Spotlight on Wars of the Roses troops

07 October 2021

The new set of rules we are working on is called a “Corruption of Blood” and are designed to push the envelope of the rules guidelines I set out in Building Rules for Gaming Battles.

The new rules are a bit more comprehensive than our normal battle sets and will take longer to play a game. They are not hex based, but can be if you convert 1 base width to 1 hex.

I now need to take photographs of the troops for the printed publicaton of the rules. In order to take better quality photos with a smaller size, I have purchased a light box. It only cost £11.99 and I'm excited to see the results I have achieved on our website.

The troops I have based are the following:

Irish Gallowglass

These troops fought as mercenaries. They were dressed like the Norman knights of old with their attendants. They used a mixture of double-handed weapons like axes, polearms and claymores. They can also double up as basic foot troops, such as the Northern Border foot or Militia Billmen

Irish Bonnachts

These troops were the ordinary Irish foot soldier, they comprised partly of "Bonnachts", or Irish mercenaries and were supported by the free peasantry who were called out to muster. As above they can also double up as basic foot troops.

The Irish Horse

There were essentially light horse primarily skilled at raiding and skirmishing. They had very limited use in an open battle, and they were armed with light spears. These could also be deployed as Shire Staves.

Spearmen

These are a basic foot unit and some of them will be from the Welsh Marches. These troops often lacked any protection and typically used spears and knives, although not exclusively. They can also double up as Northern Border Foot

Crossbowmen and Pikes

Generally, these troops came from Europe and served as mercenaries. Crossbowmen carried many different crossbows and sometimes used pavises, however they were constantly bettered by the longbowmen. The Pike armed troops were Professional mercenaries and although they were termed "Burgundian" they were in fact from of several different nationalities.


Handgunners

These came predominantly from Europe. They used primitive handguns and tended to have little or no effect in battle. They were somewhat ineffective when compared to other ranged weapons of the time.

Peasants and Peasant Archers

Although not a troops type in themselves, they can be used to bolster most Levy unit types. I find them very useful in adding flavour to the make of an army making them look different and interesting as a part of a contingent.

I hope you like the photos. As they say, “onwards and upwards” to the next stage of the process.