Battle Report

Refighting the Battle of Barnet, 1471

The Plans

Being outnumbered, the Yorkists decided to attack in echelon, leading with the right wing, hoping for a good victory on this flank before engaging the rest of the Lancastrian line.

Caution got the better of the Lancastrians, who decided to sit and await the arrival of the Yorkists, greet them with a hail of arrows and then counter-attack.

The Battle

Turn 1

The Yorkists advanced in their echelon formation, while the Lancastrians tried to spot them through the fog.

Turn 2

The Yorkist right and centre emerged from the fog, to be hit by a lethal hail of arrows that caused much carnage in the front line of archers, whose return fire was rather pitiful by comparison.

Turn 3

Oxford, on the Lancastrian right flank, started to advance, hoping to be able to attack the Yorkist centre in the flank, but was engaged my archers who had been hanging back in the fog.

The Yorkist centre and right now pushed forward to point blank range, and took a good hammering – 1 unit of Longbowmen being destroyed while 2 others broke and headed for the rear.

Turn 4

The Yorkist right and centre now hit the Lancastrian line, with Longbowmen from both sides moving to the rear to escape the carnage.  Unfortunately, the Lancastrians were not able to give all of their heavy foot Attack orders in time, with the result that some were caught flat-footed.  The Lancastrian line was unceremoniously shunted to the rear, with 2 units breaking on impact.  Both Warwick and Montagu suffered injuries in the melee, too, severely impacting their ability to control their troops from this point onwards!

Turn 5

Hastings, on the Yorkist left, moved his battle line forward to engage Oxford, who was facing him, but was not able to prevent Oxford moving some of his units to attack Edward’s exposed flank.  This gave the Lancastrian centre a welcome boost and Warwick was able to stabilise what had been a dire situation.  No such help was getting to Montagu, however, and his troops completely gave way at this point.  They had given a good account of themselves, though, and leaving the victorious Yorkist right in no state to influence the battle further.

Turn 6

On the Yorkist left, Oxford hit and pushed back Hastings, while in the centre, Warwick re-dressed his line for one final charge.  Edward was not up to the challenge, however.  Outnumbered 3 to 1, he decided that a winter at the Burgundian Court suddenly had a certain appeal, and headed off into the sunset.

Comments

This was a very enjoyable and interesting battle to refight, and I hope that this came across in the above report.  Not only was it fun, but the course of the battle and its various events felt very realistic and plausible.

So, how well did Vis Bellica work for this battle?  Was the game good because of the rules or in spite of them?  I will look at some salient features of the battle and explain a little about how Vis Bellica turned a good scenario into a great game.

·     Spotting.  Vis Bellica has a system for spotting enemy troops as they approach.  Using this rule (modified as explained above to represent fog) meant that the players did not know exactly where the enemy was until they emerged from the fog, usually at very close range!  Real ‘fog of war’!

·     Shooting rules.  In Vis Bellica, stationary missile units have an advantage over units that are moving (i.e. they shoot first and are not penalised for moving!)  This meant that the Lancastrian plan to remain halted gave their Longbowmen a big initial advantage over their Yorkist opponents.

·     Command system.  Each turn, Leaders and Generals get a random number of Command Points (similar to PIPs in DBM) that are used for a variety of purposes, such as spotting enemy troops, issuing orders (units follow an order until it is changed or the enemy persuades them not to) and rallying Disordered or Shaken troops.  A shortage of Command Points resulted in much of the Lancastrian line being stationary when the Yorkists charged them – not a good thing.  Wounded leaders get less Command Points, with obvious results.

·     Damage and Morale systems.  In Vis Bellica, units accumulate damage from enemy shooting and in melee.  This means that as the game progresses you can see your once proud units becoming more and more battered.  Even if they pass all of their morale tests and avoid becoming Shaken or Routed, attrition will eventually get the better of them. This played a huge part in this game, as several units (notably on the Yorkist right flank) became so battered that sending them into action again would have meant almost certain destruction.

·     Turn Sequence and Melee system.  These features, in particular, contributed a lot to the enjoyment of the game.  When a unit charges into contact with the enemy, the results of the impact are resolved straight away, including recoils and routs, before anything else is done.  Add to this the rules allowing units to charge into an existing melee (to either help out a struggling friendly unit or to finish off a battered enemy) and you should start to see that the charge phase of the turn can see some major changes in the situation on the battlefield.  The frantic reinforcement of wavering units was what saved the situation for Warwick.

So, in summary, Vis Bellica added a lot to the success of this game.  The Wars of the Roses are often pointed out as being a very interesting period of history that makes rather dull wargaming.  This is certainly not the case if you use Vis Bellica!