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View from the Yorkist side
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Lancastrian side
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| Lancastrian left flank |
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| Lancastrian right flank |
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| Lancastrian centre |
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Yorkist right flank and centre
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| Yorkist centre |
Last Tuesday afternoon Craig and Garry came over to my place and we played our first game of Never Mind the Billhooks, the new War of the Roses rules by Andy Callan, which is available as part of Wargames Illustrated September 2020 Issue Number 393. Rick was unable to make it but kindly lent us most of the figures for the game. Craig and Garry were the Lancastrian commanders and I was the sole Yorkist commander. Both sides had 124 points, three commanders and very similar forces the only difference being, two units of light horse on the Lancastrian side and a single unit of knights for the Yorkists.
An initial manoeuvre phase ends with hostilities (shooting or combat) and the regular game turn is card driven with a play deck, bonus deck and special event deck. Commanders issue orders to units who can then make up to two actions. Shooting and combat is decided with dice rolls for hits and saves. Some of our infantry units were the standard twelve figures, in two ranks of six and others were eight figures, in two ranks of four and we used casualty markers. The cavalry were on 50mm by 80mm bases so we used these in two ranks of four as the frontage was the same as the standard single rank of eight cavalry figures.
It proved to be a lot of fun with the randomness of the card draw making it important to make the best use of orders and actions for individual units in a turn. The Yorkist knights destroyed the Lancastrian light horse but then retreated themselves in disarray from some Lancastrian foot and were wiped out by shooting. In the centre there was an archery duel before a decisive charge by the Lancastrian foot men-at-arms saw their Yorkist opponents rout with their Commander-in-Chief. We forgot to do the leaders duel in this combat but the game was all over!
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| Yorkist left flank |
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Yorkist knights charge and Lancastrian light horse countercharge
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Lancastrian light horse are destroyed
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| Yorkist knights retreat in disarray |
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| Yorkist knights are destroyed, the centre advances |
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| Rhys Ap Thomas' Foot Men-at-Arms charge the Yorkists |
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Yorkist Men-at-Arms and Commander-in-Chief rout
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Your game looks great! What are initial impressions of the rules?
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathan, it was good fun. The rules seem fairly simple, they're only 24 pages long but the card activation makes it interesting and unpredictable and you have to make the most of any opportunities. It is designed for small battles and big skirmishes, definitely worth a try if you get WI 393.
DeleteGreat looking game. Looking forward to giving these a go!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ray, it was a lot of fun. Look forward to your pics and report!
DeleteExcellent figures! I love those grassy bases!
ReplyDeleteThanks Biblicrafts, the bases look good but were a bit big for the rules!
DeleteLooks great, beautiful figures!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil, it was a lot of fun.
DeleteLooking so great!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Michal, it was good to get the WotR figures out again.
DeleteGlad you enjoyed playing my rules. Sounds like your first game was suitable fast and bloody!
ReplyDeleteHi Andy
DeleteWe sure did, they were great fun! We're all ordering a set of the cards and looking forward to further games.
Cheers
Mike
Great looking game! I bought the magazine for the rules, we have quite a lot of WOTR between us,it'll be good to get them out again!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain, they're great fun, we really enjoyed our game. It has me digging out my unpainted figures.
DeleteVery impressive gaming again, Mike! Love the WotR, and first I've heard of these rules.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dean, they're a really fun set of rules, definite WAB Armies of Chivalry influence in the shooting and combat.
DeleteNice report - lots of Bloggers giving these rules a go at the moment - looks like a fun game designed to enable you to collect only moderately sized forces - which seems to be the trend of late!
ReplyDeleteThanks rross, it was a lot of fun, it's designed for small battles and big skirmishes which makes it easier to collect and paint the figures for each side. Apparently they've been so popular that the rules are being reworked to cover all of Western Europe.
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