A skirmishing up of Billhooks

[Wilgut Spleens]

Nevermind the Ruckus
Last night at BIG I played another game of my skirmished-up version of Nevermind the Billhooks with Ben Mallet. The game works well as a skirmish with very few changes. We keep the same stats throughout although we extended the ranges to 24” for archery.  I think we have all been brought up on the idea of Robin Hood and the deadly accuracy of the longbow whereas it’s far more likely it was weapon that only really excelled when used en mase on large targets. We have carried on the idea of arrow-storms with shots at long range being quite inaccurate and hitting random targets in groups of enemy characters.
Characters have individual abilities Valour, Attacks, Wounds and Command as well as different skills/traits that are generated with playing cards from four different skill groups-Strength, Dexterity, Archery and Leadership.
The characters are activated in exactly the same way as in Billhooks by turning cards. Players dice for Bonus cards although many of the cards necessarily have different meanings in my version.
The melee system I have come up with works quite nicely, is suitably interactive and has produced some nail-biting moments.  We both had our Buckle s well and truly swashed.
I have only created three scenarios so far and feel that I need to come up with a round dozen before this game starts feeling complete.
Last night our Retinues fought over possession of a manor in the village of Much Wolding. It was a close run thing indeed. By the seventh turn I had lost five of my retinue although I had manged to injure Bens Knight, Sir George Neville, and one of his squires, my main man, Sir Walter Deveraux, had also been wounded. Sensing victory Ben charged Sir Walter with his uninjured squire Sir Henry. Against the odds the wounded knight parried Henry’s thrust. Sir Walters card came up next and he charged into Sir George fatally injuring him and winning the game.
We both enjoyed this game immensely and as result of lessons learned I have tweaked a few rules and confined one to the bin!
As soon as I have a few more scenarios I shall look for volunteers for some heavy duty play testing.



I seem unable to master the process of adding pictures to post in this forum. I have tried everything but to no avail


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[Poiter50]

Would Crossbows be suitable weaponry for Continental based Retinues for NMTR? I seem to have a number of suitable figures in the Lead/Plastic mountain range. Although I have archers, I would like to see Xbowmen used for say, an Italian retinue. The rest of the foot figures are close enough and a friend is painting a Florentine group in exchange for some pieces out of my geography.

[Wilgut Spleens]

Absolutely! There are rules for crossbows and profiles for crossbow armed Retainers. I have only drawn up two starting retinues so far one for WotR and one for 100yr war which includes some rather timid Genoese crossbow men. Although I may have to invite you. PM me a link to your FB profile if you would like to be involved

You are more than welcome to come and join my playtest group on Face book, here is a link https://www.facebook.com/groups/227891339822507

[Poiter50]

I'm already a member of that group and have been reading & working from v8 of your rules.

Absolutely! There are rules for crossbows and profiles for crossbow armed Retainers. I have only drawn up two starting retinues so far one for WotR and one for 100yr war which includes some rather timid Genoese crossbow men. Although I may have to invite you. PM me a link to your FB profile if you would like to be involved

You are more than welcome to come and join my playtest group on Face book, here is a link https://www.facebook.com/groups/227891339822507

[Wilgut Spleens]

Brilliant! Good to have you in the group