Wednesday 10 November 2021

The Battle of Bosworth using Test of Resolve Rules.


Last week John turned up with an interesting surprise. A new set of rules and two new armies to use with the new rules. I had heard of Test of Resolve and knew they were specifically for the Wars of the Roses, so it was a lovely surprise as John laid out the battlefield to refight the Battle of Bosworth using the scenario from ToR.
Bosorth has had a great deal of research done around the campaign and battle and the scenario is based upon the latest research, which doesnt make King Richard's job any easier.
Naturally I opted for Richard, loving the underdog etc. ToR are a very easy and interesting set of rules to use and are based around a set of incident cards that dictate who and what can move etc.Naturally there are various nasty surprises included in the card deck and the friction from these adds greatly to the game.The scenario has various devices to potentially activate the dastardly Stanley's who according to the latest research had come to an agreement with Henry Tudor prior to the battle.  
To add to the uncertainty Northumberland had allegedly also come to some sort of agreement with Henry but his support was dependent upon early Lancastrian successes. To add to the pain for the Yorkists, Henry was also able to rely on a large battle of French mercenaries who could appear anywhere on the right flank of the Yorkists. So no real problems then.
It all sounded very difficult for Richard to win but the game turned into a very tense and very exciting affair. John was able to activate the nasty French very early in the game and the snail munchers started to impose themselves upon my sluggish advance. I did have a morale lifting result when my artillery was able to hit the lead Lancastrian archers several times which forced them to break without firing a shot.
My luck seemed to hold as the Lancastrians were unable to move quickly towards the Yorkists and I was able to react to the French and pile into them before they could be joined by their allies.
I normally come off second best where pike are concerned but I threw some brilliant dice that shattered the French crossbowmen, followed by a flank assault on the slow moving pike.
The timing was critical as I needed to deal with the French before the Lancastrians had joined them.Somehow I was able to shatter the French and drive them from the field which made the chances of the Stanley's joining the battle a very remote possibility.
Due to my early successes Northumberland decided to help? Richard and appeared on the battlefield albeit in a very tardy way. Events began to turn and a unit of Lancastrian billmen attacked Richard who was attempting to seek out that coward Henry. ToR had a rule in the scenario that if Richard sought out Henry and killed him then the battle was won. It sounded easy, but Richard had only a very small unit of knights from his household, so was vulnerable. 
Norfolk who had done most of the heavy lifting was beginning to suffer causalities as the Lancastrians charged home.The stress was increasing as Northumberland seemed to have found ways not to help. 
Norfolk's command broke but Richard, helped by a unit of bill was able to break the Lancasterians and seek out Henry. To help I was able to hit Henry in the flank with my bills.

So with Northumberland finally attacking, my men at arms grappling with the last unit of men at arms and Henry outnumbered and suffering, all I had to do was apply the coup de grace and kill the damned traitor. Now in ToR you can decide which melee to fight first, and needing only to kill Henry or kill one more causality on the remaining Lancastrian infantry to win the game I decided on a historical choice and attacked with Richard first. 
Yes you have guessed correctly, the dice Gods once again had a good laugh as I not only lost the melee round but then threw a one to see Richard fall and die heroically. Game over!!!
 To say I was gutted is an understatement. I felt I had done everything right tactically to actually win the battle and had managed to throw some decent dice to gain success, but such is my wargaming life. But what a brilliant battle and what an excellent set of rules that are perfect for the Wars of the Roses. Like buses, quality wargames rules for the WOR come around in pairs. 
 

14 comments:

  1. Always fascinated by the Bosworth battle. With that conclusion, the Stanleys had managed to offend neither side, so will keep their titles. As for Northumberland ….. well, what can one say, though here he did at least jump of the fence, even if it was not a determined jump :-).

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    1. Ah the Dukes of Northumberland. The family was always about promoting themselves and really had loyalty only to their family. Things havent changed even now.

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  2. Sounds exciting and looks splendid. Happy New Rules!

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    1. Thanks David. I did enjoy the rules, but you will notice I rarely try new ones. I think I resent paying £30+ for each new tome.

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    1. It was a great battle Neil. A lot of tactical problems and no set response to any of them, well apart from killing Henry quickly.

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  4. Oh how I laughed and of course saw it coming! Still sounds like great fun!
    Best Iain

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    1. I didnt laugh at the time Iain especially as all I had to do was not get killed to win, but it would have been unhistorical not to have got Richard to attack that cur Henry first.

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  5. Great battle report and it’s a great battle to refight if you can get the balance right re the vacillating nobles! I have these rules - unplaced as yet so it’s good to see you enjoyed them even if the dice gods showed they had a sense of humour

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    1. They are very good rules Graham and the authors have clearly done a lot of research to give them the correct feel.

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  6. Glad you enjoyed ToR. I played have played (and am still playing) a great many playtest by Zoom games with the Authors over the past 18 months, and I am fairly sure that in one of our Bosworth games, something similar happened, where the enemy was all but finished, bur in the "clash of Kings" the underdog prevailed, and thus the Kingdom went to the erstwhile loser! ToR, and its many scenarios (mostly designed by David Knight, the co-author, whilst my freind Tim Couper is more the rules guru), by intent really does well modeling all the wacky things that made almost every WotR action unique! Plus they're fun to play, and almost every one of our games fought to a conclusion within 2 hours.

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    1. I was extremly impressed with the feel of the rules and they were quick to pick up even for me. The actual scenario is a belter using new research although the bloody French were a pain to start with.

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  7. Robbie,sounds like a good fight,very colourful armies too-will see you at Battleground-I have those two Garrison ECW units for you!
    johnc

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    1. Im looking forward to the show and as an added bonus I will be able to laugh at you performing.

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My 6mm Napoleonic set up.

My 6mm Napoleonic set up.
Austria 1809.

Austrian Hussars

Austrian Hussars
Hinchliffe figures

Austrian Grenzer

Austrian Grenzer
Austrian Grenzer

Smoggycon 2013

Smoggycon 2013
Smoggycon 2013

Smoggycon 2012

Smoggycon 2012
Smoggycon 2012

Smoogycon 2009

Smoogycon 2009
My French getting another beating