Wargames: the next generation

My grandson Sebastian is learning about the Wars of the Roses at school. Over the half term he had to brush up on the Battle of Bosworth.

I decided to help him with his homework. So we set up a simple Bosworth game using Britain’s Swoppets and my This Weak Piping Time of Peace rules. Sebastian led Henry Tudor’s force and I took Richard III’s.

Moving aggressively from the start, Sebastian advanced the Earl of Oxford’s contingent to engage the Duke of Norfolk’s men. Sir William Stanley looked on, still not decided whether or not to join the Tudor cause.

On the Yorkist side, Henry Percy also hung back. He had answered King Richard’s call to arms but didn’t want to commit too soon.

The archers on both sides accomplished very little. Arrows were loosed but very few found their mark. When Oxford’s and Norfolk’s men clashed hand to hand, Oxford had bad luck with one of his knights being killed in the melée.

Then Henry Tudor launched a mounted attack on Norfolk with the intention of breaking through Norfolk’s right wing. At the same time King Richard III led his mounted knights against William Stanley who had now decided to join in on the Tudor side.

Although Henry Tudor’s mounted charge succeeded in driving back some of the Yorkists, Henry himself was wounded in the fighting.

King Richard’s charge against Stanley did not go well. One of Richard’s knights was killed by a billman and the others made little headway.

Then as the combat continued Henry Tudor took another wound and was killed. With Tudor dead, the battle is over and Richard will remain King of England. History has been changed!