WOTR 1455-1461 - Northampton

Date: Tuesday 15th November

Table Size: 8x6

Context: After Blore Heath, the York army has scattered. York himself has run to Ireland, Salisbury and Warwick in Calais. Consequently, a bill of attainder has been passed against them by Henry VI, rendering them essentially outlaw

June 1460, Warwick and Salisbury return to England with their followers, moving up through the country to force a confrontation with the Lancastrian forces before they have time to gather in full strength.

The King moves his court from Coventry to Northampton and encamp in fields to the South, near to Delapre Abbey and attempting to build a fortification defence, lined with guns.

York arrive, assemble and begin their advance on the reinforced Lancastrian lines in the pouring rain. 

Although they outnumber Lancaster, attacking a force that is manning strong defences is a tough call, especially in this downpour.

Battlefield Map:

The Lancastrians have dug themselves into a fortified defence position to the North of the Abbey, reinforced with artillery. Yorkists deploy second and advance from the south of the table, taking the first turn of the game. 

The Yorkists (approx 8000) outnumber the Lancastrians (approx 5000)

Objectives - Yorkist: Attack in force and defeat the Lancastrian line. Attempt to capture/liberate King Henry.

Objectives - Lancastrian: Destroy the outlaw Yorkists and put down the rebellion.

Order of Battle - Yorkist: 6 Households, 1 Hobilar light cavalry, 2 Crossbows, 1 Handgonners, 2 Men at Arms, 1 Pike

Order of Battle - Lancastrian: 6 Households, 1 Hobilar light cavalry, 1 Crossbows, 1 Handgonners, 1 Men at Arms, 1 Pike, 4 Cannon, 1 Bombard.

Painting Tally - November 2022

 48 Hundred Year War Men at Arms

1 Rebased Parliament Army

1 Rebased Royalists Army

Month total: 50

Year Total: 457

WOTR 1455-1461 - Blore Heath Battle Report

 So, Blore Heath - scenario here - and we're trying to hold that hill..........

Initial table set up and Yorkist deployment

Lancastrian deployment and a FEARSOME amount of cavalry being lined up.

Yorkists push forward to make the most of the river, and luckily find that the Lancastrian commanders are coming in piecemeal and uncoordinated.

Disorganisation continues on the Lancastrian side of the table, while York finds their range and starts putting arrows over the river.

Bloody peasants in the way! MOVE ASIDE!!

FINALLY, a cavalry unit makes its way through the waters and readies for a charge. Its isolated though, and potentially unable to win the day.............but York has to redeploy to meet the threat.

More disorganisation in the centre!

Arrow exchanges continue on the York right. Thats an intimidating line......

Cavalry charges start going in, but both sides fight well and no breaking of the York line yet............although pressure is building.

Canny Yorkists put their men at arms in place to meet the cavalry.

The main Lancaster lines start to appear in the ranged fight, whilst more cavalry pushes through for an attack.

View from the hill and York right.

Lancastrians now heading over the river, but York still holding reasonably well - its close!

The bridge is taken! Time for the counter attack from those men at arms lurking at the bottom of the hill......

All kicking off down front.

York wins that fight, but finds the Lancaster cavalry plow straight into them. End game is here!

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT MORE!!"

Commanders getting massacred on both sides, but York getting the worst of it.

Another unit of Lancaster cavalry weighs in, and its all over for York, who break.

Brutal game. York was under pressure to start, but held well. Lancastrian commanders stank up the place early on with their inability to get anyone moving, but once it started coming into play, it really took York apart.

Landsknecht - Project Complete

 Finally pulled it out and got around to completing my Landsknecht. 

They've been on the "97% and not hugely bothered, but one last push will do it" pile for an age now (although strictly speaking, I suppose I've another 12-15 to do here and there), but done enough to play some games.

Now, one of the problems I was confronted with was - how to vary paint the multi colours of Landsknecht (non) uniform, whilst working to a production line and not going insane by trying to do them one by one? 

The answer: paint 10 at a time, production style, but with the colours mixed across the models in different places, then instead of completing a unit, wait until *everything* is done and mix all the models up into a reasonably random order of colours and style. Simple really, but made for a depressing lack of  actively feeling like anything had been finished, as no units were being made battle ready, just a big pile of painted models. Got there in the end though!

Some of these have been making appearances in the WOTR games as mercs. Mainly Warlord, but theres a couple of Perry boxes in there too and a GW helblaster. Well, you have to, don't you? FUCKING HELBLASTER!!

Full army

Pikes.

More pikes.

Even more pikes. I like pike.

Handgunners, Crossbows and FUCKING HELBLASTER

Crossbows, Handguns.

Zweihanders.

Theres cannon lurking somewhere in these pictures too. God knows where.

Finally, Georg von Frundsberg to lead them. 

Really like this model - loads of character. His banner was a nice simple one to paint too, so probably the most enjoyable model in the force.

So................whats in that last couple of % to finish? Well, its a few more command models and some more handguns. Oh, and casualties, lots of casualties.

I'd love to buy some of the packs of camp followers, vignettes and such that Warlord have up for sale, but at those prices?? Enough to give ol' Georg a stroke!