Battle of Evesham - a 28mm Wargame

 Afternoon all, and Happy New Year.

Last year the shed witnessed a refight of the Battle of Lewes and it was always our intention to fight the other major battle of the Barons War, this being the Battle of Evesham.

If you want to check out our retake of Lewes head HERE. This was great fun and was played out twice on Monday nights.

However, bringing the Battle of Evesham to the table top is a completely different beast. In a nutshell the Royalist forces, lead by the Prince of Wales Edward, enjoyed a a three to one superiority over their opponent Simon de Montfort (defacto Dictator of England after Lewes) and once Simon's Welsh mercenaries fled the scene he was in an even worse position. Hemmed in by geography Simon's forces were pummelled and destroyed. This doesn't sound like a great deal of fun from a wargaming perspective and certainly no fun for the real Simon de Montfort.

As part of the planning for this re-enactmentlead I have been doing some research on the events leading up to the battle at Evesham. Three things leaped forward as a means of making this a better game.

Firstly Simon de Montfort's son, also known as Simon, was marching to his father's aid and with a reasonably sized force was resting at Kenilworth when it was ambushed by Royalist forces lead by Edward. Three quarters of Simon the younger's forces were destroyed. What if Edward had not marched to defeat his foe at Kenilworth, and that these forces could link up with the other de Montfort force?

Secondly it was widely believed until new research was discovered that Edward split his army into three battles and that the third battle lead by Sir Roger Mortimer had marched south of Evesham in an attempt to cut off any escape for Simon's forces when he was attacked by the Prince of Wales. This new research suggests that the Price of Wales did not split his force but rather all three battles confronted Simon de Montfort north of Evesham.   What if Edward did indeed split his force and Mortimer will approach the battle from the south?

Finally the accounts suggest that a large portion of Simon de Montfort's army were Welsh mercenaries, secured when Simon signed over several castles in Wales to the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. When Simon's army finally met Edward outside Evesham the Welsh clearly decided that this was not their fight and promptly fled the field. Simon was left with a massively outnumbered force and the rest is history. What if the Welsh did not flee? or least potentially rallied and stayed on the field?

Before I continue with my plan its useful to share a map of the battlefield to illustrate Simons predicament...(source British Battlefields website)

Please note this map illustrates the older view that Edward split his forces.

As you can see in this Map Evesham sits in the bend of the river Avon and this can only be crossed locally at a bridge in the south east and at Offenham in the East. and if you took the route to Offenham and travelled eastwards you would come eventually to Kenilworth !! 

So in our refight Simon's son will NOT be ambushed but will arrive at somepoint during the battle via the Offenham bridge, Edward has split his army and Mortimer will arrive from the South and the balance the forces more evenly the Welsh might not evaporate at the sign of Edwards army. I know this all stands a bit far fetched but will hopefully give a good battle !

We will be using Hail Caesar as our ruleset for this game.

Orders of Battle

Special Rules

1. All welsh units must take a break test at the start of the game - this does mean the units may rout from the battle before it starts

2. Simon the Youngers force should be split into cavalry and infantry. Mounted troops arrive each rebel turn on a 4+ With each turn adding +1 to die roll, Infantry forces arrive on 6+ with each unit adding +1 per turn thereafter. These troops enter the table at the bridge to the east of Evesham.

3. Mortimer's force enters the table on turn one - the forces would arrive in the same manner as above. The bridge to the south west of Evesham is their entry point

4. The village of Evesham for this game is considered out of bounds. The victors can pillage at the end of the game. 

5. Victory once one side is broken (50% or more units shaken or destroyed)

The Game

This is a perfect game for four players but sadly one of the group identified to play dropped out at the last minute. This lead to Vince controlling both Simons whilst Mark took on the role of Edward, Prince of Wales and I assumed the part of Sir Roger de Mortimer.

Simon seniors forces were deployed in advance and on player arrival we rolled to see how many of the Welsh would stand. Unfortunately a third of the force thought Wales was a much nicer place to be and subsequently disappeared from the table. This put the rebel cause at a distinct disadvantage from the outset

The full rebel force force the Welsh departed

Once the Welsh deserters had been dealt with Edwards forces arrived. Mark elected to flank his infantry with two wings of cavalry. These forces started moving up in a orderly fashion.

Realising his forces were severely outnumbered Simon determined that an orderly retreat was called for until his reinforcements arrived.

No sooner had Simon pulled back his rear was threatened by Mortimer's troops approaching from the south .

Fortunately his own reinforcements began to arrive......

The main bodies were still too far to either charge or influence each others decisions. Playing length wise on the table was affording us the opportunity of playing a medieval game with quite a bit of maneuver.

The thin lines of the Rebels awaited the Royal onslaught.

The Royalist forces pushed forward, their two powerful Infantry battles flanked my mounted troops

The already weakened Rebel force awaited the inevitable charge....

Mark being Mark (Prince of Wales) likes to keep his lines neat and tidy and in this game he did not disappoint.

By now Simon the youngers troops were onto the field and reinforcing his fathers rear. Mortimer's troops can be seen moving up in the distance.

Screened by cavalry Simon junior's Infantry were strung out in column across the field.

Mortimers was struggling on the hand to extricate himself from a log jam on the bridge (failed command rolls)

With his forces ready Mark commanded the charge !!

The Royalist horse crashed into De Montfords household knights. Both Simon and Edward threw themselves into the melee. With the benefit of added supports the Royalist house ran dow the Rebels. A cry went up De Montfort had been killed in action. Edward was wounded. This was brutal.

Technically the game should have been over with the death of the Rebel leader but with so much of the game to play Simon the younger assumed command.

The Rebels were in dire straits, they were trapped to the front and rear. 

The Royalists continued to advance, mopping up the remnants of Simon's cavalry

Mortimer's troops had now managed to push their way forward off the bridge and positioned themselves for an advance on the rear rebel guard. However a sizeable force of Rebels had broken away from the front and confronted Mortimer's troops crossing the river

Boxed in Mortimers chaps fought back against this new threat. Unfortunately for the Rebels they left their flanks and rear open. This brave assault ended badly for the Rebel forces

By now the Royalist Infantry were in position to secure victory

The two cumbersome battles crashed into the smaller rebel lines. 

A brutal Melee was erupting across the field and inevitably the stronger Royalist units were having a better time. 

With both sides experiencing heavy casualties both sides pulled back for a breath....

Mortimer's rear attack was now advancing into the rebel rear guard....with the clock ticking, Simon de Montford dead and no hope for his cause a victory was declared for Edward Prince of Wales

So a result that was very close to history. Simon de Montfort did indeed perish at Evesham along with his rebellion. Could he have won? The history books clearly show that as outnumbered as he was on the day he was never going to succeed, our battle suggested his chances were slim.

We all agreed that this was a different type of game to our usual Medieval brawls and had the merit of allowing significant movement. Strengthening Montfort force, whether it be allowing him to keep all of his welsh or providing him with more troops would deviate too far from the possible history what we were trying to create.

I do hope this is of interest and with the advent of more early medieval troops from Victrix and Wargames Atlantic I think it is time to think about increasing the forces I have available for other battles fought in this period? Bannockburn anybody?