Show Diary - see us at Salute

Salute - 16th April 2011

The Rather Large Towton Project is now booked in at Salute 2011. We hope that you will be able to come along and see the game (and be impressed). We look forward to talking to any and all while there.

The Worlds at Derby 2010

Well, Derby has been and gone and we had an excellent weekend. Saturday was fantastically busy with people coming and talking to us constantly, so we only got one game completed, but it was a Yorkist victory, which boded well for the rest of the weekend. We completed three games on the Sunday, which was quieter, with the last game being a surprise Lancastrian victory.

The games were characterised by a number of amusing turns of fate. The first game saw most of the battle fought in the sun! We rolled each turn to see if there was a clear spell, during which the Lancastrian guns might fire, and the Lancastrians rolled rather a lot of them during that game. We also rolled to see if Lord Grey would change sides when Edward reached him. The die roll was weighted towards him changing sides, but he only actually did so in one game! He did die rather a lot though. See if you can spot how often he is surrounded in the pictures below.

The comments we received were very supportive and positive, even from the "I could never paint anything that small" brigade, of whom only a very few were present. Thank you to everyone that dropped by and let us talk at them! ;-) It was great to meet up with various friends while we were there, and it was great to meet a whole bunch of new people, whom I only know from the internet.

Here is a selection of shots of the game in case you did not make it to see us. Click the images for larger versions.

Our 'stall':


The Yorkists begin their first advance of the weekend while Steve looks up some rules:


Lord Grey surrounded and about to die heroically:


Leigh contemplates the Lancastrian situation:


The Yorkists swarm the Lancastrian lines:


The view from the Lancastrian lines at the start of the second game:


The second game progresses as the Yorkists advance through the mud:


Crunch!:


Two views of the melee:



The Yorkists gain a foothold in the Lancastrian camp:


While some of their troops rout (look for the two D markers) other Yorkist contingents have gained the camp and turned on the Lancastrian flanks:


Less good times for the Yorkists. Most of their army is routing and the camp seems secure:


The face of a victorious Lancastrian commander:

Just how far do I have to go still?

In an idle moment (yeah, right, like I have time for idle moments!) I set out my two armies for the Towton project. This was depressing for me in a number of ways! Firstly, the size of the armies did not look that great laid out as they were on a couple of card tables. Secondly, the size of the unpainted elements of my armies looked huge, laid out as they were on a couple of card tables! I also don't actually have enough bases for my armies yet and had to reuse them so that I could show both armies in photos. Time to pop along to Tony at East Riding Miniatures sometime soon. Good job he lives just down the road from me. Fortunately, the Yorkist army is actually further along than it appears, because two friends, John and Brendan, are kindly helping me by painting a contingent each. I hope to con Steve (not Yorkie) into helping with the Lancastrian army, but I suspect that will cost me. Click the pictures below for larger view and remember that each army is set up on a two foot frontage. When we deploy the full size armies for Towton with everyone's contributions, they will be deployed on a frontage of nearly thirteen feet (approximately four metres for the imperially-challenged). The table will be eighteen feet long by four feet wide, although we are debating whether we should make it six feet wide to give a bit more depth for the Lancastrians to rout in.

The Yorkist Army


The Lancastrian Army

Northampton Teaser

Derby 2010 - The Battle of Northampton 1460
Here is a teaser shot of the Northampton battlefield for our Derby demo. I do not have enough artillery to set up all the Lancastrian artillery on my own, so the extra bits are represented by empty bases. The Lancastrian defences are missing from this photo to give you a reason to actually come and see our game (or they are still being built, whichever excuse you prefer). Click the pic for a larger version.


In this photo the Yorkists are on the left. The hill is more pronounced than the real slope at Northampton, largely to keep it all on one board for ease of construction, but the vertical height difference between left and right is to scale with the figures.

Derby, 2nd/3rd October - Battle of Northampton 10th July 1460

On a rainy July day, a Yorkist army of around 15000 men caught up with 6000 Lancastrians near Northampton. The rain was heavy enough that the Lancastrian artillery was next to useless, a shame because they appear to have had rather a lot of it. Despite the lack of artillery support, the Yorkists appear to have fared badly in their assault until Lord Grey turned coat. Suddenly his men were helping the Yorkists across the defences and into the artillery park. At this the rest of the Lancastrian army routed and tried to flee. About 400 men appear to have been slain in this rout, among them some notable lords such as Buckingham, while Henry VI was captured in his tent.



This battle features treachery, a fortified position and a whole bunch of artillery. It also features rain and mud, so there are plenty of variables for us to play with, and plenty of opportunities for chaos to occur. We hope you will have time to pop along and see us there.

Apologies for the lack of teaser photos, but we are still making the terrain! As usual, our thanks go to Baccus 6mm and the Lance and Longbow Society for their support with our endeavours.

Yorkist Reinforcements

Norfolk was not a well man and his sick note permitted him to turn up late to Towton. One facet of the refight will be how we deal with Norfolk's arrival. For the first game we shall probably have him arrive at his scheduled time and see how it all turns out. After that we really need to add an element of randomness to keep the game fresh. Therefore, Norfolk's arrival will be diced for. Will he turn up early or on time? Or, will Edward only receive a sick note sent by messenger? We shall have to wait and see.

Fortunately, Norfolk turned up on time for this photo shoot. Here is Norfolk's whole command, based on a single iteration of the order of battle. Graham has also painted up a version of Norfolk's command. That, combined with this, will form the Yorkist reinforcements. After all the painting, let's hope they turn up early enough to see plenty of usage!

Earl Rivers and Edmund Hampden

Progress is still being made on my forces, thank goodness, despite my heavy university workload. Here we have Earl Rivers and Edmund Hampden arrayed for the Lancastrian cause: