Battle of Sodbury Hill 1471 - A War of the Roses batrep

 

Last Sunday the Rejects gathered in Posties Shed for a War of the Roses bash. 

It was a fictitious battle set just before the Battle of Tewkesbury, that could possibly have happened if the Yorkists were a little bolder.

It was a pretty even affair with numbers relatively the same and our first WotR game with no Cavalry present.

Check out BigLee's excellent video of the game here.

The Order of Battle
Lancastrians (Richard, Surjit & Lee)
C/O Duke of Somerset
Men-At-Arms, Retinue Bill, Retinue Archers x2, Shire Bill & Light Gun
2iC Prince Edward
Men-at-Arms, Retinue Bill, Retinue Archers, Irish Bonnachts, Shire Archers & French Crossbowmen
3iC Earl of Devon
Men-At-Arms, Retinue Bill, Retinue Archers, Shire Bill, Shire Archers & Light Organ Gun

Yorkists (Steve & Ray)
C/O King Edward IV
Men-at-Arms, Retinue Bill, Retinue Archers x2, Shire Billmen, Light Gun
2ic Duke of Gloucester
Men-at-Arms, Retinue Bill, Retinue Archers, Shire Bill, Shire Archers & German Handgunners
3ic Lord Hastings
Men-at-Arms, Retinue Bill, Retinue Archers, German Pikemen, Shire Archers & Light Gun

Me & Steve were the Yorkists and had a lot of luck in the setup.

Most of the Lancastrian army had to set up before we did, which gave us a bit of an early bonus

That was of course until Steve's throw for "Treason", of course he throw a 1, which meant the first unit of ours to fail a morale check would have to check on the treason chart.

Unluckily but luckily the damned unit that failed was ones of mine, and it was a good unit too, the Duke of Gloucester's Retinue Billman. They didn't defect to the other side but were pushed back 1 move, straight into some woods where they became disordered.

There they are, the treasonous scum!!!

Me & Steve had a plan, set up whatever we could on the hill, and shoot all their archers.

But during the setup Steve and our plan went walkies, he set up a battle out in the open on our right flank??? Why Steve Why?

We were luck for most of the game as we won the choice of going first or second.

Going first meant not only moving first but more importantly firing first and whatever casualties were taken, couldn't shoot back.

The pile of Lancastrian dead, all thanks to our archery.

We concentrated most of the fire on Richard's two archer units in the centre.

On the right, Steve starts to rue his decision placing troops on our flank, as Lee's got a 2-1 advantage in archers and its taking its tole already!

We managed to destroy one of Richard's archer units, the Battle then failed ts morale test and were knocked back a full move.

Lee advances towards our right.

On our left, I'd set up one archer unit in front of the other but downhill, just to try and concentrate their fire, Steve was supposed to do the same???

There was a bit of controversy here, Steve moved his archers on the hill to fire at Lee's troops, we thought he'd asked if they could still fire on Lee's archers, but when Steve went to fire them we were told he couldn't, that got the blood going I can tell you.

My Treacherous unit, is still partially in the woods, I'm trying to get them out again, but its slow work.

My archers at the bottom of the hill are lost but so are Surj's opposite them.

Things are going our way, the Lancastrian's are dismayed and sure the games over.

Steve's archers die to the man.

I'm out of the woods, but I'm still disordered....sigh!

A bit of re-ordering so we can still shoot.

Surj moves forward on our left.

Lee concentrates all his archery at our German Pikemen.

Here they come.

Our archers are still handy out loads of whoop-ass!

Steve's archers and artillery are both knocked back a move, due to failing a morale check. And the German Pikeman are destroyed as well.

The Lancastrians are getting in position to charge up the hill.

And here come Richard's troops.

Lee's archers are knocked back, giving our right a little restbite.

Gotta love those flags!

But not those ones!

Some luvvly targets for our arrows!

Would you believe the first unit to charge were Surj's archers, into our archers.

They were dispatched quickly.

Richard lost another unit destroyed by our archers and the rest of their line charged, (we left the troops at the bottom of the hill)

Casualties were heavy on both sides.

There were 4 morale checks to be taken, Richard's centre battle, Lee's on their left,  for the Lancastrians and my Battle on our left and Steve's on our right.

Just throw high on a D6 Postie said, Richard threw a 6 and so did Lee!!

I threw a 3, which meant my battle would fall back one move as in the pic above.

Steve went and threw a 1, which meant his battle routed, which ended the game immediately.

The Lancastrians had pulled a win out of the jaws of defeat. To say we were gutted is an understatement
Five days later and I still can't believe it!