After a two-year hiatus, the first gathering of Doug Rain's War of the Roses campaign took place Saturday at the club. The War of the Roses campaign is a meshing of the Hordes of the Things (HOTT) miniature rules and the Avalon Hill board game Kingmaker, which was first published in the mid 1970s. The rules are lovingly called "The Bastards of St Aubins" and ten CSGA members are vying to make their liege King of England. Six knights (bastards?) of the realm led their armies into battle looking to lead their men to victory in the first battle of the campaign. When the battle ended, the forces of the House of York held the field of battle and claimed victory. Below is a recap of the first season of battle by our humble scribe Doug Rains:
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England 1455 A.D.
Spring
There has been great unrest in England since King Henry VI came to the throne. The House of York is demanding his abdication and seeks to replace him with one of the Yorkist heirs to the throne. The House of Lancaster is of course adamant in their opposition to this move. King Henry may be a rotten king but he is their king. In haste a week past, levies were called up on both sides and a preemptive battle was fought. Due to the rushed nature of the call only 6 of the 10 Bastards of St. Albans were able to arrive in time for the onslaught.
The House of Lancaster was represented by Sir Andrew of Plume, C-I-C, Sir Jeffery of Meadow Park and Sir Douglas of Monteagle.
The House of York was represented by Sir Robert of Elmwood, C-I-C, Sir Luis de la Rochelle and Sir Joseph of Churchwood.
Having control of both the most Towns and Bishops, the Yorkists chose the favored ground and forced the House of Lancaster to deploy first. The Lancastrians deployed with Sir Jeffery on the chroniclers left, Sir Andrew in the center and Sir Douglas on the right. York then deployed with Sir Robert on the chroniclers left, Sir Luis in the center and Sir Joseph on the right.
The forces of Lancaster quickly advanced while the Yorkists stalled and held their ground for the first couple of turns. As the Lancastrians approached the center of the field Sir Luis moved forward to challenge Sir Andrew while Sir Jeffery and Sir Douglas had to continue forward attempting to engage Sir Robert and Sir Joseph. In the center Sir Luis attacked strongly but in the end was beaten back. Sir Andrew suffered several minor breakdowns in which there was much babbling about traitors in between which he commanded his host in much the same manner as the fabled King Arthur. Single elements were repeatedly dispatched into single heroic combat the results of which were disappointing to the rest of the Lancastrian forces. Casualties were taken. On the right Sir Douglas attacked into a strong position held by Sir Joseph. Despite excellent use of his Hobilars to tie up 4 elements of Sir Joseph’s host Sir Douglas was unable to move Sir Joseph’s line. It should be noted that while Sir Joseph is really only a shopkeeper dressed up as a knight and has little battlefield acumen he does evidently pay his troops well. Sir Joseph’s troops held the line in several cases where they had been outmaneuvered and were in dire peril of destruction only to throw back Sir Douglas’ troops with losses. As these losses mounted Sir Douglas dispatched a messenger to Sir Andrew suggesting that it might be in Lancaster’s interest if he attacked with his entire host. Sir Andrew did endeavor to involve all of his forces from this point on. Alas it was too late. On the left, (Your chronicler begs your indulgence for the brevity of this portion of the account. From his position on the far right it was difficult to see exactly what was happening.) Sir Jeffery hotly engaged Sir Robert. It is far from clear but evidently engaging in mathematical wizardry and running rough shod over the established rules of war, the canny Sir Robert bamboozled Sir Jeffery on 6 or 8 occasions causing casualties and pushing Sir Jeffery’s forces back to the Lancastrian edge where they were broken and entirely fled the field with the exception of a couple Knights and Billmen. With the loss of Sir Jeffery’s army and the combined casualties from Sir Andrew and Sir Douglas the Lancastrian forces broke and exited the field of battle. However, in one last shining moment of gallantry, one of Sir Douglas’ Billmen cut the legs from under Sir Joseph’s Charger. In the scramble to rescue their paymaster Sir Joseph’s bodyguard left Duke George of Clarence ( 3rd heir to York) unguarded and he was quickly captured by Sir Douglas’ Retainers who then fled the field with the Duke.
In the parlay following the battle, the Yorkists gathered to proclaim their victory but were unable to do any further damage to Lancaster as they had not captured any of the Heirs to Lancaster. Sir Robert, as the victorious C-I-C promoted Sir Luis and (surprisingly) Sir Andrew to Baronet.
The Yorkists then called a Parliament to elect Duke Richard of York as an alternate King to Henry. This was quickly voted down by the attending Lancastrians. Don’t call Parliament if you don’t have any votes.
Respectfully,
Your Chronicler