Billhooks as a Skirmish Game

 

pic: Get the Gold! Scenario three

I have been playing Never Mind the Billhooks since it was first published as a free game in Wargames Illustrated. I must have played fifty games by now, each a different experience, each a dramatic story. No two games are the same and while there are many different ways to lose a game of Billux, no one tactic will grant you victory! Billhooks is a game where Special Event Cards and capricious mechanisms create a dramatic narrative that more often than not echoes historical events and this game certainly feels like a chaotic fifteenth century mud-and-blood-to-the-death fight for survival. Frustrating and gratifying by turns this seemingly simple game has provided hours of fun and after-action debate.

One aspect of the game that has never been popular however is the Duelling rule, where two enemy leaders can slug it out man to man in the midst of battle. The game as written uses the paper/rock/scissors game which feels somehow out of kilter with the rest of the system. If one of the leaders involved is the CinC then the result of the battle could be decided this way so the rule is often not used, and is significantly absent from Tournament games.

Billhooks has a lively community presence in its Facebook page where fellow Billhookers come to swap tales, offer advice, show off their armies and generally chew the fat. A post from veteran gamer Stuart Smith had an idea for Duelling, where each combatant rolls one dice per level of leader and the winner inflicts a wound on the loser. What an elegant and simple solution I thought. And then it occurred to me that the drama of the process could be enhanced by allowing each Duellist to have a Parry rule where they could force the opponent to reroll their dice, this led to the idea of having a Lunge rule whereby they could each reroll their own dice. In the event, I have never used this to settle the Duelling issue and in the games I play, Duelling simply does not happen.

However, Stuart’s idea would not go away and sat in the back of my mind, like a Rules Rodent, nibbling away at my gaming brain creating a nest of unconnected thoughts concerning Billhooks that suddenly one night coalesced into the inspirational idea that dragged me from my bed and had me rushing downstairs in search of pen and paper. “Billhooks as a skirmish game!” I wrote and went back to sleep.

Billhooks has been written using a few simple rules that have been knocking about in the gaming world since Wargaming came into being at the end of the nineteenth century, using a d6, where 6 is good and 1 is bad. These rules have formed the basis for thousands of games ever since, roll to hit, roll to save. The principle is sound, the result is interactive as both players are involved. Translating the “small battles” game into a skirmish version is easy as you simply use the existing rules but with individuals instead of units. The only thing that requires writing is a more engaging Melee system and Stuart had unwittingly provided the template for it!

Over about three months I fleshed out a complete game. I honed the Skill’d at Arms Skill, as I call the Thrust-Parry-Fend system, the system that evolved from Stuart's idea, for melee and introduced the idea of individual skills for combatants. These are decided at the beginning of the game using playing cards, each representing a skill from one of four suits Clubs -Strength in combat, Spades -dexterity in combat, Hearts -Leadership/Charisma skills, Diamonds-Archery/Missile skills.

I am now beginning to look at a campaign system where characters can develop and grow new skills, the bones of this are done, it just requires some flesh which I think will grow with playing the game.

Ruckus,one of several working titles, is set in the Albion theatre but is easy to adapt to the other Deluxe theatres as the stats are already written.

I am now engaged in writing scenarios for the game, so far, I have six, I am aiming for about twelve. I want the game to be scenario driven, it's so much more challenging and therefore more fun to have to achieve certain conditions rather than just having a slug-fest. Of these, three have been play-tested several times and seem to work.

 Andy Callan and Steve Wood have played a game and they like it! Andy is giving the game his complete support and Wargames Illustrated now have a copy and are considering how to publish it. The current plan is to take the game to WI towers later this year to demo the game with the Wargames Illustrated crew. Happy Days!

I think the game is fun to play, works well, provides a good narrative and is easy to use for anyone who already Billhooks as it only uses a few figures and uses the same cards and factors as the main game. If you are a Billhooks player then to play the game has no extra attached expense apart from purchasing “Lil Billux/BilluxJunior/Ruckus”. From what I can see the market for skirmish type games is much bigger than for full battle games and I think this game could sell. I would like to see it as part of the “Billhooks franchise” ideally with similar production values to Deluxe, all be it a fair bit smaller.

Last weekend my regular nemesis and gaming partner Mark Taylor and I met up at BIG and played through three scenarios. The longest of these took less than two hours. Each game takes about 10 minutes to set up, mostly drawing cards and writing profiles for the characters.

Game one

Scenario Two “Make Way! Clear the Road” - A solid stand-up fight for honour and precedence. Two equal forces of rival knights with their Retinues, meet on a road and neither is prepared to give precedence to the other. Soon insults begin to fly and the Retinues face off. 

This game is just a scrap! The retinues set up 12” apart on a road that the Knights are not allowed to leave. The winner is the knight that survives! Sure enough, it was over in three turns!

  Mark had Gaston Villa and his entourage at the top of the picture, Sir John de Barre , approaches from the South.

There were a few casualties from desultory volleys of arrows but both sides soon got stuck in. Gaston Villa wounding de Barre in this brief exchange

Squire Crispin Lovelace takes on Gaston Villa, de Barre stands back hurting and plotting revenge

From behind the small cottage there emerged an ambush of peasants… It didn’t amount to much!

off the road Villas squire Manuel Emmanuelle takes a wound from Rover de la Tete Gaz as indicated by the red counter.

Wounds all round! Outnumbered, Gaston is fighting for his life!

It is all over Sir John is down and out and Gaston has won the right to walk down the road. Chivalry! It all seemed to make sense back then!

  If we were playing the campaign version then after the game we would roll to see what happens to Sir John, Gaston would gain Valour Points that he could use to increase his profile.

Game Two

Scenario One “This is my Manor!” or “Get off my land!” - A meeting engagement. Two equal forces of rival knights with their Retinues meet in disputed territory to settle who has the right to tax its inhabitants.

We kept the same table set up for this game, the Hamlet of Much Ado. There are three markers on the board, we used Sheeples, (Mark likes sheep) that are deployed according to the vagaries of the d6. The aim of the game is to gain control of all three by 6+d6 turns, thereby claiming the territory and as it happens, the rights to tax the wool market. We elected to not roll the d6 variable until the 6^th turn, as it turned out, this added to the tension and the fun.

I had to deploy may first Spear before Mark and again, the vagaries of the scenario Set Up dictated that he should deploy on the table edge ninety degrees anti clockwise to where I came in.

Mark deployed Diago Arquero, the captain of Archers he gained while rolling up his Knight, right on my flank and what a pain he turned out to be!

The deployment of Objective markers and Mark’s entry point, both dictated by the scenario, gave him a considerable advantage from the get go

Gaston Villa bravely hiding behind a wall

Roberto Domingues, banner bearer extraordinaire! Banners give you a Reroll when you have to test your courage

Diago and friend shooting up the hood!

That is both my mercenary hand-gonners and one of my archers!            There! On the floor! Dead! Or at least taken out presumed dead.

  The white markers indicate a Mishap, not able to shoot this turn, the yellow ones indicate Characters who are Feckless (Uncontrolled) 

de Barres right hand man, Rover de la Tete-Gaz, approaches the house which has the third marker in, from the back…

…getting closer annnd….

… he is in! We took the roof and first floor of the house off!

The Archery War continues

 

Manuel Emmanuele arrives at the front door of the Wool Merchants, both his Archers have broken strings. Arrows fly from the windows but all fly high.

as we approached the 6^th turn things began to get tense! Gaston’s Retinue hold two of the three objective markers but Gaston is wounded, if de Barre can get the jump on him now and finish him off, he will win the day-and the lucrative wool franchise!

  6th turn we roll a 1! Only one turn remains for me to kill off the opposing Captain and grab glory!

The Last Turn! Gaston is wounded and exhausted (purple marker) he should be easy meat for the happy de Barre. The next card drawn is… de Barre he hefts his pole ax…why is Mark smiling?…I know that smile…

…special event card “Local Truce” which in this scenario stands for Special Event “What Wicked Trumpery is This?”  which trumps your opponent’s character, stops his activation and allows one of your characters who has not yet activated this turn to go instead!

  So Sir John doesn’t get to end the game in a glorious defeat of his enemy…

…instead, the Trumper, Manuel Emmanuele, burst into the Wool Merchants and…

… and does for poor old Rover de la Tete-Gaz, putting the result of the game beyond all doubt!

 

  What a nail biter!

A beaming Mark Taylor, who, incidentally, does not like skirmish games! 

Game Three

Scenario five-the Fog of War. Two armies meet in a pitched battle early in the morning, in a thick, dense fog. In the confused melee, friend fights friend and cries of Treachery fill the air. One flank gives way, there is a pursuit over miles of heath and in the befuddled aftermath, small groups of soldiers, unsure of what has happened or who to trust, seek their enemies in the cold mist.

We set up the table anew for this post-Barnet skirmish. We wanted to represent the Battlefield with its open heath, occasional wooded area, and country lanes.

    This scenario has several special rules for the Fog. The first of which is Wrapped in Fog. Organise each Retinue into Spears before deploying on to the table. Take the Billhooks cards, one for each Hero and the two bonus cards and deal them on to the table, one to each corner, and one half way along each table edge. Deploy each spear within 6” of the appropriate card., add a “Skirmisher and Artillery” as A Fog Card and reset the deck.

The game starts in Dense Fog with visibility of only six inches. When the Fog card is turned up, we roll dice to see if the fog is lifting or getting worse.

There are also Fog specific Special Event Cards.

Crispin Sydebotham, de Barres squire, makes his way down the quiet lane. His card has been laid between two enemy cards and he is isolated and unflanked. Of course, he does not know this as the fog is so thick

de Barre deploys at the opposite end of the same table edge

Manuel Emmanuele deploys between the two spears. “Look“ he says, pointing “ Sheep! We must be playing a game with Mark Taylor!”

Clouds of Fog drift across the battle field. The Fog status is Dense Fog , visibility is at 6”

Turn 3! The tiny Fog status dice tells us its still Dense Fog!

Crispin leaps the wall and charges Manuel who… 

… points accusingly at Bill Mann

Manuel and his Spear easily despatch Crispin, Bill is off! “Get him!” shouts Manuel, pointing the way

There is no reprieve for Bill this way! Gaston has arrived with his spear. The unfortunate Crispin’s archers to the left have the Yellow markers  that indicate they are Feckless and not able to activate normally. Instead they roll a d6 which decides their actions for them.

Meanwhile...in the centre of he table, Sir Rover de la Tete-Gaz has caught up with Roberto Domiguez and a sharp fight ensues

Encumbered as he is with the standard  Roberto is swiftly dispatched.

  “Sheep Down!”

The Fog is gradually lifting and now looking across the field we can see that Sir John de Barre has at last caught up with the action on the left, Gaston and Manuel stare at him from behind the wall “There he is!” points the ever helpful Manuel

Gaston realises that Crispin and his spear are coming his way, eager to end the fight he leaps the wall and attacks de Barre

But Sir John is as “Bold as a Lion” and as “Brave as a Griffin” (his skills-there really should be a song) and is not easily cowed, the hapless Villa rolls puny d6’s and takes a wound

Manuel, in an attempt to save his Lord, rushes in but is no match for the Brave, Bold de Barre who dispatches him with a swipe. Wounded and Exhausted, Gaston is no Griffin nor is he a Lion and he fails his Will to Fight test and proffers his sword to the victorious de Barre!

Well, we certainly had a good go at the game! It ran smoothly, coped with the different scenarios well and it was fun! We neither of us realised that it was 5 pm when we finished and we had met at ten in the morning, the time flew by! We really enjoyed the game, which is a great relief to me as this was its first real test as a fully written project.

There are a few rough bits. One or two skills need adjusting , some of the card events need a bit of a rewrite but it works! And works well. One thing about having an acerbic, grumpy, growly, somewhat cynical gaming pal (and who doesn’t right?) is they don’t hold back! And …he liked it! Moreover, he really liked it and actually smiled and hummed happily as he played. My version of this great game has actually passed the Taylor test!

With thanks to Andy Callan for writing this fantastic game, Never Mind the Billhooks, published by Wargames Illustrated and available directly through them or from Arcane Games and Scenery.