Wars of the Roses rules - the game we're not playing. Probably.

After last Tuesday's games of Basic Impetus my intention was to run the rule over Armati's suitability for the Wars of the Roses. We've played Armati a lot in the past, but I don't remember doing a Wars of the Roses game. At least not since I got interested in the period. I was involved in the development of Armati II but I don't recall having anything to do with the army lists or rule mods for the period. 

The rules classify units as either Heavy or Light. These are deployed in "divisions" that are likewise either Heavy or Light, with no mixing. The number of divisions of each type is restricted in the army lists. Units in a division are normally deployed side by side, but they can also be deployed one behind the other "in echelon". This allows for a rule fudge for Roman and Carthaginians.

Heavy infantry units are normally four elements, usually deployed 2 x 2, but you can also deploy them "in depth", one behind the other. Heavy cavalry are two elements, side by side. Light units are two elements, placed one behind the other or, optionally, side by side if cavalry. This applies to everything except Longbows, where they felt the need to go for a large rule fudge/response to special pleading.

Longbows look like light infantry (all other missile units are light) with two elements, but are actually classed as heavy. This enables them to be included in a division with billmen/men at arms, and you can alternate them in line so you can do the conventionally accepted Agincourt deployment. This fudge transfers forward into the Wars of the Roses period.

Alas this then gives the rule writer a problem, so we get an optional rule just for WotR armies, which exploits the Division in Echelon rule. What is wanted is a mechanism to enable Longbows to shoot and then retire back behind their supporting infantry. Unfortunately the rules only allow Skirmishers to interpenetrate and move backwards, and Longbows can't be classified as Skirmishers, as they'd then be Light and couldn't be in  Heavy Division. The solution is you can deploy longbows in front of bills in the same division, and allow them to swap over.

Unfortunately as Longbows are only one element wide and Billmen are normally two you'd need two Longbows to one Billman unit, which doesn't work with the unit costs required for the army lists. The answer was to require bill and dismounted MAA units to deploy "in depth", so they're the same width as the longbow units. You can then put a longbow unit in front of them, and have a rule that lets you swap them to the back of the billmen with the rear two elements of the in depth formation. Like in the picture above. What this means, however, is that you are reducing the army's frontage by half, more or less, when WotR armies almost always deployed wide to avoid being flanked. Being in depth also makes the flank much more vulnerable. 

Because of the distortion in the system caused by Longbows being half width this also means that the troop numbers are 2:1 bills to bows, which is the wrong way round as well. 

All this is fixable by changing Longbows to four elements, or creating a hybrid unit based on something like Persian sparabara and then massaging other bits and pieces. What this means that using the RAW is pointless as far as I can see, so I probably won't bother. 

Plus I'm struggling to put together two armies as I don't have enough bills.

I'm going off now to read up another set of rules.