Busman's Holiday in Northampton

This Tuesday we finally got around to the 1460 Battle of Northampton in Richard's series of Wars of the Roses games. It had to come eventually, so why not now? Richard had planned a six player umpired game, so of course due to unforeseen problems he got 3 players and had to join in himself. That's not the end of the world, as the Lancastrians are a little bit passive in any event. Ian & Jon were the Yorkists, Richard and I the Lancastrians.

(NB For those of you interested this is the google maps satellite photo of the area: link. The road to the abbey below is now a tree lined avenue. The river with the bridge is culverted over - it's now a sewer -  and the bridge has gone. The Lancastrian camp is approximately on the site of the long thin oval-ish wood centre bottom).

The game starts with the two sets of cavalry outriders for each side facing off near the medieval bridge on the southside of Northampton.

Soon the Yorkists appear, with Fauconberg out in front. They have deployed their artillery as soon as they can. Warwick's  battle is just creeping onto the table.

The cavalry fight begins.

Fauconberg is heading off to the left, where Lord Holland is holding the line. Warwick veers to his right, heading for Shrewsbury and Grey of Ruthin.

The Lancastrian horse is defeated, and heads back towards the town, pursued by Lord Scrope and his men.

Fauconberg is zeroing in on Holland. He has taken some damage from the Lancastrian archery, being out on his own. The artillery has done a little bit of damage as well, but at the cost of one gun blowing up the first time it was fired.

The Earl of March has appeared on the bottom right.

Fauconberg is at the ditch, preparing his assault. March is heading for the centre of the line, and the Duke of Buckingham's battle. This is a change to the historical approach, which saw Buckingham and Warwick face off as the respective commanders with the largest forces, whilst March attacked the end of the line.

The combat over the palisade has begun. It is hard fighting, but Fauconberg has superior numbers, who have been sheltered by his archers. These now retire, considerably the worse for wear.

Warwick is approaching Shrewsbury now. Lord Grey of Ruthin is reported to be looking a bit twitchy. Scrope returns from Northampton, having decided not to loot it, unlike his predecessor.

Finally March is in position, ready to attack across the ditch.

All three Yorkist battles are now engaged, and it is all nip and tuck. Ruthin continues to prevaricate (umpire keeps rolling indeterminant numbers on the dice), until Richard finally declares "He's changed sides, its all over".

Thoughts? Well, it is a battle that is an assault on a prepared position, so as I said above, one side doesn't have much to do, especially as it is a matter of record that their artillery misfired or didn't fire at all. If I'd been attacking, I'd have moved up the road, before turning all the attacking battles simultaneously, and then advanced as a single line, attacking the fortification simultaneously, more or less, all along the line. My personal view - and one I think Richard shares - is that for Ruthin to flip sides he has to believe that the Yorkists are committed to fight, and that they will win if he does change. That means he needs to see the whole line getting stuck in. 

Richard tweaked the mechanisms a bit to allow for the attack on the palisades, and we'd probably need to play that bit again in microcosm, without the approach march, to see if he's got that completely right. I am unconvinced about the importance of the archery in this battle. One side is behind a palisade that makes direct shooting for its archers difficult, and the other can't see the target due to the palisade. Plus the guns don't fire. Really. So the approach march in the game doesn't achieve much. In my simplified board game of the battle (email wildrat1460[at]gmail[dot]com if you are interested) which I did for participation games at shows I ignored archery, and had the move from the road to the ditch one turn.

Northampton is an interesting battle for a number of reasons:

1. There's a cavalry skirmish.
2. It's the only formal artillery fortification of any size used during the WotR.
3. It's the only time an army is excommunicated on the field.
4. It's the last time pre-battle negotiations take place.
5. It's the oldest verifiable use of artillery (a cannon ball has been found)
6. It's Warwick's only battlefield victory as an army commander
7. It's Edward IV's first battle

I'm sure there are more as well. The massed executions afterwards aren't very pretty either, and it's this battle that tips Richard Duke of York into claiming the throne. All very interesting, but not necessarily the most fruitful material for a table top figure wargame.