BigBillhooksBattle at BIG! AAR

[Wilgut Spleens]

How  big a Billhooks army can you comfortably fit on a 6 x 4 table?

We decided to find out

https://wilgut.blogspot.com/2023/01/big-battle-of-billhooks-at-big.html

[Atheling]

Cracking stuff Mike. Funny, great to see Billhooks looking like a larger confrontation. It seems to scale up really well (I suppose Erik the Shed's humungous battles elucidated that concept very well too).

[Wilgut Spleens]

Thanks Darrol, yes I think the system can accommodate quite a few more points but maybe not on a 6x4. I think the real limit will be how many points each player can handle. Eric Shed had 3-4 players on each side on a much bigger table and managed easily. I suspect 300 points with normal morale rules will be about the upper limit and still be able to play a game to conclusion in four hours. I shall continue to push the limits! We hope to do a day longTewkesbury later this year on a 12x6 with multiple players and maybe 1000 points per side.

[Atheling]

Thanks Darrol, yes I think the system can accommodate quite a few more points but maybe not on a 6x4. I think the real limit will be how many points each player can handle. Eric Shed had 3-4 players on each side on a much bigger table and managed easily. I suspect 300 points with normal morale rules will be about the upper limit and still be able to play a game to conclusion in four hours. I shall continue to push the limits! We hope to do a day longTewkesbury later this year on a 12x6 with multiple players and maybe 1000 points per side.

Truth be told, I'm still yet to play Billhooks (though I could pull my finger out and set up the table at least!)

Tewkesbury sounds great. I feel it's one of the more interesting large battles of that war. It will be interesting to see how you interpret the "divers lanes" (which has had me baffled for over a quarter of a century!  ).

[Wilgut Spleens]

Yeh, them divers lanes are the bug bear alright! Particularly as Billhooks and terrain don't mix too well! I can't remember how Giles dealt with it in his Shed Wars but I expect the clever so and so found an answer! Just read Shed Wars Tewkesbury, looks as if hedges were strategically placed which caused disarray as per the Billhooks rules then!

[Golgotha]

Very impressive and I enjoyed your blog entry and especially the section on final thoughts.

[Eric the Shed]

Hi Chaps

Hope you don't mind me diving in - Billhooks does scale up for big battles but best keep to standard units (no levy/veterans) and use lots of players (but only one morale pot and one card deck).

Our largest engagement was Towton which had over 130 units on the table. It took all day to fight the battle with 5 players (three Yorkists and Two Lancastrians) - we had approx 20 nobles on each side with each noble commanding between 1-4 units each.

With the average cost of a unit being c15 points that meant a total of c2000 points on the table !

As far as Tewkesbury was concerned we just placed the hedges in an approximate area where the 'divers lanes' were supposedly located.

We fought our game of Tewkesbury in an evening (3-4 hours) of frenetic action.

 

[Wilgut Spleens]

You are more than welcome Giles! Your insights are solid gold as far as I am concerned. Towton was HUGEMUNGOUS! Was its till fun? Is there a point where the remembering who is who and who has to test morale and how many rounds of melee have been fought becomes a bit mind numbing?  I can see the system can tolerate large battles, but what was it like for the players?

[Wilgut Spleens]

Very impressive and I enjoyed your blog entry and especially the section on final thoughts.

Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it!

[OB]

All fine stuff, thank you.  Billhooks has a lot of possibilities.

[Eric the Shed]

You are more than welcome Giles! Your insights are solid gold as far as I am concerned. Towton was HUGEMUNGOUS! Was its till fun? Is there a point where the remembering who is who and who has to test morale and how many rounds of melee have been fought becomes a bit mind numbing?  I can see the system can tolerate large battles, but what was it like for the players?

Yes all the big battles have been great fun - remembering who is who was made considerably easier with little cards on table to denote the nobles name/title - see picture below (taken from our Battle of Barnet)


Most rounds of melee we easily managed and we fought on both bonus cards

As far as the players reactions everyone thoroughly enjoyed fighting through all the battles

[Captain Blood]

Looks great Mike 

Billhooks and terrain don't mix too well!

Yes, this is my only slight problem with the rules
I love a beautiful wargames table loaded with lots of lovely woods, hills, trees, hedges, walls, fences and villages. Billhooks alas, seems really designed for a nice flat empty table. In my games, most units spend most of their time recovering from disarray from crossing obstacles

[Wilgut Spleens]

This is true,however, I think Andy Callan is right to suggest that most battles were fought on relatively flat open moors or fields for precisely the reason that heavily armoured men did not do so well on any other terrain.

You can make terrain a feature in these battles tho.We did a demo game on a large hill, an old hill fort, and it did not take a lot of adjustment to make a good game. We recently played a battle at a ford river crossing which was also fun with a few rules prepared in advance.

Your tables look great Richard, in the posts that I have seen, and are obviously excellent for the skirmish style encounter, but you will struggle to play Billhooks on them.

Billhooks is great fun and easily the best game of any sort I have played in years so I will play it on a field , a flat field, with little terrain and keep the more pretty tables for my skirmish games.

[OSHIROmodels]

Yes, this is my only slight problem with the rules

Worked ok for me 

[Captain Blood]

You were lucky