English vs Spanish

Paul recently made a very sensible, prudent, erudite and timely purchase, showing he has great taste, towering intellect and some spare cash  - he bought a lovely 28mm War of the Roses Lancastrian army- from me! And so he decided that he should use said army against me- where's customer loyalty these days?

Well, he of course was lacking any real experience in using such an army,   I confidently fielded my Trastamara Spanish with lots of pike, arquebus, some field fortifications, a couple of knights and the famed jinetes!

Deployment was a bit problematic for Paul as he had 9 units of Longbowmen, so he just put them in a long line on his left flank, and packed the rest of the army on his right.
Bad move. Really bad move.

The loooooong line of longbow. With stakes. ( thin 'red' line- or is that from another era??)

He then had his heavy knights opposite my jinetes- another bad move. And finally, in the center opposite my pike block he had his billmen and dismounted men at arms.  Another poor decision.
The game unfolded pretty much as you'd expect, his knights crashed into and chewed up my jinetes, his long line of archers shot the hell out of my knights, skirmishers and arquebus and finally his f*cking billmen and men at arms beat the stuffing out of my pike block. Madre mia!!  Yes I know I said 'bad move'- I meant for me!!!
Anyone know how to beat longbowmen??????? There were so many arrows it was like fighting in the shade....(is that from another era?)

The Spanish are going back in their box and I'm going to finish painting the Yorkists!!


Long line of longbow.

The billmen

The English on the left, my guys on the right! That long line of long bows on the top left just shot everything to bits! Lochlainn ( Paul's sub general) never missed!!

View from the Spanish pike!

My Bombard- behind field fortifications.



My left flank- light cavalry with supporting arquebus. When I say they got swept away by Paul's knights- not really like a broom- more like a nuclear powered tsunami!!

My arquebus in rough ground- they advanced out and got into a shooting match with the longbow. Idiotic really, now that i think about it.

My right flank- opposite Paul's longbows- Their obvious ambition- to be pin cushions!

Paul's knights ( at the top) start rumbling forward to catch my jinetes.
They did. It was ugly.
I don't know who was worse off, my jinetes after being smashed by his heavy metal terminator armour wearing power-fist carrying knights ( well they didn't have that stuff but it felt like it) or my porcupine looking right flank- where everyone was full of arrows.

This photo shows my knights moving across the battlefield away from the English longbow - moving right to left-- it was safer to go across the face of my own guns than face the English firepower!!

The remnants of my arquebus line...and note- there are no gaps in the English line. I lost the exchange of fire.
Big time!!!

Jinetes and Spanish knights , fleeing the barrage of arrows


The last of my arquebus units- standing forlornly in the middle of the table....and a hail of arrows coming my way.
I said; "A bit like Thermopylae really"
Ross and Paul: "No it isn't. Nothing like it. The Spartans at least did damage to the Persians"

A cheap revenge- my arquebus units blew the English knights to their Protestant battlefield in the sky. I think this was about one of three units I destroyed, 60% of my army was gone or full of arrows! ( or both)

His billmen hit my pikes- and they made a mess- ( The billmen, not the pikes!)

The pike block getting smaller.....and smaller.....and smaller........and ......oh sh*t... I give up!!!!!

10 comments:

  1. Looks like a fantastic (and bloody) game, impressive and superb pikes, artillery, arquebuses and archers, awesome close ups on them...

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    1. Thanks Phil,
      it was a great game with a lot of casualties- Mine!

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  2. Great looking game guys. Good purchase for Paul.
    Richard

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    1. Thanks Richard! I know he was very happy! With price and performance,

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  3. The figures look great of course, I'd like to see the Lancastrians against Richard's Burgundian
    Army

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  4. So would I...depending on the rules!!

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  5. Excellent game in good spirit.
    I thought the Panz...er...nights might get shot up by his arquebueses and his blasted light troops runnin orf all the bloomin time. But we just managed to catch one or two. John didn’t mention but was redeploying his forces to counter my knights. Unfortunately he ran foul of morale & his command started to save themselves for the next purse!!

    I guess longbow V longbow will be a bloody contest? “Lubricam Agri !”
    Until we meet again across Elysian Fields?

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    Replies
    1. Aye Balthazar- we shall unleash the dogs of war again!

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