First of all, the Hail Caesar Wars of the Roses Supplement is undoubtedly the best introductory book to the period I’ve come across. Excellent overview of the conflicts and it has very good descriptions of the battles and the main personalities involved.
Scenarios are provided for all of the main battles plus some “what if” options. Military leaders are provided with specific rules relating to their historical personalities.
Of course, you aren’t limited to play just these scenarios and that is where the fun begins. The pre-battle stages are optional, but I thought I’d give them a run-through.
You can start by creating your own generals and commanders. Dice roles provide you with possible strengths and “foibles” though not every commander will have them.
There are also tables to help you design the livery badge for each commander, which I found a lot of fun (especially having found a website that helps you create an image of your shield, which can then be reduced/printed and stuck to a token.)
On to the next bit – the terrain generator. Really simple. I ended up with an open terrain with one hill and a stream running down the right flank.
Next – Weather – a dice roll with little chance of hitting a weather-significant issue – but if you do……. Fortunately I didn’t
Next - Reconnaissance stage – Very simple – Yorkists won.
Next – Muster stage – I really like this because there was a chance of troops arriving late, some being levy etc. – but on this occasion – no effect either
Finally (almost) – the “Favours table” an option which is an added complexity which I wasn’t sure about but thought I’d give it a go anyway. I chose options for the Lancastrians and then did a random selection for the Yorkists. The result – the Yorkists ended up with a Papal banner making one unit “Brave”; and one commander could reroll failed order tests in the first turn. The Lancastrians were allowed to move the hill to their side of the table, and gained extra movement in their first turn, but got a disadvantage on potential treachery tests.
And there’s the final (once again optional) stage. You can designate one of your sub commanders as loyal and one of your opponents as treacherous. I thought I’d try this and would see what happened. I nominated my (Lancastrian) Baron Norris as loyal and the Yorkist Lord Benedict Hill as treacherous. We’ll see what happens.
In terms of rule differences from the main rulebook – this is just a flavour.
a) There are some extra options available to commanders – such as “dismiss the horses” when they join a unit. Which means the unit is less likely to break, but the commander is more likely to be captured. Note – this plays an important part in campaigns as commanders are often executed giving rise to blood feuds.
b) The big change is the arrowstorm rule. Bows have limited ammunition but fire with double dice at longer than short range.
Fighting an actual battle – what was it like?
Disappointing – but hopefully nothing that can’t be fixed.
Bad deployment of the Yorkists by me and a lucky opening triple move plus a “favours” bonus by the Lancastrian centre pinned them back at their table edge with no room to manoeuvre.
After the allocated 6 turns the Yorkist right was broken and they were clearly never going to get better. As a battle result per se it was OK but there were several things which niggled – some of them my own fault.
a) I’m so used to my ancients where there’s a -1 on missiles to hit heavy infantry to their front. I found the arrowstorm underwhelming. HOWEVER – the wording specifies heavy infantry with large shields, so removing that -1 will make a big difference next time.
b) I opted to use the supplied cut-out arrow markers to denote the 3 arrowstorms. It made the battlefield look an absolute mess. Next time I’ll find a better solution.
Now we are on to a common failing (in my opinion) of modern rulesets. They can’t keep things simple. There’s always a need to add another layer. Lion Rampant became massively popular by going in the opposite direction, tightening up in version 2 but still not overdoing it.
I feel this HC supplement has perhaps tried to put so much in that it forgets many of its fans just want to “pick up and play”. Fortunately, a lot of the new rules etc in this supplement are optional. So what would I do?
i) Unless using a set scenario with historical figures, ditch the strengths and foibles for commanders (but keep the random command value). They are an unnecessary complication
ii) In the pregame stage ditch the optional “Favours Table” as it makes the opening turn very complicated.
iii) I’d also ditch the Treachery rule for one off games, but keep for campaigns.
iv) I do see the point of the Dismiss the Horses order – but sorry – I’d rather leave it out as another unnecessary complication.
v) The ‘Escape” special rule – yes useful in a campaign, but not a one-off
vi) The “To Horses” rule – surely this is just something else that doesn’t really need to be there.
vii) The troop types on offer are extensive. Best not to go over-elaborate in your army selection. For an evening’s game I wouldn’t go beyond 400 points(excluding generals) either.
The Replay - What happened?
Firstly, I got around the ‘ammo markers’ issue by how I deployed the 6 bases in my units. It made the table look a lot neater. (note: I was playing 15mm. In a 28mm game the use of markers would not be so intrusive).
I removed what I considered to be unnecessary optional rules (see above).
And of course, I remembered not to make a -1 adjustment for shooting at the front of “heavy” non shielded troops.
(note the author has made a point of saying he dropped the ‘base saving roll’ from 5 to 4)
In the battle itself – it ended with much the same result with the Yorkists losing their right flank, but what a difference otherwise. The ‘arrowstorm’ worked a treat, with difficult decisions being made as to when to use it and at what range. It really gave a proper feel to the period and I’d love to try it with 28mm figures.
So, an outstanding success as far as the rules are concerned, and even if you don’t want to use Hail Caesar – if you have any interest in the Wars of the Roses at all – do buy this book!