Back to Billhooks

 Today we played a 4 player game of 'Never Mind the Billhooks' as our last game before Xmas. We hadn't played Billhooks in quite a while so it was fun to return to this game. With the Hail Caesar 'Wars of the Roses' supplement due any day it will be interesting to both play and compare the two systems. 

Today's scenario was quite simple. It was a basic encounter battle with a twist. The twist was created by writing a few cards with objectives on them then each side had to pick one. To win, you needed to defeat the enemy and achieve your objective. Simple fun at 150 points and two players per side. 

Lancastrians (Nigel and myself) on the left and Yorkists (Ian and Charlie) on the right. 

Nigel and I had to try and gain control of the central crossroads whilst Ian and Charlie had to try and get their commander off the opposite side of the table (as well as win a battle of course). 

A few Yorkists bowmen get ready to give battle.

My Lancastrian cavalry, who proved to be as brittle as ever. 

The Yorkists advance.

End of turn 2 and troops are moving into missile range.

My light cavalry charge some Yorkist skirmishers and due to some shockingly poor dice throwing get beaten.  

So my knights get into position to show the light cavalry how it is done.

Lord Clifford's archers throw 11 dice needing '6's to hit and get five!

The Lancastrian artillery exploding as usual.

The battle was a very close fought affair despite some interesting differences in troop choices. Ian and his Yorkists had more men at arms, bowmen and skirmishers but no artillery. My mounted Knights and their Light Cavalry support were next to useless although they did survive the battle...just. The Yorkists lost a couple of units quite quickly which narrowed their missile advantage but their two units of Men at Arms seemed to be turning the battle their way. Nigel on the Lancastrian right was doing very well and I just managed to hold my position on the left. 

As the game was coming to a close (the Yorkists ran out of Morale tokens in turn 6) Ian rushed his commander forward (leaving his badly mauled troops behind) and off the table to claim his objective. The Lancastrians won the battle but were not in possession of the crossroads as these were actually surrounded by the few remaining Yorkist units.

This 4 player game was great fun and could have gone either way. We were a bit rusty on a few of the rules but fudged our way through and really enjoyed ourselves.