Stoke Field & Newark

For our annual DBA outing my friend Pete Manning & I headed North from Coventry to Newark-on-Trent on 21/08/2017.

Stoke Field

Just outside Newark is East Stoke site of the War of the Roses Battle Stoke Field 16th June 1487. As the parish church of St Oswald’s is home to a display about the battle and a memorial plaque we decided to use it for our  game. After a brief search we located a light switch and transformed the rather murky in the bell tower into a well lit venue for its  extensive information boards and the ideal venue for our game.

We used the standard DBA lists for the battle, maximising the mounted options to act as Henry’s rearguard. Historically the Lancastrians arrived in three separate commands. We placed the artillery in the front line and split the Billmen and Bows between the first two lines. The Yorkists had the English troops on the right with the Germans (Pikes in the list though sometimes said to be crossbows) in the centre and the weaker irish on the left.

Having decided dispositions we decided for who was to general and I got to be Lambert Simnel/Lincoln - the desperate Yorkists. Clearly without a quick victory I would like my historical prototype be overwhelmed once the Lancastrians were fully deployed. I shielded the pikes with my Psiloi handgunners and launched over the hills - the Irish Auxilia were swiftly engaged and had a flank advantage.

The pikes got stuck into the artillery. The English luckily destroyed one of Henry’s Bowmen. My general supported the artillery and lined up against an enemy Blade element. The Irish hads an early success taking out an enemy Bow. All looked good for the rebel alliance.

Sadly though the Pikes were stalled and then recoiled Lincoln pursued his retreating opponent and the enemy currours (Cavalry) threatened the flanking Psiloi. Worse my double overlapped Lancastrian general got 5 - 1ed and died . the game was now in the balance but the pikemen finally took out the enemy artillery and we were 3 all. Rashley Henry VII plugged the gap in what looked to me a rash move. The outcome is summarized in the following table:

Before	After

Relief of Newark

We scooted up the road to Newark and the excellent National Civil War Museum which has an good video overview of all 3 sieges.

We set up our refight of Rupert's relief of the first siege over the river from the remains of Newark castle on a handily placed picnic bench. For this we used my adaption of DBA3.0 for ECW which adds Shooters (3 vs all) Dragoons (fast moving skirmishers that actually shoot) and a few minor tweaks like separated generals taken from DBHx. Mostly though it just uses standard DBA as Pete Manning & I struggle with too many similar rules.

Rupert’s cavalry were represented as Knights. Some of the Parliamentarian infantry were Horde (as they performed so badly on the day). Following the results of a “which side are you on?” quiz in the Civil War museum I was given command of the Parliamentary besiegers.

Pete Manning was well cast as Rupert. Covering his right flank with He charged forward personally leading the mounted Cavaliers. The Royalist mounted charge was proved unstoppable and raced through the hastily arranged Parliamentary front line of Cavalry and Horde.

Not content with the Dragoons to protect the left flank. The Royalists sallied out the garrison from Newark and attacked the parliament camp. This was disastrous as they were immediately destroyed.

Still not content with just showing his bravery against the Roundhead Cavalry, Rupert led the Cavaliers into  a foolhardy headlong dash against the  enemy foote. The supported musketeers repelled the Cavaliers leaving the third Knight double overlapped facing double ranked pikes led by the parliamentary general  - 1 vs 6, worse the parliamentarians rolled a 6  only one thing could save them now so of course…

The parliamentary foote on the left now came into action but despite superior numbers lost the crucial fourth and final element to shooting.  Another  great game despite the unflattering 4-1 loss. Again the game narrative was oddly close to that of the original battle.

We left Newark via the “Queen’s Sconce” a rare seventeenth century survival an artillery fort with impressive entrenchments. Apparently this avoided destruction after the third siege of Newark as the victorious Parliamentarians fled an outbreak of plague.