"The Battle of Stokes Field - A prequel" Topic

My latest blog is a part battlefield visit, part battle report for a fictional encounter prior to the Battle of Stokes Field. It was the first full game that I have played with the new 'Never Mind The Billhooks rules' since lock down in March – only to find we are locked down again a week later! I hope that you find it entertaining.

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Thanks for sharing your photos, writeup, and thoughts.

On the LH charging through the skirmishers, I'm reminded of the futuristic quote, "the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few". Couldn't think of the more appropriate, traditional, or medieval one.

I can definitely see heavy cav doing that. Not sure about light cav, though to be fair, the ground scale is REALLY compressed, and "skirmishers" signifies there would only be a few of them, in a loose line, so I think they could easily move out of the way, for light, or heavy cav (especiailly the former who are also in very limited numbers).

If you want to make it a bit more interesting, have them do a skill check to do that, though I'd only invoke that with medium or heavy cav, and not the light ones, since the latter are so few in number.

I do find the English mixing in with the Irish in close formation a bit more problematical. Again, you could roll a skill check, or gut check to see if they comply, without attacking one another instead. Failure means they get locked in a little skirmish of their own, or one side leaves the battlefield in disgust.

@Arcane Steve:

East Stoke is the only battlefield which I have walked in detail, twice, as it is close to the Newark venue for wargame shows.

I was a bit puzzled by your report as there seemed no mention of the German 'Swiss' pike known to have been at the battle and your rebels seemed to have cavalry. The only effective light cavalry in England at this time was the Northern Border Horse – later known as Reivers – and there is no record of northern troops at Stoke on either side.

Having walked the ground my take on the battle is that Lincoln/Lovell were camped on the high ground with a force of roughly one third Irish, one third German pike with a few hand gunners and probably one-third English or Anglo-Irish from the Dublin Pale area. I would rate the English/Anglo-Irish as 'levy' quality only. I would make the Irish half gallowglas and half kern as it was established practice in Ireland that troops which deployed for battle included gallowglas – they were the line-of-battle troops. Kerns were used on cattle raids, etc. We know from Albrecht Durer that both Gallowglas and Kerns appeared in Germany in the 1520s.

It would appear that Lincoln had been heading north-east for the Newark crossing but his lack of light cavalry scouting allowed him to get pinned on the partly wooded hill which, as you know, has a steep drop off to the Trent behind. I do not think the village ever featured in the main battle but possibly in the rout. The rebel army would not have been wide enough to cover the slope to the village and, besides, the threat was coming from the south, up Ermine Street.

While most accounts claim that the Earl of Oxford advanced 'too fast' without Henry VII's support and Henry had to 'rescue' him my reading is that the royal army had to get those pikes OFF the hill and down slope. Thus I think Oxford deliberately advanced with Henry holding back the rest of the royal forces. The story of the 'royal rescue' was written by Tudor chroniclers who wanted to 'big up' the boss.

Lincoln, Lovell and Schwartz thus saw a force below them which they outnumbered and decided they could attack. They piled into Oxford's men and caused losses and probably a serious push back. But this pulled the rebels off their hill and exposed their flanks. Henry's men then deployed – probably on either side of Oxford's battered forces – and crushed them, driving them back to the so-called 'Red Gutter'.
In effect it was the Zulus' 'horns of the buffalo' operation.

If you replay this again widen the battlefield, orientate it more to the south-east and have pike for the Germans and gallowglas among the Irish. The royal forces arrive in two stages. The game will revolve around a swift attack down hill by the rebels and they have to break the royal vanguard before Henry brings up the rest and makes his numbers count.

Don't worry about modelling the hill, just give the rebels a combat advantage for charging downhill on the first round of melee.

Barry

Hi Barry, thank you for your comments and the information regarding the battle of Stokes Field. As a relative newcomer to the period, I am still getting to grips with the history and I am very grateful for any information that helps. In fact I have learnt as much from your contributions on this site as anywhere else. Your work on the Roll calls are printed off and in my source material file! I have also book marked your battle field visits and once this COVID19 malarkey is over , I'll be dragging the wife along to visit them.
I think that I have made a slight error in combining the battle report with a battlefield visit. This was as much to 'pad out' my blog post and give it context rather than to claim any real historical credibility for the game that we were playing. Indeed, I mention that the battle is a fictional encounter and is a 'prequel' to the main battle, not an attempt to replay the battle itself. There is more information on the scenario in Wargames Illustrated issue 394 and the rules Writer, Andy Callan just wanted to introduce some of the more unusual units that were around at the end of the WOTR.
We did actually have a unit of German pikes that came onto the table as Reinforcements part way through the game. However, they just 'trundled down the road' and were too late to play any part in the actual fighting – too much sausage…
The cavalry or light horse were there to represent the scouting contingents. I guess that Lord Lovell would have been mounted for the march but having him lead the scouts was simply a game mechanic and a convenient name to use. The Irish (in the game scenario)were led by Constable McSweeney and the Germans by Captain Weiss ( although I renamed him Captain Audi on the night). I also took a few other liberties in the game that I have flagged in the article.
I hope that all makes sense and thank you again for the information. Regards, Steve

Hi Barry, I was trying to contact you with a personal message but cant figure out how to do so on this site! Basically, I'm not sure if you have the rules set for 'Never Mind the Bill Hooks' but if not I would be happy to send you a complimentary copy in view of the amount of work that you put into this period! Just drop me your address to my email horzawood@hotmail.com

No offence,but anyone else that would like a copy will have to go to the Wargames Illustrated site! I only have a very limited number left given to me as I was a play tester!

I was trying to contact you with a personal message but cant figure out how to do so on this site!

You can't unless you are a Supporting Member.

@Arcane Steve:

barry (dot) slembo (at) gmail (dot) com

I got the free copy given out a couple of months ago with one of the magazines but I am still testing and proof-reading my own Bills, Bows and Bloodshed 2.0 for publication. The publication date has rolled back several times due to changes and covid-19.