A Great British Build Off?

First up my most recently completed unit, some Perry miniatures 100yrs War longbow men, to be used a skirmishers in the Wars of the Roses/Never Mind the Billhooks project. I reckon these skirmisher chaps would not be liveried men but local chaps who are good with their bow? 

Gaming friend Chris recently sent me a pdf of the Warhammer village set. With me currently getting into the Wars of the Roses/Never Mind the Billhooks I was chatting with Chris about using some of those buildings to make a small medieval village (that could also cope with being used in our fantasy games). It was then that he challenged me to a great British Build off, select one of the buildings and see what we could both come up with. So building 19 was chosen, a small medieval style cottage, hopefully quite an easy build and a fun project for the both of us. 

The photo shows the printed out plan for building no 19 with a few materials I have been hunting amongst various boxes for. Let the fun commence. 

A mini solo campaign

 With few gaming opportunities arising due to the covid situation I have been tempted into some solo wargaming using the Neil Thomas 'One Hour Wargames' rules. I am currently reading the 'Vindolanda' series of books by Adrian Goldsworthy, excellent novels set in northern Britain during Roman times so it seemed appropriate to dig out my 10mm Romans and Britons. 

The rules are quick and easy but even so, I could not resist playing around with them adding rules for Generals, heroes and replacing the effect of armour with varying saving throws. The book contains very good sections on quick and easy campaigns and plenty of scenarios which even tell you how many units each side can deploy. Once again added a few ideas of my own to create a series of 3 linked games based around rebel British chieftain Bodvoc running rampant around Northern Britain being pursued by brave Legate Albus CCassianus. 

Here are the rules I came up with...

One Hour Wargames Ancients: Romans and Britons.

Unit Type	Move	Missile	Melee	Save	Special Rules
Heavy Infantry: Legionaries Auxilaries	6” 9”	-	D6 +3 D6 +2	4+ 5+	Armoured
Warband	9”	-	D6 +2	6+	No armour
Archers	6”	12”/d6	D6
Skirmishers	9”	12”/d6 -2	D6 -2
Auxiliary Cavalry	12”	-	D6	5+	Armour
Chariots	12”	12”/d6-2	D6	5+
Light Cavalry	12”	12”/d6-2	D6 -2
Ballista	6”	24”/d6 -2	-

Movement: turn/pivot units on their centre point.

Woods/Marsh: only skirmishers may enter.

Rivers: units may cross via bridges and fords only.

Roads: add +3” to move if all movement on road.

Moving and shooting: Archer units may not shoot if they moved, skirmishers, light cavalry and chariots may move and shoot.

Interpenetration: only skirmishers and light cavalry may interpenetrate.

Charge Moves: charging units may turn/pivot once up to 45 degrees before charging.

Shooting: arc of fire + 45 degrees. Units in cover only suffer half hits.

Combat: throw 1x D6 per unit with factors as in chart above...

Terrain Advantage: defenders in woods, on a hill, holding river crossing etc. suffer half hits.

Flank/Rear Attacks: score double hits.

Units are eliminated once they have acquired 15 hits.

Armies: each army is usually comprised of 6 units, with a minimum of 3 Heavy Infantry or Warband.

Generals: each army has a General figure (mounted on a round base) which must be attached to one unit.

If the General and his unit is involved in melee the unit adds +1 to hits inflicted.

If the General's units suffers hits, throw a dice, on a 1 he may be amongst the casualties, throw a dice again, a further score of 1 results in the death of the general.

Scenario Choice: throw a d6 on the chart below to select a group of scenarios and dice again to select the scenario to play.

1: Scenario 1-6

2: Scenario 7-12

3: Scenario 13-18

4: Scenario 19-24

5: Scenario 25-30

6: throw again.

Random Events: at the start of each turn both sides throw a d6, on a score of 6 a random event occurs, throw 2xd6 and read along the chart below.

2: Confusion: 1xd3 of your own units may not move this turn.

3:Ammunition Shortage: 1xd3 of your missile units may not shoot this turn.

4:Demoralization: one unit on your side acquires 1xd6 hits.

5: Initiative: one unit on your side may move twice this turn.

6: Rally: 1xd3 units on your side may remove 1xd3 hits.

7: Enemy Panic: a single enemy unit acquires 1xd6 hits

8:Your army gains one unit of Legionaries/Warband (as appropriate).*

9: Your army gains one unit of Light Cavalry.*

10: Your army gains one unit of skirmishers.*

11:Heavy rain shower, all shooting causes only half hits for the rest of the game.

12: Inspired: Your General adds +2 hits in melee for the rest of this game.

*any extra units gained should be deployed in their own half of the table next to a randomly selected piece of terrain, as if emerging from ambush.

The fierce Carvetii warlord Bodvoc, fed up with increasing Roman taxes and demands for tribute has roused the tribe in revolt.

Legate Albus Cassianus is marching XX Legion to nip this rebellion in the bud.

The gods (dice) have decreed that the campaign is played using the following scenarios:

29, 12, 24

Romans will be the red player, Britons the blue player.

Heroes:(Optional rule): Each side may select a single hero figure which can be deployed with any (non-skirmisher) unit. Heroes may only be used once in a game and allow the controlling side to re-roll the dice in a melee attack (abiding by the second throw). Once used the hero figure is removed from the table.

So starting with scenario 29, I deployed the units as in the top photo. In this scenario the British were disadvantaged by Bodvoc only being able to activate 2 units a turn. I decided to use the poor British activation to try and get the two units back by their base line up to the frontline. Meanwhile the Romans who were limited to just 4 units and a scorpion ballista felt it best to rush towards the Britons on the hill before the extra units arrived which proved to be a bloody exercise. 

By turn 6 the Romans were gaining the upper hand and even managed to destroy the warband that Bodvoc himself was leading. In the photo below you can see Bodvoc in his chariot and his warband making a run for it, but we can be sure that Bodvoc will return.  

A month of new rules.

 September proved to be a month of acquiring more new rules. Last month I took the plunge and got the second edition of Saga, this month I added to this with 'Never Mind the Billhooks' a set of rules for the Wars of the Roses that came free with Wargames Illustrated magazine, 'Impetus 2nd Edition' and 'Rapid 'Fire Reloaded'. All games that I am keen to play. 

Of course Corona Virus restrictions will severely affect my chances of getting a game in with any of them but of all of the above sets of rules, the 'Never Mind the Billhooks' really caught my interest. So a variety of Perry Miniatures plastic and metal figures have been purchased and the first two units painted. I have gone for the Lancastrian Earl of Northumberland and his retinue of bill and also a unit of archers. 'Billhooks' look like they will capture the flavour of the period and remind me a little of the old Bill Lamming 'Rules for Medieval Warfare' I played back in the late 70's, so they have a touch of nostalgia for me too!

I had originally based the billmen individually but decided to rebase them on 2of 6x4cm mdf bases; this ties in with and makes the figures useable with other rules such as 'Impetus' and 'To the Strongest'.

I also made some simple arrow counters using the spare groups/sheafs of arrows from the Perry sprues. Archer units get to fire 6 times before running out of arrows. I used 12mm dice and frames as they are easier to handle and see. 

Rapid Fire Re-loaded may have to wait for a while but I did manage one game of Second Edition Impetus with my Gauls taking on Pete's Carthaginians. Play was a little slow at first as we got used to the new rules (there are a lot of pages on just moving your troops) but we did speed up a little towards the end. The dice gods favoured my Gauls as I broke though on my left flank and was managing to hold the centre whilst seeming to gain the upper hand on the right flank. A rare victory for my Gauls. 

It was great to play Impetus again and both Pete and I finished wanting to play more games. I really need to paint more Gauls some time soon and perhaps read the rules again!.