Battle of Bosworth Field 1485
Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 11:08 pm
EDIT 7/5/2011
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15461007/Boswor ... 20PWv5.rar
I have just started making up some scenarios and I had thought that this pivotal battle would have been included in "Storm of Arrows". But when I started to read some accounts of the battle I realised why it wasn't - basically up to half the troops that turned up on that day may not have been really committed to fighting for either Richard III or Henry Tudor. At least, you can find historians who will argue that that was the case.
I have done some research and constructed a battlefield (there is still some controversy over its location despite recent archaeological discoveries) and I have researched the make-up of each contingent as far as possible. I am still looking for more information.
So far, I have the forces represented at Bosworth Field as follows . . .
Yorkists (definitely 6,000, maybe 10,000)
Duke of Norfolk - 3,000 including 1,200 archers and culverins
Richard III - 3,000 with upto 800 cavalry, mostly shire and city militia foot
and then the Earl of Northumberland - 4,000 including many mounted troops (his troops did not actually take part in the battle)
Lancastrians (definitely 5,000, maybe 11,000)
Earl of Oxford - 5,000 including French and Scottish pikemen and Welsh foot, a few English foot, plus Henry Tudor and his mounted bodyguard
and then the two Stanley contingents, Sir William with 3,000 mounted troops and Lord Thomas Stanley with another 3,000 men (presumably a mixture of archers, billmen and mounted troops)
It seems to me that the key to the scenario is how you might decide the behaviour of the Earl of Northumberland's contingent (Yorkist) and the two Stanley contingents (Lancastrian?) on the day. The most obvious way, it seems to me, is to decide that Northumberland was loyal to Richard III and his forces were prepared to fight for him (Northumberland was imprisoned after the battle) - and that the Stanley's were more pre-disposed to fight for Henry (historically this is quite doubtful, Stanley's son was held hostage by Richard III). If you do this then you have a reasonably balanced scenario - 10,000 versus 11,000 with Richard's forces having the higher ground.
The question remaining then is - how do you decide if or when these forces intervene in the battle? One way that I have thought of (and it has to be a transparent mechanism to work in an online game) is to say that these forces will stay stationary (and will not be attacked or shot at) UNLESS at the end of any players' turn the number of break points totals 20, 25, 30, 35, or 40 (or multiples of 3 or 4 between 20 and 40/41: this needs to be tested). Only if this happens will these contingents be activated starting in the next players' turn.
In this way you would re-create the "waiting period" where no-one knew if these forces would intervene or not; you would re-create the difficulties faced by commanders (in terms of their movement and tactics etc) not knowing whether other enemy troops were going to intervene at some point - and you would re-create the possibility that these forces might still have a decisive say in the final outcome of the battle.
I know that it is not perfect, by any means, but I would be interested to hear the thoughts of other scenario builders who make have faced these sorts of issues in other scenarios, or from anyone with a detailed knowledge of what happened on 22/8/1485. Thanks.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15461007/Boswor ... 20PWv5.rar
I have just started making up some scenarios and I had thought that this pivotal battle would have been included in "Storm of Arrows". But when I started to read some accounts of the battle I realised why it wasn't - basically up to half the troops that turned up on that day may not have been really committed to fighting for either Richard III or Henry Tudor. At least, you can find historians who will argue that that was the case.
I have done some research and constructed a battlefield (there is still some controversy over its location despite recent archaeological discoveries) and I have researched the make-up of each contingent as far as possible. I am still looking for more information.
So far, I have the forces represented at Bosworth Field as follows . . .
Yorkists (definitely 6,000, maybe 10,000)
Duke of Norfolk - 3,000 including 1,200 archers and culverins
Richard III - 3,000 with upto 800 cavalry, mostly shire and city militia foot
and then the Earl of Northumberland - 4,000 including many mounted troops (his troops did not actually take part in the battle)
Lancastrians (definitely 5,000, maybe 11,000)
Earl of Oxford - 5,000 including French and Scottish pikemen and Welsh foot, a few English foot, plus Henry Tudor and his mounted bodyguard
and then the two Stanley contingents, Sir William with 3,000 mounted troops and Lord Thomas Stanley with another 3,000 men (presumably a mixture of archers, billmen and mounted troops)
It seems to me that the key to the scenario is how you might decide the behaviour of the Earl of Northumberland's contingent (Yorkist) and the two Stanley contingents (Lancastrian?) on the day. The most obvious way, it seems to me, is to decide that Northumberland was loyal to Richard III and his forces were prepared to fight for him (Northumberland was imprisoned after the battle) - and that the Stanley's were more pre-disposed to fight for Henry (historically this is quite doubtful, Stanley's son was held hostage by Richard III). If you do this then you have a reasonably balanced scenario - 10,000 versus 11,000 with Richard's forces having the higher ground.
The question remaining then is - how do you decide if or when these forces intervene in the battle? One way that I have thought of (and it has to be a transparent mechanism to work in an online game) is to say that these forces will stay stationary (and will not be attacked or shot at) UNLESS at the end of any players' turn the number of break points totals 20, 25, 30, 35, or 40 (or multiples of 3 or 4 between 20 and 40/41: this needs to be tested). Only if this happens will these contingents be activated starting in the next players' turn.
In this way you would re-create the "waiting period" where no-one knew if these forces would intervene or not; you would re-create the difficulties faced by commanders (in terms of their movement and tactics etc) not knowing whether other enemy troops were going to intervene at some point - and you would re-create the possibility that these forces might still have a decisive say in the final outcome of the battle.
I know that it is not perfect, by any means, but I would be interested to hear the thoughts of other scenario builders who make have faced these sorts of issues in other scenarios, or from anyone with a detailed knowledge of what happened on 22/8/1485. Thanks.
