Below you will find Part 2 in a Plantagenet replay series from Cristophe Correia originally published on The Boardgames Chronicle blog. You can read Part 1 here. Enjoy! -Rachel

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After the defeat and the death of Henry VI and Somerset at the Battle of Ipswich, Richard York becomes King of England for the next 10 years. However, things go badly between him and Warwick – his old ally.

The sons of Richard York and Warwick fight for power – and when York chooses his sons Edward and Richard (of Gloucester) over Warwick, the latter decides to rebel against them by joining the Lancastrians.

This second war is divided – in terms of strategy – into two steps:

• First step is the Warwick’s rebellion: Lancastrian strength is limited, but they are better positioned: they can relatively easily take over Wales and the North.
• Second step is Margaret coming back from French Exile, looking for revenge.

This scenario has two special rules that are very important: If Warwick is sent into Exile in a defensive battle or killed, Margaret and her allies Oxford, Somerset, and Exeter (who start at Turn 9 on the Calendar) will instantly arrive in England, making things way more difficult for the Yorkists, as they have to fight a huge number of Lancastrian armies at once.

The other rule is that, because of personal feuds, Margaret and Warwick can never group with each other: after Margaret’s arrival, the Lancastrians will be much stronger than the Yorkists, but they will always be divided. That allows the Yorkists to use maneuver and smart placement of Lords to strike and defeat the Lancastrians piecemeal.

In terms of scenario design, the goal of the special rules is that, even if the scenario basics and rules are the same (15 turns, etc.), replicating history allows both players to enter this scenario with a completely new mindset – the players won’t just repeat the first scenario all over again, just with a new set of Lords.

Heirs

For the Lancastrians:

Henry VI (killed by Warwick at the Battle of Ipswich, 1461)

Margaret and Prince Edward, Exiled in France

Henry Beauford (killed by York at the Battle of Ipswich, 1461)
Edmund Beauford, current Duke of Somerset

For the Yorkists:

Richard Plantagenet, King of England

Edward, heir and son of York
Rutland (killed by Somerset at the Battle of Bristol, 1460)
Richard, son of York

Protagonists of the Second War (1469-1471)

Lancastrian side from left to right:
Warwick, Jasper Tudor, Clarence, Margaret, Somerset, Oxford, Exeter

Yorkist side from left to right:
York, March, Gloucester, Devon, Pembroke, Northumberland

While the Yorkist have the military power in the early stages of this second part of the Wars of the Roses, the special rule noted earlier (that if Warwick is sent to Exile or killed as a defender, Margaret and her allies arrive earlier) makes it so the Lancastrians still have some leeway in terms of how they can shape Influence on the map.

But while the rule applies to Warwick, it doesn’t apply to Jasper Tudor.

Both sides spend the winter and spring of 1469 gaining some base for their Lords to be able to maneuver without danger of being easily caught.

But York and March manage to catch an adventurous Jasper Tudor.

With York and March intercepting a March by Jasper Tudor, the first battle occurs in June 1469.

Although the forces of Jasper Tudor are quite strong, they do only minimal damage to the Yorkists. Fortunately for Jasper, that doesn’t cost him his life.

The war of maneuver lasts for almost a year and a half in total, until the two sides feel confident about approaching each other to fight.

The Yorkists protect London, but most of the Midlands are now out of resources.

In June and July 1461, a little before Margaret’s arrival (Margaret arrives in August 1461), Warwick decides to move.

George, Duke of Clarence forays first, with light forces to spot the enemy armies.

The odds are ridiculously against him. The Yorkists unsurprisingly catch him and, as he tries to flee, his father York and brother Edward manage to catch him and behead him for treachery.

Dead during the Battle of London, killed by York,
July 1471

Getting more confident after their victory against Clarence, the Yorkists decide to move against the Lancastrians at Oxford.

But it was a trap !
The SUSPICION EVENT allows the Lancastrians to force March to Disband.

The situation quickly becomes hopeless for the Yorkists, now outnumbered two against one.

York manages to win his own flank fight against Jasper Tudor, but Devon gets annihilated by Warwick, who then manages to overpower York and force the Yorkists to flee the battlefield, luckily for them without any of them dying.

Situation after the battles:

Warwick, alone in England. … He may start to ask himself why shouldn’t HE be king, and not those Lancastrians currently getting some French sun or the Yorkists now fleeing England to go into exile?

Despite that Yorkist defeat, the Influence overall still slightly favors the Yorkists. But leaving England to the Lancastrians would very quickly turn the tide against them.

To avoid the situation getting out of control, the Yorkist quickly come back to fight in England and rapidly go up against Margaret and Somerset, who have just arrived in mainland England as well.

Somerset manages to survive this Battle. The Yorkists, not being strong enough to fight Warwick directly, prefer to attack Margaret’s allies instead, like Exeter, sending him into exile.

But is isn’t long before Warwick himself starts chasing York and his son, March, forcing him into exile as well.

The rest of the Yorkists evade around England, exploiting the fact that the Lancastrians have huge armies that take much more time to move and supply than those of the Yorkists.

However, Warwick manages to catch them in the North in September 1471.

The encounter forces Devon, who has the entire Yorkist supply train, to Disband.

The ensuing battle without Devon is close, but a successful hit against Warwick’s retinue allows the Yorkists to snatch victory out of defeat.

Without their supply train, the Yorkist Troops start Ravaging around England, making everything around them unfriendly to them. The Ravages tip the scales and give the Lancastrians a very close Influence victory in the end of the second part of the Wars of the Roses.

Situation at the end of 1471: Dominating in terms of area control, the Lancastrians have been able to successfully retake the throne for Margaret and her son Edward.

The Yorkists, now defeated and with York dying of old age, are not able to gather enough legitimacy to fight on; York’s son, Edward Earl of March, contrary to history has not been King and thus hasn’t been able to gather enough support to start a war against the legitimacy of Margaret and her son Edward. York’s other surviving son, Richard Duke of Gloucester has not taken a big enough part in the war to be able to gather sufficient support either: the line of Yorkist heirs is now extinct, and the Yorkists need to find another person who could lead them to victory…

To be continued!

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Previous Article: Plantagenet – War of the Roses Replay by Christophe Correia, Part 1