Levy & Campaign series is quickly becoming one of the fastest developing genres of GMT Games – and honestly, one of my favorite. This is to large extent thanks to Volko, who managed to build a devoted group of designers, developers and simply enthusiast. That allows for simultaneous work on couple of projects, exchange of opinions, testing, etc.

One of the titles in the series which made a huge impression on me is definitely Plantagenet. You can see this by the number of materials I created (some of them referenced in the text below), number of plays and time devoted to it. This title gets better with every play, as you learn more and more about this position mechanics, Capabilities, Events, etc.

When I thought things cannot get any better with that game, it landed several of months ago on Rally the Troops – digital boardgames platform which is getting wonderful reviews. So it is not a surprise that I play this title extensively there! One of my fellow colleagues and bloggers, Clio’s Board Games, agreed to accompany me on the journey through all three Wars of the Roses. That was an epic and fantastic endeavor which allowed us to appreciate the game – and the platform – even more.

So let us move now to the article, which will be combination of session report and impressions on Plantagenet implementation in Rally the Troops. Enjoy!

The Platform

Rally the Troops is an online site where you can play board games in your browser, with fully automated rules enforcement. Play live or asynchronously with friends or strangers, or explore the games on your own. It is free to play, and you do not have to look at any ads – which is impressive.

The platform develops and grows all the time. At the moment when I am writing this article, Rally the Troops consist of 20 wargames from various publishers; we have a pretty wide arrays of the most iconic and prominent designs in our hobby, but you can also find some of the less known. It is rapidly expanding, and we are getting a new position every couple of months – based on the bandwidth of its main developer, Tor Andersson. There is a forum and Discord server where you can discuss the next titles in pipeline, ask the rules questions or simply express your gratitude to the team!

More articles about Plantagenet - check it out!
- Unboxing
- First Impressions
- Teach & Play
- Bosworth Battle (1485 AD) playthrough
- Full Review
- Great Storage Solution from Cube4Me

The Game

Before going straight to the session report, let me spend some time explaining the game in more details. In Plantagenet: Cousins’ War for England, 1459 – 1485, already 4th title in the system, we are moved to XV century England where we will be able to witness three episodes for the famous Wars of the Roses.

The volumes in this series share similar core systems simulating medieval Levy of armies by individual great Lords and lesser Vassals, equipping of those armies with transport such as Carts and special Capabilities such as crossbowmen, trebuchets, or stonecutters, to name a few. For each Campaign, players then form stacks of Command cards to preset the order that Lords will March, Forage, Siege, and so on. Logistics are key, as Provender must be gathered and moved to Feed Troops in the field or suffer curtailed Lords’ Service and Disband.

The Sessions

In the end we had three sessions in succession – all of them within approximately 1.5 month. The asynchronous way of play is great and allows you to take your move whenever you have time. And possibility to do it from the browser on your phone means this is also perfect for the vacations period!

Now, as for the sides, we decided to stick to one through all the Wars. Here was our disposition:

  • Lancaster – Michal
  • York – Clio

Ok, let us now jump to three short AARs – each of them with brief intro. Of course, picture being worth thousand words, we shall do it with a lot of screenshots (and arrows! 🙂 )

PS. As always, feel free to click on below images for full details.

Henry VI, 1459-1461 (1st War of the Roses)

Richard of York and his sons, with the help of Richard Neville and his son, rebel against King Henry VI. This is a longer scenario (15 Turns, three years). As for the sides, Lancastrians are King and Yorkists are Rebel.

Set-up: this is probably the most often played scenario by all the players 🙂 My Henry and Somerset are located in London, while York and March are starting the rebellion. More Lords will enter the fray during the game of course.
They game, as always, focused on building the power base (in South for Lancastrian side, in Central part – for York); March was quickly exiled in first campaign (there is a way to prevent it!). York was very active in the North, but then descended on lonely Henry. I played “King’s Parley” which saved me from battle but unfortunately Clio’s York has to pillage after it. We learned here that you have to PAY IN FULL after pillage, otherwise it is wasted and Lord disbands…
But there was still mighty Warwick and Salisbury on the map! They faced Henry in so called “Battle of Bristol”. But that sneaky king again took the ace out of his sleeve – disbanding Salisbury with Suspicion event and then beating Warwick in fair fight.
End of Game – Turn 5 – 44 VPs for Lancaster. That was definitely too much for York side and their rebellion. The game finished in their defeat.

Warwick’s Rebellion, 1469-1471 (2nd War of the Roses)

Slighted by the King he made, Warwick schemes with Edward’s brother, the Duke of Clarence, then allies with Margaret d’Anjou and Lancastrian exiles in France. This is a longer scenario (15 Turns, three years). As for the sides, Yorkists are King and Lancastrians are Rebel.

Set-up: that scenario has a very interesting starting positions for all sides – with unexpected alliance of Margaret and Warwick. However, we did not know at the onset of our play, that the rebellion will be decided long before the exiles will arrive.
Why? I believe on of the key decisions was the capabilities I took for Warwick (who wisely changed sides from White Rose to the Red one). Look at Merchants – capability only available in 2nd War. What a wonderful way to overcome the biggest restriction in this game – Depletion / Exhaustion!
You know, both Welsh lords (Pembroke and Jasper Tudor) are located very close to each other from the beginning. So it was only natural that the first conflict will erupt there. Well, it did not ended well for York side – Pembroke died, although Jasper was left with one (1!) Men at Arms only!
The situation started to get desperate for York side. Merchants allowed Warwick to use the resources of Calais multiple times and then gather all armies and all Lords to finally target London!
In the so called “Battle of London” both sides used events – Like “Ravine” which delayed Edward IV, or Culverins & Falconets which gave additional attack capabilities. In the end both Devon and Jasper Tudor died and Edward was exiled!
End of Game – Turn 4 – 45 VPs for Lancaster. After that devastating battle, the Influence points – which that turn were also scored for Lords on Map – allowed the rebellion to achieve the final victory. Kingmaker on the throne!

My Kingdom for a Horse, 1484-1485 (3rd War of the Roses)

King Richard III defends his crown against Henry Tudor to set the fate of the Plantagenet dynasty. This is a medium scenario (7 Turns, three years). As for the sides, Yorkists are King and Lancastrians are Rebel.

Set-up: the third war scenario is slightly shorter and starts immediately with long, 6-7 actions turns. The disposition of Lords is peculiar: York controls most of the areas with exception of Wales. All rebellious leaders are in France and are about to sail to England. There are so many tactical and strategical options here – probably one of the most open and replayable scenarios from all.
So what was the plan? I landed in Calais, to take it over and gather resources. Two other lords landed in Cornwall – to Levy two Vassals and the possible gold from them. It was extremely important as there was no growth phase in this game (the land was so ravaged by the years of war!)
When I combined the forces and moved on London, Clio has to retreat – and gather all lords to be able to face my whole army (doing this so quickly that one of them had to pillage!)
They called it later “The Battle of Peterborough” (well, not the most catchy name 🙂 ) There was Ravine which delayed Norfolk, there was Suspicion which disbanded my most powerful Lord – Jasper Tudor; there was a lot of vassals, special abilities, Valor rerolls – however, in the end the York side prevailed!
End of Game – Turn 3 – Campaign Victory for York. With no lords on map or in exile, the rebellion failed!

The Impressions & Conclusion

That was such a fun and pleasure to play those games with Clio, very exciting, close and… deadly for the Lords involved! At the same time all of them finished a-historically! At the same time, it does not stop to surprise me how fantastic the Rally the Troops is. It has limited number of titles developed – true; still the quality of prepared games is simply astonishing and if there are any errors, Tor resolves them almost online!

When we were finishing our last game with Clio, we noticed that game of Friedrich was just added to the platform. I think I do not need to explain to Dear Readers what we are playing now – and what you can expect soon on blog as report from another great RTT implementation!