Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Robin the Rich! A Billhooks skirmish scenario

 


Gather round all ye merry folk, strike up the band and hear the minstrels sing the tale of the famous outlaw Robin B’stard and how he bested Bad Baron Harding in the deep dark vale of Shirewood Forest.

This was another playtest of my skirmish game introducing the outlaw profile. An ambush scenario.


Baron Harding has returned home from a successful chevauchee in France with a good haul of rich pickings and is escorting his ill-gotten gains on mule back to his castle home with his Retinue. The road passes through the thick Forest of Shirewood, a dense forest well known to local outlaws and a prime place for an ambush. To prevent being waylaid on the main road, the Baron has hired a guide and some local peasants to lead his Retinue by one of the many lesser paths that wend their way through the Forest.


Baron Harding is not a modest man and word of his wealth has spread through the county, notorious Outlaw and bane of the local gentry, Robin B’stard has heard tell of the gold and is determined that it should be his. He gathers his Messy Men and in small bands they patrol the Forest in eager anticipation of acquiring the Baron’s Bounty.




The trail skirts the edge of Shirewood. There are several areas of dense forest which are considered Hard Going as are the two marshy areas and the Hills. As the Bad Baron I had to get my little convoy of gold off the far edge of the table, Mark as the good? Outlaw B’stard is out to steal it!


The Baron’s men enter the table on the first turn.








they begin to spread out, alert for any danger














In the shadows, furtive figures can be glimpsed moving through the trees. 









some of them with very suspect moustaches












Moving through the undergrowth, the Outlaws in small groups move towards the Barons Retinue until…

 








…they are surrounded












The Baron’s squire sir Edward Binns leads the column…








…unaware that he is being watched













the trap is sprung!

















There is the twang of bow strings and the woosh of goose quill and thunk thunk thunk three men are down












 It didn’t all go one way however, Robin was unable to hit anything and then the unlucky Outlaw walked into an arrow going the other way! Sensing a quick victory Sir Edward charged into the marsh. I completely forgot that this hapless squire also has the trait Nimble and so he stopped short of contact…





 …and soon resembled a pin cushion. I had quite bad luck with all my saving rolls throughout the game, saving on 3+ Sir Edward should have lasted longer










Willamena Scarlett, arch outlaw side kick, has caught up and joins the turkey shoot.













The portly Friar Muck ambles over to Robin and uses his Blessings trait to heal the Outlaw chief.













Willamena and her band all run out of arrows as shown by the orange markers. These plastic markers cost about a fiver for 120. I have drilled the centres and glued in 3mm magnets which attach them selves quite nicely to the bottom of the pennies we use for bases.




































With eight of this Retinue down, the Baron has to test his Will to Fight. It’s not a good day for rolling dice and despite being as “Bold as a Lion”, a trait that enables reroll of the WTF roll, the Baron fails miserably and surrenders.

  “Here take the gold, much good may it do you!” 




All in all a fun game and the Outlaws seemed to work well. The Barons men were quickly overwhelmed but I would want to run the game again before making any drastic changes. I think we possibly had too many areas of Hard Going on the table making it a bit easy for the Bandits.

I wanted to make the Outlaws quite different from the other Retainer profiles and I think I succeeded. They are Nimble so pay no movement penalty in rough terrain and have the Woodsman skill which means they can find cover in any terrain that is considered to be Hard Going. They are not particularly good in melee nor are they any better than Bow men at shooting, they are not well protected but they are hard to shoot at and can move quickly through the Forest. The idea is that they rely on their Heroes who are very good having multiple skills.  It will be interesting to see how they cope in different scenarios with different terrain. I should like to write a short ladder campaign for them with maybe this scenario being the first one in a series.


John Small , a lovely kit-bash by the very talented Mark Taylor

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

More Billhooks Skirmish: the tale of Nine Fingered Ambrose

 


The Tale of Nine Fingered Ambrose

    On Sunday regular opponent Mark Taylor and I played another scenario of my Billhooks skirmish game which now has the working title of Never Mind the Ruckus, this is it’s fifteenth and quite probably not final name. I suspect it will be forever known as the Billhooks Skirmish game! This time we played scenario 5- I Spy or Nine Fingered Ambrose-I am quite indecisive when it comes to naming things!

“Scenario 5: Ambrose of Longfield has returned from Europe bearing news of a devious plot to usurp the King! Having friends abroad and hearing rumour of this, Sir Blue, as a loyal follower of the incumbent One True King, is determined to find and interrogate Ambrose before he can pass on the wicked plans. Sir Red is just as keen to meet Ambrose and discover how he may help to restore the displaced One True King to the Throne.

However, Ambrose is unknown to either of them, all that is known of him is that he has only nine fingers, having no little finger on his left hand. Aware that Sir Blue is seeking him, Ambrose takes refuge in a nearby monastery donning a habit and cowl and hiding among the brethren who are sympathetic to his cause.

Sir Blue and Sir Red arrive at the monastery at the same time, who will find him first?”


The table is set out as a monastery garden with walled areas containing vegetable plots, herb gardens, orchard, and livestock. There are five monks in the garden, one of them is Ambrose. We made a deck of five cards one of which contained a nine, when a figure moves into contact with a monk, the owning player draws a card, if it’s the nine then Ambrose has been discovered. Ambrose has to be taken off the players starting edge to win the game.


This game was a laugh from the start. The five monks were initially to be placed by the players with one monk being central and the others placed at least 12” from him and from each other. We soon saw the flaw in this, and reset with the five monks in a line cross the centre of the table. Each turn, in the bonus phase, the winning player can take a bonus card or move a monk 6” in any direction. 

We each of us moved our Retinues in to the gardens. Mark was using his hilarious creation Gaston Villa with his main henchman Manual Emmanuelle and Portero Martinez plus the usual retainers.

  I had elected to bring Sir Henry Bevor, Jaques de Malley and Sir Roger Donat. We drew cards for skills. Sir Henry got Valour Exemplified, Fast Hands and Sly Knave a mixed bag, de Malley- Giant of a Man and Mighty Warrior- a bruiser if ever there was one and Donat drew Riposte and Born to Hang a combination to frustrate opponents!


Jaques de Malley moved up the small lane that wends through the garden on his first turn and then stayed there the entire game. It seemed his ploy was to tempt the monks toward him rather than go looking for them.

  





Gaston and Jaques spot a monk in the lane at the same time.  Somehow, both Mark and I knew this monk would be Ambrose!








Mark had won the first Bonus and had moved the monk towards Gaston and his spear.









I won the next Bonus and moved him back. Gaston was in hot pursuit. Sir Jaques card just did not come up and he had to just stand idly by, watching the sneaking Gaston.







How do you tempt the innocent? I have no idea but de Malley succeeded. ”This way m’sieur, there is shade under this tree”







Gaston in hot pursuit! He may be too late, de Malley has drawn the nine of clubs! The monk reveals his hands, he has only nine fingers and declares himself to be Ambrose of Longfield!






Billhooks can be frustrating to play and it’s little spin off brother is no different! De Mally still has not had a turn!

  Gaston catches up with the monk! 







Have at you then sirrah!” assisted by William Mann, retainer, Jacques scores two wounds on Gaston who rather foolishly rolled very low dice. The red counters indicate wounds. Ambrose , who some might say is taking his role too seriously, prays for their souls.



A drones eye view of the action reveals the death and general violence occurring elsewhere in the peaceful monastery gardens







Sir Henry gets stuck into Manuel Emmanuelle! “Look! He’s over there!” cries Manuel. 

“I am not falling for that again!” says Sir Henry “ Not after last week!”

   The micro dice indicates the first round of melee





Arthur Bowman charges into Gastons supporting bill man, the gallant Nick o’ Thyme, depriving Gaston of his support.

 

  A mere bystander, Ambrose counts his fingers









Meanwhile, Manuel has reinforcements in the shape of banner bearer Portero Martinez… a safe pair of hands.






 Arrows fly all through the garden! People are getting hurt!














it is over! Without his supporting bill man Gaston is quickly overcome and his demise brings the game to an end!
  Well that was another fine game! We enjoyed it so much that we set them all up again and played the same scenario, which was just as much fun.

 

  The game evidentially works and this scenario is fun.
We tried another scenario involving mounted characters which did not go as well, partly , I think because I used the wrong tactics, partly because I could only roll 1’s and 2’s and also maybe, because the scenario needs adjusting. The good news was that the rules for mounted characters worked well and probably don’t need adjusting.

 

What’s next? Well, Mark has kit-bashed some excellent Outlaw figures, for which we have rules, so time to research a scenario and i-player have the 1938 classic Adventures of Robin Hood!