The Sun in Splendour
	A Wars of the Roses DBM campaign

These pages detail the DBM campaign I am currently running. It is set amidst the English civil wars of the mid to late 15th century popularly known as 'The Wars of the Roses', and takes its name from the livery badge used by Edward IV to distinguish his troops in the field.

In broad terms the campaign is somewhat similar to the Condotta! campaign I ran in 1998-9; most notably in involving two sets of players - divided into 'leaders' and 'generals'. However, all the actual campaign rules used are quite different however, and can be found here.

'Leaders' represent the most important personages of the time that actually drove the political processes that moulded the wars - figures such as Margaret of Anjou, Richard of York, the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Warwick, etc. Other important figures who were more manipulated by others rather than being important in their own right, such as Henry VI and the Duke of Clarence, are not represented by players.

'Generals' are the men who led the actual fighting - frequently these are one and the same as the 'leaders', although in this campaign they are represented by different players.

All the generals come from the Wellington area of New Zealand, so that they can get together and fight the battles with the DBM wargaming rules, as modified slightly to cope with a campaign such as this.

Leaders come from everywhere else: the UK, Australia, etc, and send in their orders to me as the umpire by e-mail. Each leader has a corresponding general in Wellington to fight their battles on their behalf - who will usually have the same historical name. An exception is Margaret of Anjou - being a woman she didn't fight in battle, and can only be represented as a general by a minor noble such as Sir Andrew Trollope, or not represented by a table-top general at all.

Success in the campaign will be measured by how many victory points a player has. Since there are two types of players, there are two separate victory point tables. Leaders strive for 'legitimacy' points, representing their fitness to rule - mostly in the eyes of their contemporary peers, but also modified by how posterity will see them; generals will strive for 'glory' points - as measured by their success in battle.

It will be possible for a personage to have a very poor glory rating, but have masses of legitimacy, as these two ratings will be almost independent. Such a personage may have lost all the battles they (their general) commanded in, and yet still, through cunning alliances and other moves, have climbed their way to the top of the political heap (as a leader).

The campaign starts in 1456. The glorified street fight known as the First Battle of St Albans has already been fought, and as a result, the Yorkist position has been considerably strengthened. The various potentates of the realm have retired to their estates mulling the rights and wrongs of events of the last year. It is now spring, and events are about to unfurl that will lead the realm ino ever more chaos...

The pictures on this page are of some of George Gouveia's very nice miniatures. George hails from Edmonton, Canada and is a regular opponent of Ken Blackley, the well-known Charles the Bold nut. If you want to check out some WotR games using systems other than DBM, his site is as good a start as any I can think of.

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