So, we continue. The next game was the 2500pts game and I was pitted against Guy Bowers of The WAB forum and Wargames Soldiers and Strategy magazine fame. I’ve known Guy for a few years now and we always meet at events like the WAB Campaign Weekenders at WHW, at GBHQ etc. but funnily enough in all that time we’ve never managed to play one another…..

Guy was using French Ordonnance and had two large units of Partizanmen, four units of Ordonnance Longbowmen a couple of decent sized units of Crossbowmen, a unit of Handgunners, four guns and a huge unit of Francs-Archers.  It struck me from the start that I was going to be outgunned so, given that the battlefield had two very large hills in the middle of the table on both sides I decided to simply advance down the middle of the table and hopefully get into melee as soon as was possible. This plan might have had some chance of success if I had not, totally inexplicably, decided to move my two units of men-at-arms towards the left hand hill in the hope of perhaps holding the hill. considering that they have a move rate of 6″ this proved to be absolute folly as i was not able to move them sufficiently to get them into an advantageous position.

Guys Handgunners were onto me and had positioned themselves  ready to take some shots at the first unit that poked it’s head up, thus scuppering my plan- if it can be called such a thing. all throughout this manoeuvreing I had been taking massive casualties from the Crossbows, longbows and the four guns of doom. A quick fag outside and a few more dice rolls and I conceded. There was no way out other than more and more missile casualties…..

Victory to Guy and deservedly so. Oh, and no pics of this game- I think I had too much of a sweat onto pay much attention to my camera :O)))

OR, Havok! I am my own worst enemy :O)

Saturday evening and I find myself travelling to Northallerton to meet up with Jim Sweeney and Liz to complete the first leg of my journey to Evesham. After the rugby (alas, poor England!) and a practice game that didn’t exactly go according to plan it was lights out and a bit of kip.

Up at 3am thanks to a disturbing ‘thud!’ outside that turned out to be nothing after a brief investigation. Still, at least this left me with an hour to get my sorry self up and ready for the journey to Evesham and the famed hall of Gripping Beast HQ (No really, it is famous….).

Picked up Pete, very much renown in North Yorkshire for his dice rolling and tactical nouse, then into the car and off we went….. the rest is a blur as I fell asleep, but allegedly I was snoring all the way down to Evesham, a terrible slur on my good self I’m sure you’ll agree.  Breakfast in Mac Donalds- loosely translates as chocolate muffin and coffee reminiscent of the first time I had mushroom soup!

Arrival, lots of chat, good to see all the old faces and a couple of new ones too. Then onto the action……

First game was with Nick Buchannon and his Free Companies. After noticing that Nick had a huge unit of very dangerous looking kniggets I decided to spend the rest of the game embattled behind my stakes and try to gall him enough by darkening the sky with arrows. This turned out to be folly as after two rounds of loosing arrows I quickly realised that I hadn’t taken enough archers! OK…….

Nick had his right advance and threaten my left- particular dread was aroused by that large unit of knights. So, in what I hoped would be an inspired move I advanced my men-at-arms and archers leaving two units of Ordonnance Longbowmen on my left to try to hold him off. Strangely this tactic actually started to work and seemed to take him by surprise. The emphasis is upon strangely as I am well known for my “cunning plans”  backfiring big style and resulting shortly after in my total anihilation!

Towards the end of the game a melee began to develope as my General’s Household Gendarmes hit the centre of the cavalry and a unit Ordonnance Longbowmen hit their flank! This should have resulted in a crushing blow against Nick’s pride and joy but alas the result was stalemate!  Thus anded the game, pretty much on an even keel- except to add that Nick had a unit next to the objective- something we had both completely forgotten about! Oh, we also managed to play the game with 2500pts when we should have been using 1500pts…….. laugh out loud we did! Martin, the organiser, didn’t. Well, maybe a little :O)

Ego sum inimicus proprius pessimus meus

These books arrived in the post today- David Santiuste, Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses, Pen and Sword covers the military campagns of Edward IV, casting a new light on his relationship with Warwick  and an examination of Edward as a general. The second, John Saddler, The Red Rose and the White, Longman a general military history of The Wars of the Roses by a credible military historian.

Lastly, a bit of a trip down memory lane, so much so that I just couldn’t resist it- saw the Ladybird “Warwick the Kingmaker” going quite cheep so snapped it up. The plates are nicely illustrated and if you can forgive some obvious glaring mistakes it’s an enjoyable visual journey. I do not intend to invest myself in the text as from what I remember the book is heavily influenced by the Victorian image of Warwick and I certain that it would leave me with the same feeling I left the cinema with after watching Ghengis Khan a year or so ago!

Though I’m sure I’ll enjoy reading the other two.

Darrell.