Some photos of our latest War of the Roses battle

At the weekend I played my second game of Impetus using my dads now fully rebased War of the Roses armies. I am pleased to say i preformed much better than my last outing with this rule set and had a much better understanding of how the game mechanics worked. I did still make one or two errors due to me misunderstanding the odd rule, so the game proved to be a much closer affair. I took command of Henrys army this time and fought out a draw with my Dad taking command of King Richards army. At one stage of the game it looked might I might kill Richard as he became caught up in a melee with some Halberdiers only to be flanked by a unit of light cavalry, however his Knights entourage proved very stubborn and they protected their King ensuring he survived the battle, as for Henry he will have to wait until next time to claim the Crown as his own! Here are some action shots of the game:

A very unsuccessful first game of Impetus

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  

The two armies close for the final action of the game

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.