The Battle of Wakefield

30th December 1460

Page 1

 

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.

 

The game represents one of the bloody episodes in the War of the Roses where Richard Plantagenet the Duke of York is lured out of  Sandal Castle and his force slaughtered. There is debate about if this was a planned ambush or if it was something that came about un-intentionally.

 

The game caused some upset and it poses some questions about the rule system that might require a few tweaks. I will leave these questions to the end of the AAR.

 

As ever here is the overview and where everything started: -

There are some special rules with the scenario.

 

1. James Butler the Earl of Wiltshire and his force can not move until turn 3. We did allow him to fire but not move.

2. Richard Neville Earl of Salisbury was a late arrival and his Levy and Retinue would require a 5 or 6 on a D6 to appear.

3. The Forage party of the Levy has 1 AP in turn one and then free motivation in turns 2 and 3.

4. The attacker and hence the starting player is the Yorkist side. This threw both myself and Andy as we had thought this was an Ambush. I can understand the logic that the Yorkist Forces are the attacker as this was in effect a Cavalry charge lead by Richard to rescue some of his forces.

5. In turns 1 & 2 Richard can add 2 AP to any unit he is with.

 

So the first turn (and in truth) most turns after Andy had some stunning motivation and Action Point rolls that allowed him plenty of action. So the first turn saw Andy line his Cavalry up facing the majority of the Lancastrian force and the side that could start moving straight away.

 

The picture below shows the arrival of Edmund and more Household Cavalry.  (Peter Pig Figures)

The Lancastrian forces on turn one make some bad rolls and only manage to get a fraction of the force on the move out of the woods and ready to advance on turn two. Or so they thought!

The Yorkist leaders again motivate their forces well and the thunder of horse hooves head towards the Lancastrian lines. The picture below is Edmunds force hitting home.

Then Richard Duke of York’s Household Cavalry hit home to the left of Edmund

The Cavalry win through and take few hits on them. When I do land some archery hits the saving roll of 3+ on a D6 is easily rolled by Andy who was on fire that night with his dice. There is perhaps a case that Cavalry should not benefit from the Household bonus to represent the easier target of the horse?  The following picture shows the loss of the two retinue units in pretty quick order.

The follow up from the Lancastrian leaders was pitiful and Motivation and Action Points were lacking. This was in part due to Levy units being in woods that are harder to Motivate and get moving as they lose an Action point because they are Levy and also it costs 2 Action points to get them to move. So you need a 3 plus on a D6 to get any movement out of them.