Wakefield Won and Lost

Today is the 560th anniversary of the Battle of Wakefield, so last night the Monday Night Group did a refight, organised by Richard, using his Battle Commander rules. We seem, in the wargaming world, to be seeing a resurgence of interest in the Wars of the Roses, due to Andy Callan's "Never Mind the Billhooks" being given away free by WI. The description of them looks interesting - simple mechanisms with a nice twist - but we don't have a copy between us, and anyway, we're having fun with Richard's rules.

Wakefield is interesting for a number of reasons - a battle fought in December is a bit of an outlier, for a start. It sees the reckoning for the spate of killing after first St Albans, and its result is that Richard of York doesn't become Richard III, an event that would have happened in 1461 if he had survived this battle, instead of Edward of March becoming Edward IV.

Richard  (Ian) and his ally the Earl of Salisbury (Jon) are in Sandal Castle, just outside Wakefield. A party of foragers has been sent out to collect supplies, under Sir Lancelot Threkeld (also Jon). Fearing that the foragers might be intercepted and destroyed by Lancastrians in the area, Richard sallies out to shepherd them in to the castle.

Meanwhile, Threkeld and the wagons cross the River Calder, as Lord Clifford appears on the table edge. That's me.

I advanced towards the forage wagons, as Ian rushed Richard up the road. I halted at this point, and started to shoot at Jon, causing him to pause.

I inflicted some damage, but the wagons were clearly getting away. This may have been a mistake on my part, but I didn't want to get too far ahead of the Duke of Somerset (Will), who was due to arrive right behind me, plus shooting whilst standing still is much more effective.

Another round of shooting, and Jon decided to mount up. Besides, Ian had now arrived to cover the wagons. Will has just got on the board behind me.

I've started to wheel to try to line up on Ian's flank, whilst Will took on the front. The camera angle threw my perception of where everything was in relation to each other, and I didn't get this quite right. Not sure what went wrong in this game in terms of judging where things were. Ian wasn't shirking the confrontation, and rushed on, whilst Jon, with Salisbury, had just arrived into view. To be honest, I think this is where Ian blew it. My worry was that he'd hold up slightly and occupy the position between the wood and the village, bringing Jon up on his right.

Especially as Lord Percy had now arrived, too.

We're never going to catch those wagons, but it looks like we've got Ian in a front and flank situation.

But it turned out I hadn't got it lined up right (oh, how I love squares) so I hit the front not flank.

Ian took a lot of damage, and pulled back to swap his lines over (I'd caught him with his archers to the fore).

Will and I then charged back in. I also sent Percy out to Will's left, so he could stop Jon getting in on Will's battle.

The wagons have got away now, well out of our reach, much to Richard's surprise (we really needed some cavalry to run them down).

The melee was fierce. Although Will couldn't get all of his front line in, he fought valiantly and, alas, another Beaufort died for the Lancastrian cause.

However, he did not die in vain. One last push, and I had Ian's battle broken, capturing York and Rutland in the process (who were quickly despatched), so Richard Of York (really did) Give Battle In Vain.

Jon had to pull back out of the way of the routing troops...

...as I pressed forwards, hacking and slashing as I went. Threkeld now emerged from behind the trees and headed off for the castle.

Will (now Exeter) and Percy were exchanging bow shots with Jon, as we tried to line up to get a two on one combat.

Jon was playing it cagily, but I was finally able to pile in with Percy, as Will swapped his ranks about.

I pursued Ian's broken battle all the way to the castle, where Ian shut the gates at the last moment.

Didn't stop me slaughtering his men in front of the walls. Will had now joined in on the fight with Jon, and although Will was looking a bit ragged, we clearly had them bang to rights, as Jon mounted up and fled.

Lancastrian victory.

It went really well. There are critical decisions to make in the game, and you need to ride your luck. Victory is often just within your grasp and one last push looks like you will break your opponent, but if you don't you may get broken in his turn. Richard had a bit of a nightmare, as he dropped and broke his reading glasses part way through, but he kept the game running regardless.

Although we won we did not do as well as historically. The castle got resupplied, and Salisbury got away, both things that the Lancastrians prevented at the real battle. 

And Beaufort died, so some sorrow in the Red Rose Camp.

Next week I shall be doing some SCW, again, most probably. Or something else.