The Battle of Wakefield: Yorkshire, England 30 December 1460

About this board game

The Battle of Wakefield: Yorkshire, England 30 December 1460 is a two-player historical wargame scenario with an approximate playing time of 120 minutes. It recreates the disastrous Yorkist engagement in which Richard, Duke of York, and the Earl of Salisbury met their fate during the War of the Roses.

Richard had begun the rebellion against King Henry VI as leader of the Yorkist faction. At Wakefield, his army faced a numerically superior Lancastrian force, and the reason he rode out remains unclear. The result was calamity: about half the Yorkist army perished, including Richard and Salisbury, the father of Warwick the kingmaker.

Your challenge is to break the Lancastrian army before its reinforcements arrive. If you cannot, your force may share Richard’s fate. The scenario offers high solitaire playability and a low complexity level, making it an accessible entry in GMT’s Men of Iron series.

• Scenario for 2 players
• Playing time of about 120 minutes
• Low complexity and high solitaire playability
• Hex scale of 75 yards / 68.5 meters
• Units represent groups of soldiers, approximately 250 per unit

Published in 2017, The Battle of Wakefield is a fully self-contained scenario from RBM Studio’s C3i magazine #31 and forms part of Blood & Roses (2014). The magazine version includes an 11 x 17-inch full-color mapsheet, a dual-sided countersheet, a 12-page rules booklet, and three player-aid sheets.

The game uses an abstract game turn and requires players to provide one 10-sided die. With its sharply defined historical situation, compact component set, and direct objective, The Battle of Wakefield presents a tense contest over whether the Yorkists can shatter their larger opposition in time.