The Standard of Teshub : 6mm Chariot Age Hail Caesar

 

For our final game before Christmas we decided to get the 6mm chariots out again. I adapted a scenario from the 'Age of Bronze' book for a 4 player game. 

The Standard of Teshub

Four x 300 point armies (three commanders per 300 points). Scenario loosely based on the Battle of Isuwa p90 of the Age of Bronze. Dice for who allies with who. The two highest scores ally together as do the two lowest. All leaders are Command Level 8.

Terrain: use map on p92. Dice to see who chooses which table edge. Dice again to see who deploys first (each side will deploy a division at a time, taking turns to do so) and then again to see who takes the first move.

Objective: set piece battle to break the opposing army and also gain control of the Standard of Teshub.

The Standard of Teshub: the god Teshub is worshipped by all. All 4 players dice to see who is control of the Standard of Teshub, highest throw wins and deploys the standard with his C-in-C. Ownership of the Standard improves that commanders leadership level to 9. If at any time during the game, that command figure retreats, withdraws, is defeated in melee, fall backs or routs etc... then he loses control of the Standard and his Leadership level falls to 7. The Standard then falls under the control of the nearest opposing commander whose leadership level now rises to 9. If the new owner ever falls back etc...his Leadership will drop to 7 and the new owner rises to Leadership 9...and so on through the game until one force is broken.

The dice decided that Charlie (Elamites) and myself (Hittites) deployed on the left and Ian (Egyptians) and Pharaoh Phil (also Egyptians) deployed on the right. 

Each force was 300 points, so 600 points per side with 6 leaders per side.

The Standard of Teshub was granted to my Hittite C-in-C. 

On turn 1 I was able to move rapidly and grab the hill on my flank. 

This hill became a real central point of fighting on this side of the battle. 

The Hittites await the advancing Egyptians. 

Long line of nasty Egyptians. 

The Hittite chariots (bottom of photo) advance in the centre with the Standard of Teshub towards their cowardly Egyptian counter parts who run off!

There was also a very bloody clash between Charlie's Elamites and Ian's Egyptians on the left flank. Another real blood bath. 

On the 'hill of death' fortunes seemed to swing in my Hittites favour initially, but then suddenly back in Pharaoh Phil's favour. All divisions over here were close to breaking. 

Spot the green disc under the Hittite command chariot, this was the Standard of Teshub. My commander spent all game driving around the battle field and he managed to cling onto the standard for the whole game. 

After seven frantic, action packed turns the Egyptians had lost two divisions and the rest of their force was badly damaged. The Hittites and Elamites had lost one division but were also looking fairly battered. However, as they still possessed the Standard of Teshub we called it a very narrow victory to the Hittite/Elamite alliance. 

This was one of the bloodiest and closest fought battles we have ever had. Great fun. 

A closely fought Billhooks battle

 With Charlie busy elsewhere and Ian ill it was left to Nigel, Phil and myself to fight out a small, 120 points per side battle. The dice decided that Phil and Nigel took charge of the Yorkists whilst I led the Lancastrian side. Terrain was fairly symmetrical and deployment was quickly done leading onto the manoeuvre phase. I was happily surprised to be allowed to move two skirmish units up to the central wall ready to pour missiles on the slowly advancing Yorkists blocks of Archers and Billmen. 

This photo was taken showing the initial deployment, note the wall top centre. 

View from behind the Yorkist lines, note the skirmishers now lining the wall, top centre. 

The skirmishers then fired on Phil's troop starting the battle proper. 

Note also my piece of artillery in the centre (right). For the first time ever, artillery fire was effective and didn't blow up. Points well spent this week. 

Although my skirmishers took some casualties themselves they had inflicted a lot more casualties on the Yorkist archers. 

Then disaster, a special event card gave the Yorkists an extra unit of skirmishers which they cannily deployed on the right flank just behind my skirmishers. Two turns in and suddenly I did not feel so confident of victory. It was time to pause for tea and cake!. 

After some chocolate brownie the Yorkist skirmish crossbow advanced round my left flank and were a real pain. I just did not have enough troops to counter them.  

I managed to rush a unit of bow armed skirmishers across the table to see off the Yorkist extra skirmishers just visible top right. The game was turning back my way.  

(I forgot to take any more photo's at this point). 

Both sides were running short of arrows by now so we were getting ready for melee. Then Phil threw a disastrous Melee Crisis throw resulting in the loss of a whole block of infantry. This opened up the centre and as I moved forward the Yorkists lost their last Morale tokens whilst I had two left, a narrow and hard fought victory to the House of Lancaster. 

Billhooks providing us with a really fun game once again. 

Back to Kings of War

 We last played Kings of War before Covid and lockdowns were a thing and that was in 15mm. Weirdly now, both Chris and I fancied creating new 28mm forces. Chris opted for a Human force whilst I went for some Sylvan Kin using mainly the rather excellent Oathmark Elf figures (because I bought loads of them and hadn't used them for anything yet). You may notice from the photo's that Chris has given his very nicely painted Human/Kingdoms of Men forces a Ukrainian themed colour scheme, his aim being to auction off the army when completed with the funds raised going to an appropriate charity. A most generous gesture. 

Metal Oathmark Elf character figure, otherwise known as Emyn Lockharn who was to prove to be a very effective 'Master Hunter' on the Sylvan Kin list. 

Chris recently pointed out to me that there was a 'new' version of 3rd edition KOW out that was just rules and army lists, perfect for me as I am not keen on the KOW background fluff, I just want to play the game and prefer to make up my own lands, characters and scenario's. It was this new 'Red' version of the rules that prompted us to get our acts together and get a gaming day sorted. 

As Chris was hosting it was his turn to devise the scenario's we would play and this is what he came up with... (as we are still building our new forces we opted to use the 'Ambush' rules for smaller games and opted for 500pts each on a 4' x 4' table.). 

BATTLE FOR THE GLADES OF ENGROTH

Humans have been settling on the edges of the Engroth Forest, a land traditionally belonging to the Sylvan Kin. The settlers believed that the elves would contact them if there were any problems, but no contact was made, so they assumed they had the elves’ blessing.

Unfortunately, the elves, typical of their kin, took time deliberating the best way to deal with their unwelcome visitors, and found several areas of woodland cleared and hamlets founded. Rather than a peaceful meeting to thrash out details and boundaries, the settlers were met by a small elven war party determined to drive them out. Fortunately they were sturdy folk, and had a ready defence force equally determined to push back.

The first game is an Invade scenario representing both sides trying to push the other away from the glades. The terrain should have areas of woodland, preferably several small rather than a few large woods. Some signs of habitation may be appropriate around the centre of the board.

Invade

At the end of the game, add up the total Unit Strength of each player’s units that have the majority of their footprint on the opposing player’s half of the board. This is the total number of Victory Points that each player scores.

Some of Chris's Kingdom's of Men forces deploy ready for battle. 

Kingdom's of Men mounted scouts,my favourite unit that Chris had painted. They were the first casualties of the game as they were shot to pieces by elf archers. 

My elves deployed close together on the right hand side, archers to the front. 

Sylvan Kin are expensive units, here is all 500 points of my force, deployed and ready to give battle. A Master Hunter hero, a troop of Sylvan Gladestalkers, a troop of Silverbreeze Cavalry and a troop of Kindred Tallspears. 

Being wary of the Kingdom of Men easily outnumbering my elves I played a very cagey first game. I spent six turns avoiding contact and shooting as often as I could. The Human Scout cavalry were destroyed in the first turn followed by one of the spear regiments in turn 3. By turn 6 the Kingdoms of Men only had one regiment of spear left plus their hero. Sadly for me I was having so much fun shooting humans I forgot to stay aware of turn numbers and crafty old Chris had his remaining troops firmly placed in my half of the table scoring 3 points for his unit size (Regiment) where I had only 2 troops in his table half to score just 2 points. Thus a narrow victory for the Kingdoms of Men despite the fact they had lost most of their force and not a single elf had been harmed!  

I need to learn from that mistake. 

The second game is a Salt the Earth scenario representing the elves trying to wipe out the humans and save their sacred tree which is unfortunately right in the middle of one of their settlements. The humans believe that possessing the tree will grant them ownership of the forest, or at least give them bargaining power with the elves. Terrain should be similar to the first battle, with the addition of a tall tree as the central marker.

Salt the Earth*

Before rolling off to choose sides, place one Objective Marker in the exact centre of the board and then the players take it in turns placing Objective Markers until both players have each placed two Objective Markers. Roll off to see who places the first Objective.

After a player has completed their Turn, they can choose to destroy any Objective Markers which they control (except for the Central Objective). Repeat this process at the end of each of the player’s Turns until the end of the game. Destroyed Objective Markers are removed from play and have no influence on the rest of the game.

Victory Points are awarded at the end of the game as follows:

• 1 Victory Point for each Objective Marker still in play that you control.

*Scenario Special; the central objective is a sacred tree, neither side may destroy it, but it is worth two Victory Points at the end of the game.

At deployment I grabbed two objective's whilst Chris took the two in his half of the table. However Emyn Lockharn managed to shoot/destroy the human scouts freeing up that objective. Sadly characters can not claim objectives otherwise Emyn Lockharn would have run up the table to grab that one (top right). 

Both of Chris's phalanx's of spear, the near one is from his old warhammer Empire army, on loan for todays game whilst we grow our forces. These two units moved forward to claim the central tree objective.  

My single troop of spears, stood atop an objective token. They did not move all game.  

This game was really tense and fast moving. Trying to claim the objective tokens forced us into a few rounds of melee. Emyn Lockharn was confronted by the human hero and had to use his 'Inspiring' special rule twice to save from being routed. One of the human phalanx's charged the elf cavalry but were routed by turn 6. This game then went into a 7th turn where the elf Gladestalkers managed to rout the human archers, claim an objective marker and claim a last turn victory for the elves by 3 objectives to 2. 

These were two great (small sized) games of Kings Of War (and I didn't take enough photo's) which have rekindled my love for the game. I am already looking forward to our next game where we plan to go up to 750 points per side. My only problem is trying to decide what to paint up next.   

The Bones of St Alkelda - Another game of Billhooks

 The Bones of St Alkelda

With all the recent conflict tensions are running high. The Earl of Lawkland has decided to remove the sacred bones of St Alkelda from the local church to the safety of his Hall. The Yorkist forces, further strengthened by the Mercenary Lord of Westhouse have decided to steal the relics for themselves. (For this scenario I have shamelessly borrowed a few ideas from the scenarios in the rule book). 

The table is set up with the Lancastrian forces deployed up to 9” in along the road close to the southern edge of the table and the Yorkists up to 9” in on the opposite table edge. The Lancastrian's have 3 wagons only one of which contains the bones of St Alkelda. The wagons start at the eastern/right edge of the road and must leave by the western/left edge. Each wagon is moved on the Lancastrian Skirmish card, moving at the same rate as infantry (6”). If any wagons are captured by the Yorkists throw a d6, on a 1,2 this is the wagon with the bones, if it is the third wagon to be caught it will automatically be the one containing St Alkelda's bones.

(To capture a wagon the enemy just need to move into uncontested contact with a wagon). If the Yorkists can capture the relic (uncontested) they win the game, if the relic is moved off the western/left road edge, the Lancastrian's win but the Yorkists have the larger force.

Yorkists 240 points and 6 leaders

Lancastrians 189 pts and 4 leaders

It was great to have Charlie along for his first game with the SaD Wargamers and also to see his large collection of Billhooks figures (over 460 points worth). It was Charlie who took on the role of the Mercenary Lord of Westerhouse with his units of Pike and Handgunners. 

The Lancastrians, commanded by Phil and myself deployed first, placing the 3 wagons on the extreme east/right and they had to get across and off the table on the far west/left.  We tried to position troops to hold off attacks from across the board. 

The forces deployed for battle. You can just see the wagons at the top right on the road. 

The early action was on the Lancastrian left, where, initially, things went well for the troops guarding the Bones. The Yorkists light cavalry were soon seen off with a round of archery. 

Phil was not surprised when his artillery blew up on it's first shot. 

My Lancastrian Light Cavalry tried to break through a solo unit of archers and lived to regret the idea. 

The Mercenary forces under the Lord of Westerhouse advance. 

The Lancastrians gave the Mercenary forces a warm welcome. Eventually though superior numbers forced the battle and the Lancastrians started to lose not just units but they also lost two of their four leaders. 

Ian's Yorkist forces quickly advance in the centre to take advantage of the chaos in the Lancastrian line. 

Whilst Nigel sends his Yorkists wide on the far left to try and block the road. 

Boom, the other Lancastrian artillery blows up. 

Yorkist Mercenary Pike about to beat up my Lancastrian bill. 

(Note to self: paint up some Pikemen soon, they hit hard!).

Phil hastily sends Sir James of Catteral Hall to protect the west/right flank from the Yorkist advance.  

Leading to a large clash on the left with Phil's infantry block being attacked from the front and rear, it was only going to end one way. With just 6 turns played the Yorkists had won the battle but the wagons were close to exiting the table. Twice the Lancastrian skirmish card was the last card in the pack meaning the wagons did not move on those turns, this was going to be a costly turn of events. Nigel was able to turn his surviving units around and claim the wagons, the first two he searched did not contain the bones leading to a last vital turn...whose card would be played first...it was Nigel's and the final wagon was searched and the bones of St Alkelda were claimed for the Yorkists. 

This proved to be a very enjoyable game with both sides being close to achieving their objective. The wagons were just 6 inches, one move away from escaping the board. All players agree that the random nature of unit activation using the cards is a great mechanic as you can never be sure who will get to go first at any point in the game.   

First game of Billhooks Delux.

 So for our first game of the newly updated Never Mind the Billhooks rules, 'Never Mind the Billhooks Deluxe' we continued our series of imaginary local battles with the Battle of Austwick. 

The Battle of Austwick.

Following their recent heavy defeat the local Yorkist command sent for help to the Earl of Threshfield. Quickly assembling (his newly painted) forces the Earl (Nigel) force marched his troops from Wharfedale over into Ribblesdale and onto the small hamlet of Austwick. Here, in the fields just outside Austwick the two sides would clash once again but would all the different factions arrive in time for the battle?

Each side must divide their forces up into their different wards and then throw a d6 to see if each ward has arrived on time. Any Ward that throws a 1 or a 2 may not deploy ready for turn 1. On the second turn they must dice again and if they throw a 1 they fail to arrive for the start of turn 2. On turn 3, any Wards yet to deploy arrive on the relevant table edge and their leader cards are shuffled into the PlayDeck.

Below is my Lancastrian force, the Yorkist's led by the Earl of Threshfield (Nigel) were split between Nigel and Ian. The dice decided that Lady Jayne Stackhouse (Yorkist) and Sir James of Catterall (Lancastrian) were both delayed but did arrive for the start of turn two, otherwise, all other Wards deployed as usual. 

Lancastrians

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

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

Sir James of Catteral Hall. Class 2 Commander. Ldr (+5pts)

Sir Harry Stainforth Class 1, Dolt (+5pts)

Type	pts	Move	Shoot	Melee D6	Save	Notes
Mtd Knight	3/24	8/12”		2	4+	Save is 3+ in melee
Light Horse	1.5/12	10/14”		2	5+	Save is 3+ in melee
1x Men-at-Arms Veteran	2/30	6”		1.5	3+	Save is 4+ if hit by x-bow or handgun
3x Bill	1/36	6”		1	4+
3x Archers Inc one Veteran unit	1/39	6”	9S/15L”	.5	5+	May shoot twice a turn. Hit, 5+ at short, 6 at long
Skirmishers Bow	1/6	8”	0-12”	.5	5+	Hit 5+
2x Gun + 3 crew	9/18	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	165

Turn 1, the armies deploy in a set piece battle just outside Austwick. 

The Lancastrian light cavalry enjoyed the Manouevre phase by catching the Yorkist skirmishers as they tried to hide in the woods.

However, the other unit of Yorkist Skirmishers were a real nuisance on my left flank. 

A steady advance by the Lancastrian forces on the left, although the Light cavalry had regrouped to escape being shot to pieces.

My skirmishers occupied the woods on the right and were quite effective against the Yorkist foot. 

The massed longbows of the Earl of Threshfield's centre. 

The Earl of Threshfield hides behind his rulebook as the Lancastrian light cavalry come raiding again. 

The Bonus deck had quite an impact on today's game. 

Using the Forfeit card on the Yorkist foot allowing my Light Cavalry to charge into them. 

Sir James of Catteral Hall (Lancastrian) finally gets his artillery into action. 

Sneaky Yorkist foot lure the Earl of Lawkland and his knights into charging into a ditch. 

Nigel and Ian found this 'Special Event Card' particularly amusing. 

With the game finally balanced one of the Lancastrian artillery pieces blew up. 

...as did the other one with the very next dice throw, Nigel and Ian also found this to be very amusing. A few short and bloody rounds of melee later and the Lancastrian forces lost their last Morale token whilst the Yorkists still had one left, thus a very narrow victory to the Yorkists (Nigel's new troops escaping the curse of the newly painted figures). This was a really close game that we all enjoyed. Another game is planned for next week so that my Lancastrians can get their revenge.  

Comparing this game using the new rulebook with our previous games we all agree that the new Deluxe Billhooks tidies the rules up and makes it a slicker game. The new rulebook is a beautifully produced piece of work that certainly improves the game and is a joy to read. 

Never Mind the Billhooks in my new wargames den.

 With me now using my daughter's old bedroom as my wargames den and the new edition of 'Never Mind the Billhooks' due out very soon it seemed good sense to refresh our Billhooks memories. 160 points of Lancastrians and Yorkist's per side would face off over control of an important crossroads. 

My Lancastrians parade around the cross-roads pre-game. 

The Lancastrians would once again be led by the famed Earl of Lawkland. Yes, our imaginary nobles are all named after local halls and villages. Here is my 160 points worth... 

Lancastrians

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

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

Sir James of Catteral Hall. Class 2 Commander. Ldr (+5pts)

Sir Harry Stainforth Class 1, Dolt (+5pts)

Type	pts	Move	Shoot	Melee D6	Save	Notes
Mtd Knight	3/24	8/12”		2	4+	Save is 3+ in melee
Light Horse	1.5/12	10/14”		2	5+	Save is 3+ in melee
1x Men-at-Arms Veteran +3 pts	2/27	6”		1.5	3+	Save is 4+ if hit by x-bow or handgun
3x Bill	1/36	6”		1	4+
3x Archers	1/36	6”	9S/15L”	.5	5+	May shoot twice a turn. Hit, 5+ at short, 6 at long
Skirmishers Bow	1/6	8”	0-12”	.5	5+	Hit 5+
2x Gun + 3 crew	9/18	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	159

So with Phil helping out me out with the Lancastrian's Ian took control of 160 points worth of Yorkists led by the Duke of Eldroth. As we deployed the game looked great, but I started to think I may have put too much scenery down-the problem being I have made it, so I want to use it. 

Lancastrians on the right, Yorkists to the left. 

A great start for Sir Henry Kettlebeck (Lancastrian) as his cannon blew up in the first action of the game. 

Sir John Litton and his Yorkist troops jeer the exploding cannon. 

Of course, it couldn't happen twice in the same turn thought Phil just before he (Sir James of Catteral Hall) had his cannon explode too. Not the best of start for the Lancastrians. 

Ian sent his Leper Knights (standing in as Yorkists knights) zooming around the Lancastrian left flank with our brave light cavalry opting to evade. You may be able to spot Phil's skirmish archers in the wood who were then able to shoot a few of the Knights so Ian pulled his knights back. From this point onwards everything seemed to go the Lancastrian way

The Earl of Lawkland (Lancastrian) held to his own base line and was not troubled all game. 

In the centre Ian got his Yorkist archers in a strong position, wisely we opted not to go anywhere near them. Some of them then chose to run away as some of Ians/Yorksist Men at Arms and Billmen lost the central melee (which somehow escaped the photographer) and were routed. 

On our right this clash about to happen which went our way (the Yorkists were in Disarray) was the final melee of the game. The Lancastrian did not lose a single Morale token despite many units being badly mauled. 

Phil's skirmishers chase off the Leper Knights with some great dice throwing/archery.  These skirmishers were definitely the 'Men of the Match'. 

This was a cracking game to christen my new gaming den with and seemed much closer than the resulting loss or not of Morale Tokens would seem to indicate. The terrain did slow down a few units sending them into disarray so our next game will have more open terrain. It was so much fun we intend to play again next week. We were a bit rusty on a few areas of the rules but another good read through before the next game should put us right.