BIG Billhooks Weekend -Barnet AAR

 

"we came, we couldn't see in the fog, then we saw, and then we ran away" Sir Clive de Clivedon

The battle of Barnet was one of the most important battles in the Wars of the Roses as it cemented Edward IV firmly on the throne while ridding him of one of the biggest threats to the security of his kingship. The battle could be considered as representative of the whole era as it was a confused, muddled affair of divided loyalties, treachery, and bloody slaughter in which nobody could see clearly and from which emerged a King.

It was fought on Easter Sunday, 14 April 1471, in a thick fog and it put an end to the machinations of Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, nick-named the Kingmaker, who was Edward’s cousin and erstwhile adviser and had treacherously decided to support Margeret of Anjou’s bid to restore her husband Henry VI, currently Edward’s prisoner in the Tower of London, to the throne.

However, it was not to be.

The two armies arrived in the area the evening before and deployed in the dark. They deployed in such a manner that Warwick’s right flank under the command of John de Vere Earl of Oxford, overlapped Edwards left flank, led by Wiiliam Lord Hastings. On the other side of the field, Edwards right flank, under Richard Duke of Gloucester, likewise overlapped that of his opponent, ‘orrible ‘enry ‘olland, the Duke of Exeter. Warwick held the centre with his younger brother Montagu who was reckoned to be the more war-crafty and may have had command of the whole army.

As the sun rose so did a thick fog reducing visibility to a minimum and making it hard to tell friend from foe. Oxfords men advanced quickly and with the advantage conferred by the overlapping flank routed Hastings division from the field.

Gloucester gradually realising that in turn that his men overlapped those of Exeter drove forward, Exeter fell back and the whole line of hacking, slashing, gouging mayhem pivoted through ninety degrees.

Oxfords men had pursued their defeated foes for a while but then returned to the field and arriving now behind their own line in the thick fog, may have mistaken Montagu’s banner for Edward’s and so charged their own army in the flank and rear. “Treachery!” men cried and more men died in the rout as Warwick’s army fell apart and fled the field. Many were slaughtered, including Warwick and Montagu who died fighting "cutting off arms and heads like a hero of romance” and the field through which they ran and died under the vengeful swords of the kings’ men has ever since been known as Bloody Meadow. Exeter was seriously wounded, stripped and left for dead on the field.

Refighting the battle presents little in the way of problems…well …apart from a 16 foot by 6-foot table, I could not do this at home so fortunately Bristol Independent Gaming came to the rescue providing four 6x 4 tables laid side to side.

And I could not do on my own so with 8 good wargaming buddies we pooled our resources and turned up at BIG with nearly 1700 28mm figures and a gurt big bag of Kapok

Mark Taylor-Montagu Chris May-Oxford Rob Squires-Warwick Graeme Battison -Exeter Steve Blease-Gloucester  Ben Mallet-King Edward IV Simon Wilde-Bourchier Leigh Parslow-Hastings

The set up. Looking along the table from the Umpires seat, Yorkists on the right of the table, Lancastrians on the left. We had to kill a lot of teddy bears to achieve the fog effect.

On the Yorkist left, Hastings deploys his light cavalry. John de Barre, a local lord from Barrs Court near Bristol commands here, his unmistakeable piratical shin bone saltire waves in the foggy breeze.

a drone shot shows the Yorkist line stretching away down the field

The Lancastrian line as viewed from Oxfords position on the left of the table.

 The Fog is dense! See previous blog for the effects of Fog

-Turn the First-

Wrapped in Fog

Oxfords men pushed into the fog preceded by a unit of light cavalry

Hastings Light cavalry moves to cover his flank, “advancing into the fog to find any stray skirmishers” LP

Oxfords men soon lose their way in the thick fog and the line becomes disrupted

the turn ends with the Lancastrian lines looking a little less neat and orderly as units lose their way in the dense fog

-Turn the Second-

The fog makes it eery, you can’t see the Enemy…

Duke of Exeter

Oxford’s line opens up and the light cavalry venture forth

DeVere on the left of Oxfords ward also struggles in the mist

On the far left of the Lancastrian line Sir Clive de Clyvedon also loses his way

GB “Sir Clive de Clyvedon bravely pushes, errr, forward-ish in the fog, deviating somewhat in the process. He later claimed, loudly and repeatedly, "I meant to do that!" when it turned out to be advantageous later”

The view from the East. Richard of Gloucester on the right of the Yorkist line, pushing aggressively forward did not suffer any mishaps

 

under the leadership of Phillip Mede of Bristol, they make a brave sight

 

Yorkist artillery with no visible target

Ben Mallet’s ancestors were there, the de Lynne contingent marches bravely forth

“Over there!”

“What is it?”

“I am not sure but I think it’s more fog!”

“Idiot!”

In the centre Harleston collides with Harleston and in the confusion v blows are struck, 2 casualties! Were they killed or did they run of into the thick air crying “Treachery!”

 

and so ends the second turn MT “The Lancastrian right flank has disappeared into the fog, the CinC Montagu (me) has no idea what’s happening!”

-Turn the Third-

“Seriously…I didn’t have a clue what was happening most of the time” Montagu CiC (Mark Taylor)

Oxfords higgledy piggeldy line approaches Hastings position

On the other flank Gloucesters Ward closes on Exeter

Gloucester outnumbers Exeter by 2:1

  GB “Exeter, eyes the enemy through the fog and orders Sir Clive de Clyvedon to advance into the gloom and find the enemy”

GM “After a freak gust of wind clears the fog just enough that Exeter and Sir Clive can see the flags of the Yorkist units, Sir Clive rushes his men forward and the first melee is underway, pushing the enemy back after the first round of combat”

…and Exeter slams into Sir John de Kemys Lord of Siston’s men GB “At the same time as Sir Clive and his men clash with the Yorkists, Exeter has no choice but to engage the enemy unit to his front. He also has the element of surprise and inflicts a crunching blow”

In the centre of the Yorkist line, behind Deveraux’s units, Bourchier’s men of the reserve wait their opportunity to get involved

Meanwhile, on the Lancastrian right flank Oxfords units continue to muddle along in the mirk

so ends the third turn. The size of this game was quite overwhelming at times, a sudden realisation of just how many figures were on the table

-Turn the Fourth-

The wind gets up…

 As the turn begins, there is a break in the clouds, a wind gets up and the fog begins to disperse…

GB “The view from the Yorkist lines of the meat-grinder melee with Exeter”

 “The fog has lifted and only at this stage did Montagu clearly see what a pickle we were in! “ MT

Another collision in Oxfords Ward!

LP “Light cavalry under Hastings charged light cavalry under Oxford in an attempt to secure the left flank and push back advancing skirmishers. Instead, both units became bogged down in melee”

-Turn the Fifth-

The Sun in Splendour

The sun burns away the last of the fog and the Generals can at last see clearly

The view from behind Hastings position

   LP “de Barre pivoted his combined block to reduce the chances of being outflanked and to create a gap in the centre to allow Hastings and his retinue to push forward.”

The Event card for turn 5 was “Send in the Reserves!” and Warwick advanced his ward eagerly forward.

GB “The outnumbered Clive de Clyvedon is attacked in the flank by another Yorkist unit. This is disastrous not only for the unit, but also because the ongoing melee stops him from bringing up his Men at Arms to assist”

a closer view of Sir Clive’s predicament

GB “Exeter too is ground down by another dirty Yorkist flank attack, just as the cowards to the fore are beaten and fleeing the field”

 LP “Yorkist cannon firing at the Lancastrian right flank after the fog lifted”

The centre of the field, in the right upper corner  in this picture, Edward is charging with his Men at Arms, heedless of danger into the middle of the Lancastrian line

Bourchier’s trompette sounds the charge and the Yorkist Reserves rumble forward

“My first and only involvement in the game. Warwick arrive. Montagu's (AKA Mark Taylor) infantry routed in to them! They'd just been beaten in melee by Edward and ran back towards Warwick, which in turn made Warwick’s archers and bills test their morale…”

…which in turn made my archers and bill turn around and go home. This dropped us down to a single coin!”

 The view from Oxford/ Hastings end of the table

the view from the other end, the white flag on Exeter’s men donates a morale test

GB  “It's nearly over for Exeter and Sir Clive, the flank is collapsing. Exeter's archers have fallen back, splitting from the few remaining billmen, and await the dice roll their morale check. Sir Clive de Clyvedon should now split from his bill and bow unit and join the MAA unit behind him who are screaming for orders, but in his enthusiasm for battle he neglects to do so”

The end of turn Five and quite a few white flags have appeared, we used these to indicate when a unit needed an end of turn morale test. They were far easier to see than the usual morale test markes we use, Perry casualty figures. See here for how I make them With man's blood paint the ground Gules

-Turn the Sixth-

-The End Game-

In the centre of the field, in the thick of the action, Edward’s Men at Arms have been kicking butt. However, the front company have been whittled down to two men and Ben Mallet in an attempt to avoid a disastrous morale check has the king play a Perk and split the formation so that he can stay with the intact company. This was of course illegal as it takes two actions to split a formation

We did not realise this until after the game had finished-poor Umpiring indeed!

Anyway, Montagu’s ward had spent the last of their coin and could not pay the bill, they fled the table and the King was Triumphant!

 

...the faces of Defeat...

the faces of victory

-Long Live The King-

The game actually followed history in manty respects and particularly its outcome. Both Leigh (Hastings) and (Graeme) Exeter played extremely well and put up a stiff defence against the odds and held their ground.

  Rob (Warwick) and Simon (Bourchier) played the Reserve role well, lending support to their fellow Generals, although it was unfortunate for Rob that when Warwick finally got the call, he moved one move and disaster

 

Chris (Oxford) had a mare of game with several units losing their way in the fog , he took whole game to cross the field, partly due to Hastings delaying tactics and never really git into the battle.

Ben (Edward) used the old tried and tested Billhooks tactic of getting your best units together and charging straight at the enemy-it worked.

Montagu (Mark) did a great job of marshalling his army and o doubt on a different day, with different dice the result may have been very different

Thanks as always to Andy Callan for this marvellous game and all the fun it engenders

Well, what a great way to spend a Saturday.

And to think we got to do it all again on Sunday

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