"A dice, a dice! My kingdom for a dice!"

Phil and I played a small game on Tuesday with my steadily growing Wars of the Roses collection. As the Lancastrian faction is still incomplete we made them defend their camp against a surprise Yorkist foray overseen by Sir Philip, Lord of Rawnsley. Oversight of the befuddled Lancastrians fell to Lord Wulfrun, a stout supporter of Henry VI and other lost causes. We used Hail Caesar for this game with the two armies' fighting stats from the Wars of the Roses supplement.  Now then, the usual annotated photomontage to hopefully carry you down into the action and a share in the anguish of defeat ~

The Bishop of Lichfield leads the congregation in praying for a victorious deliverance from the traitorous hosts arrayed against them.

At the conclusion of Turn 1 the table showed very little martial fervour displayed by either army!

While the Lancastrian centre has shuffled forward towards the enemy the Duke of Buckingham cannot get Lord Wenlock's Retinue to move at all!

The Yorkists are having similar difficulties, with Warwick's Vanward showing little enthusiasm to get into the fight!

Wenlock still does not want to advance. Perhaps the sight of Warwick's artillery is dampening his ardour! More likely though its my run of dreadful Command rolls.

At last in Turn 4 Wenlock condescends to advance, slowly. The plan to fall on the flank of Warwick's assault is already unravelling. 

In desperation Buckingham sends his mercenary crossbowmen forward hoping their fire will disrupt Warwick's artillery. In the centre both sides have been exchanging archery fire. It's safe to say any passing barn door would be safe from the Lancastrian fire!

Already Lancastrian casuslties are mounting and Disorder is spreading.  Some longbowmen have already had enough and retire!

At last in Turn 6 the Yorkists have got themselves organised and are determined to close with their foe!

Lancastrian archery has had almost no effect on the Yorkist centre. The opposite is true of Yorkist fire on the Lancastrians. 

The Yorkist main Ward has surged forward across the gap separating the two sides, Fauconberg's Retinue overwhelming the Lancastrian artillery supporting their lines. The dice fail me once again when the longbowmen are caught by the MAA!

The longbowmen will buckle and retire Disordered,  the beginning of the collapse for the Lancastrian army.

The Lancastrian artillery collapse too under the weight of Fauconberg's assault, despite their stout defence in the previous turn. The end is in sight now it seems?

Giffard's Retinue are roughly handled in the melee and loose cohesion due to mounting losses, becoming Shaken.

The continuing melee is too much for them and they break and flee to the rear fearing for their lives!

On the right Buckingham cannot only look on impotently as Wenlock's Retinue throws in the towel and joins in the flight, the Yorkist artillery doing terrible slaughter at close range!

With Wenlock's collapse Buckingham can do no more as his Ward disintegrates before his eyes! "Wenlock will loose his head for this!" he exclaimed.

Savage and Clifford see their Households loose heart and join in the general fight! It's a crushing defeat for the Lancastrians!

Henry joins the general flight leaving the camp defenseless and letting the looting begin! A quite remarkable first game for the collection. Utter defeat for the Lancastrians, the Yorkists suffering very few losses overall. In 12 Turns I failed 10 Command rolls, most of them on my Right with Buckingham's Ward. My men were consistently out shot, then out fought, and finally just melted away like snow in the thaw... Great fun though! Now I really must get more figures into the fray for the follow up game next time.