exeter's daughter" is clearly not in the mood for make-up hugs! The pair of them go to the executioner's block. With the Yorkist cause now thrown down, it looks like Lancaster is victorious! Hurrah for king Hal!

Two entire armies - done!

Hello all - more 2mm ACW stuff which I've knocked into order. The rebel army has been rebased, and now stands at a pretty respectable level. I'm thinking of going for a corps as represented by between three to five 'units' in Black Powder, which means each individual 'unit' represents about two or three brigades. Incidentally this means each of the 20mm by 10mm bases used to make up a unit equates to one brigade. I've done the Rebels in three corps of infantry, plus one of cavalry, to represent Lee's army in the Wilderness, right at the start of the huge Overland Campaign of 1864. In total, thirty-four infantry brigades, seven cavalry brigades and nine artillery 'battalions' of corps-level guns. Below is a view of some of the troops, plus some terrain I've found - some stretches of trenchworks and a pair of large redoubts - pretty much essential for refighting the Overland campaign. Although these were bought from Irregular Miniatures some years ago, making your own should be intensely easy.

Here is the Union, which I have also managed to represent in it's entirety. Four infantry corps, plus one cavalry. 41 Brigades of infantry, seven cavalry, plus about ten artillery 'batteries' of corps-artillery. And wagon-trains, camps, and supply dumps, naturally.

I also had a go at adding a bit of 'detail' to the infantry, and had to give up almost straight away. If you're trying to vary the grey ranks with browns of various shades, your efforts become completely invisible even at a few inches' distance. Only bold colours have a chance, such as in the photo below. On a whim, I coloured one Confederate corps commander in red, to represent A.P. Hill's notorious habit of wearing a red 'battle-shirt' when he led his men into a fight. At least 'Lil' Powell' will stand out!

Here's a few of those Union 'tail' formations behind the fighting troops. I tend to plough mounds of spare units, wagons, riders, cavalry troops, and tents onto all army HQ bases, to represent the chaos at a large staff-base. The Union tends to have more tents, just as a gesture towards their larger numbers and better supplies. In the background to this photo, you can also see Sheridan's troopers in the US Cavalry corps, ready to tear up some railway tracks.

2mm Extravaganza!

If you've not read it, I'd advise reading the blog 'Steel on Sand' for a good resource-pile relating to 2mm - for my money, one of the most routinely under-rated scales in wargaming. While my Wars of the Roses painting rumbles on, and my ACW campaign is on hold while I write up my campaign history (book-keeping - in real life, and in the hobby, it gets everywhere!) so I've taken my inspiration from it and dug out some old 2mm figures to see what I have. Turns out: far more than I realised! I have several armies of Horse & Musket kicking around in various states, so I thought I'd pick one to illustrate:

Take the above, for example - a full Confederate army in 2mm. I'd based it for DBA or something similar, but now with the excellent Black Powder rules in my hands, I'm thinking of converting it over to bases half this size.

Above are some Rebel infantry, which show the uneven and half-completed paint job I got through. Some units have little face-dots and stars-and-bars flags, while others are grey basecoats and no more. The above even has some rear-line regiments fashioned experimentally out of matchsticks. This may sound mad, but once painted and viewed from over the 'two-foot rule' distance, they are virtually indistinguishable from the moulded lead ones! To the front, a Corps commander plus his staff have a base of their own.

Here is a close-up on the cavalry, which includes Jeb Stuart and some light horse-artillery. The troopers themselves are modelled as a dismounted scrum of skirmishers (the collective noun?) to the fore, and a clutch of tethered horses to the rear. Looking at the photo, I've walked round the table and photographed them from behind - D'oh!

Now up to more refined levels - Army headquarters! the right shows the reserve artillery park of batteries, most of which are to be attached to the infantry corps. On the left is the HQ camp of R. E. Lee, with staffers, tents, hangers-on and even a little wagon. Behind it is the army supply base of yet more tents and such. One of the best things about 2mm is that you can model not just the fighting edge of an army, but the 'tail' as well, which can add a real extra dimension to large-level campaign games. (Plus, having it pillaged by enemy cavalry is a pain in the backside!)

Some close-up views of Johnny Reb. I feel like adding some variety to the uniforms, by putting in some splashes of browns and such - they're too neat and uniform! Each little 'unit' is a strip of a formed body of troops, forwarded by a skirmish line. I originally based them as 20mm by 10mm units, but then glued them together for DBA into 40mm by 20mm (as shown here.) For Black Powder I'll probably revert back, and a BP unit (probably around a brigade-sized outfit, at this scale) will consist of two 20mm x 10mm bases. This way they can go side-by-side for line formation, or back-to-back for a column. By converting scales I reckon they will move at about 2" a 'move' order and have a range of 4" for rifled muskets. At that scale, I can probably fight a battle on a small table or use a large one for effectively doing a series of battles - the entire Seven Days' battles on your dinner table?

First WotR Army painted

Hi - just a quick update plus some photos. I have almost completed painting 80 figures, or one of my Wars of the Roses armies - half the total I got delivered recently. The base-coats are on, and following a few little additions like livery badges etc. I'll be ready to 'dip' the whole lot in a stained varnish to add detail to the figures. Rounded off with an aerosol spray to kill off any glossy finish, then some flocking the base with grass, and they'll be done! Below you can see a ward of two companies, one under the Kingmaker Warwick, plus another minor noble with blue & yellow livery colours (doubtless some minor noble too humble to trouble a chronicler!)

My 'Main' Battle with the retainers of Henry VI or the Duke of Somerset (both blue & white - I've discovered many livery colours can apply to several people, reassuringly!) With him are further troops in Percy-ish colours, plus assorted minors, and even the five unpainted figures I've just to finish up (no doubt the unhinged Henry VI's personal escort, who'll be several miles off the field when the battle comes.)

Another small company of troops - Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter - in red and white.

The whole host, ready to battle!

My wargames weekend

My weekend has actually passed with a rarity for me, when a friend of mine bought a copy of Memoir '44 and (despairing of his girlfriend) asked me to join him for a few games. I went round for a "boys' night in" featuring pizza, beer plus about 7 or 8 games of Memoir '44. Excellent fun, and so much so that we have agreed to do it again! I had not played Memoir '44 before, and had low expectations of what it would be like. Certainly t was not what you would call 'historically realistic' in the detailed sense, but the game was a great deal of fun and gave a great flavour of things - I finally 'got' the game, after a year or two of thinking it sounded bad. What a turnaround! I may even be tempted to try it myself for different periods, so I shall be following the blog 'A Wargaming Odyssey' closely, as he has recently decided to try a Vietnam version of it (sadly I must wait as it's only one project among his many, just like any self-respecting wargamer!)

Back home in my own GHQ bunker, I've been doing a great deal of the 'donkey work' for my WOTR armies. I have worked my way through half of the boxes, clipping, glueing, and assembling eighty figures. I then glues eighty 1p coins to their bases, sat them all in a cardboard box in the loft (no small achievement in the freezing snow-bound cold) and spray-painted them a base-coat of black. I even took advantage of a trip to Ikea to get some storage boxes on the cheap.

I have now only just started out on the tricksy task of painting retinue colours on them, and my research largely consists of looking up other peoples' models on the internet plus a bit of Wikipedia. Here are my first set of liveried Retinue men, in a fetching blue and white. This should apparently make them lancastrians as these were (again apparently) the colours for Henry VI and/or the Duke of Somerset.

It's base-coat only, and I intend to dip them to get the finished result much improved. I'll paint up a lot more before I do that, however. For now though it's 12 down, 148 to go!

Wars of the Roses in 28mm

It's a red-letter day! A brand-new project has been started, and I thought I should blog it from the very earliest stages. First came the growing Medieval interest, with my 6mm armies, which was meant to be all about the Hundred Years' War. Then, I noticed my attention was slanting towards the end of the period, and the Wars of the Roses (WotR.) Next, came the Perry Miniatures' box of plastic 28mm figures, which looked marvellous - but I stayed strong, and held off(or went into denial, depending on your take.)

Next, there was The Perfect Captain, who brought out a Campaign game calles 'A Crown of Paper' and then followed it up with a tabletop battle set of rules called 'A Coat of Steel.' This set actually looked increasingly interesting as I read through it, and seemed much more suitable to do in 28mm.

Final straw - Warlord Games did a special offer for a 'Retinue Set' of four Perry Miniatures boxes bundled together, plus free P&P. So, I caved in at long last. They arrived last night, and here's a few snapshots to commemorate the starting project 'acorn' I hope will grow up nice and large - mind you, with 160 figures to keep me busy, I think I can relax on that score!

This fellow shows my planned basing system - figures individually glued to a penny! They are nearly/exactly 20mm in diameter, add a pleasing weight to stabilise the base, plus I can combine them as I wish on a movement tray 'base' of 40mm by 40mm.

A lord with his mini-retinue! By the scaling system of ACOS, this is a relatively minor noble with a group of 240 retainers (or potentially figures enough for 600 levies from Commissions of Array - scales and figures per base vary according to type.)

The working tabletop - assembling takes longer than I expected, but is actually also more enjoyable than I expected too!

The Retinue boxed set from Warlord Games - works out in total to about 34p a figure! Now there's just the minor matter of painting them...

A Coat of Steel

Not really a full post here, but a public service-style notice to any people with an interest in the Wars of the Roses. The Free resource site 'The Perfect Captain' has released a free set of battle rules for Wars of the Roses combats, as part of it's WOTR Campaign game. I'm currently having a look at them, and they seem very interesting - full of period-detail and colour. They're certainly a bit different from the normal run of things, but they've got my interest and I thought I should direct others to them. After all - when they're free, how wrong can you go?