Battle of Blore Heath (sort of)

[Luddite]

So this wee we ran through another game using my WotR amendments to the excellent Dux Bellorum rules.

We wanted to try out some different aspects and troop types so we went with a scenario roughly based on Blore Heath.

http://luddite1811.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/battle-of-blore-heath-sort-of-wotr-dux.html

[H.M.Stanley]

Very nice

I might just have to dudt off my WotR project. Only the mounted MAA to finish

[max]

You turned the tables of history again!

I had a little game the other day using your stats and i had a couple of suggestions. They're my own interpretation of the Wars so you can ignore them if you wish  

Archers. Most retinue archers were quite happy to get stuck into the melee, and they were equipped to do so. So i thought give them a protection of 5, aggression 3 and missile aggression 2. Since the archery duels 'cancelled each other out', i thought reducing about their effect. Against cavalry maybe they could have +1 aggression?

Also, i treated handgunners as skirmishers but found out afterwards you didn't put the 'skirmisher' skill in the notes. I always thought they were skirmishers, hence the limited effect on battles.

I need to try them out, as i'm using these rules for my Mortimer's cross battle.

[Luddite]

Hi Max,

Archers

Protection 5
I disagree.  they are poorly armoured compared to the billmen and men-at-arms and so PRO4 seems appropriate.  That said in the archery duel, they're hit on a 5 anyway, so by default in the duel, their PRO =5 sort of.   

Aggression 3
Well i can see why you'd say that.  Certainly after the archery duel, they would get stick in with the falchion and arming sword, but my reading is that they would fight in support of the billmen during this later phase.
Given the way DxB works, supporting units only contribute +1 AGG i feel keeping them at AGG2 means they're ok fighting in support, perhaps ok fighting against other archers in an extended slog, but they're no good on their own against proper close combat troops.  Pushing them up to AGG3 i think pushes them into 'front line troop' territory.
I think your interpretation has merit though so if you try it out with those stats i'd like to hear how you think they worked.

Missile aggression 3
Again, i can see why you say reduce it to 2, and i do think that has merit.  Again, try it out and let us know.   
The reason i'll leave it at 3 for the moment is that a unit has 3 rounds of shooting so a total of 9 dice over the course of the battle.  Hitting on 5, that means on average over the course of their whole shooting they should hit 3 times on average.  That means that retinue longbow units in a one-on-one will survive the archery exchange, whereas militia longbowmen will probably be destroyed (quit the field after shooting all their arrows).
In reality, we're finding players often take the option to 'concentrate fire' with 2+ longbowmen picking on one enemy (heavy armoured units in the front line are primary targets!)  This is fine, but i think it actually wastes hits as you then tend to get 4-5 hits in a 3 hit militia unit (wasting 2 hits).
In practice, as out battle reports i think show, the 3 rounds of shooting aren't decisive, but do 'thin out' the enemy. 
I'd be concerned that reducing the MAGG to 2 would force 'fire concentration' in order to be effective.

Bonus against cavalry
Well, we talked about this.  We've also talked about making billmen more effective against cavalry.
I think there's merit to both arguments.  Following this latest battle i've actually downgraded the basic stats of mounted men-at-arms, reducing their protection and cohesion, as they seemed a little overpowered. 
We'll try them out with the new stats and see if further tweaks are neccessary.
Perhaps rather than add to shooter's MAGG, making them hit mounted troops on 4 rather than 5?

[max]

I can see what you mean about the archers, i hadn't thought about it that way. I really need to get another game in though.

As for cavalry, lowering the stats seems a good idea to me. When you begin introducing new rules it begins to get complicated, so changing the stats is a lot better it think.