War Of The Roses – Steve’s Hobby Blog

Bill Hooks For Game of Thrones

I’ve just returned from a superb Holiday in Croatia. Dubrovnik, to be more precise. You may be aware that the Old Town in Dubrovnik was used as the location for many of the sets in the hit series ‘Game of Thrones’. Of course visiting the beautiful City has inspired me to watch ‘Game of Thrones’ for the fourth(?) time – I am currently working my way through the first series.

It also reminded me that back in Lockdown 2022 ( was it really that long ago?) I wrote a brief adaptation for GOT in Bill Hooks. We never actually played the rules through. For a start, I didn’t have the figures and we weren’t able to meet up for gaming. I was also still heavily involved in the final playtesting oof NMTBH’s and I was busy building a decent WOTR army with no time to spend on converting figures to GOT. So all the games were played out in my imagination. Lets by fair, it was more fun than thinking about reality at the time!

But my holiday reminded me that I had written an adaptation and I thought that it would make an interesting blog article and at least make the rules available to anyone that fancied using them or adapting them to play a slightly different game of Bill Hooks.

It is unlikely that I will actually use the rules for GOT. I still have too much on the workbench to start to painting GOT retinues. I guess that I could simply use my WOTR collection but I’d rather have some ‘accurate’ troops and in particular, characters.

Another view of Kings Landing…I mean Dubrovnik!

But never say never, I’ve always wanted to sit on the Iron Throne…

So here are the draft rules – feel free to use or adapt them as you wish.

Never Mind the Bill Hooks for Game Of Thrones

It’s been well documented that the book series ‘Game of Thrones’ by George R R Martin, has borrowed heavily from the history of the Wars of the Roses. The fictional Seven Kingdoms struggle took many of the characters and incidents from the Wars and used them as the basis for plot lines within the amazingly successful series. Even the map of Westeros is based on the map of the British Isles. Where George Martin has been particularly clever, has been the limited use of both magic and fantasy elements in the plot. Yes, I know there are dragons, and walking dead and much more, but for me, they are not dominant in the story. It is the characters and the relationships, the tales of betrayal and treachery, friendship and heroism that kept me engaged through the series of the seven books and TV series. Oh, excepting the last episode….

Well, before this turns into a fan boys review of the Game of Thrones, I thought that I would think about how the rules for Never Mind the Bill Hooks could be adapted to allow players to re fight their own battles in the Game of Thrones world created by George R R Martin.

There are a number of disclaimers – first no attempt to steal copyright is intended, this is simply one admirers view as to how war gamers may choose to adapt a set of rules to a fictional book and TV series.

Second disclaimer is that none of these rules have been play tested other than in my imagination and in my own garage. I have therefore chosen to modify the existing rules rather than go for heavy re writes.- These are simply some ideas to get you started. If you like them, please feel free to add or modify them with your gaming friends. I suspect that your imagination will probably be as good, if not better than mine.

Thirdly, I have deliberately excluded the use of magic (except in a couple of the Special events cards) and there are no Dragons! If you really want a more fantasy feel, you will either need to introduce your own rules or take a look at Andy Callan’s Billhooks Fantasia (AKA Never Mind The Warlocks) which is available from Wargames Illustrated or www.nevermindthebillhooks.com

Finally, when it comes to figures, you can obviously convert your own but there are licenced miniatures out there if you fancy something to add character to your army.

And so, without further hesitation, here are the rules!

The basic game is played as written in the original rules NMTBillhoks rules or core Billhooks Albion in the NMTBillhooks Deluxe – if there are any doubts in the mechanisms described or disputes in game play, please refer to them for the final word. The modifications are primarily in the make up of the Armies and special characteristics that are given to them. I have not invented new gaming mechanisms!

Leaders

You may have one MAJOR hero in your army. They are still rated as level three leaders with the following additions.

Major heroes are immune to testing when a unit that they are with is hit with any sort of missile fire. Major Heroes can only be wounded or killed in Melee (unless as a result of a special event card….)

Major Heroes cause disarray in leaderless enemy units when charging home.

Major heroes may have a ‘sidekick/friend’ with them to add to their effectiveness.

Friends may be rated up to level two leaders. They may contribute to any melee that they are involved in by rolling one or two extra hit dice, according to their rating. Note that they are an addition to the unit that they are with, not part of it.

Hits on Major leaders may be allocated to the sidekick as the owning player wishes….

Example of Major Heroes:

Jon Snow; Rob Stark; Jamie Lannister; Tyrion Lannister; Tywin Lannister; Stannis Baratheon; Daenerys Targaryen; Euron Greyjoy.

Examples of Friends;

Bron; Dire wolves; Ser Mervyn Trant; Sr Davos Seaworth, The Hound, Grey Worm, Victarion. Some of these could actually be classed as heroes – it’s up to the players to decide who is leading their armies!

There are many characters that you could use as Major heroes and friends – to see a complete list of the hundreds of characters, just refer to the back of any of the George RR Martin books.

Army Composition for Major and Minor Houses

There is no Gun powder in GOT so no Handguns or Artillery! The points value of troops is as for the standard NMTBHs rules.

The troop types are split into:

Standard (Extras), which includes the ‘normal’ troop types such as Billmen, Bowmen, Crossbowmen, Pikemen, light horse and Levy.

Elite, which includes Men At Arms and Mounted men at arms.

Allies, which includes any ‘exotic’ units brought in from other sources.

For every Elite unit in your army, you must have at least one standard unit. This will allow you to be more flexible in building your army and you may have more of the tougher units. There is no restriction on the mix of these units.

Crossbow men may be mustered as units of twelve. They can shoot at 12 inches and hit on 5 or 6. They will cause MAA to go down one armour class. They may only shoot once per turn. They have unlimited shots. They may not shoot as a reaction to a charge. ( they are too busy/paniced to fiddle around with their windlasses!) They may evade as per bowmen or skirmishers.

Mounted men at Arms may be mustered as units of 8. They have all of the same rules in NMTBH’s but now have a superior morale check 2D6.

The major houses may only have one unit of ‘Allies’ per army and only one type of Ally, assuming that the rules allow alliances. I have included this to stop power building of armies but if players want to mix and match, it is up to them!

Special Rules for Houses

I have only included the two main houses here, the Lannisters and Starks. If you wish, you can add to this section!

Lannisters may add two extra Army Morale tokens to their pot!

Any Stark leader may take a Dire wolf as a ‘friend’ or replacement for a friend. Dire wolves have two wounds and two attacks, cause disarray in all units unless the opposing unit is lead by a Major Hero. They may only enter into one combat sequence. Once the combat is resolved the Dire Wolf is removed – it is too busy eating its dinner!

Examples of Major Houses

The Lannisters, The Starks, The Baratheons, The Greyjoys, The Tully’s, The Freys, The Tyrells, The Targaryens, House Martell to name but a few!

Examples of Minor Houses

House Braken; The Vale; The Stone Crows; House High Tower, Dondarrion, House Dayne, House Karsark, House Mormont.

There are many houses to choose from and which one you choose is up to you. Again, there are plenty of references in George RR Martin’s books to choose from. You might also look the House sigil and motto for inspiration regarding any special rules that you use. So for Example, House Baratheons words are ‘Ours is the Fury’. Perhaps that would give their Men At Arms (foot Knights) a Furious charge, re-rolling all hits in the first round of melee.

Special Armies/Allies.

The Wildlings

All Wildling troops are rated as Levy in points value. Otherwise, they are treated in morale tests as normal troops. Regardless of normal troop type, they save on a 5 or 6.

Wildlings are not permitted to field Men at Arms or Cavalry.

Wildlings move at the same rate as skirmishers and movement is not affected by bad going.

They may have a Major hero leading them.

They may field skirmishers.

They may have one giant per army or 100pts (?) of troops.

They may have one Mammoth per army or 100pts of troops.

GIANTS

A Giant has the same stats as a unit of Men at Arms and so he can can take 12 wounds and save on a 3+ vs shooting and in melee. He attacks with the same effect as a unit of men at arms, ie 18 dice if unwounded. You will need to do some book keeping with this unit! As the giant takes hits, so his effectiveness will diminish. He will also check morale in the same way as the men at arms will do so. Even a Giant might decide that enough is enough if he has taken more than 6 hits or lost a melee! If daunted or routed, he will go straight back through any units behind him causing that unit to take 3 automatic casualties ( Unsaveable) as well as causing disarray to the unit. These units will also have to take an instant morale check. Nearby units are not affected.

Mammoths

Mammoths are treated as heavy cavalry. They have 8 wounds and can attack with 16 hits. They can only move 6inches per move and cannot charge or receive a charge bonus. Any riders are considered to be part of the Mammoth for the purposes of attacking. As with the giant, you will need to note the casaulties taken. Mammoths save on a 3+ regardless of whether in melee or from ranged shots by any weapon. They test morale on 1D6 +2. If they are daunted or rout they will go straight back through any units causing that unit to take 3 automatic casualties ( Unsavable) as well as causing disarray to the unit. These units will also have to take an instant morale check. Nearby units are not affected.

Note that although Mammoths and giants are big and can be seen over the top of other units, they may not be targeted unless a leader is with the opposing shooting unit to direct the fire. It is assumed that a leaderless shooting unit will too overawed to shoot straight!

Because of their size, Giants and mammoths cannot move freely through friendly units. If they do so, they inflict 3 unsaveable hits, the same as if they had routed through the unit.

ARMY OF THE DEAD

The Army of the Dead have no allies and are almost unstoppable. I think that they would make for an interesting solo game as the Army of the dead will simply advance relentlessly towards the opposition. You will need a lot of undead figures for this army! I also suggest that you consider arming some opposing units and at least one hero with weapons made from either Dragon Glass or Valyrian steel. Hits from theses weapons on the undead ( including the leaders), are unsaveable).

There are no morale tests for units in the Army of the Dead! They cannot be daunted, they cannot rout! There is one exception. They can be disarrayed by terrain or obstacles. All troops are rated as Levy in points value. Regardless of normal troop type, they save only on a 6.

They are not permitted to field Cavalry, Men at Arms, pike men or any missile troops or skirmishers. They can still form blocks of two units.

They move at 6 inches, as other units do and are affected by bad going and obstacles.

They may have a Major hero leading them – White walkers only.

They may have one giant per army or 100pts (?) of troops.

They may have one Mammoth per army or 100pts of troops.

There are no Army Morale tokens. To stop the army of the dead you must wipe them out or kill the leader.

In the manoeuvre phase, units may only move directly forward towards the nearest living unit.

The army of the Dead can’t stand still. If their units do not receive an order they will move 6 inches towards the nearest living unit regardless of whether a leader is with them or not.

At the end of each turn, another standard unit of dead will appear at the table edge and move towards the nearest live unit.

The Nights Watch

The Nights Watch should be treated in the same way as the major houses of Westeros. Except that they cannot field Mounted Men at arms or pike blocks. They are able to have units of Foot Knights.

They may field skirmishers.

They may have a Major hero leading them.

The Nights watch may also be lead by a Stark Major hero and dire wolf.

The Dothraki

The Dothraki may only field armies composed of units of Light horse in units of 12. These units may roll 2 D6 for morale but otherwise act the same as other light horse units, fighting in two ranks. One full unit will therefore throw 18 dice in attack, save on a 4+ in melee, and a 5+ against missile fire. The Dothraki can also field units of 8 light horse to be activated on the skirmisher card.

In addition, you may take half your units of Dothraki screamers armed with bows. They can shoot once per turn with a range of 12 inches. They will hit on a 6. They have an unlimited arrow supply.

Dothraki are extremely mobile and may move two units during the manoeuvre phase.

They may have a Major hero leading them.

The Unsullied.

The Unsullied may only take either pike blocks or Swordsmen. Swordsmen are rated the same as Men at Arms but save on a 4+. They are not permitted any cavalry or missile troops or skirmishers.

As highly disciplined troops, the Unsullied will not be disarrayed by any formation change in either direction or facing. They will always turn and face cavalry or flank attacks regardless of how many moves the enemy are away from them.

Unsullied pike blocks always share hits equally between their component units They will not become disarrayed after second round of combat but continue to fight as a block regardless.

The Unsullied will not become daunted as a result of a failed morale test but they will still break on a morale roll total of 4 or less. They will ignore any troops, even of their own army routing alongside or near to them.

They may have a Major hero leading them.

Special Events, Bonus and play deck Cards

The play deck will essentially be the same for any other NMTBH’s game. If a side is not allowed skirmishers, simply remove this card from the deck.

The bonus deck is played as standard.

Special event deck. I suggest that you use a maximum of 10 special events cards including these listed below.

Remove the Local Truce card and replace with ‘Faceless man’. Playing this card will kill your opponents major hero. Remove him and his card from the game. His friend may fight on as a level 2 commander in his place. This card does not win the battle unless your opponent has run out of commanders! Your opponent is free to fight on should he wish to do so. However, if played on the leader of the Army of the Dead, all the dead will instantly drop, it is game over.

If you are playing with the Army of the dead, add in ‘All rise’. Playing this card will allow you to ‘revive’ all undead casualties. All of the Army of the dead units are made back up to full strength. A very powerful card that if drawn by the undead player could be a game changer, to say the least! Of course if the non Undead player pulls it, they can be reassured that nothing that they ‘kill’ is getting back up!

Dragon Strike! Play at any time by targeting a unit and rolling 12 dice. 3+ is an instant kill with no saves. The unit is also disarayed for a morale check. All units within 12 inches become disarrayed. If they are already disarrayed, then they become daunted.

Dondorian rises! You may bring back any commander or major hero who has been slain. They will either regain their original status, if a major hero, or will be ‘promoted to a hero! The unit that they are leading can remove any disarray or daunted tokens.

In conclusion

I have only scratched the surface when it comes to the fantastic world created by George RR Martin. I haven’t mentioned (until now!) the Kingdom of Dorn, Bravos, The Summer Isles and other lands beyond the Narrow Sea. That leaves plenty of scope for players to use their imagination and create the armies and games that they would like to play. My final word of advice is to try to stick to the basic core rules of NMTBH’s. The rules provide a great framework for a fun and playable game where the cards and dice throws provide all the narrative you will need for a superb battle that you will need for a superb battle!

Happy Bill Hooking!

Movement Trays and Basing

A recurring question that appears on many forums for wargames rules is ‘what sort of basing convention is required to play these rules’. My favourite game, Never Mind The Bill Hooks, has no requirements for a particular type of basing. You can pretty much do whatever you prefer with your troops; square bases, round bases, 20mm, 25mm, Single figure basing, multiple figure basing, it’s up to the player. That said, the game is designed to account for casualty removal on a figure by figure basis. You don’t have to do this – you can use dice or some other method of accounting for casualties but removing the figures from units does clearly indicate how that unit is fairing in the game. For example, it is quickly apparent which unit requires a morale test at the end of a turn if half of it’s figures have been removed from play!

There is one other piece of basing that I think helps in the game – Movement trays. They allow you to keep your units separate from each other, facilitate easy movement of units in the game and help to define a units space on the table. I really like them!

In a new project, I have recently decided to add bespoke ‘crews’ to all of my Medieval Boats for my Never Mind The Boat Hooks games. Driven by my OCD tendencies, I wanted my troops to blend in with the ships decks, rather than have landscaped grass and flowered bases! The original attraction of ‘Boat Hooks’ was that we could use our WOTR troops for both games but seeing my heavily flowered and tufted bases on a ships deck was slightly irritating for me. I also felt that smaller bases would be better for the limited space on the ships decks and in the fighting tops. So, I first mounted the figures on 15mm round bases but then decided that the bases needed some extra weight to keep the figures standing up and so resorted to sticking the figures straight onto 15mm metal washers.

I then decided that it would be useful if I could use my fighting boat crews on land…..as if I needed more troops. Well, I could use them on land if they were on movement trays. So I sent to Warbases for some movement trays with 16mm round cut outs but asked them to make the trays the same size as if they were holding 25mm rounds. The reason for the extra size was to allow me to ‘landscape’ the trays so that the plain bases of the troops would be less obvious.

So, in picture format, here’s how I made the movement trays and how they look!

The top shows the’naked tray’! The bottom two trays have Vallejo paste and stones and ballast added. The first coat of Delhi Bazaar brown emulsion has been applied.

The trays have been dry brushed with a mixture of Brown and Iraqi Sand to highlight the texture.

Various Gamers Grass tufts added – I went for a moorland look.

The troops in their new movement tray ready for a land battle.

Back on board ship ready to conquer the seven seas…Well, the English Channel for a start!

I now have another 24 troops for my army – not that I really needed them but…..

I actually have 60 crew that are now able to fight on land and with another 48 or so to do, I will have a rather formidable army that is able to muster both for land and sea battles.

I hope that the above is helpful to anyone thinking about basing. In the meantime,

Happy Modelling!

More Personalities!

I decided to have a break from painting Samurai and instead have a go at some individual models that I had stashed in my desk drawer. I started with a model from the LOTR battle strategy magazine. I have the full set of these magazines and since COVID, I am working my way through the whole collection, painting all of the models that came with the magazines. I have now reached issue 45 and the subject of this magazine was a mounted Captain Faramir in his Men of Gondor armour.

He was fairly quick to do but to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy painting him and I’m not entirely satisfied with the result but he’s done and in the cabinet!

The next figure is the free figure given out at Partizan. I have quite a collection of these now and I make a point of always painting the give away figures at any show that I attend now, rather than just putting them in the lead pile to gather dust. The figure represents a female pilot of the Auxiliary Transport flight. A cursory glance on Google showed the flight suit to be a light brown colour, so I used my standard paint scheme for British WW2 uniforms. A triad of Vallejo Burnt Umber, English Uniform and Khaki Grey. I’m quite pleased with this figure although I may have ‘over tufted’ the base!

The next three figures were from the company Battle Flag. I had reviewed these for Wargames Illustrated and previously painted the Bishop of Wells from the set. These were a joy to paint and I am quite pleased with the result. In the main, I copied the examples on the Battle Flag web site.

I have vague ambitions of creating an Elizabethan Army to fight against my Irish. If it does happen, these will definitely be my commanders!

The next figure on the work bench was Giovanni of the Black Bands, a Giants in Miniature figure from Wargames Illustrated. I have a number of the GIM figures but only acquire them if they fit into my various collections. I was tempted to start a sub category and try to collect all of them but the last thing I needed was another distraction from the other projects that I have on the go. In fact I think there is a joke in there regarding sub categories – most wargamers would probably have a U boat collection if they had the space! I digress. Giovanni will be added to my growing Italian Wars collection. His armour looks blacker on the model than in the picture and I decided to paint him with white stockings rather than brown boots as shown in the WI sample.

Finally, another G.I.M. figure from WI; Blaise De Monluc. Again, I pretty much copied the WI sample but left off the saltire badge which I thought looked too fussy. I had intended to use Blaise as a Captain for one of my Galleys in NMTBoathooks but I forgot that was the case and used a standard basing. He will also be fine for my Italian armies though.

So that’s it for now. I have a few more personalities to complete and then it will be back to more Samurai!

Happy Modelling!

B.I.G. Billhooks, Big Crusader Game and Big Samurai push!

It’s been a really busy gaming period for me. I think that I might have actually spent more time gaming than painting. First up was a trip down to Bristol to take part in the Bristol Independent Gaming Billhooks event. Organised by Mike Peters, this is one of the highlights of the gaming year for me. The event took place on Saturday 26th April but I stayed overnight on the Friday and Saturday. The Friday being the obligatory pre event meal and social.

It goes without saying, that Mike and BIG Jim were superb hosts and the event was a fantastic success, extremely well organised and played in a most sportsman like manner. I would recommend that anyone that is interested in the Billhooks rules set and can put together an army attends if possible – they will have a most enjoyable day, win or lose and even if a newcomer, they will find there is a warm and helpful welcome.

I played in three games on the day. my first was against Tom Farrell’s Lancastrian WOTR army. Tom was fortunate to find all the scenery allocated ( randomly) to his side of the board and no doubt feeling threatened by the quantity of cavalry that he faced, set up a strong defensive position.

I decided to focus on the flanks and succeeded in driving off his cavalry early in the game. My Stradiots also threatened his weaker ward on my left flank. After weakening this ward, for the loss of my Stradiots, I daunted the two units, destroying the archers. However, the Billmen were able to rally, something that would come back to haunt me!

I still needed to break the Lancastrian centre, a tough nut to crack, particularly as one block had MAA supporting the archers and both flanks were defended by the terrain.

The Landsknechts approach – can you spot the unit of Billmen in the far left flank….

The Landsknechts gained an early victory, daunting the Billmen in the first block but the failure to rout these units resulted in the Landsknechts eventually being pushed back. Once again, Tom was able to rally a daunted unit, recovering a morale token. It was down to the wire with morale tokens short on each side but Tom drew a second special event that enabled him to launch a flank attack with his recently rallied Billmen from the left flank. It was game over for me as another four morale tokens were required as the Landsknechts routed!

Next up was Nathan McGowans 100 year war English archer army. I was initially perplexed as to how I would deal with the firepower from the massed bowmen, protected behind their barricade of stakes.

Once again, Nathan had the advantage of terrain and advanced to plant his stakes, with his flanks protected by the board edge and a pond. There was no way that I would attempt a frontal assault, the stakes would cause disarray in any attacking unit. I would have to find another way in.

The left flank was being protected by a tough looking unit of MAA. They would need some softening up before I attacked them. Step forward the Landsknecht gunners! They were devastatingly accurate with their fire and soon forced a morale check on the hapless MAA. The door was open!

Nathan was forced to pull up his stakes and try to redeploy as my Stradiots and cavalry threatened the rear of his line.

With his defence now in tatters, my army was able to get into the archers and before long, they were routed. A victory for the French!

So with one win and one loss, it was onto the final game against Steve Coopers Lancastrians. Alas, I have no pictures of this game. I had begun to run out of steam, with the long drive down to Bristol, a late night, a reasonable intake of alcohol and the emotion of the two previous games, it was all I could do to try and focus on the game. It was another very tight game in which I lost, remembered that my Leader had a re-roll, nearly won, then remembered that Steve’s leader had a reroll before losing once again! This was a tough, close match with, I think just one morale token in it, Steve’s light Cavalry getting their revenge for being almost harried off the table with a final successful flank charge. I had the feeling that my luck was draining when 12 of Steve’s archers managed 6 long range hits from 12 dice, only for me to fail 5 saves…Ah well, that’s Bill Hooks for you! Never mind, there’s always next time!

I did have a very nice consolation prize at the end of the day though. My army was voted the ‘Best Painted Army’ so I was very pleased to have my work acknowledged by my peers, particularly as the competition was very strong, with some beautifully painted and detailed armies on display. Incidentally, if you would like some details of how I painted my gendarmes, check out my earlier blogs:

GENDARMES

MORE GENDARMES

As for the rest of my gaming activity, I filled the following weekend gaming at Andy’s house. Friday night was a big Crusader game using the latest Bill Hooks adaption – still being play tested with Saturday being spent playing a big Samurai game. Phew! I’m nearly gamed out! You can read all about the Crusader game on the Bill Hooks Facebook group here:

Never Mind the Billhooks

Finally, although gaming has dominated my hobby time, I do have 11 Samurai cavalry on the go! Here’s a picture of the horses – I hope to write a blog showing them completed in the near future!

Samurai horses waiting for their mounts!

As always, I hope that you enjoy your hobby as much as I do!

Happy modelling!

Workbench Round up for November

Yet another round up of projects completed rather than an in depth coverage of anything in particular. I have gotten out of the habit of writing a blog – something that I will try to address in the New year. I have been fairly busy, painting and working my way through my various projects, so in no particular order these are the completed models that have made it into my collection.

The first model is a small vignette from Athena Miniatures featuring Margaret of Anjou, Henry 6th’s wife and her page. I copied the paint scheme from Graham Turners beautiful book ‘The wars of The Roses’. Here’s a picture of the illustration form the book.

Margaret of Anjou from Graham Turners Wars of the Roses

Incidentally, I am just about to finish reading this book. As well as the superb illustrations and paintings by Graham Turner, the book is a well researched overview of the Wars of the Roses. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in the period.

The next project was to paint four more warriors for my Dark Ages collection. The three on the left are Footsore miniatures, the figure on the right is a limited edition figure, I think, but I have forgotten who from! Painting these figures gave me a total of 48 Anglo Danes/Vikings that I have now moved on from Saga to allow me to field 4 units for Never Mind The North Men. No doubt I will be adding more next year!

Whilst I was painting Dark Age figures, I came across this lovely figure of Odin from Footsore Miniatures in my spares box, so I painted him up, pretty much copying the Footsore example. I’m not sure where he will fit in to an army but he looks nice!

I finally finished a SMER 1/48th scale model of the Fairy Swordfish. The last part of this project was adding the rigging using stretched sprue. Very fiddly and time consuming. The swear box was in constant use but I’m pleased with the finished result.

I had already painted a foot version of the Bishop of Bath and Wells from Battle Flag Miniatures but also had the mounted version. It seemed a shame not to finish him off as well!

On the subject of the Clergy, I also have a lovely Landsknecht mounted command group from Athena Miniatures. I’ve started with the easiest of them – the mounted priest or Bishop – the others are currently in progress. As you can see, I have yet to finish the basing.

I’ve also finished another 12 Ashigaru from Fireforge miniatures. I now have enough figures to field two Samurai forces for Never mind The Naginitas, of which 140 are Fireforge with a similar number of Warlord and Footsore minatures to oppose them!

Finally, I spent some considerable time adding decals to my finished units of Samurai/Ashigaru. I used a mixture of warlord and Vene Vedi Vici decals. It took me some time to finish this task as I had 7 units of 12 to complete. So I had 12 x 3 x7 decals to apply – that’s 252 decals! Going forward, I will add the decals as I finish the unit!

So thats November up to date.

Happy Modelling!

Work Bench Round Up for October

It’s been some time since I have written a blog post but the good news is that I have been busy gradually expanding my collection of painted figures and if not reducing my lead pile, then at least keeping it under control!

Rather than a step by step guide to a particular project, this post is really just a round up of some of the stuff that I have been working on. If I can get back into the habit of writing a regular blog, I will perhaps revisit some of the projects – I think that the making of movement trays might be quite useful.

I had to get this unit of Stradiots finished for the Derby Billhooks BASH. They are from Perry Miniatures and I bought them last year at ‘The Other Partizan’ and they would complete for now, my Italian states army of Gendarmes and Landsknechts.

The five Kern were from a set produced by Battle Flag Miniatures. I had already painted the three Gallowglass in the set and wanted to finish these to add them to my Irish army. The figure wearing the Morian Helmet is really more suited to the Elizabethan age but I doubt if anyone will notice if I sneak him into a WOTR army for service at Stokes Field!

I also finished the commander of the ‘Fighting Irish’ Battleflag miniatures set. I’ve hedged my bets a bit here and finished him in Spanish colours. He will work as a commander for a Spanish army of Conquistators, maybe a Tercico for the Italian wars or even as a commander of an Elizabethan force fighting the Irish.

In a change of direction, I painted this Rohan Standard bearer from the Magazine collection, Battle Games in Middle Earth. I have now reached issue 41 of this series. I really could do with a blog post rounding up my collection so far.

I’ve also been making movement trays for some of my units. These Anglo Danes were originally a Saga force but we have been playing ‘Never Mind the North Men’, yet another spin off from Billhooks, written by Jan Ash. I’m really quite pleased with the new trays. I used 60/000 black plasticard and 1/8 inch balsa strip to make the trays. Once you have the first one made, you can use this as a template and it is suprisingly quick to knock out more!

I now have 24 of the Fireforge Ashigaru archers completed. The plan is to have a complete army based on Fire Forge figures for ‘Never Mind The Naganitas’ another NMTBH’s rule set that I am working on.

With these 12 Ashigaru completed, I am close to finishing the army. Another twelve to do and the troops will be completed.

The last figure is from the Grey for Now ‘Seven Ronin’ boxed set. I painted him more or less at the same time as the Ashigaru, using the same colours. I’ll work my way through the set – they are lovely figures but I’m not sure what I’ll use him for yet!

That’s it for now. Happy Modelling!

Bill Hooks BASH VI Battle Reports

The 6th Bill Hooks BASH was held on Saturday14th September at the Boards and Swords venue in Derby. Organised by Pete Harris, this event is a celebration of the Never Mind the Bill Hooks game, played in a non competitive spirit, the emphasis being on having a fun and enjoyable day with like minded enthusiasts. The players are split into Yorkist or Lancastrian supporters and the winning faction can enjoy boasting rights at the end of the day!

To confirm the social bias of the event, it has been customary for players to meet for a meal (latterly at the very pleasant Exeter Arms) and a few drinks on the Friday prior to the event. This is very much an evening of great conversation and banter as well as laughter. Of course, it’s an ideal way of breaking the ice for new participants. This year we had 13 attendees for the meal – I laid out an additional place at the table to make fourteen as I thought that having 13 diners on Friday the 13th was testing lady luck!

And so to Saturday when battle was joined! I’ll write a more thorough overview of the day that should be published in Wargames Illustrated,.This will include details of the winners of the painting competition, overall results and list the participants This blog article will just concentrate on reporting on the two battles that I fought on the day. As usual, my reporting is not quite up to par – I failed to record details of my opponents army or photograph them before battle – Doh!

Battle 1 vs John Kersey’s Italian State Army

John was fielding an Italian State army which had the benefit of being composed of plenty of units but the slight disadvantage in quality as some of the units were rated as Levy. I felt that the Landsknechts under my command would be more than equal to the opposition. As I had a unit of light cavalry (Stradiots) and John only had heavies, I was able to out scout him and he was obliged to place his Skirmishers and artillery as well as one other ward first in the deployment phase. With his artillery and heavy cavalry deployed on his left Flank, I deployed my Landsknecht blocks well out of the way on the my left ( his right). Pike blocks can be very susceptible to artillery fire and I wanted them to be as intact as possible as they moved across the field of battle.

The movement phase commenced with me detaching my gunsmen from the pike blocks and moving them forward to open fire on the opposition pike block causing the first casualties of the battle. We then went to turn one of the cards and the two armies began to close. As luck would have it, my skirmisher card came up again and the gunsmen delivered another volley into the pikes. Early into the turn, John won a bonus card. This can usually mean trouble but on this occasion it was a blessing for me. A sudden rainstorm meant that no shooting was permitted! Under the cover of the rain, the Compte de Biscotti advanced his Gendarmes to counter the advance of the Italian heavy Knights as he confidently ignored the artillery and crossbowmen threatening him!

The Compte de Biscotti chases off the Italian knights!

Turn two saw Biscotti charging home against the Italian knights and despite the counter charge, Biscotti was triumphant, winning the combat and routing the Italians. This prompted the Crossbowmen skirmishers and the artillery to run off the table with the knights! For now, my right flank was secure.

The situation on the left – two blocks of Landsknechts move relentlessly forwards!

On my left, the infantry on both sides closed with each other with my two blocks of Landsknechts facing two pike blocks and a levy spear unit supported by skirmishers. Unfortunately, the spear unit had advanced a bit to far from the support of the pike blocks and was very exposed! The gunsmen in the woods continued to harry the Italian pike block.

Turn 3 and the Vorhut, under the able command of Lorenza de Pala charged home against the levy spearmen. Despite the mismatch, the spearmen held! Bravely fighting on for another turn. Undeterred, by this slight setback, the Gerwalthut, commanded by Captain Nicomo Cosca attacked the levy pike block. This was a more successful combat for the Landsknecht’s, with the levy pikes breaking and routing from the field, taking the supporting skirmishers with them!

Flank attack! The Italian Pike charge home!

Despite seeing the levy pike block flee the field, the more professional Italian pikes were undaunted and were able to press home and attack into the flank of the victorious Landsknechts. These tough mercenaries were able to hold, despite taking casualties.

The glorious charge of the Duc de Bourbon!

However, the Duc de Bourbon decided to take matters in hand and on his card being turned, charged home into the flank of the Italian pikes. Although there are are rerolls or charge bonuses for cavalry hitting a pike block ( even in the flank) the Duc managed to inflict 14 hits with 9 kills! with the extra hits from the Landsknechts, the Italians crumbled and retreated from the field!

Just two casualties taken by the Gendarmes as the Italians retreat from the table!

Jon had by now run out of tokens so it was Victory for the French! The Duc be Bourbon boasting how his charge won the battle – a boast that would come back to haunt him later….

John reacts to his pike block running from the battle – Game over!

Battle 2 vs Richard Marriot

Richard and I had met before at Billhooks BASH IV where he had pulled my Irish army to pieces stopping me getting a clean sweep on the day. To read all about this encounter, click here:

Bill Hooks IV

I was determined to get my revenge! Richard was fielding a straight forward WOTR army but as noted in my last encounter, unusually fielded a unit of mounted knights which had caused so many problems to my Irish. I was determined that they would not do so again! Deployment was fairly straight forward, we both had light horse so rolled for deployment. There were no real surprises on either side – I did ensure that my commander was safely deployed far out on the left and matched his heavy and lights with my own equivalents. It would be up to the Landsknechts to slog it out with the opposing infantry!

Opening the battle, my gunsmen had already killed three knights before being wiped out by arrow storms!

In the movement phase, I once again dispatched my gunsmen to cause as much of a nuisance as possible. In this case, their target was the English knights and with their opening volley, they were able to kill three of the enemy. Richard was not going to put up with that rate of attrition and so used his archers to send a number of arrow storms and wipe them out! I thought it a fair exchange – three knights and three arrow storms for 12 gunsmen. I’m not sure that the gunsmen would agree…

Turn two saw the Compte de Biscotti charge the English knights and despite superior numbers, they lost the first round of combat! Fortunately, they survived the morale test and combat continued. By turn three, Biscotti’s numbers overcame the diminishing English Knights and they fled the field. Meanwhile, the Landsknechts chased off the light cavalry temporarily and despite them taking numerous arrow storms, casualties were extremely light. The English archers aim seemed to be off and as the two armies closed, the archers were running short of arrows!

Look closely and you will see that two archers are holding up the Landsknecht pike block!

In turn three, using a combination of a sneaky special event card ‘False colours’ the Gewalt were able to charge home against the single unit of archers! The result should have been a massacre and it was, the pikes killing 10 archers. They needed to throw 11 to stand. Bugger! they did just that, holding the Landsknechts for the time being!

Things are getting busy on the battefield!

Things now started to get busy on the battlefield with the Vorhut engaging a bill and bow block and the Stradiots charging another unengaged bill and bow block in the flank. The Stradiots inflicted 6 casualties but the block passed it’s morale test causing the Stradiots to bounce. Meanwhile the Gewalt finally put the archers to flight and engaged the same bill and bow block. Again, the English, whilst taking casualties stood firm, passing their morale check.

The Duc de Bourbon edges closer to the combat – watch out there are gunsmen in the woods!

There was no doubt the the English were under pressure and sensing victory, the Duc de Bourbon began to edge closer to the fighting, ignoring the gunsmen skulking in the woods. However, the English, although taking severe losses somehow managed to fight on, surviving each morale check required. The gunsmen had also started to inflict casualties on the Duc’s Gendarmes, infuriating the Duc!

Biscottti has survived his own morale challenges and ready’s for the charge!

Things started to get desperate! Although the French had yet to lose a morale token, they were beginning to be frustrated by the English army’s resilience and ability to continue to fight. The French had taken 5 morale tokens and when Biscotti charged home into the flank of the engaged Bill and bow block, daunting it, just one more token was required!

Biscotti charges in, daunting the English!

The Vorhut, however, had failed to break the English block that it was fighting and after three turns it was forced to withdraw, leaving a heavily depleted unit. Surely it was just a matter of time before the English folded.

The Duc de Bourbon finds that the English are not going to give up!

The Duc de Bourbons card was then drawn. With the English bill block left with three men, surely it was time for him to charge in and deliver the coup de grace as he had in the previous game! With 8 dice hitting on 4+, re rolling all misses and the commanders automatic hits and saving on a 3+ what could go wrong? Well, the Gendarmes inflicted 5 hits all of which were saved…The billmen inflicted 3 hits, 2 of which were not saved!!! The Duc had lost the combat and would need to check his morale. He failed miserably and ran from the field! Somehow the stoic English had put flight to the French commander and won the game!

I was so shocked that I forgot to take a picture of Richards victory dance – he had snatched a most unlikely win thanks to my impetuous charge. That will teach me, as if I didn’t know already, that in billhooks it isn’t over until the dice say so!

So two fantastic games with two excellent and sporting opponents, John and Richard. I trust that we will meet again at a future event. Thanks once again to Pete Harris for organising the day and the superb meal, thank you to Boards and Swords for hosting the day and of course, thank you to all of the participants for making the day such a great event.

Happy modelling and gaming!!

Great D’Arcy of The Pale

Just one of the magnificent entrances to Rhodes Old Town

It’s nearly two months since I’ve written a blog post! In that time, I’ve had a lovely holiday in Rhodes, relaxing and reading as well as exploring Rhodes Old Town and the beautiful medieval fortifications built by the Knight’s of St Johns also known as the Hospitalers. I’ve also been on numerous picnics and days out with Julie and Grandaughter Eleanor. The sunshine has not helped, it has been at times too hot to paint and certainly not the weather to be sat in front of the computer typing a blog post. And then there is the Olympics and the football!

Despite all of these distractions, I have been steadily painting bits and pieces, including some Samurai Cavalry.

Samurai Archers – Four more painted to complete the unit

I’ve added four Gendarme Standard bearers to my collection.

I’ve also added a couple of LOTR models to my collection and I’ve now reached issue 38 of the magazine collection by painting Grima Wormtongue!

Finally, I’ve painted another of the ‘Giants in Miniature’ models produced by Wargames Illustrated, Great D’Arcy of the pale. In this case, D’arcy was a bit of a giant – he was reputedly the tallest man in Ireland at the time. William D’Arcy was an Irish lord who was involved in the Lambert Simnel plot to topple King Henry VII in 1487. D’arcy carried Simnel on his shoulders at Simnels coronation in Ireland. Fortunately for D’Arcy, he did not follow Simnel over from Ireland to the battle at Stokes Field as he may well have suffered the same fate as the rest of the Irish rebels, killed or hung as traitors during and after the battle!

He makes a nice addition to my Irish collection and will no doubt take to the Wargames table in future engagements as one of the commanders!

That just about rounds up most of my hobby activity for the last couple of months. The plan is that the blog will be upgraded and changed from the Arcane Scenery blog to ‘Steve’s Hobby Blog’ to reflect my newly retired status. I hope to write on a more regular basis and include a few ‘tutorials’. Mind you, I’m a bit concerned that my eye sight is deteriorating – the eyes on Great D’Arcy are a bit wonky when viewed up close but despite this, hopefully, fellow hobbyists will find some colour guides and research that I do useful.

Happy Modelling!

More Gendarmes

Having finished my resin Gendarmes, I decided to crack on and paint the Gendarmes that I had picked up from Foundry Miniatures. They are actually listed as Casting Room Miniatures but are an off shoot of the Foundry brand and available from the factory shop in East Stoke.

Once again, I have to point out that my research with regards to the actual colours that these knights appeared in is limited. I used the Foundry web store pictures and references that I found on Pinterest and Google images as a guide. To be fair, in some cases, I simply attempted to copy the superb work that other people had produced. If you type French gendarme knights into google and click on the images tag, you will see plenty of inspirational images and for that matter, models. Here’s just a couple.

You can also access my pinterest page here:

ARCANE SCENERY PINTEREST

If you do follow the links, it’s worth clicking through to some of the blogs. You will see some of the models that have influenced me (those that I copied!) and there is some good background research. In painting these Gendarmes, I was aware that I may be closer to Fantasy that reality. However, some of the artwork shows some amazing designs – I nearly copied a knight with bee hives and bees painted on his horse’s armour but decided it was too complex! As it is, my free hand was being pushed beyond what I would normally attempt!

And so to the miniatures. The Foundry (Casting Room) miniatures are lovely chunky models with plenty of character and detail. The horses are perhaps a bit smaller than the Perry miniatures but once based, I doubt that it will be a noticeable difference. They were a joy to paint and needed very little cleaning up. Rather than detail the painting process, the general method that I followed was to block paint the horses and armour with the base coat colour. Then to apply the freehand design. The difficulty that I encountered was my lack of skill in replicating the exact design on both sides of the horse. I soon realised that you cant see both sides at once anyway so it wasn’t so much of a problem!

Once the freehand design was completed, I shaded the colours with either black, brown or light brown ink from the Army painter range. I find that Black ( Dark tone) works well over Silvers, White and Blues, the dark brown (Strong Tone) is good for Reds and Leathers and the light Brown ( Soft Tone) is good over yellows. Once the colours were inked, I then re-highlight with the original colours, occasionally adding a further highlight of a lighter tone. This gives me a clean a bold finish that I prefer. It might not be to everyone’s taste but as I am slightly red/green colourblind, I like to see the colours clearly and anything too subtle is lost on me!

When it came to the lances I decided to use the very pretty candy stripe design on each lance, choosing the colours to match the livery. To get the candy stripe effect, I painted the lighter colour on the lances first and then used Tamiya flexible 2mm masking tape to get a spiral design and then painted the darker colour. It’s not always perfect but a bit of retouching and it looks fine! I suspect that these lances would not have appeared on the battlefield but would be reserved for the jousting yard or parades. I guess that if it came to the actual battle, if they decided to charge, they could always get their Squire to change lances.

The unit is nearly finished – just the tufts and flowers to add

I had intended to put flags on each lance and ordered a selection from Pete’s flags. Although the flags are lovely it seemed that it would be too much to add them to the lances. Thanks to a suggestion from a facebook comment, I think that I will model a commander and banner man as a separate command stand. That can wait for now though!

So. another unit is ready for Battle – I now have a growing army for the Italian Wars. I think that after painting these I will have a break from the period and complete something a bit more straight forward. I also have a Japanese project that I’m itching to get on with….Watch this space!

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ARCANE SCENERY

We also have a category devoted to Never Mind the Bill Hooks:

NEVER MIND THE BILL HOOKS!

Happy Modelling!

Gendarmes

Having finished my Landsknechts force (for the time being…) I thought that I would add some heavy cavalry and I fancied painting some Gendarmes. Although it goes against the grain somewhat – adding French troops to my collection, that is – I couldn’t resist having a go at painting these ‘fancy Dans’!

Having spent a little time researching the options to purchase some of these heavily armoured knights, I chose two very different options. I bought eight 3D printed resin knights from Terrain Store on eBay and six metal ones from Foundry Miniatures. I also had three spare Perry Miniatures plastic knights that would give me a total of 17 figures; two units of 8 gendarmes and a commander. I am happy to mix and match manufacturers. By and large the size difference is minimal and can be hidden with some careful basing.

At 24 points a unit, the chances of fitting these Gendarmes into a typical ‘Bill Hooks’ army seems remote and for that matter, impractical but they will look nice in the cabinet!

Work in progress – some of the 3D print lines are obvious from this close up – they’ll pass as battle damage!

Just a brief note about the 3d resin figures. The detail on these figures is simply beyond anything achievable in casting metal or plastic. With separate reins on the horses, detailed spurs, raised visors with open vision slits and more, I couldn’t wait to get paint onto these figures. There was a slight downside, however. Whilst the fine detail is wonderful, larger surfaces are actually not so good, with the 3d printing lines showing up across some of the armour plates and other flat surfaces. You could really only see these once the models were painted and I was happy to treat these as ‘battle damage and scratches!

The resin lances were quite badly bent and difficult to straighten, even with hot water treatment.

Also the lances were anything but straight. I managed to correct some by dipping them into hot water and clamping to a straight surface but lost a number to breakage in the process. I had to replace the broken lances with ones from the Perry mounted men at arms set. So, I’m not quite a convert to 3d resin figures yet and I have yet to see how they will survive the rigors of gaming or for that matter, time.

A Perry plastic lance cut ready to replace the bent resin one – I used a razor saw to cut near the base of the resin lance and simply super glued the replacement.

When it came to painting the figures, my main references were Pinterest and other internet picture sites. There has been some discussion on the Facebook Bill Hooks site recently, as to what is ‘accurate’ when it comes to livery or colours for this period. As I rarely attempt to model a specific character or unit for a specific battle, I’m not too concerned with the detail. There were 2000 or so Gendarmes at the Battle of Pavia. If I was so minded, I suppose that I could find out who they were and maybe what they were wearing but it’s not my idea of a good use of my time. I wanted to paint some really colourful Knights that will look good on the table as they make a glorious charge to victory or oblivion in my little table top battles.

With the freedom to use whatever colour scheme took my fancy, I have gone from some fairly conservative colours to those bordering on fantasy. The white armour with the roses is inspired by the Tyrells of Highgarden – they use a yellow rose on a green background but when I first read the Game of Throne books, I had imagined Ser Loras in white armour.

The black and red schemes are based on various illustrations that I have seen, although my freehand skills were not up to some of the details! As for the lances, the ‘barber shop’ twisting patterns were inspired by other models that I had seen and look pretty, if unlikely. I doubt that they were used in battle but rather saved for the tournaments in the tilt yard. It’s fairly easy to paint the spirals using 2mm flexible masking tape (Tamiya) to mask off the base colour as you apply the darker top colour.

Seven Knights in the picture but the red knight is still being painted and the Black knight needs basing.

I’ve completed six of the resin knights so far, with two more in progress, so this will be my first unit. I intend to paint the Foundry knights as well and I will go for flamboyant colour schemes to see if I can push my freehand on again! I haven’t covered the details of painting these figures. I’ve used the same procedure as usual; that is block paint, wash and highlight. The exact colours are not important as I have already ‘confessed’ that I have not followed a particular livery scheme.

Finally, I mentioned that I had bought a Pegasus from Foundry for my Granddaughter Emily. Well, here’s a picture of her progress with the model. She has of course chosen the colour scheme and followed the block paint and ink method to paint it – just some basing to finish and Emily will have a nice model for her bedroom shelf. I may yet convert her to wargaming!

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I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop.

ARCANE SCENERY

Happy modelling!

Landsknechts – Finishing The Army

My intention was to produce a Landsknecht force that I could field using the Bill Hooks Deluxe rules set. Having painted a force of three units of 24 pikemen, along with three units of 6 gunsmen, I felt that the only other requirement would be to add some artillery. I already have a few guns in my collection but any excuse to add some more sent me searching online. I also needed an army commander and although I had some nice models on foot that could fulfill the role, I wanted a mounted general so that he could move quickly on the battlefield to rally any daunted troops.

To start with the General first, I copied an idea from Andy Callan, who in turn based his model on the cover of the Osprey book on Landsknechts.

It’s actually a very straight forward conversion. I simply took a Perry Miniature mounted man at Arms with the fully armoured horse and added a Warlord games Landsknecht head that looked about the same as the guy in the picture. I also added some spare feathers to the the rear of the horse armour and the commanders staff was made by cutting down a spear arm from the same Perry’s set.

My Landsknecht commander – Heinrich Kane of Bayern!

You can’t see it in the above picture but I’ve also given him a big dog as a companion. I’ve re-used an existing base that I had and will at some point make another and change the dog from ‘the biggest spotty dog you ever did see’ (older readers will get the reference and joke) to something more Germanic – a Great Dane or Rottweiler seems appropriate. I like to add dogs to my army – it helps that I have direct access to the Deezee range!

With the General sorted it was back to the artillery. My internet search had resulted in me settling on the guns and crew produced by Foundry Miniatures. Again, I am lucky to have easy access to Foundry. They are just 9 miles up the road from my house, so I was able to spend a pleasant couple of hours visiting them and showing my Granddaughter the Church and Battlefield at East Stoke. As well as purchasing two of the guns and crew, I also picked up a couple of packs of Gendarmes and a winged unicorn for my Granddaughter Emily! I have to report that the service at Foundry was first class. The young lad on ‘front of house’ was extremely helpful and ensured that I was able to get the models that I wanted. You can read about one of my previous visits to the Stokes Field Battlefield and find links to Foundry here:

THE BATTLE OF STOKES FIELD

Stokes field – the view to Hoveringham and the Trent – The Yorkists retreated over these fields!

Foundry Miniatures are sometimes thought of as being smaller than the current ’28mm’ crop of models. I have not found this to be so. As a general rule, some of the older ranges maybe but I found that the Landsknechts were, if anything, more on the large size but certainly compatible with Warlord and Perry Miniatures. I suspect that one of the Perry’s probably sculpted these figures.

When it came to painting them, I simply copied the figures on the Foundry web site. I actually went a bit rogue with the colours on the guns. According to one reference that I had read, the wheels were natural wood and the carriages painted red. I decided I preferred the wheels painted red and the carriages in natural wood. What a rebel, Heh!

I decided to base them on the Sarrisa Precision Terrain tiles for a couple of reasons. First of all they were large enough to accommodate the guns and secondly, I have vague ideas of making a larger diorama/encampment. Here’s the painted guns and crews on the bases.

Landsknecht Artillery on bases prior to finishing.

You can see that I use sabot style basing so if in the future I change my mind, it’s a simple matter to remove the figures and guns. The following picture sequence shows how I made the bases.

The frames are made from thin box wood, the gaps roughly filled with spare MDF and then all the gaps filled with milliput.

The bases are covered with Vallejo texture Paste.

The bases now painted, scatter and tufts added

A bit of work in progress, the next terrain tile with gabions will be an extra that I can add if I want a defended position!

So that’s the Landsknechts done – here’s a view of the army ( with the artillery not on the bases.)

The light cavalry in the background are a temporary unit – I intend to add some Stradiots in the near future. That’s once I have finished my Gendarmes…

Work in progress – Gendarmes – I plan to have two units of 8 and a leader!

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I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop.

ARCANE SCENERY

Never Mind the Billhooks BASH 5

I’m a bit late writing this up as the event took place on Saturday 2nd September and a lot of beer and bourbon has flowed under the bridge since then…..As usual, I started the day by taking a few pictures and making notes of the battles but as the day continued and the battles became more intense, my note taking dried up, as did my photography. So what follows is more of an impression of the day and some of the lessons that I learnt using my Landsknechts.

The event is organised by Pete Harris and held at the Derby Boards and Swords venue ( link below). Regulars to the event tend to meet up on the Friday evening and have a pre BASH meal and refreshments. Pete Harris had also kindly organised the evening, with the group first meeting in the Derby pub, the Tap (great beer!) and then walking on to the Exeter (great food!). After the usual pre-event banter and an extremely humorous and at times hilarious evening, we retired to the Travel Lodge for a night cap.

The next morning, a full English breakfast and multiple coffees helped to start the day and it was off to Boards and Swords to commence battle.

My Landsknecht force consisted of three blocks of 24 pikes, each with an accompanying band of six gunsmen. As each block is activated by it’s own card, I only had one army commander, Heinrich Kane, who’s main task was to undaunt any units in trouble or to issue orders to any unit that needed to react quickly to unfolding danger. As well as the troops, I had two Artillery pieces and a unit of light cavalry with their own leader.

Heinrich Kane, my newly imported mercenary leader!

This gave me 7 Army morale tokens, which sounds good but losing just two pike blocks would cost me 8 morale tokens. If that sounds unlikely, bear in mind that only the army commander can ‘undaunt’ a unit so if a block ‘daunts’ in combat it will split and the commander, assuming he is available, will have his hands full trying to rally the units. However, the upside is that the Army will have 5 commander cards plus the skirmishers and so plenty of opportunity and flexibility to move during the game.

The other issue with Landsknechts in the game is their lack of fire power compared to some armies and that they will only save on a 5 or a 6 when shot at. As a pike block, they will also take an extra casualty if hit by artillery fire. To offset this, Landsknechts have the attached gunsmen, that can be detached and sent forwards as skirmishers to harass the enemy and tie up their skirmishers (they can’t directly ‘block’ fire from opposition artillery or full units of archers). In addition, they have the ability to spread casualties through the block, making them less likely to require a morale check due to incoming fire and are therefore more durable in combat.

My choice of two artillery pieces might seem extravagant, particularly as artillery seems to have the habit of blowing up in games. Despite this, I believed the odds ( apparently 216 to 1) would make this unlikely and decided that I need something to intimidate the enemy and inflict casualties at range. This proved to be a double edged sword as I will explain below!

My final unit was a Light cavalry squadron. I will be changing these to Stradiots in the future – any excuse to buy some more toys….but for now they were a mercenary band of Welsh Cavalry led by Owen FitzTudor! I think that light cavalry are a valuable addition to any army. They can be brittle – a couple of lucky fusilades from skirmishers can see them off but they have the advantage of mobility and of course can get around the flanks of an army and cause mayhem.

And so to battle.

Let battle commence – in the background, Mike Peters surveys his table and plans his attack!

Battle one vs Richard Robinsons Burgundian Force

My Nachult block sneeking around the flank!

Richard opened the game immediately by firing his cannon. Despite my earlier comments regarding 216:1 odds of a catastrophe, Richards gun blew up, much to my amusement. So it was straight to the cards with the initial phases consisting of the skirmishers exchanging fire and my light cavalry winning the dice off with Richards light cavalry.

Gewalthut takes on the lone MAA unit and pushes it back!

It was now that I realised that my artillery were counter productive. Although they didn’t succumb to an accident, they just spurred Richard into advancing as quickly as possible! Fortunately for me, this led to Richards army being split, with his bowmen units being left behind whilst his Men at Arms charged home. I was able to defeat the MAA in combat, the pike blocks easily able to match them in combat, and with a pike block sneeking around the Burgundians left flank, they were out numbered and unable get enough shots off to weaken the approaching Landsknechts.

Despite taking casualties from the bowmen, who were protected in a block by spearmen, once combat was joined the pike block was able to use it’s superior numbers the win the melee. Victory to the Landsknechts!

Battle Two vs Ian Callans French Gallia Force

My set up – Cavalry out on the flank, Infantry in the centre

The French force was light on firepower but with blocks of MAA supported by spearmen, the offensive capability in melee is worrying! They get 24 dice for a full unit in combat but are saving on a 3+. Ian set up with a ‘refused’ right flank, pinning my opposing flank with his light cavalry and skirmishers.

I opened the battle by firing with one of my guns and again, rather than provoke a cautious response, the opposite happened! Ian’s French came charging across the battlefield, eager to engage in combat before they took any more casualties. In addition, his light cavalry slaughtered my lights and then went on to cause mayhem with a flank charge on a pike block and then chasing off one of my artillery crews!

The battle was decided with a large melee in the centre involving two pike blocks and two of the French MAA and spear combo’s. After a three turn ‘slugfest’, it was the French that were victorious, daunting one pike block and breaking the other. Victory to the French!

Battle Three vs Ralph Duttons French Gallia Force

I was hoping for a different match up after the last battle but drew Ralph’s French in a near identical set up to Ian’s army.

Ralph’s cavalry play hide and seek with my Landsknechts!

Ralph was somewhat wary of the Landsknechts, initially focusing on their strengths rather than trying to find the weaknesses! Once again, that changed when I opened fire with my guns, prompting him to get into combat as quickly as possible! Despite initially holding their own in combat, the 3+ save of the French MAA gradually won the day.

The Vorhut are about to break! In the background, the Gerwalthut have daunted one unit but are facing a charge for the next block – they lose this time!

After a protracted, hard fought combat sequence, again, going into the third round, the Landsknechts had to withdraw, in disarray, as it was them who initiated combat. They were unable to withstand the next charge of the French MAA and were driven from the battlefield. The French were victorious!

The Consultation prize

Well they didn’t fair so well in battle but the Landsknechts were voted the best painted army. So I was pleased with the effort that it took to get them to the table! I have learnt a great deal though. I tended to fight a defensive battle, trying to wear down my opponent before closing in melee. I think that this is a mistake and in future, I will try to be more aggressive and attack first. This will give me all four ranks of pikes in the first round of combat and a re roll of any ones.

There she blows! my only loss to a miss fire!

The artillery is a mixed blessing. I think that the chance of a gun blowing up is exaggerated ( I only lost one throughout the day). However, there were turns when they hit nothing and as the battle progressed, the targets available diminished as my own troops got in the way and combat was joined. The 18 points that I paid for them would upgrade all three blocks to veterans! The other issue with the artillery was that it just forces the opposition into action, in effect giving them the initiative.

Hmmm, as a certain wise man once sang, ‘I think I better think it out again’

Oh! and it wasn’t Chris De Burgh…..

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – remember that our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop:

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Happy Modelling!

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