Re-fight Bosworth (Again) using Midgard

 Mark wanted to know if Midgard rules were any good for Wars of the Roses, so I invited him over to try them out. As we had all day I thought I'd revisit James Morris' Bosworth scenario.

I took Richard III and Mark had Henry Tudor and the Stanley brothers (if they could be bothered to join in). I tweaked the original scenario so that the Stanleys would only remain neutral or join Henry Tudor. Looking at the historical situation and political machinations going on behind the scenes, I do not personally believe that Lord Stanley would ever have attacked his stepson in support of Richard III. 

TURN ONE

Henry Tudor's forces advance across the whole front. Richard's forces sat on the hill waiting for them, whilst their gonnes shot some serious holes in one of the French mercenary unit's forcing them to retire. Richard repositioned his reserve cavalry to face off against Tudor's horsemen.

On the far flank the Earl of Northumberland was remarkably active, managing to move almost all his troops forward into the marsh in front of them.

TURN TWO

Tudor's men kept up their advance and started bombarding the hilltop with arrows, the Yorkists replying in kind. Both sides suffered losses, but the Yorkist gonnes inflicted more casualties on the French pikemen. Now one of Tudor's strongest melee units was on the point of collapse, brfore a blow could be struck!

Northumberland's archers were reluctant to move out of the marsh, what with loads on mounted men-at-arms in front of them (who could blame them), so they just shot at long ranges, fairly ineffectively.

Stanley's command decided to wait things out for a bit longer and see what happened.

TURN THREE

Tudor's advance petered out and both side kept up their archery exchanges, with more losses on both sides, each seeing a unit of bowmen destroyed. Felling unthreatened my Northumberland, the leading Tudor cavalry charged the Yorkist men-at-arms and forced them back in a fierce melee.

In an effort to step the tide, Richard III rushed forward to join in the melee. His presence in the thick of things obviously encouraged his men who managed to fight the Tudor cavalry to a standstill.

While the intact French pike block kept advancing, a unit of Oxford's bowmen moved up to shield the shot-up pike unit from the guns.

TURN FOUR

For the most part the two sides just kept up an exchange of archery. The French pike charged up the hill to contact one of the gonnne units, which we both expected to be a walkover. However, the dice gods were smiling on the House of York, so the Frenchmen were sent reeling back down the hill.

Northumberland's bowmen continued with their ineffective long range shooting, whilst their men-at-arms and billmen started moving around the marsh to link up with the flank of the Yorkist troops on the hill.

In the first melee round of the cavalry fight, Richard's personal influence seemed to be enough to swing thiungs back to the Yorkist side, as the Tudor cavalry finally dissolved, leaving the hillside littered with fallen men and horses.

This allowed Richard to pull his worn cavalry back and move up the fresh unit from behind them to face the Tudor line. Finally a really rubbish die roll meant that the Stanleys still sat on the side-lines.

TURN FIVE

Again the French launched themselves up the hill against the gonnes only to be thrown back a second time (to the surprise of both players!). Another Yorkist bow unit succumbed to the Tudor barrage, so both sides were getting low on their Reputation score.

In the Yorkist phase I took a chance and threw Norkfolk's melee units down the hill, supported my my final unit of the cavalry reserve. If nothing else it boosted my Reputation score! Luck was with the House of York once again and the charges pushed the Tudor line back.

Over by the marsh, Northumberland's heavy infantry had finally got into a position to support the struggling Yorkists on that end of the hill. We ended the turn with Tudor on 2 Reputation to Richard's 6. If the Stanleys joined him now, even if they could not reach the action in time to play an active roll, the Reputation boost would even things. Unfortunately, they elected to sit tight once again!

TURN SIX

For the third time the French pike charged the gonnes and this time they over-ran the positions and skewered the gunners. However on either side of the them they Tudor units disappeared and the slow attrition of the melee caught up with them. The final bow fell in the Yorkist phase, as Richard led his last cavalry unit down the hill into Tudor lines and destroyed the bill unit in front of them!

The last phase of the turn is to roll for the Stanleys, who, as expected, decided to stay out of the carnage.

The final result at the end of Turn Six, Richard has 4 Reputation to Henry Tudor's -11! An overwhelming victory to the House of York.

A great game, we both had a lot of fun and things swung back and forth constantly. It was only in the later part of Turn 5 that the advantage clearly started to be with Richard III. Even then, if the Stanleys had come in on Tudor's side at this late stage, it could have changed things.

Mark's verdict on the rules, a resounding thunbs up!!!