A Bloody Battle with Bloody Barons

 This week we left the deserts of Africa behind for the green green grass of home. It was to be the first appearance. at the club, of my 10mm WOTR collection, since their lockdown rebase.

I also wanted to try out a few ideas with the game set up.

First off, the table would be 6ft square: in theory, the rules are designed for a 4 by 3ft table but I have found that, for my tastes, a 6 by 4ft playing area works better. The extra 2ft depth, used here, was to trial a square table which would help with table set up.

I'm not a great fan of using a points system and, as I provide both sides, we're limited by what's in my figure collection anyway. Instead, sides are allocated by using a system of unit cards. Each side receives a core force of 1 Household, 2 Retinue and 2 Levy units each. To this are added 8 units randomly drawn from the deck of unit cards. Some of these are blank and any understrength forces (through drawing blank cards) are brought up to strength by drawing cards from a mercenary deck. Finally, both sides draw a card from an ordnance deck to see if they have brought any guns along.

Similarly, to speed things up I have a number of pre-generated generals that are also allocated at random. For this game, Lord Pea, the Earl of Waldridge and Count Catchmole would take on the Earl of Dawlish, Lord Sacriston and Lord Whippersnapper.

Whereas, the Earl of Dawlish mustered a fairly solid force of bow and bill, with the support of light and heavy guns, Lord Pea was forced to hire Scots mercenaries and was without Ordnance.

I'm not a great fan of the so-called Piggy Chase and much preferred the method of allocating attackers and defenders used in version 1 of the rules. Hence, I have added an attack / defence category to the 'Scenario' section of the pregame and upped the available dice to 32 (from 26D6). Using this method, Lord Pea was to be the defender.

As another time saver, I scrapped the terrain generation system (which I'm not convinced gives realistic set ups in any case) and instead diced for which of the historical battlefields we would use. The defender gets to choose which of the four map edges would be his deployment area (hence the advantage of a square table). In this instance, the battle area would be the Hedgely Moor battlefield, with Lord Pea electing to deploy where the Lancastrians historically deployed.

Lord Pea and the Earl of Waldridge took the centre and Count Catchmole headed for the hills on the right. On the far left the Scots deployed to secure Pogle's Wood.

Initial deployment with Lord Pea's forces on the left.

After carrying out defender depletions, it transpired that the maximum of 3 defender's units were placed off-table in the reinforcement zone. This included a unit of Scots. As this zone did not contain a general, they were going to have their work cut out in this sector.

What's worse is that Lord Pea had decided to advance this zone to secure the wood. The Earl of Dawlish advanced his strong centre, including all his artillery.

Dawlish advances. In the distance the Scots hide in the woods.

Artillery centre and Dawlish's units with bows curiously ranked behind the bill.

Depleted Scots occupy the wood

Predictably, the battle began with long range archery and artillery fire. Dawlish's men were on form and Waldridge's ward was horribly battered by artillery fire. They promptly broke, fleeing the table and taking Waldridge with them.

Waldridge in trouble

Archery duel across the front

Luckily, with so many troops waiting in the reinforcement area, Waldridge was able to return with fresh troops and fill the gap.

Waldridge once more into the fray

Lord Pea holds the centre

Catchmole's ward throw their opponents into disarray

So far everything had gone Dawlish's way and sensing an easy win he attacked all along the line. Only to be repulsed all along the line.

Waldridge demonstrates his prowess in combat

This was certainly a reversal of fortune and in following moves both of Dawlish's 2 left hand wards routed.

The action was so hot, at this point, that I forgot to take photos! Another attack went in from Dawlish's remaining 2 wards on his right. Against all odds, the depleted and unsupported Scots, in the woods, through back all comers. Lord Pea also threw back another attack but was killed in the process.

This necessitated moving generals over from the stabilised right to prop up Pea's beleaguered and disarrayed ward. Waldridge moved to take command and Catchmole took over Waldridge's former ward. Unfortunately, for Waldridge, Dawlish seized the opportunity to attack, sweeping the opposition from the field; Waldridge falling in the process.

Pea's ward in trouble

At this point we called a halt due to the lateness of the hour. We had reached about 26 on the battle clock (out of a possible 32), so the battle was close to the end in any case.

Close of play

This was a very hard fought battle and could have gone either way. Despite their unlucky pregame and early moves, Lord Pea's forces did actually win most of their combats. At the end everything was still to play for - Pea still had several units in the reinforcement area - but the valiant deaths of both Pea and Waldridge probably swung the balance. Special mention must go to the Scots who held the wood all game - granted they were down to a mere 1.5 bases by the end but they had seen off multiple attacks.

A cracking game, and I'm pleased with the revised pre-game set up. I think we'll stick to a 6 by 4 table next time though, if only for the sake of my back

We played this with 2 players but I do think it will stretch to 2 per side. There was a surprising amount going on in the game, certainly enough to keep 4 players occupied.