Barnet with Fog, but not that one

Richard put on another of his Wars of the Roses refights with his "Battle Commander" rules. For our entertainment he gave us Barnet, the battle that Edward IV comes closest to losing, and where Warwick gets what was coming to him.

The actual battle took place in fog, and the inability of either side to know exactly where their opponents were - or identify them correctly - was an important feature of the battle. Edward had better information than Warwick, and deployed close to his camp the night before, with his men lying down behind a hedge. Warwick's guns fired all night, but aimed too high. Edward kept his quiet to preserve surprise.

For the game Richard put up some bubble wrap banks of fog, and deployed two cameras, one for each side, so we could only see our positions. I was joined by Will, as the Yorkists, with Ian and Jon as the Lancastrians.

Having studied the map we were given before hand (well, I was given - I don't think the Lancastrians got one) I quickly realised where we were deployed, and decided to hold on a couple of turns before moving off. This should have meant we were fighting on a narrower front, suiting our relative lack of numbers.

On our left, the Lancastrians emerge from the fog. Time to order the archers to the rear, as it looks like visibility range is less than one move increment.

Gloucester on the right starts to wheel in, and I incline to the left. We can hear a lot of noise and confusion in that direction.

In the opening exchange on the left, Ian does considerable execution with one round of archery. That's the price of facing Ian. 

We can all see one another now, so the fog screen is lifted, and we go to one camera. It looks like on the right we can get a 2:1 on Exeter's battle.

In we go, both Edward and Richard, the York brothers united.

We drive Exeter back. I take a lot of damage in the centre, in Edward's battle, but his troops are good quality, and should be able to hang on.

With the ground narrow, Montagu can't get in to help Exeter out. Warwick lurks in the rear. On the left they are hammering away at each other. Ian is slightly ahead. 

Exeter is pushed back, which unfortunately opens up enough space for Montagu to get in on Edward.

Gloucester, on the right, drives Exeter back. He will break him shortly. Warwick moves across to cover. Montagu slides in on Edward with his fresh battle. 

Warwick joins the fray, moving in on Gloucester, as Exeter's men start to flee.

Will finally gets a pushback on the left. I retire Edward's front rank to rest it, and Gloucester swings round to take on Warwick frontally.

With Exeter heading for the exit at high speed, everyone else lines up for the final slog fest. There won't be a lot of tactical finesse from here on in.

There is a bit of too and fro. Montagu dies in the melee, but is replaced by the equally dangerous Conyers. Warwick is wounded, and retires to the rear for running repairs. Will suffers an unfortunate incident. Ian disengages to rest some troops, and Will gives him a volley of arrows - his most effective round of combat in the game - and sends him backwards. Alas, Richard rules that now gives Ian enough distance to charge in and claim the charge bonus.

That's enough to give him the edge and inflict some extra casualties that breaks Will. In the centre, I force a retirement on Montagu's front line. I am then able to give him as volley with my archers and hand gunners. I am rolling 4 dice, looking for 3+, with an additional +1 I can add to any dice after rolling. I need two, maybe three, hits to break Montagu/Conyers before he can rest and rally back some strength. I get a spectacular 2,2,1,1, inflicting a solitary hit. Against Warwick I have 3 moves to really pile on the pressure whilst he is off the field and his unit is -1 on morale. I am unable to convert that chance either.

We have fought each other to a standstill. The remaining moves of the game will be rolling dice to see who is lucky enough to get the most sixes in the final stages. As it is getting on, we stop there.

Barnet is a slog. It is, by repute, the longest WotR battle, and also one of the most confused because of the fog. Edward rides his luck and, as I said in the introduction, comes very close to losing.

It was a tense battle, and I don't know what else I could have done to tip the scales in the Yorkist's favour. Both the York brothers fought at the front and were remarkably lucky to survive unscathed. A slightly luckier dice roll when Warwick went down and ended up wounded would have sealed it for us. Such were the thin margins on which the battle hung.

We had the usual post game discussion on location, sources and so on. Barnet as a battlefield is still being worked on, and there's some interesting new ideas being discussed. I think an archaeologist directed metal detecting sweep is being planned, which should be helpful in determining the exact location, if they get lucky. On the rules front, the system works well, the challenge is getting the data sheets right in terms of how many hits each battle line can take and so on.