My Dad has rebased his Henry VII and Richard III war of the Roses armies to use with Impetus rules so I was offered a game at the weekend to try the rules out for the first time. I took control of the Kings army and was duely given a right pasting from my dad controlling Henrys force. I'm not to familiar with the period and although the rules were easy enough to pick up as the game went on, tactatlly I was found wanting. I made so many rookie mistakes I don't think I could fit it on to this page :) if I could play the game over again I would do things very differently, very differently indeed!
My first mistake was splitting my forces on deployment, my left flank ended up playing No part in the game when I should have had my archers in the thick of the action.
The Kings army ready for battle
Henrys battle line at the start of the game
The early warning signs were there to see as all of Norforks units became disordered due mostly to failing movement tests.
A wall of arrows was to greet Richards men in the centre of the battlefield as the bill men retinue waited behind.
My attack in the centre faulted Badly as I found out how effective closing fire can be as my Halberdiers were shot up and then easily beaten in combat off the archers after becoming disordered. Also my attack was way to isolated and uncoordinated.
On my right flank Norfolks troops exchanged bow fire with some sucess against Oxfords archers although my dad caught me out of position when he charged his Billmen through his own archers to smash mine on the hill. My archers after been well beaten were destroyed as I had troops in base contact behind them. I'm used to getting support from troops in this position in Hail Ceaser but not in this rule set, so I had made another major mistake
After my Archers are destroyed my Billmen retinue also break when my Dads Billmen sweep into them following the defeat of my archers
Henry's men look on as Richards army collapses into full Rout!
At the end of the game all that remains of my army is Northumberlands troops on the left flank who played next to no part in the game.
King Richard leads by example by heading the army as they are in full rout!
The victorious Henry VII and his dismounted Knights capture the Kings personal tent and baggage
As I said at the beginning of my post I was trounced in this game and it turned out to be a very bad day at the office. The rules really caught me out and I misjudged a lot of things throughout the game, Although I did aid to my own downfall with some very poor tactical decisions from the outset. However the rules were easy enough to understand as the game wore on and i enjoyed using them despite my heavy defeat. I will definetly benefit from playing a different set of rules away from the Blackpowder/hail Ceaser game mechanics and next time I'll be better prepared so Henry's troops don't have another strol in the park as they did this time round.
I find the Impetus rules to be very satisfying if you use historical deployment and tactics. It takes a while to get used to the abstraction of the morale test after combat, but I find games play out like an ancient battle with no cheesy/gamey elements
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