Thursday, March 23, 2023
Medieval additions
Thursday, March 16, 2023
Test of Resolve Rules review
Test of Resolve Rules Review
The War of the Roses always has been an interest of mine, but I have not really found a set of Rules that reflect the combat of the period. Recently I had David Knight one of the authors of the new Test of Resolve rules visit and he bought along his rules. We played 8 games over two days plus visited the Mad War chateaux and the battlefield of Saint Aubin du Cormier in Brittany.
The rules are simple to follow and use a card driven mechanism for your turn, the units have simple formations and act how exactly how they should, archers, levy and MAA, plus mounted MAA options. You can easily build an army if you follow the basing recommended. The games are very rapid and you can easily complete a game in under two hours. The biggest bonus though are the scenario books which have every major conflict during the war, plus the rebellions and baron squabbles after.
I would highly recommend them for those who are after a rapid war game that plays like a medieval battle. The research is excellent and I think the scenarios books are fabulous. The rules are available on Amazon.
Monday, January 16, 2023
Marguerite of Anjou
La rose rouge d'Anjou
Monday, August 30, 2021
Edward Woodville the last Knight Errant, Breton Guerre Folle - Mad War
The Last Knight Errant Edward Woodville
Edward Woodville Lord scales |
English Billmen lead by Edward Woodville |
Rear English Billmen |
Edward Woodville, known as Lord Scales by both the French and Spanish but he never held the title, tenth child of Richard Woodville 1st Earl Rivers. The Family initially supported the Lancastrians the changed allegiances to the house of York when his sister Elizabeth Woodville married King Edward IV.
Monday, March 29, 2021
Longbow vs Armour 1418 English Longbow Myth
English longbow myth busted
Video presented by Todds Workshop
Can arrows defeat armour?
Friday, March 12, 2021
French Bandes d'Infanterie Pike Guerre Folle 1488
French Bandes d'Infanterie Pikemen
"walk the battlefield in the morning, wargame in the afternoon"™
From Caesar to World War Two
Thursday, March 4, 2021
War of the Roses look out for the billhooks 3
War of the Roses Mounted MAA
"walk the battlefield in the morning, wargame in the afternoon"™
From Caesar to World War Two
Friday, February 26, 2021
War of the Roses.....look out for the bill hooks 2
War of the Roses Men at Arms
"walk the battlefield in the morning, wargame in the afternoon"™
From Caesar to World War Two
Friday, February 12, 2021
War of the Roses.....look out for the billhooks
War of the Roses Cavalry
Completing a small commission for some Perry 28mm WOTR cavalry for the War of the Roses skirmish game Never Mind The Billhooks.
First batch of four Perry Miniatures cavalry, which I think are fabulous sculpts.
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Liveries of the War of the Roses
Compiled Liveries of the War of the Roses
Barry Slemmings, Hobilar Magazine, Lance and Longbow society
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Heavy Metal WOTR Knights
These fine figures are from the Front Rank Range, and have been sitting around for probably 5 years some party painted (the metal work at least), I got them out on the weekend, after making a decision at Cancon to re-base my WOTR army to impetus. I finished the standard bearer and standard off this afternoon as I am away on business for the rest of the week. The standard belongs to Willam FitzAlan the 16th Earl of Arundel.
Two more Knight units to come, one is on the table at the moment and may get done by the weekend, but they are slotted behind some other medieval figs for my Feudal army. So in the coming months expect a deluge of archers and bills as I re-base each unit. My liveried foot knights and standards especially need some work to be completed. I may even need to buy and paint some more figs to increase my army to 300-350 points at least!
Cheers
Matt
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
More WOTR
I was very surprised to see that the Crusader WOTR range fit Perry plastics perfectly and are a pleasure to paint, Andrew also used his spare polearms from the perry plastic sets to add to the crusader figures along with some North Star pikes so he has two units of pike and four polearmed units, I am a little disappointed in the Men at Arms figures but added into a mixed plastic and metal Perry unit it will have some more variation.
My favourite sculpts are the unarmoured Pike/polearmed miniatures, as wargamers playing comps etc we really don't represent the majority of troops on the medieval battlefield, something I will add to my next unit for my WOTR army.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Sir Christopher Moresby Liveried Archers
A stauch Yorkist, Sir Christopher Moresby of Scaleby and Windermere, Cumberland was knighted at Tewkesbury by Edward the IV, he governed the frontier with Scotland from Scaleby Castle until his death in 1495. I plan to finish my figure for Moresby tonight!
cheers
Matt
Sunday, May 15, 2011
1st St Albans
I wanted to capture the main features for our refight of St Albans, so I embarked upon some research of the battle. The main features are the cathedral, the market square with the clock tower and the Great Cross, Hollywell Hill and the church of St Peter. I hunted through my terrain collection and came up with a 20mm Cathedral I use for my Arnhem collection, and I decided to build a tower out of foam card, the rest of the buildings come from my and Greg’s collection. The other main pieces we needed on the table were the three main lanes, Sopwell Lane (London Road), Shropshire (or Butts) Lane (as it lead to the archery butts in Tonman ditch)and New lane all leading off Halliwell street and of course Tonman ditch which was represented by a line of hedges.
I made up the army lists making sure I included the main characters of the battle for the Lancastrians The King HenryVI, The Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland, and Lord Clifford, and for the Yorkist’s The Duke of York, and Earls of Warwick and Salisbury.
After the set up of the tables and the troops which took some time (two hours of chatting) we then went to lunch before a dice was rolled!
Greg commanded the Lancastrians and Bruce and myself the Yorkist’s, basically Greg’s troops defended each of the lanes with a unit of men at arms or billmen behind hasty barriers (needing sixes to hit them)and his Archers defending Tonman ditch hedges(also requiring sixes to hit). The opening three turns began with the massed archery of the Yorkist’s, cutting down large numbers of Lancastrian archers, then the Yorkist billmen advanced, finally contact was made, the Yorkist bill block on Sopwell lane had a hard fight with the Lancastrian Men at arms for three turns and finally fell back after failing a morale test, the Yorkist billmen attacked up Shropshire lane fighting for three turns also before fleeing whilst being chased by Lancastrian Men at Arms, this cause four other units around it also to flee! The Yorkist billmen attacking along New lane should of had the better of the shire bill but fled also but were all cut down buy the Lancastrians.
At this stage I thought that the Yorkist cause was lost so I threw the Duke of Yorks Men at Arms with himself leading along with the Earl of Warwick and the Army standard bearer against the Lancastrian Men at Arms holding Sopwell lane. They forced their way through and chasing the Lancastrians up the hill. The Lancastrian Men at Arms on Shropshire lane decided to charge the Yorkist archers who flee leaving the men at arms at close range to another unit of Yorkist archers who promptly cause 5 casualties in one turn!
Last turn, the Lancastrian Men at arms charge the archers again losing another three in the charge leaving only three men and Lord Clifford for the ensuing combat, no archers are killed and the archers manage to kill another Man at arms, Lord Clifford promptly surrenders surrounded by 30 archers! In the streets the Lancastrian Men at Arms rally and charge the Yorkist’s plodding up Halliwell hill, Somerset challenges the Duke of York to single combat both fail to do each other damage, the Yorkist Men at arms do murder though and the Lancastrians again flee, and are all cut down including Somerset, only The King HenryVI, and the Earl of Northumberland remain both surrender.
The game was great fun, we didn’t change the historical outcome but it was a near run thing, this game with a bit of tweaking and some more buildings it would make a great demo game I think. I think it has been at least two years since we had a WOTR game so it was time! I do think plate armour in WAB should be at least a three plus save, the archers done great damage on these heavily armed men who only had a five plus save.
Cheers
Matt