Never Mind the Billhooks

 Never Mind the Billhooks is a set of rules for the Wars of the Roses, mass battle.

In this game we had roughly equal forces. On the Yorkist side Steve had the left command and I had the right. Opposite with the Lancastrians was Bob on our left and Richard on our right. Most of had not played these rules before and John acted as games master. The figures are his, 20mm plastics.

We had the advantage in archery so we aimed to take out their archers first. We held our Knights back out of range of the enemy archers and cannon.

Archers on both sides advanced. Their cannon began inflicting casualties and killed one or two models almost every turn, except for when it was briefly blocked by their own cavalry.

On our left the Lancastrians moved onto the hill in force. We had some Skirmishers there and some Billmen on the other side of the wood.

On the right my Archers were winning and my Skirmishers popped onto the hill and inflicted more casualties.

Lancastrian Billmen (not peasants as they appear) came to chase off the Skirmishers. After evading some charges they were left with multiple disorder tokens and facing the wrong way. I never had enough action points from my leader to spare to turn them around again.

The Lancastrian Knights moved into the centre and were met with very effective missile fire. This was also one of the very few occasions our cannon hit anything. A random event card gave us an extra unit of Skirmishers hidden in the village who joined in. The Knights were wiped out over two turns.

The Lacnastrians advanced down the hill and were intercepted by Steve's Men at Arms in the woods.

The Billmen facing my Archers withdrew after taking some casualties and their Men at Arms advanced towards us. One unit took very heavy losses from our Archers. In the village Lancastrian Men at Arms advanced and were met by a unit of our own.

It was time for some manoeuvering to get my spent Archers out of the way and bring up my Men at Arms on one side and Billmen on the other.

 

Richard's commander joined his Men at Arms charging my Archers and inflicted heavy losses but they stood their ground. My Men at Arms almost pulled off a flank charge but were stopped in their tracks by a special event card played by the Lancastrians. This then left them open to a charge from the other enemy Men at Arms.

On the left another unit of Men at Arms went through the village and charged our soldiers fighting in the woods in the rear. A couple of turns ago it all seemed to be going our way but the situation was now in the balance.

Our Men at Arms in the village broke and their opponents flank charged our Archers who had been about to do the same to their other unit.

Their Archers came down the hill to flank charge our Men at Arms in the Woods, things seemed hopeless.

     
And then the Archers unexpectedly beat their opponents who broke. They ran past the depleted Men at Arms who were in my flank on my side, causing them to rout too.

Our Archers were now free to attack the enemy rear, and on my side my Men at Arms were free to make their flank charge. Our own routers also rallied at this point. With all of their best troops destroyed, routing or sandwiched, and with our own Knights still intact and ready it was decided we had won the battle.