OK,
so it’s only autumn and the discontent is only really a niggle but the phrase
seemed apposite. Yes we’re talking Wars of the Roses here. Now, as fellow
Petains will be aware, I have a reasonably large WOTR collection in 10mm scale
that I game with using Peter Pig’s ‘Bloody Barons’. However, for some time now,
I’ve not been happy with the basing and have been considering a rebase. Don’t
get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the style of basing or the
base dimensions, in fact I rather like the Peter Pig style square bases, no
it’s the actual basing material / colours that I don’t like. The main problem
is that the bases have a sort of camouflage effect that obscures the figures
and with my ageing eyes I really need the figures to ‘pop’. I have actually
bought some replacement bases but I just haven’t settled on an alternative
basing scheme yet.
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| 10mm troops - I know the photo is blurry but then again so are my eyes! |
Anyway
that’s just a long winded way of saying that a WOTR project has been at the
back of my mind for some time now. As it happens a fellow member of ‘the other
club’ also has a 10mm WOTR collection, currently unpainted, but has never
settled on a set of rules. Whilst I really like Bloody Barons, they’re far from
perfect and I have ‘tweaked’ them to better reflect my preconceptions. They do
give a cracking game though and they have been very popular at the club. Are
they just that though – a game? How well do they reflect the warfare of the
time? To be honest, I’m not sure and ultimately I’m not even convinced that the
question can even be answered. However, I do fancy taking a fresh look at the
period and re-examining some of my own preconceptions. Somewhere, buried in the
depths of my war room (aka the garage) I have a notebook containing my thoughts
and ideas on the period but this may be a better way of recording the project.
I also know that some of the Petains are ardent medievalists so hopefully this
will serve as a source of useful discussion points – even if only carried out
in the pub.
So
first off I want to look at some alternative rule systems. For the purposes of
this exercise, or at least to begin with, I shall restrict this study to rules
that are period specific. At the moment I have copies of Poleaxed 2, Bloody
Barons, Tree of Battles, and Coat of Steel plus I have borrowed a copy of, the
snappily titled, ‘For Lords, Tomorrow is a Busy Day’. I’m sure other rule
systems are available but this selection will be more than enough to begin
with.
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Poleaxed
2, Pat McGill and Dave Lanchester, 2001
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“For,
Lords, To-morrow is a Busy Day”, Keith John Warren, 2001
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Bloody
Barons, RFCM, 2005
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The
Tree of Battles, Simon MacDowall, 2012
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