Slitherine

This is an interesting one. It is set in the time of Richard II in England and some of the nobles are getting increasingly restless with the way the king is ruling the country. Eventually, open rebellion breaks out, and Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby (the future Henry IV, 1399-1413) raises an army and confronts a largely Cheshire-raised force commanded by Robert de Vere.

EDIT: version 2 now available, double moves should be switched off for this scenario

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15461007/Battle ... 20PWv2.rar

NB: this is a very tough situation for the loyalist army, led by de Vere - so this might work best as a paired game where aggregate scores can be compared. One way to make it a bit easier for the loyalists is to stipulate that the rebel force coming from the north, led by Thomas Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester can only begin on, say, move 2 or move 3 - in this way the scenario can be balanced out to suit your preference.

Am I to understand then that Bolingbroke led two rebellions? One in 1387 and a second after he returned from banishment in 1399? Are you sure the date of this battle is 1387? Anyway, thanks for the scenario. Looks interesting.

ZeaBed wrote:Am I to understand then that Bolingbroke led two rebellions? One in 1387 and a second after he returned from banishment in 1399? Are you sure the date of this battle is 1387? Anyway, thanks for the scenario. Looks interesting.

Yes, that's right, Zeabed. After this first rebellion, the rebel nobles called a new Parliament, which is known now as "The Merciless Parliament", and it instituted a thorough purge of Richard's administration. Many were executed. Richard II then changed his ways for a number of years, but he became increasingly autocratic again after the death of his wife Anne of Bohemia in 1394. Things came to a head in 1399 and Henry Bolingbroke returned from exile and deposed Richard II, who had been campaigning in Ireland.

Regarding the scenario, I still have a bit more labelling to do - I am currently trying to research where the men who constituted the two armies came from. The loyalist army was largely made up of Cheshiremen. The FOG aspect of it that I still have a question mark in my notebook about is whether the loyalist spearmen should be "offensive spear" as I have currently depicted them. The default position for English spearmen is of this period is as "defensive spearmen", but I have given them "offensive" status as their position is desperate and they need to fight their way out of the trap. In the real "battle", just three people were apparently killed, including Sir Thomas Molineux, but around 800 of the loyalist army drowned in the Thames!

Drowning in full armor seemed to have been a frequent hazard back in those days. There's never a good way to lose a battle, but getting yourself drowned is anticlimactic and I suppose difficult to game! Thanks for information. I remember reading about the Wat Tyler rebellion but not about the 1387 meltdown.

Thank you for the scenario.

I have now done a couple of play-tests of this and made a few changes. Version 2 is at the top of the thread and I think it makes for a very exciting battle now. I have found quite a bit of information about the loyalist army from an excerpt of a primary source (Holinshead) - he mentions two characters Vernon and Ratcliffe (but not their rank) so presumably they were captains or something similar. The amy came from Cheshire, Lancashire, North Wales and the city of Chester. There is much less info available (so far anyway) about the rebel army. Presumably they were largely retainers of Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas of Woodstock.

I just played V.1 and it's exciting indeed. This is one game in which it's not "good to be the King."