Battle of Tewkesbury - Lion Rampant Set-up

Since the table was already set-up, went ahead and configured the terrain for a Battle of Tewkesbury scenario using Lion Rampant. I took some liberties with the terrain. The units are placed a bit closer - for the photo op; but there is still 12" on either side of the long ends of the table, so they can easily be moved further apart (min. 3" between units rule). Plan to run this game at next year's Enfilade on Saturday ( morning & afternoon periods). It's a ways out, I know, but I like to have things ready early on, then just have to refresh myself with the scenario and rules as the actual date gets closer.

Note the mounted spearmen emerging out of the woods - these will be the troops Edward IV stationed there. In actual game play, they will be able to enter on either side of the short ends of table, about midway - just to give an element of surprise.

I've given up on trying to stay strictly historical with the use of standards and banners. For instance, those of the Earl of Warwick are present at this battle, although he had been killed not long before at Barnet. There were just too many deaths of the nobility between battles, not to mention the switching of sides. That said, I do try to use them with the sides they were, or might've been, on during the battle. Maybe Edward could've used Warwick's standard as he pleased since the earl was dead and his estate was now his.

The Lancastrians from their left. Note the mounted men at arms in the rear as reserve - sporting the Tudor colors - although not present at the battle. Margaret wanted to link up with them before meeting Edward though.

The Lancastrian host from the rear - again from their left flank.

The Yorkists - note the mercenary crossbowmen (in 6-man units) and pikemen on the right flank.

The Yorkists as seen from their left flank. Flemish handgunners (again in 6-man units) on the left flank. The Yorkists have 3 cannon and the Lancastrians only 1 - which they should be happy to have as the Yorkists had captured a lot of their artillery prior to the battle.

So much for now, as I don't plan on a play test for this scenario anytime soon. I just wanted to see how the units fit on the rather small 5X6' table. I wanted to be able to use the same mat for this game as the First Battle of St Albans game. Thanks for dropping by!

Dragon Rampant - Men of the (Pacific North) West vs. Team Orcabusiers

Pics from today's 30 point warband game between the Men of the (Pacific North) West and my buddy Ron's Orcabusiers. Orc's won - despite both warband leaders being killed off. The "Flying" rule is awesome! My earl was jumping all over the place!

We didn't use any of the scenarios from the book - basically played a straight up fight to the death. The only "Fantastical" rule used by the Men of the West warband was the Earl's "Flying" trait - which is really cool for jumping over obstacles - including Attacks.

The Orcabusier warband had two Elite Foot units with missiles, which made the Men of West wary of getting within their missile range.

Men of the Pacific NW archers bravely take on Orcabusier Elite Riders (I know what are they riding?!)

After the archers retreat, the Heroes charge into the Orcabusiers - taking them out after they failed their Courage test.

Lancers wisely staying out of enemy bow range - no they are not hiding!

Warband leader vs. warband leader (both Elite Riders) - round 1

The remnants of the Lancer unit advancing on the Orcabusiers - I kept forgetting I paid for Mounted Missiles.

Men of Pacific NW leader taking on some of the Orcabusier leader's henchmen. See him hiding after retreating from his lost round of combat.

Lancers trying to finish off the Orcabusier leader - which they eventually did.

Man, that dude on the left looks so much like Karl Franz!

Men of the Pacific NW Heroes mounted on demigryphs take on Elite Foot Infantry (they must've been recruited by the Orcabusiers).

My buddy Ron made good use of the "Fearful" trait to lower a couple of his units by 2 points, thereby increasing the total number of units in his warband. It makes sense since the Men of the West with only 4 units, went to half-strength a lot sooner - which affected Courage tests. Anyway, I'm thankful for Ron driving about 50 miles from Silverdale to my place in Puyallup in very rainy weather. A lot to reflect upon and possible redesign ideas for the warband. Thanks for dropping by and hope you enjoy the pics - it was a fun game.

Battle of Bosworth Field Set Up

Some staged shots of what I had intended to host at next year's Enfilade convention - Battle of Bosworth using Lion Rampant. However, the set up (trying to stay historical) seems a bit boring - not really enough natural terrain features for the rules, IMO. I'm thinking of switching to the Battle of Tewkesbury. This would have a bit more terrain, as well as hidden movement of some cavalry. More to follow.

The view atop Ambion Hill with Richard III's forces. The lone Earl of Northumberland figure represents his retinue - which did not take part in the battle.

The view from Henry Tudor's right - with the forces of Lord Stanley to the left of the marshy area where Richard would meet his fate.

Richard's army from the left.

Henry Tudor's forces with mercenary crossbowmen on his left flank.

Richard's forces from the right flank.

I'm pretty sure the scenario would play out, but it would be mostly a head to head scrum. Possibly a special rule to activate Lord Stanley's forces would make it a little bit more interesting. Anyway, I hope to re-set the table for a Tewkesbury scenario. BTW, I gave up trying to stay totally historical with the banners and standards. The noble households were switching sides or dying out far too often.

A Couple More Perry WotR Artillery

These are the two cannon which my buddy Ron sold me dirt cheap a few weeks ago at the Lion Rampant game day. He only had 4 crewmen, so I ended up converting a couple of plastic left-over figures from the Mercenary box. Instead of 4 crew per gun, only 3 are used.

Painted up one crew as Burgundians and the other one in generic red livery.

You may note that the single arc cannon crew has a guy holding the breech, and the cannon itself already has one in place. I messed up which crew was going to which gun, but didn't want to repaint the figure. Maybe he's got a spare...but, then the double-arc cannon doesn't have one at all!

The Burgundian livery sort of sets off the red painted cannon.

 

There are now 4 cannon which could be used in a Bosworth scenario - all sitting atop Ambion Hill facing Henry Tudor's army. Still need to come up with a way to use them in Lion Rampant. Possibly, they'll only be allowed to fired once every other turn - if successfully activated on 6+.

Now that all of the figures and models are painted, it'll be time to set up a table to see how they'll look for a Bosworth game. Thanks for stopping by and hope you're having a nice hobby day!

Perry European Mercenaries - Talabheim, er...I mean Lübeck Pikes

This is the last of the three units to be built from the Perry European Infantry 1450-1500 'Mercenaries' box. These are again painted up in simple livery - red and white, which appears to have been a somewhat popular color combination, as not only the Holy Roman Empire city state of Lübeck wore them, but some Italian cities also.

The pikes are angled back so that they will clear the low profile drawer that they'll be stored and transported in.

Just 12 figures, enough for one more unit for Lion Rampant games, but they should add some color and flavor to the table. It would be neat if this set came with enough pikes for all 40 figures.

As these are pikemen, they all wear some type of body armor - plate, brigandine and padded jackets.

They pikes would be part of Edward IV's army for Barnet or Tewkesbury, and possibly in Henry Tudor's force as Frenchmen in a Bosworth scenario.

There are 4 leftover figures which I may use to flesh out artillery crews for a pair of cannon that I picked up at the Lion Rampant game day. My buddy Ron sold me, dirt cheap, two WotR cannon, but they only had a couple of crew each. He also threw in mounted WotR characters - less horses. Perry sells separate plastic WotR horses, so this will not be a problem if I get around to painting them.

The same livery being worn by kids at a local carnival.

Thanks for stopping by, and hope you all are enjoying the hobby!

Perry European Mercenaries - Averland, er...Uri Crossbowmen

These are the crossbowmen from the box of European Infantry 1450-1500 'Mercenaries.' Wanted them in fairly simple, but also eye-catching livery, and settled on the yellow and black scheme of the Swiss canton of Uri. Troops from Uri participated in many battles, including the Battle of Sempach in 1386 to the Battle of Marignano in 1515. They also were on the winning side at the Battle of Kappel in 1531 during the Reformation in Switzerland. Oh, and the livery is also that of Averland...

The figures were block painted, then given a Minwax stain, followed by Testors Dullcote, and finally a bit of highlighting.

Not sure if they participated in any Wars of the Roses battles, but wanted the livery to stand out against the usual English colors of reds and blues.

They can also be part of a Dragon Rampant warband, since there was interest after the Lion Rampant game day last week.

A mixture of white, black and blue was used to highlight the black. Adding a bit of blue gives it a nicer tone, in my opinion, than a gray if only black and white is used.

So far, I've had good results using 3 figures per 40mm squares. They speed up movement and only need 2 casualty markers before removing the entire base.

The last unit from the box are the 12 pikemen. Not sure what livery colors to paint them as, but only a little will be showing as they are more heavily armored.

Perry Mercenaries - Burgundian Handgunners

Finally decided to order a box of Perry "'Mercenaries' - European Infantry 1450-1500." These have been out for some years, so most will know it comes with 40 figures which can be made up into pikemen, crossbowmen and handgunners. You can also convert most of the pikes into halberd/polearms. Here are the handgunners painted up as Burgundians. Figured they could be used in a few scenarios, not the least being the Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, when Edward returned with a group of these guys on loan from his brother in law the Duke of Burgundy.

Most of the bodies of this set are the same ones from the Wars of the Roses Infantry box. There are different heads, and arms, of course. There are a couple of nice fluted Kettle Helms - sometimes called a Burgundian Kettle Helm.

I plan to use them in units of 6 figures as a blend of Crossbowmen (normally 12 figures in Lion Rampant) and Bidower skirmishers (normally 6 figures). This should make them fairly effective in Shooting, but otherwise brittle.

Charles the Bold's death at the Battle of Nancy in 1477, would make the presence of these guys at Bosworth (1485) unlikely, however, they'll be used nonetheless. Maybe a few hardcore mercenary types kept their livery.

Here's what they looked like before staining with Minwax. Actually, the can of Minwax must've not been sealed tight as the stain had a 1/8" thick film covering it when the can was opened. I added some thinner to the thickened remainder of the stain, but it isn't as good as it was before. I ended up adding some ink/stain wash over the faces and the red and orange clothing. Highlighting helped out a bit too.

Next up are the Crossbowmen. Thinking of painting them up as Swiss Mercenaries in yellow and black.