Hastings' Folly - A Wars Of The Roses Battle

My first three units of Wars of the Roses troops took to the field alongside a goodly chunk of Aidan’s Yorkists, and bore down the main road towards the Lancastrian defended village in our latest 15^th Century match up.  Unfortunately my commanders, led ineptly by Lord Hastings and his horse division, failed to realise the urgency required, and Hastings found himself out on a limb stranded in front of the village and blindsided by the Lancastrian horse to his right.  One of my three horse units was swiftly dispensed with, and the second wasn’t far behind, falling victim to a sweeping advance.  The third lasted just long enough to give half the Lancastrian horse a bloody nose but then succumbed and Hastings slunk away to hide in a wood by himself. 

After this exchange the battle turned into two separate engagements.  Firstly my Yorkist right clashed with a strong bunch of Lancastrian re-enforcements.  My own models, commanded by William Herbert, blunted the enemies attack before Lord Salisbury led his men-at-arms and mercenary pike men in to throw them back and crush them utterly.  The second engagement saw the second half of the Lancastrian horse come thundering out of the village, having survived an earlier artillery-related scare.  They then successfully overcame their initial of closing fire and pointy arrows to smash into the Yorkist left wing (commanded by Faulkenburg – a peer on a warning after last time out!).  Faulkenberg’s troops had advanced swiftly and aggressively to the edge of the village, particularly impressive when compared with Salisbury’s paltry efforts at crossing one hedgerow.  Now they faced the wrath of a small group of heavily armoured mounted nut cases, who pushed them back several times despite the Yorkists numbers, and came perilously close to breaking the whole division.

Fortunately for Falconberg enough time had passed and the end of the battle came before he could suffer the ignominy of being chased off completely.  Aidan declared a generous draw given I had destroyed one of his divisions and damaged his horse, but I’d lost my horse and general, and Falconberg was in all kinds of trouble (again) while the Lancastrian defenders of the village untroubled in my quest to capture its crumbling ways and single low-cost tavern.  In hindsight I had managed to choose several commanders who were at the wrong end of the leadership scale – Salisbury in particular managed some fairly indecisive actions.

Photos are poor – I relied on an iPhone camera which was a mistake last time, but clearly my memory was as good as Hasting’s grasp of tactics.

Yorkists to the fore, horse heading for the village at the top.

Lancastrian defenders.

Dammed hedgerow. 

Hastings' outflanked.

Lancastrian re-enforcements.