War of the Roses via Captains and Kings

Ed Teixeira of Two Hour Wargames published Captains and Kings in September of 2014.  It replaces Montjoie!, and was awaited with baited breath by yours truly.  Unfortunately, I didn't have quite enough of anything painted to give a try.  So I started spasmodically working on Saxons, but then remembered that I had bought 350+ primed and based War of the Roses figures a couple of years ago, for the proverbial song.

Retinues for each side were as follows:

7 foot knights Armor Class 6, Reputation 5, move 4". The overall leader is in this unit.

8 men-at-arms, AC4, Rep 4, move 6"

12 bowmen AC4, Rep 4, move 8"

Since the scale is 3 - 5 figures each, this equals 35 knights, 40 men-at-arms, and 60 bowmen at the outside.

I had made the bowmen Dual Armed instead of Missile, but didn't use it.  I've since realized that they should have stayed Missile.

The Reps of the units are pre-determined by their class, but the Rep of the leader of each unit is diced for. Oddly, all but one unit of men-at-arms had Rep 5 leaders.  The unlucky men-at-arms had a Rep 4 leader.

Here is the initial setup.  Some pictures aren't well-focused.  I'm still learning my new camera. Sigh.

The men-at-arms at the bottom right have the Rep 4 leader.  Everyone else has a Rep 5 leader.

Turn 1:

     All figures on both sides advance at the knights' rate of 4", so that the units will remain in base-to-base contact in order to be activated by the overall leader.  Hereafter, the unit on the left will be known as Sir Rojasblau, and the unit on the right as Sir Weissrot, the colors of their liveries.  The knights are in the place of honor, the right of their respective lines.  The knights and men-at-arms are in "mob" and the bows in "line" so they all have line-of-sight to fire.

Turn 2:
Sir Rojasblau wins the toss, and advances his line 3" to stay out of Sir Weissrot's bow range.

Turn 3:
Goes to Sir Rojasblau, who uses his command to advance the knights and men-at-arms, and let his bows fire!  They knock out 2 of the opposing bowmen, who carry on.
Sir Weissrot's knights charge their opposing men-at-arms.  The leaders face off, but do not hurt each other.  However, a total of 2 men-at-arms fall. All carry on.  Sir Weissrot's men-at-arms are slowed bythe hill they are on.  His bows knock out 1 opposing bowman, and another leaves due to morale.

Turn 4:
goes to Sir Rojasblau, who is so slow he can't charge the men-at-arms on the hill. His bows do no damage.  Sir Weissrot's knights and Sir Rojasblau's men-at-arms continue their melee, much to the detriment of the men-at-arms, who are now below half, and leave the field.

Sir Weissrot's bows return fire, and kill the opposing leader, but they carry on!
The men-at-arms charge Sir Rojasblau's knights and lose a total of 3 figures for their effort, including their leader, but they hold!

Turn 5:
finally goes to Sir Weissrot, whose's knights perform a slow-motion wheel to come to bear on Sir Rojasblau's bows. who fire to little effect, thoug one opposing bowman remembers he left the kettle brewing and leaves to check on it.  Sir Weissrot's men-at-arms pause, lose 4 in melee and rout!

Turn 6:
Sir Rojasblau has gained the upper hand. He slowly changes fronts to threaten Sir Weissrot's bow.
His bows fire to little effect, but an enemy bowman also remembers his kettle and bolts!

Sir Weissrot charges the bows, who don't get off a shot, and lose a total of 5, but carry on.

Turns 7, 8 & 9 consist of both sets of knights grinding down the bows until they rout, leaving Sir Rojasblau with 3 knights still on the field, and Sir Weissrot with 2.  They are quite far from one another, so I ended the game with Sir Weissrot surrendering the field.

What did I learn?

Use the bows superior movement to keep them out of melee.

 I forgot about the ability of the line formation to move backwards at full rate, and their ability to interpenetrate the other formations and vice versa.

A much better formation would be bow in front with men-at-arms and knights behind them.

Don't melee knights unless they have been somehow reduced in number.
That Armor of 6 is a killer!

Perhaps I need to reduce the knights to 6 figures.

So, very enjoyable for a first game, but I have a bit to learn!