Two Games of Billhooks

 Martin, Matt and James all convened at the soldier shack for what turned out to be two games of NMTBH.

Irritatingly I had fiddled with the settings of my camera and forgotten to reset, so most of the images are blurry and poor quality. So I've just posted a few of the longer range ones, where the effect is not so egregious.

First game saw Martin and I line up while Matt read the rules for us, using pretty basic forces of about 100 points.

After about a turn James arrived - football hooliganism at the under 12s had delayed him - so thinking swiftly we added another couple of units on each side and handed their command to him and Matt.

The reinforcements arrived to the right of the above image at about this point.

Then the arrow storm began and we Lancastrians were getting the better of things.

Two blocks of MAA clashed in the centre, both with their commanders attached - too late we realised that this was likely to end the battle very quickly. But then we did it anyway.

The dice rolls ended with one apiece and a tie, so the melee rumbled on!

Taking decisive action the Yorkist MAA charged up the middle into a block of Welsh archers and spears. The bowmen, unwisely decided to stand and shoot and inevitably had no effect. The MAA then did what MAA will do to archers and pounded them into the ground. Their supporting billmen fled backwards, daunted. This caused the block behind the hedge to take a test, which they duly failed and left the field. This in turn triggered another test with the block next to them with the same result. 

An unfortunate turn of events that handed immediate victory to the White Rose of Yorkshire.

A sudden and swiftly decisive end (and a pretty unlikely one - Matt's two rolls were both unfeasibly low) but quite a Wars of the Roses style turn of events. Especially as that flank was notionally commanded by Butler - who turned tail and ran from Mortimers Cross (and possibly St Albans and Towton too!).

So with a swift end we reset and went again.

The units shuffled about a bit and the fiendish Yorkists decided to group two archer companies together in line, hoping to be able to unleash 48 arrows with a single command!

Fortunately it was not to be - the Lancastrian MAA charged the hapless archers and instead of standing to shoot they turned tail and fled picking up much disorder on the way.

Hoping to turn the tide the Yorkist MAA launched themselves at their opponents. At this point we again realised that both Commanders were in the fight and a swift end was likely. So we quickly agreed that the Lancastrian commander was elsewhere on the field and fought on. Phew.

The combat ground on for several rounds whilst Lancastrian arrows took a deadly toll of their rivals.

However ultimately the Red Rose men triumphed and the Yorkist cause ended with their leader face down in the dirt.

On the whole a good couple of games. I think we've clarified (to our own satisfaction) most of the wrinkles Martin and I experienced first time around and are now starting to actually think about how best to play (including not adding your commander to a unit of MAA and rushing them headlong in to the enemy - hold him back!).

On the whole it's a fun game that gives a reasonable version of WotR combat - manoeuvre , an arrow storm, grinding combat and then a sudden collapse.

We're thinking he optional rule of slightly randomised forces would make things fun and I'm going to take a look at the Neil Thomas One Hour Wargames scenarios for a few ideas for variations in the set up.

This also means I'm going to need to buy some more soldiers.