War of the Roses - Deus Vult playtest

Mike and Troy brought their fantastic WOTR era miniature to the shop for a playtest of the Dues Vult WOTR house rules I have been working on.

Mike’s Force	Troy’s Force
Main Division: Earl Wydeville Army Standard Dismounted Men-At-Arms Retinue Longbowmen Retinue Billmen Cannons Mercenary Division: Lord Stanley Welsh Spearmen Mercenary crossbow Currours Reserve Division: Lord Hastings Retinue Longbowmen Retinue Billmen Mounted Men-At-Arms Mounted Men-At-Arms	Right Division: Duke Somerset Dismounted Men-At-Arms Militia Billmen Militia Billmen Retinue bow Cannon Left Division: Lord Shrewsbury Dismounted Men-At-Arms Militia Billmen Retinue bow Mounted Men at Arms Northern Border: Lord Egremont Northern Border Spearmen Northern Border Billmen Mercenary Pikemen Mercenary Pikemen Mercenary Pikemen
As is the norm when playing a new set of rules, the game started slowly, owing to lookong up rules and confirming stats. But it only took a couple of game turns, before we had the system down. Deciding the order of your division activation and initiative proved to be simple and fun turn sequence mechanic.
	Troy used the Blacken the Sky rule for his archers, while Mike stuck with the double volley for his. Mike tended to ‘kill’ more figures, while troy attacks always forced an overwheling morale check. Though which method is “better” is still open to debate and I suspect it depends.
We tried out my house rule for cannons and while they worked, they do need some tweaking. Moving was a little difficult to grasp at first because you had to move straight and wheel about the center as different actions. You also had a variable “fast” move value, by ‘pushing’. Which meant each unit had to make a disicipline check to move additional inches equal to the check.
Eventually the battle lines closed, and we quickly learned that being disordered in DV is extremly deadly. A large unit of mounted MAA rode down a unit of disordered pikemen in a single attack. Though when not charging disordered units, the combat did go on for several rounds.
It also took some getting use to not attacking back after the other side attacked you. You had wait until you activated the unit to attack back back, so it was possible to be attacked twice before you could attack back.