Battle Report Towton 29th March 1461

 Having got a better grasp of the Command & Colors Medieval rules, Will and I decided to have another go at a game.  This time we chose the battle of Towton with the two armies drawn up on the table:

I played the Lancastrians, nearest to the camera, who kicked off the battle in the usual way with each side's archers raining arrows on the other.  The Lancastrians were more successful, causing casualties and forcing some of the Yorkists back.

The Yorkists began to push forward on the Lancastrian left, but this advance was blunted by Lancastrian archers followed up by a swift cavalry charge.

Over on the right some Yorkist cavalry advanced towards their enemy, but a counter charge saw them pushed back.

On the left, a second advance by the Yorkists pushed the Lancastrians back, but was held off and the assault was forced to retire.

The battle then swung over to the Lancastrian right as they began a major attack by heavy infantry, supported by archers and cavalry.

This attack gained momentum forcing the Yorkists back causing them serious casualties.

A similar attack by the Lancastrians in the centre was equally successful.

A major battle developed on the Yorkist left which soon began to crumble.  Sustaining heavy casualties the Yorkists began to flee the filed.  A win for the Lancastrians.

Having mastered the rules the result was a fun, fast moving and enjoyable game. The figures are all from the collection of the late Alan Cook - and how splendid they look!

Battle Report - Mortimer's Cross 2 February 1461

Will came over for  a game yesterday and for a change, we thought we would have a go at a Medieval battle using the Command & Colors set of rules.  Looking through various sources I selected the battle of mortimer's cross as, what appeared to be, a fairly balanced deployment with few features on the ground.

The troops were laid out as shown here, with the Yorkists at the top and Lancastrians nearest to the camera.  I wasn't sure of the various banners so it may be we had some of the wrong troops fighting for the two sides - but they often changed sides during the Wars of the Roses.  Of note is the low hill and woods on the left and the marshes top right in the low ground leading down to the River Lugg.:

The Lancastrians opened the battle with several volleys of arrows, which were returned by the Yorkists:

This was followed by a major Lancastrian advance of cavalry and men-at-arms, supported by archers, to take the high ground on their left:

Initially this went well, but a Yorkist counter attack quickly blunted the advance:

The die were not working well for the Lancastrians, who began to suffer heavily, and importantly began to lose cohesion.  In this version of C&C cohesion is very important in preventing units from breaking.

Also at this point we realised that we had been interpreting some of the rules incorrectly and made adjustments as required.

In order to try and draw off troops from the Yorkist counter attack, the Lancastrians advanced on the their right flank between the road and the river.  This move was countered by some cavalry and infantry, as Lancastrian heavy knights pushed into the Yorkist line:

The battle on the right flank went on for several turns with the advantage swinging back and forth.  However, having lost heavily the Lancastrians cleared this side of the field.  Here is an overview of the battle at this point:

However, despite the small victory on their right, the Lancastrians were in big trouble.  The left was crumbling and casualties continued to mount and the Yorkist advance continued:

Then it was all over, the Lancastrians collapsed and began streaming from the field, with cohesion lost and having been forced into fighting a number of isolated actions against a solid Yorkist line:

The battle turned out to be very enjoyable, after a stuttering start as we began to better understand the rules.  The final tally was a 6 - 4 win for the Yorkists  - I played the Lancastrians :-(

The figures, mostly Perry 28mm, were largely painted and based by the late Alan Cook and it was a real joy to see his troops back on the table once more.

We adjourned for lunch, after which we played another game - the battle of Towton.  More on this soon.