Do I Mind The Billhooks?

I had missed out on the 'Never Mind the Billhooks' experience when it first came out and the accounts I had read since didn't seem to justify the interest they had aroused.  But, knowing I am very poor at judging rules without playing them I thought, when offered a game, I would seize opportunity to see if playing them would change my mind.

John, my most regular opponent these days, kindly brought over everything required a game, set it up and explained the rules to me.  He even let me take the Yorkist side, as I do have a clear preference in this period (actually Neville rather York).  The two sides were:

LANCASTRIAN                               YORKIST

 

Somerset (CinC, Commander)      Fauconberg (Hero)

2x Bow units                                   2x Bow units

1x Man-at-Arms unit                        2x Bill units

1x Bill unit

 

Devon (Commander)                     Edward IV (CinC, Commander)

1x Bow unit                                     1x Bow unit

1x Bill                                             1x Man-at-Arms unit

1x Pike

 

Northumberland (Dolt)                  Norfolk (Commander)

1x Knight unit                                  1x Knight unit 

                                                      1x Light Horse unit

 

In addition, both sides had one cannon and two skirmish units (one crossbow-armed and one with handguns).

Deployment: being wrapped up getting my head around the rules I forgot to take a photo of the armies as set up so, the first photo shows the table after the manoeuvre phase, which I brought to a close by opening fire with my cannon.

Manoeuvre Phase: the overview below is from the my, Yorkist, side of the table.  During the manoeuvre phase my skirmishers units had moved to the field (rough ground) on my left, matched by the opposing Lancastrian handgunners.  

On the other flank I had advanced my light horse while the enemy crossbowmen had occupied the wood.  I then advanced my cannon and opened fire.

This turned out be a great start inflicting a kill on the enemy bowmen to their front.  

Turn 1: started pretty much the same way with my gun knocking off another bowman; indicated by the strength dice next to the bow unit dropping from 12 to 10 (the green die indicates they have arrows for six shooting actions). 

On my left flank the shooting was less gratifying as my skirmishers advanced and shot at the enemy handgunners without effect, while the enemy skirmishers did kill one of my handgunners.

In the centre Fauconberg advanced his bows and bills to the forward edge of the ridge; not far enough to bring any of the enemy into range ...

... even though their centre has also advanced.

 

On the right flank, while the cameraman was looking elsewhere, Devon's bill and bow unit advanced (twice) up onto the hill where they were charged by the Yorkist light horse who didn't fancy waiting for them to start shooting.  Once the dust had settled ...

... the light horse had been cut to a quarter strength (2 out of 8) by the billmen behind whom the bowmen had wisely withdrawn.

Turn 2: saw the Lancastrian centre and right advance much closer to the Yorkist position, where they won the long-range archery duel despite only shooting once against two shooting actions by the Yorkist bowmen.  All three Yorkist archer units failed to inflict any losses from a total of six shooting actions!  Clearly Fauconberg had lost the knack of winning these long-range shoot-outs[1].   

At the same time my two Yorkist skirmish units on the left still couldn't land a hit on the single unit opposing them.  Conversely, the Lancastrian handgunners were wreaking havoc on mine - things could not go on for long like this. 

On the Yorkist right flank, to the relief of my light horse, Devon failed to activate (was the last card in the play deck[2]).

Turn 3: saw the Yorkist right, Lancastrian left, flank remaining fairly quiet with Devon moving to catch up with his men and advancing the skirmishers.

Elsewhere, the shooting suddenly took a lethal turn with the Yorkist archers finally getting the range and driving back[3] both Lancastrian bow units in the centre.  

Unfortunately for me, while my two left flank skirmish units finally managed to inflict their first kill on the Lancastrian handgunners the return fire broke my handgunners and the accompanying crossbowmen rattled by this also broke!

The newly-crowned King Edward looked on, distinctly unamused as this spoilt the generally favourable appearance of the battlefield at the end of this turn, not helped by his archers retreating daunted at the end of the turn after falling below half-strength (see below).

Turn 4: Somerset sought to retrieve the Lancastrian fortunes by launching his dismounted men-at-arms, now unsupported by any bowmen and taking losses from Yorkist archery, against the Edward's foot.

This was a bloody contest, with the Lancastrians just edging a win[4] but, with Edward looking on, the Yorkist morale held firm.  

Apart from desultory archery, not much else took place in the centre.

But, on the Yorkist right the Lancastrian crossbow skirmishers were starting to inflict serious losses on Norfolk's knights.

The photo below shows an overview of the battlefield at this point; the victorious Lancastrian skirmishers can be seen in the distance advancing through the field vacated by the routed Yorkist skirmishers.

Turn 5: and Norfolk, unwilling to let his knights just sit and be shot at, sent them in against the Lancastrian foot.  

They won the melee against the billmen, who once again took the hit as their bowmen ducked back behind them.  Unfortunately, for me, the billmen's morale stayed rock solid and my knights had to fall back from the fight. After which Devon advanced his bowmen back to the front rank.

Elsewhere, the Lancastrian's handgunners advanced to harass Edward's foot; their knights were brought forward; and, their men-at-arms lost the second round of melee, falling below half strength.  In reply Edward pivoted his archers to fire their last arrows in reply, to no effect.

The absence of the Lancastrian men-at-arms in the above, is due to their breaking as a result of the morale test required for being below half-strength at the turn end. 

An overview of the field of battle at this stage is shown below.

Turn 6: and Norfolk got to go first and again launched his knights at Devon's foot before they could shoot.

The result was draw, and with the knights blown[5], and the opposing foot still well-supplied with arrows, Norfolk, courtesy of a special event card called a local truce.  this meant neither unit could attack or shoot an enemy unit unless they are shot at or attacked.

In the centre Somerset threw in his billmen, where despite their lower numbers they managed a draw against Fauconberg's foot.

Next, Somerset threw in his knights against the Yorkist men-at-arms, beat them, and drove them back, 'daunted', through the archers behind them putting them into disarray.  The knights followed up into the ('daunted') bowmen and, unsurprisingly broke them.  

This saw Edward, the fourth king of that name, who was attached to the archers fleeing the field with his men.  And, being the commander in chief of the army this caused the Yorkist army to cede the field, handing the win to the Lancastrians.

Post Mortem

This had been an enjoyable game and convinced me there is actually much I like about the rules, and, with the availability of Perry Plastics, I can understand how the game has become so popular.

In the post-game discussion, the only aspect I hadn't liked was the way that the morale system seemed ensure that most battles would be fought almost to the last man.  On questioning whether we had this right, I asked about the exact wording of the morale system and John went through it line by line.  This revealed that we had gone wrong by adding lost morale tokens to the opponent's pool of morale tokens; they should go in a discard pile.  Looking at the respective holdings at the end of the game it was pretty clear that the Lancastrian army should have collapsed earlier in the game.

So, a fun game and both of us able to claim 'a win', what more could one ask for?

 

Notes:

[1.]  The losses on the Lancastrian bow unit (top right in the photo) are from the Yorkist cannon.

[2.]  Commanders activate, and use their orders (1,2 or 3 orders depending on whether they are rated as: 'Dolt', 'Commander' or 'Hero') when drawn from the play-deck.  The last card in play-deck is not played.

[3.]  The exceptionally heavy losses from Yorkist archery (and artillery) caused both Lancastrian bow units to take a morale test which they failed forcing them to retreat 'daunted'. 

[4.]  The Yorkist advantage in numbers after this melee is due to the shooting casualties the Lancastrians took before the combat. 

[5.]  Cavalry may only charge (including counter-charges) twice during a game.

Old & New Games - Day 1 of 2

I've spent the last two days gaming with three friends who came round to my cabin for some miniature action.  

On the first day, three of us refought the Battle of Barnet Chit game, described in an earlier post (13-Oct).  This was followed by a quick gunfight using the Too Fat Lardies' (TFL) 'What a Cowboy' rules after which we set up for the following day's game and adjourned to the pub - Hic!

Battle of Barnet, 1471 - DBM

The Barnet game, using DBM rules modified to work on a hex grid, started with the Yorkists (nearest the camera), groping their way through the fog.

When they bumped into the Lancastrians, they found their right wing (Gloucester) was overlapped while their left wing (Hastings) returned the compliment to the Lancastrian right.  The photo below shows how Hastings' troops had gained a free pass to outflank the Oxford's command on the Lancastrian - indicated by the yellow arrows. 

Before the Lancastrian's could respond - courtesy of the randomised turn sequence - Edward IV's battle, which he led in person, slammed into Montague's command in the centre of the Lancastrian line and started to wreak havoc over several turns.  

 

Warwick, the Lancastrian commander, faced further setbacks as Gloucester, throwing some excellent dice, inflicted several unexpected losses on Exeter's command largely negating the Lancastrian advantage on that wing.  Warwick valiantly tried to shore up both wings by feeding forward troops from his reserve but was thwarted by a lack of PIPs and a capricious random turn sequence.  The inevitable sequel to all this was the collapse of both Lancastrian wings and the subsequent flight of the Nevilles in the centre.  So, this time the Yorkists managed reverse the result from the last time we played this game.  

A Fistful of Dice - What a Cowboy

After packing away the Barnet troops and terrain, we moved on to play our first game of What a Cowboy using some old Foundry figures and my nearly completed Wild West town.  Unfortunately, I don't have a decent mat to place on this so we made do with a sand-coloured length of cloth.

The scenario was based on 'A Fistful of Dollars' with two gangs trying to run the town while a mysterious stranger tries to play off both sides against each other.  As my first game with these rules, I got well and truly sucked into the game and forgot to take photos.  The game started well for my gang and our opposition was soon pretty much down and out and the 'Clint' character kept in check.  Unfortunately, Steve, playing Clint, made his move but was embarrassed by a steak of poor dice.  My mirth was short-lived when some bystanders (non-player characters) who the scenario allowed to back him up had no such problem and my gunmen came to a sad end...

Day 2 to follow later...

Chit Games – or how to equalise the inequitable

[Pre-Cabinette Archives c.2014]

As I'm planning to re-run a 'Chit Game' of the Battle of Barnet at an upcoming gaming session in a few weeks time I thought I would post a quick description of how this game system works as I think it offers something different. 

I enjoy wargaming two-a-side, but sometimes, real life intrudes and someone drops out at short notice, and the camaraderie doesn't seem the same with two against one.  To overcome this, I wanted a game that played down the competitive element.  I sought to do this by making each player's battlefield command assigned randomly for each turn by drawing chits from a container, which is why I call these ‘Chit Games’.

The concept is simple, and not very original; every battlefield command on both sides is represented by a chit placed in a container and each turn the players, in a fixed sequence, draw a chit and play that command for the current turn.  If there are fewer players than commands the drawing sequence is repeated until all commands have been played; the drawing sequence continues uninterrupted into the next turn – it is not restarted each turn.

This means that players can command any or all troops on the table at some point during the game.  While fun, this doesn’t give the player a clear objective.  To provide this each player has a secret identity as one of the commanders on the table-top; determined by the secret drawing of slips before the battle commences.  Each identity has its own historical (or fictional) objectives that earn victory points (VPs).  This gives the player something to strive for; VPs being totalled at the end of the game to determine which player has won.  A player can still win even if his alter ego on the table lost.

The final touch, to stop players deliberately playing 'badly' when playing a command opposing their secret identity, is the ‘Identity Challenge’.  At the end of the game each player writes down a guess for each player's secret identity.  A correct guess gains a player extra VPs, and being guessed results in the loss of VPs!   Consequently, deliberately commanding troops in such a way as to lose to your on-table persona can backfire by tipping off the other players.  All of this hopefully makes a bit more sense in the following examples for the Battle of Barnet which was the first chit game I ran back in 2016.

Table-top Commands: these can be printed out and cut up as slips to draw for secret identities.  As well as the commander identities, they include some special rules for Warwick's Reserve command, and each commander's allegiances which will determine VPs.

Deployment and OOBs: the flags can be printed onto card and cut out to use as chits.  These OOBs were for the DBM rules but other rule sets are available.

Victory Points (VPs): and scenario specific rules.

Battle of Barnet, 1471: as refought in 2016 - my first ever chit game using DBM rules adapted for hexes.  The odds favoured the Lancastrians, as in real life, but included a number of special rules to recreate some of the unusual features of this battle arising from the foggy conditions.  The re-fight initially followed historical precedent as the armies, on sighting each other through the fog, found themselves misaligned each overlapping the other’s left flank.  Again, as per history, Hasting’s command broke first leading to some blue-on-blue action within the Lancastrian ranks (see special rules).  That however, was where the game parted company with the history books.  Unfortunately for Edward IV, the Lancastrian in-fighting just failed (by one element) to break Montagu’s command and from here on in the Lancastrian numbers started to tell and the Yorkists ended up fleeing the field. 

My friends and I have played many chit games since and always found them fun and surprisingly often give a narrative that feels more 'historic' and less 'gamey'.  They are also good for very unbalanced games as everyone usually gets the chance to experience wielding overwhelming force or trying to resist it.

Give it a go, you might like it.