War of the Roses Playtest for Cold Wars

     At last Friday's club meeting I ran a 6 player War of the Roses game as a playtest for the upcoming Cold Wars Convention in Lancaster, PA.  I used the under-development Feudal Patrol rules, and 28mm figures.

      The scenario featured a trio of Yorkist supply wagons heading toward the main body of the army.  Upon hearing a Lancastrian force pursuing the Yorkist army is speeding up the road, the contracted civilian wagon drivers run off, abandoning the wagons.  The Yorkists have now dispatched a force to head back and retrieve the wagons, as the lead elements of the Lancastrians rush forward to snatch the wagons for themselves.

Lead Lancastrian elements advance towards the closest wagon, as others move off to flank on their left.

The Yorkists move forward, securing the closest wagon, and begin to take long range fire from the enemy archers.

Likewise, the Lancastrians secure their closest wagon, as their most forward elements come under fire from the Yorkist longbows.

After a desperate cavalry skirmish near the middle wagon, the Lancastrians briefly take control of it.  Then a heroic Yorkist knight rushes forward and clears the wagon if it's Lancastrian captors, and begins to drive off with it.  While he eventually falls to enemy longbow fire, he gets the wagon far enough behind the enemy lines to ensure its safety.

     In the end, the game was declared a Yorkist victory, as they had secured two of the three wagons.  Also, in the last turn of the game the Lancastrian commander fell, causing panic to sweep through their force (All units go pinned when an army commander dies), guaranteeing that any attempt at regaining the wagon was doomed.

     The game was a lot of fun, and there were a number of heroic actions and see-sawing fortunes.  As a GM, I was able to learn a lot about the scenario to help tweak it for the convention to make it even more enjoyable.