Bashed! Well- I'll be Billhooksed!

 

The Billhooks BASH 

From left to right standing Richard Marriot, Steve Wood, Steve Cooper, Paul Baldwin, Lloyd Lewis, Mark Taylor, Ralph Dutton, Andy Callan, Peter Harris, Ian Callan,Richard Bason

Kneeling Colin Bright, Mike Peters Unfortunately some folk had already left when we took this picture

The Billhooks BASH held at Boards and Swords Hobbies Derby is THE tournament to be at for all enthusiastic Billhookers and BASH 4 may well have been the best yet.

 Brilliantly organised and managed by Pete Harris, there were so many players this year that it took both floors to accommodate us.

  “Peter has managed to create an event that as well as being well organised, is played in the spirit that most wargamers would appreciate. It’s great to meet up with likeminded people in the hobby and spend a day in such pleasant company.” Steve Wood

The Fourth BASH was always going to be a good one, the game is becoming popular. Billux Dillux has been in print for a while and has sold over 3,000 copies and there are now 3,500 members of the Billhooks Facebook page, a lively, proactive group and word has been getting around about just how much fun the BASH can be!

Boards and Swords is an excellent venue, the staff are friendly and helpful. A happy buzz from the busy Billhookers soon filled the air, like bees but noisier. Old foes exchanged challenges and new adversaries joined in the light hearted Billhooks Banter. Billhookers are a fun loving, sociable group as the revelries of the previous night in the Brewing Tap House, now a well-established pre-BASH tradition, had demonstrated.

Such a traditional part of the event in fact that BASHers should now win awards for their performance. As such Lloyd Lewis definitely takes home the award for first to the bar, a record breaking 3.30 pm and Ian Callan wins in the “still able to hold a lucid debate at the end of the night” award for his 2am discussion with a couple of gents from Britain First in the Hotel Bar. “Most staggery early in the evening” award goes to Mark Taylor having got completely Billhooksed, although there were too many contenders for the “wobbly legs at the end of the evening” category to declare a clear winner.

Author of Billhooks Andy Callan was there as Games Guru and Umpire as were the usual mix Billhooks Veterans and several players new to the game. The BASH is a friendly, non-competitive gathering where all are welcome and veterans and rookies are all equally respected. To be honest, new players have just as much chance of doing well as the Old Guard.

 Andy gave us short introductory talk and we all received a unique souvenir, a special edition “BASH only” new Special Event card provided by Wargames Illustrated!  “Better Late then Never!” Allows you to use your general if he is the last card drawn in the turn- and I drew it twice in my games! 

Colin Brights field tent! Add a couple of dice and this could be a symbol for Billhooks!

The format for this event is now well established with each gamer using a force of 120 points representing either Lancaster/Tudor or York although this time there was a more exotic feel to the day with several armies being fielded from the Deluxe lists. Each Player plays three games throughout the day with a break for lunch and the best painted army competition after the first game.

Ian Callan had a Welsh army, Simon Clark  marched an English 100 year war army onto the table and Ralphie Dutton presented a very nicely painted French Army themed on the battle of Formigny. Robbie Roddis and Steve Wood both fielded Irish armies, although Steve generously played a Lancastrian army in his first game against Billhooks virgin Colin Bright. Such is the nature of this tournament. We are all nice guys…no ..really…we are.

Probably the most unusual army of the day was Pete Harris’ Border Warden and Reiver Army that had FIVE cavalry squadrons. I wish I had got some better pics of it

Steve Wood “The games are played with a wry sense of humour rather than a competitive edge, with good fortune and bad met with the same amused resignation and acceptance!” Never a truer word!

  Pic-Steve Coopers formidable looking Lancastrians

Pic My Yorkists with their King!

  My first game was against Steve Coopers Lancastrians. I managed to make a strong drive through his centre with my Heroic King Edward IV aided by the Goddess of Good Fortune, my dice seemed to roil only fives and sixes. Steve played well and put up a strong defence but there was nothing he could do to change my good fortune and I sixed his army to defeat. There is no doubt that this is actually a winning tactic in this game as in many others

After the first round York were in the lead at five games to four.  We stopped for pizza, everything stops for pizza, and the painting competition which I managed to win despite some strong competition. 

Pic Steve Wood’s Irish

Notable were Steve Wood’s Irish Army, mostly kit-bashed, with cavalry mounted on cushions, Ralphie Dutton’s French 100 YRW very thematic, based on the force at Formigny, Colin Bright’s Lancastrians complete with bowstrings and Mark Taylors Lancastrians with a nice tableau of Henry VI indulging archery practice-well, watching it!

 

There was a palpable atmosphere of joy as we entered Round Two, the happy murmur of wargamers enjoying themselves interrupted by the occasional shout of triumph or despair and the very noisy hard-fought contest between Roddie Roddis and Mark Taylor, a true grudge match though light hearted as is right between two established adversaries and firm friends, was probably the highlight of the session. Mark had very lucky dice and twice double sixed at crucial moments much to Robbie’s audible despair. 

 pic Robbies Army 

We were given Special Souvenir Special Event Cards at the beginning of the event. These cards can only be obtained by attending one of many events throughout the year. I drew this one in both of my battles and it’s a cracker!

   I had an excellent second round battle with Ian Callan which really went to the wire despite my formidable dice rolling. Ian’s Welsh...er…Kerns, charging forward on both of my flanks would have curdled my blood if I had not very skilfully continued to roll sixes and shoot them all down with my skirmishers.

The last draw of a card saved my badly injured King whose Men at Arms had been flanked and pipping Ian at the last moment with no coins left in my tent! Phew!

After the Second Round the Yorkists had established a strong lead of eleven games to seven. Surely there was no way the Lancastrians could recover from this. Hmmmm….

The Third Round began in the same lusty manner. I tried to get everywhere and see every game but the one that really caught my attention was the epic struggle between seasoned Billhooks veteran Pete Harris and BASH first timer Lloyd Lewis.

Pete’s Border Warden and Reiver army had five cavalry squadrons-Lloyd Lewis “All those horses were a scary sight and the speed of movement left me bamboozled! My plan centred on taking a large central hill and then facing outwards in a “Custer’s Last Stand” approach”

Lloyd’s no greenhorn though, indeed he is a seasoned wargames veteran and he dug deep and hung on in there. This game went right to the wire too with Pete failing a morale test at a crucial moment and Lloyd stealing the win.

Pic Lloyds Lancastrians Last Stand

Lancaster made a strong come back in the afternoon sessions and the final result was a narrow 14 to 13 victory to the Red Rose!

Congratulations to Mark Taylor for winning all three games and commiserations to David Grumitt who lost all three of his.

Everybody had a marvellous time and we are all looking forward to Mister BIG Billhooks on May 6^th  in Bristol. Tickets for which are still available, contact  B-I-G or message me for more information.

Pic Mark Taylors vignette “King Henry’s Archery Practice”

Getting Totally Billhooksed!

 

I had two reasons to be in Derbyshire last weekend. The first was to meet James Griffiths at Wargames Illustrated in Nottingham to demonstrate my skirmish version of Never Mind the Billhooks and the second was to play in the Fourth Billhooks BASH at Boards and swords in Derby.More about the BASH in my next post.

My good friend Mark Taylor and I met up with Pete Harris, the BASH event organiser, and a couple of his pals on the Thursday evening at Boards and Swords Hobbies Derby, an excellent venue, and played the new version of Kingmaker. It took a while to get into it and we never saw its full potential but had fun once we got going. It is actually a fairly simple game to play but takes time to set out and learn. I would definitely recommend a practice game before playing a proper one.

We stayed as usual at the Travelodge at the Cricket Ground and I got a room overlooking the pitch which meant I should have quiet night as the other side of the hotel is adjacent to a major road.

  However, my neighbour, who came in after I had settled down for the night, slammed the door and then played the TV very loudly.

I tried to sleep but it got louder until the mirror in my room was actually vibrating with the noise. Exasperated, I banged on their door but had no response. I then realised I had left my key-card in the room; I was locked out and had to wander around the hotel to find the night staff.

They tried knocking, no effect, they tried using a remote to turn the TV down, no effect. Eventually one of them opened the electrician’s cupboard and isolated the power to the room. With the TV off we could all hear through the door the Herculian roar of his snoring! They gave me a spare key. It was now twenty past two!

Ah well, we had to be at WI at eleven, so I could have a lie in…except…the Snoreceror next door, had the loudest alarm which went off at five thirty and he slept through it for over an hour! Banging on the door had no more effect than it had the night before! AAAAAAAARRGH!

And so… to Wargames Illustrated…

Mark at WI Tower. Six months ago, I had the idea that NMTBH would make a good skirmish game. My mate Mark Taylor and I have been playing it ever since and it has evolved from a few notes on a piece of A4 to a full book of over forty pages.

 I sent a copy of it to Andy Callan who played it and gave me some excellent feedback and then I mentioned it to WI who said they would be interested in it. And here we are…

They have so much terrain at WI! It’s a treasure trove of nice set pieces and scatter.

 We decided to demonstrate “Nine Fingered Ambrose” which is set in a monastery garden.

  The table was exquisite.

Mark is considering whether it will fit in the car!

James Griffiths Project manager lines up a shot.

  James is a really nice guy who is very enthusiastic about the hobby and loves a skirmish game. When it comes to setting the table, he is an artist using little piles of flock and sand to hide bases and blend terrain pieces into the table.

and so we played! Nine fingered Ambrose is a scenario from Never Mind the Ruckus (working title) in which a spy bearing information about the King has taken refuge in a monastery disguised as a monk. Sir John Barre and arch enemy Gaston Villa have both arrived in hot pursuit and have to find the spy Ambrose and extract the information from him.

Ambrose has donned cowl and cassock and is disguised as one of the brethren who will not give him away as they are sympathetic to his cause. Ambrose is known by a distinguishing feature however; he has no little finger on his left hand.

There are five monks on the table one of whom is Ambrose. There is a deck of five cards, four tens and a nine. When a character is standing adjacent to one of the monks the Player draws a card. If it is the nine, he has found his man and just has to escort him from the garden to win. Ambrose will not go quietly however and has to be dragged at half speed.

Only a few figures are needed to play Ruckus, each Retinue has twelve, A captain, two squires, three Retainers with Bills and six archers.

   The Retinue changes with different theatres, this is a basic one for playing the in the Billhooks world of Albion

Mark, holding up the sky

de Barres men spread out looking for monks. When drawing skills for this Retinue I drew an extra squire, Bill Squires who takes four archers in a wide flanking movement towards the monk who is feeding the ducks

Mark adopts a similar approach

de Barre heads for the centre of the table

     I use a Perk card to speed Bill up and he reaches   the duck feeding monk “Show me your hands!”

 

     No good, he has all ten fingers

In the centre of the table Gaston Villa approaches two monks.

  When a Bonus card is diced for , the winner has the option to take a card or move a monk

Roger of Hanham and Edmund Strongfellow are not far away

Gotcha! Blizzard barks loudly but the men pay no notice

Soon four of the ten-fingered monks have been found which means that the last one must be Ambrose!

“There he is!” points Manuel Emmanuelle

the spy is unmasked!

  Manuel has him but deBarre is in the wheat field too and is closing in

Bill Squires and his archers never really got into the scrap. Characters are activated on cards as in Billhooks and his card just did not come up

Edmund Strongfellow arrives on the scene

de Barre charges, Manuel points to his bill man “Get him!” he cries 

but de Barre is having none of it and takes Manuel down. In the campaign version, he would be rolled for after the game to see how badly injured he is and what happens to him

 At the end of the field, things are not going well for de Barres squires, both are injured as indicated by the red tokens

  Villa vaults the wall and heads towards de Barre

Left behind and out of command this de Barre archer is marked with an orange counter to show that he is Feckless. A d6 is rolled to see what he does this turn and a one means that he runs away. He is removed from play.

Gaston Villa charges into de Barre soon both are wounded. They each hit each other again twice more.

  They need to roll 3+ on d6 to save from being wounded further…

they both fail to save and fatally wounded fall to the ground. 

We had a great time! The game was well received and will be printed as free give away game IN Wargames Illustrated sometime next year with, hopefully, a nice book to follow.

  An article about this game will appear in June or July’s edition of WI 

Don't Ever Heed The Ruckus-another Skirmish game AAR

One thing I love about this hobby is that I am constantly making new friends. Is there something about gamers that set’s them (us?) apart from “normal” people? Other than a common interest I mean. No one thing defines us. Our hobby caters for the young and the old and there seems to be no generation gap. No rivalry. Gamers come from all walks of life, all professions and trades are represented, gamers are not judgemental about how people dress or what music they like or how they identify. Gamers are definitely opinionated and can be vocal about things that they really don’t like, yes, we are talking about you Finecast!

Gamers on the whole, are pacifists, ironic when so many games are about War or feature violence. Gamers are generally gentle creatives, usually socially awkward, often shy unless enthusing about a new game or range of figures or talking about an event in a recent game or the odds of rolling 5 sixes with six dice. Gamers tend to be modest about their achievements, displaying their beautifully painted models on social media and not knowing quite how to respond to the ensuing praise.

Gamers are supportive of their fellow hobbyists offering constructive feedback when it’s asked for, proffering advice to those new to the hobby, explaining rules and providing tips and tactics. Look at any thread on any army build and you will see what I mean. Gamers have learnt how to agree to disagree by avoiding confrontation and offering a different point of view.

There are a high proportion of Gamers who would be considered neurodiverse, maybe this is a common factor. The hobby requires intelligence and creativity both aspects of ADHD and Autism, maybe we are all on a spectrum of some kind, a gamer spectrum!

The happy buzz of a busy weekend at the local game store or club, reminiscent of a hive of bees, the quiet efficient industry, the energy that exists within this gathering of individuals is a shared experience that passes unnoticed and yet touches everyone. No one leaves that environment who is not charged with a positive life force that they carry through their normal day. It can see you through a whole humdrum week of responsibility and toil until the next occasion.

    Anyway, I digress…

One of my new friends Jordan and I played two scenarios from my Billhooks based Skirmish game this week, Get Orf Moi Land and Fog of War. Both games went well and we had fun.

In the first game Jordan drew Has Friends Overseas as a skill for his Lord Sir Henry Blake which gave him the Mercenary Captain Gustav and his Profane Device, an experimental hand gonne with extended range and an increased chance of exploding!

the village of Much Apning where nothing ever happens

Disturbing the peaceful morning, Sir Edmund Bowels approaches with his Retinue. Much Apning sits within the disputed manor of Stoneham Common and Sir Edmund means to claim it as his own! 

Unbeknownst to Sir Edmund, Sir Henry Graves has the same idea and is approaching with his retinue and his hired gun from the other side of the village.

Sir Henry Graves and motley crew…and pony

Both parties approach the centre of the village. There are three objective markers in the village, pack mules and pony, ownership of them will decide who wins the scenario.

Sir Justin de Squid, a somewhat reluctant squire, his card did not come up for three turns. 

Sir Edmund’s other squire Quentin Forelock, had better luck and was soon eyeing up the mule in the centre of town

  If at any one time a Retinue as all three objectives they win the game. If this has not happened by turn 6 we add on d 6 turns and whoever has the most markers at end of that time wins the game

Ambush! The Special Event card falls to Sir Edmund and 4 angry villagers run out from one of the houses and lay about Sir Henrys men, killing an archer

One archer and one villager down! The villagers have the Reluctant Warrior skill and have to test their Will to Fight to charge, but they all passed easily.

On the hill stands the Mercenary Captain Gustav.   Due to appalling bad luck, missed turns, failed rolls, we never saw this character at his best, although the gun made short work of the angry villagers 

Much Apnin is living up to its name! Sir Henry’s archers take out that sluggard Sir Justin Squid. The villagers are killed by Gustav and his crossbows.

Behind the small cottage, Sir Henry and Sir Edmund meet. Each wounds the other and they charge in for another bout

They each wound each other again!

 

Quentin Forelock, an ambitious young man, charges into Sir Henry, they each wound each other and fall dying to the ground locked in a final embrace of death.

In Ruckus (working title) killing a Captain wins the game ...victory to Sir Edmund!

Unfortunately I didn’t get so many pics of our second game “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.”

In this scenario our Retinues have got split up and have lost their way in the thick fog. They enter the table from various random points along the table edges. The Fog is Dense and visibility is only 6”. The Fog fluctuates sometimes thinning and sometimes growing thicker. This is diced for each turn.

Through the thick mist the opponents take pot shots at each other. Sir Henry’s Retinue has arrived all on the same table edge and Sir Edmund’s force is separated, coming on three different table edges. 

Sensing an easy victory son Martyn Graves and his men advance!

Another Special Event! Ambush Again! This time it’s a battered Squire reeling from the battle and not knowing who to trust he piles into Sir Justin Squid!

  Fortunately, he is soon dispatched.

Martin Graves charges into Sir Edmund. The pink counter indicates broken armour, Sir Edmund has the Break Point skill!

  Gustav is stuck somewhere in the fog! Is he really lost or just making an easy buck?

Sir Edmund realising that Sir Henry has picked up two injuries and is vulnerable leaps the wall using his Nimble skill and roaring his Warcry ”Forsooth varlet!” sets about his enemy

…and it all goes wrong!  Sir Edmund rolled 6 dice and couldn’t roll higher than 2! He lost the melee and failed his saving throws. Despite initially having the advantage, Sir Henry had two wounds to Sir Edmund’s one, Sir Henry emerges triumphant!

We had fun! I learnt quite a bit more about how the game works and every game brings a few minor adjustments. Jordan enjoyed it and said on his FB page of it "It was easy to learn and the mechanics made the combat feel realistic and palpable. The scenarios and the random events that can pop up really add a narrative to the game. I look forward to playing more." 

The playtesting group are reporting positive findings too!

Next we shall have a go at the character development rules and look at campaign mechanics