The Battle of Northampton

10th July 1460

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This battle like the others in the series was played using the Bloody Baron rules and taken from the scenarios at the rear of the book. As ever my opponent Andy took the role of the Yorkists and I played the Lancastrians.

 

This scenario is of particular interest to me as I currently work in Northampton. The site of the battlefield is no longer visible as it would have been to the opponents of the day and it takes a great deal of imagination to be able to see through the railway line and modern buildings that now run through the site.

 

The game has some special rules to deal with the treachery that was dealt to the Lancastrian force that day. Lord Grey can not be relied upon and every turn a dice is rolled to see if he and the two closest units to him join the York's cause. This is a 33% chance with Andy needing to throw a 5 or a 6 on a D6.

 

The start of the game is as follows: -

King Henry can only move along the base line and as he is a 4 general (in BB the best is 0, worse being a 4) his role was very limited in the game.

 

The plan for my forces was to get Lord Grey in amongst the Yorkist force as soon as possible. This would mean that if he turned then at least the troops that he was with would have had some turns attacking my enemy. This plan back fired as will soon be seen…..

Andy made some good motivation roles and action points were forth coming for his two flanks. Warwick however was less successful and made little progress in getting his troops forward in the first turn. A Heavy gun is amongst the first casualty to archery fire and they do little in return as getting the action points to fire is a tough job needing a 4, 5 or 6 on a D6 rather than the normal 3AP. (Another rule to represent the poor weather). The one advantage for the defender is that the clock moved quicker as the real battle started at 2pm and so there were less turns. The shot below is a close up of the remaining Heavy gun just between Grey and Shrewsbury’s forces.

The following Overview shows the charge by Grey’s troops and the resultant melee which was soon lost. In hindsight Grey should have joined his troops and helped hold the units from breaking. Andy benefited from having plenty of supporting troops and his Household troops did a sterling job.

The Duke of Buckingham was trying to get his Household troops into action against the weakened troops of the Earl of March but his AP and motivation rolls were none too good. His Levy unit also failed their morale and soon left the  field.

 

Shrewsbury troops did manage some success with their archery and managed to deplete several units with their accurate fire. Andy was not doing very well with his dice rolls for Grey and he was still loyal to the King despite losing his men. The pictures below are Grey with his last unit facing odds that would mean the end to the Retinue and the death of Grey.

 

However, Grey is reborn as the rules state that Grey will come back and it is assumed that it was not Grey leading the troops at that stage of the battle. So Andy still got to roll the dice for treachery and still failed to make the roll required….

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