First game of Never Mind the Billhooks.

 Very pleased to have finally played my first game of 'Never Mind the Billhooks'. Although I have painted quite a few (Lancastrian) units the other two players (Ian and Phil) have only just got their boxes of plastic Perry miniatures so we were limited to around 80 points a -side. Happily, Howard, our other club member has also got some figures but was unable to be here today. 

 Here are some of my more recently painted figures for this project plus I created a water filled ditch, just in case that card came up during play! 

I have skirmish crossbowmen (almost finished), another retinue of longbow and some mounted Knights ready for painting too. Happily Ian had managed to quickly paint a couple of units to help increase the size of the forces a bit. 

I can never resist devising a scenario, I was just hopeful that it would not prove to be too complex for our first game. The scenario should hopefully  play well with larger forces too.  Inventing some fictitious leaders for our forces based on local place names, the scenario was as follows...

The Search for Brother John Thomas.

The table will be set up with a village of several buildings in the centre including an Inn called Ye Olde Sunne Inn. As well as the village there should be a good smattering of fields, hills and trees etc... The Yorkists throw a dice, on a 1-3 they enter the table in the top NW corner, on a 4-6 in the SE bottom corner. The Lancastrians will enter the table in the opposite corner to the Yorkists. Troops maybe deployed upto 12” on a 6'x4' table. The game lasts 6 + a d3 turns. (7-9 turns). After the last turn the exhausted sides will withdraw to lick their wounds and add up their VP (Victory Points)!

Brother John Thomas (3VP): A monk with important information about the main Yorkist forces strength and movements has gone into hiding in a small village in the centre of the table. The main aim of the game is to locate the monk and keep him safe; the information he possesses is useful to both sides so he must be kept alive. There are several buildings in the village. To search for Brother John throw a d6 each time one of your units is in contact with a building. On a '6' you find Brother John, or if all buildings have been searched he will automatically be found in the very last building to be searched. A unit may only search one building a turn but different units may search different buildings during any turn. You score the 3VP if Brother John is with one of your units at the end of the game or has been escorted safely from the table back over your own deployment zone.

Captain Richard Head (1VP): Cpt Head is enjoying several quiet drinks in ye Olde Sun Inne when he is rudely interrupted by which ever side searches that building first. For a small sum of money; Capt Head agrees to help that side in the battle. Position Capt Head with a unit. Whenever that unit is in melee Capt Head adds one extra dice to the melee pool. Use a separate colour dice for Capt Head for if it scores a '6' in melee, it can be thrown again (and again as many times as it scores sixes, each six scoring a 'hit') as Capt Head dazzles all with his fighting skills. However, the first time that unit loses a melee Capt Head will desert to find another, quieter drinking hole-remove him from the table. Capt Head is only worth a VP if he is still fighting with you at the end of the game.

Note: Capt Head cannot be targeted by missile fire and will be the last man to fall in any unit targeted by such.

Horse and Cart (1VP): Any unit that captures the (newly painted) horse and cart by moving into contact with it will find amongst the food stores in the cart a full re-supply of arrows for one Retinue Archer unit. The cart moves at d6” a turn along the road until captured, and at 6” when being escorted by its captors.

VP = Victory points for the game.

You also score 1xVP for each enemy commander slain during the battle.

and the forces that were used were as follows...

Lancastrians

Earl of Lawkland (mtd). Class 3 Hero/ldr

Sir Henry Kettlesbeck (foot). Class 2 Commander.ldr (+5pts)

Type	pts	Move	Shoot	Melee D6	Save	Notes
Light Horse	1.5	10/14”		2	4+	Save is 3+ in melee
2x Bill	1	6”		1	4+
2x Archers	1	6”	9S/15L”	.5	5+	May shoot twice a turn. Hit, 5+ at short, 6 at long
Skirmishers Handgun	1	8”	0-12”	.5	5+	Hit 5+
Gun + 3 crew	9	4”	0-30”	.5	5+	Crew x 2 when shooting, hit on a 6, all hits kill. Three or more 1's and gun blows up.
Total	80

Yorksists

Duke of Eldroth (foot). Class 3 Hero/ldr

Sir John Litton (foot). Class 2 Commander.ldr (+5pts)

Type	pts	Move	Shoot	Melee D6	Save	Notes
Men-at-Arms	2	6		1.5	3+	Save is 4+ if hit by X-bow or handgun
2x Bill	1	6”		1	4+
Archers	1	6”	9S/15L”	.5	5+	May shoot twice a turn. Hit, 5+ at short, 6 at long
Skirmishers Archers	1	8”	0-12”	.5	5+	Hit 5+ up to 12”.Only 1 shot per turn.
Gun + 3 crew	9	4”	0-30”	.5	5+	Crew x 2 when shooting, hit on a 6, all hits kill. Three or more 1's and gun blows up.
Total	78

So, how did the game go? 

Look how peaceful the village is, typical rural England until...

(So on my last read through of the rules, I spotted that there is a built in victory system using the Army Morale tokens. We decided  to use both that and my victory points that I had set to see how it played out.) 

Using the Lancastrian and Yorkshire cards, fate decided that Phil would control the Lancastrians whilst Ian took control of the Yorkists with me as his second in command. We had fun during the manoeuvre phase trying to get into position. As luck would have it Phil was able to get his mercenary handgunners quickly to a building and when searching it, threw the required 6 meaning he had found Brother Jon Thomas at the first attempt, before we had even got onto using the main battle phase. 

Elsewhere the Duke of Eldroth sent forward his Men-at-Arms (see photo below), and after chasing off some opposition Retinue archers they battled against 2 sets of Lancastrian Retinue billmen and were eventually chased from the field of battle. In the centre of the village Phil had also managed to capture the cart, again with his handgunners (fast moving light troops were proving very useful in this scenario). This meant that Phil was now 4VP up and had also gained 2 morale tokens for breaking the Men at Arms. 

Thankfully the Lancastrians did manage to recruit Sir Richard Head (the Sunne Inn is in the photo below) for 1VP and also destroy a unit of retinue archers to gain back a Morale token.  

More melee on the Yorkist left flank saw most units in Disarry or even Daunted so after several action packed turns we called an end to the game with a clear victory for Phil and his Lancastrians. 

All three of us really enjoyed the game and the rules. We probably did a few things incorrectly; especially on Morale Crisis tests but I am sure a post battle re-read of the rules should put us right. 

We also used too much terrain for a first game which did slow things down a bit so our next battle will be on more open terrain but with hopefully even more troops.