Rally to to the Standards

Part of the pomp and pageantry of a medieval wargame are heraldic flags and standards on display. Whilst I have identified the key protagonists on all sides for the Battle of Exeter I have noticed that there is a lack of heraldic flags.

I have trawled through my reference books, particularly those published by Freezywater Publishing. So far I have identified the following individuals who I almost certainly use to add variety and colour to the battle lines.

Sir Thomas Vaughan (Buckingham)
Sir William Alington (Richard III)
Sir Richard Beauchamp (Buckingham)
Sir John Babington (Buckingham)
Sir Henry de Bodrugan (Richard III)
Sir Thomas Granville (Richard III)
Sir Ralph Greystoke ( Richard III)
Sir Edward Carew (Tudor)
Sir Philip Courtenay (Richard III)
Sir Walter Courtenay (Buckingham)
Sir John Dynham (Richard III)
Sir Richard Corbett (Tudor)
Sir Thomas Kynaston (Tudor)
Sir Giles Talbot (Tudor)
Sir Giles Daubney (Tudor)
Sir John Sayntlo (Buckingham)
Sir James Blount (Buckingham)
Sir Hugh Peshall (Buckingham)
Sir John Brooke (Richard III)
Sir John Risley (Tudor)
Sir James Tyrell (Richard III)
Sir Robert Willoughby (Buckingham)
Sir George Brown (Buckingham)
Sir Nicholas Gaynesford (Buckingham)
Sir John Norbury (Richard III)
Sir Thomas St. Leger (Buckingham)
Sir Thomas Lewknor (Buckingham)

In addition to these heraldic flags I will also include livery banners of the key factions. This will, I hope, create another dynamic to the battle aesthetics and add a little confusion to the players who take part in the game. They'll have to keep their eyes open. More on that in future post.

If anyone out there has any suggestions for other individuals who may have been able to take part in my fictitious battle please let me know and leave a comment, including what their heraldic flag looked like.

Battle of Exeter Part III

Since the end of August there has been no movement on this project due to house renovations (see previous post!). Now that we are moved in there is still plenty of work to be done...but I also have Salute 2016 in mind. That may seem along time away but I am a methodical man and I need to spread my costs.

Things to consider;

• Painting of 692 miniatures plus any vignettes
• Making a 10' x 6' of wargames terrain
• Making a small part of the city of Exeter, including the bridge

I am looking at having this ready for January next year, which averages out at 16 miniatures a week approximately.

Time I got a shift on then!

Beaufort's Waterloo

A couple of weeks ago I ran another game of A Coat of Steel at my local wargames club (The Jersey Privateers). Fortunately I was able to run the game with the same players as the battle of Sodbury Marsh. In the interim time between meetings I re-read the rules too to identify where mistakes had been made. The game ran smoothly, much better than the previous game. All in all it was an extremely bloody affair.

I pitched the game in the earlier years of the conflict, the year was a 1459 and Richard, Duke of York was facing off against the 3rd Duke of Somerset. Both armies were high in morale, perhaps too high for the battle. This is an area that I am looking at more carefully. Units with high courage will last along time, and this makes for a bloody affair when engaged in close combat.

The Lancastrians pretty much ran across to meet the Yorkist line. They dispensed with bow fire completely. I did think that they were going to have to return fire on one occasion, but they passed the necessary check.

Meanwhile the Yorkists poured bow and cannon fire on them. This was made ineffectual due to the prevailing winds. Perhaps God favoured the rash! The melee that ensued was a complete bloodbath, with Richard taking a wound and the Yorkist main ward losing their prop. However the Duke of Somerset met his demise in the latter stages of the battle. Despite this the Lancastrians held their nerve and kept on fighting to the bitter end.

It was an enjoyable afternoon with plenty of positive feedback, which I am really pleased about. I look forward to the next game. In fact one of the more seasoned gamers brought up his collection of DBA based War of the Roses miniatures for me to take a look at. He went away with the base sizes I use so hopefully in the not to distant future some larger games may be played.

Battle of Sodbury Marsh

Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of entertaining a few friends with a 15mm War of the Roses battle. It was a fictional encounter between Edward the IV and the old Earl of Oxford. The rules of choice were A Coat of Steel by the Perfect Captain. I hadn't used the rules for quite some time, however once play was underway the mechanics came back to me. Only one of the players had used the rules before but they all got with the rules pretty well.

I took a few photos with my ipad and I am reasonably pleased with the results. I haven't written up a detailed account of the battle as I am pushed for time. What I can say is the Lancastrians gave them a good shock initially, but after some time the more heavily armoured Royal army began to tell.