Never Mind the Naginatas

Over the past few months I have been monitoring from afar, the development of a Samurai offshoot of the Never Mind the Billhooks rules...
"Never Mind the Naginatas" has been in the playtest phase by Stephen Wood, and he has been building up some nice looking armies for the Sengoku period (late 16th Century).

Having played a few games with the NMTB Wars of the Roses version, it always struck me that they could be adapted for the Samurai period and would work rather well.

I decided I might have a dabble with the Fireforge plastic figures, but first wanted to have a little go at the rules. And so, as part of the recent Billhooks at Berkswell day reported on in the previous post, Stephen was kind enough to bring his two armies down and give me an insight by having a game.

Well, it turned out to be a real treat, I have to say.

Stephen was gracious enough to make sure I won... or rather his dice were gracious enough, starting with his artillery exploding on turn one. As he said, "Artillery works just the same as in Billhooks", then threw three 1s amongst the six dice. We've all been there, I'm sure.

It was a real hard-fought game, and quite a spectacle with the cherry blossom trees, the shrine, the small tea house, the Tori gateway, and the bamboo groves. The fortunes swung this way and that, and we managed about 7 turns in the 2 hour game. In the end, it came down to tokens gained... I needed to gain one more before I was surely to be chewed up in a melee. Thoughtfully, Stephen threw 'snake eyes' with a morale test which meant one of his already daunted units finally broke, and that was enough to give me the closest of victories.

The rules? Perfect... they have all the chaos of Billhooks, and some really neat nuances around the Leaders (each unit has a leader attached), and a very simple system for deciding personal combats too.

Hooked? See final pictures below...

But first, here are a few snaps of the game in progress. Stephen was Red army, I was white army (notionally, Takeda and Uesugi, respectively).

Above: my Left advances towards the cherry trees and Tea House. On my extreme left, a small unit of Ronin, then my Teppo (firearms unit), and then a combined Naginata and Bow unit.

Below: my Centre-Right included another combined block (Naginata and Bow), plus a block of long spear/pikemen (Yari).

Above: Stephen's artillery! Boom!! Ooops!!!

Above: my centre advances.

Below: overview picture taken from my right flank.

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Above: I managed to get some Ninja into a great position in the woods where they could spring out and attack Stephen's developing attacks. In the rules, apparently Ninja can be really good, or very brittle. I was fortunate that I got them on a good day. They did manage some useful forays against the flanks of the enemy units, and even took a few pot shots at Stephen's mounted Samurai archers, to good effect.

Endgame: Despite being in dire straits on the left-centre, with two units about to defeat my combined Naginata/Bow block, Stephen's unit on the baseline (amongst the casualties also gathering there!) rolled a double 1, thereby breaking. The game was up for the Red Army.

A public 'thank you' to Stephen for his generosity in bringing the armies down for the game, and for mentoring me through the unfamiliar period and rules. 

With Warlord games bringing out a Samurai supplement recently, it is a period that will gain a lot of traction, I am sure, especially with such nice figures too. It's certainly colourful, and very different.
I will be sticking with the NMT Naginatas version as I am familiar with the overall "Billhooks engine" and they do give the sort of game I like.

So, yes, I have painted a few up...

Here is my first combined block of Ashigaru... with bows and with naginatas.

I have gone for the Uesugi clan, and in particular the contingent provided by Takemata Hirotsuna, partly because they have the easiest 'heraldry'... the Mon being a simple ring of black on white sashimonos (back banners).

That's all for now folks!

A Birthday Bash - Billhooks at Berkswell

There has been a lot of hobby activity here over the past couple of months (for example, I recently finished my Wars of the Roses Warwick army for NMT Billhook), but the blog has been lagging behind and somewhat neglected, for which I apologise.

To rectify this, I have the pleasure with this post to report on a rather special event held a couple of weekends ago to celebrate the 70th birthday of one of the members of our little group, The Old Berks.
John Kersey is confirmed as the Oldest Berk!

A short while ago, John suggested that for his milestone birthday he would like to hold a small one-day event focusing on the "Billhooks" stable of rules, with several tables of friendly games taking place during the course of the day.

And so, John hired the village hall here in Berkswell (the official seat/HQ of The Old Berks).

We put out a note on the Billhooks Facebook Group, and I'm pleased to say that several people took up the offer, including the Billhooks glitterati in the form of Andy Callan, his brother Ian, and Stephen Wood. Rob Grayston, author of the recent WOTR supplement for Hail Caesar, also came along for his first taste of NMTB.

The event was very much about friendly games and a relaxed atmosphere, meeting people and chewing the hobby fat.

It was a glorious day in the village, with a clear blue sky, a woodpecker making himself heard in the woods by the car park, and church bells ringing out on Sunday morning as the players arrived.

We set the hall up, and got cracking with some lovely little games.

Above: Peter and Rich in full flow. They got so wrapped up in their game we had to tear them away to have some lunch (which was provided by everyone just bringing loads of stuff, and birthday boy John treating everyone to pizzas from the local Dominoes!)

Below: it's not often that Andy scratches his head in a game of Billhooks, but here he was up against one of the doyens of the Billhooks fraternity, Ian Callan, in a close fought affair.

Below: I had the immense pleasure of playing a game of Never Mind the Naginatas with Stephen Wood who is authoring the rules. It was great fun... I will do a separate post with more pictures of that.

Above: the players (with the exception of Ian who had to get back home before the end).
l-r: yours truly, Rob, Rich, Andy C, Birthday boy John, Stephen, Pete, Andy M.

We finished off with a birthday cake for John and a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday"!

A really great day.

On the day, we also included a "Plastic Amnesty". This is something I have long thought about...
What happens to all those part-used frames, those frames off the front of magazines that aren't needed, and the extra frames left over when an army is "completed"?

I can't be alone in having a cupboard full of these... and so it proved, with players bringing their excess, and us having a bit of a bring n buy, allowing players to pick up the odd frame or spare parts needed for an army. With contributions for frames bought (we suggested £1 per frame, but it was totally discretionary), we raised £110, and donated it to Combat Stress... I'm hoping to take the idea further as there were still a lot of frames left, so maybe we will be able to do something similar at a show sometime... 

As I mentioned at the top of this post, I have been doing some painting and recently "finished" (for now!) my WOTR Warwick army. I will show photos in a fresh post shortly.

I will also show some additional photos from my game with Stephen Wood, using his Samurai rules adaptation of "Billhooks", Never Mind the Naginatas.

Meantime, thanks for reading and commenting.

Best regards...

Game On!

A great start to this year…

Andy came over for a game of Wars of the Roses (Never Mind the Billhooks) last weekend. It was, in my view, the best game we've had yet which probably reflects the fact that our experience with the rules is growing (in Andy's case, a lot; in my case, a little!)

Anyway, here are a few snaps from the game. My army is the Warwick contingent (red with white 'Bear and Ragged Staff' livery in the main), whilst Andy's is Lancastrians.

Above: one of my Wards is commanded by the fictional Mortimer of Arden and his retinue is dressed in a fictional livery... any resemblance to a certain midlands football team is purely accidental, honest. 

It was a ding-dong affair, with the vagaries of the dice causing amusement and consternation in equal measure. Andy is tactically very good with these rules now and I learned a lot... which is to say that, after a good six turns, Andy came out on top, with a swing in his favour in the final turn. Most important, it was good fun, looked pretty, and was played in the right spirit in great company.

I have added a new Geek Villain mat to the growing collection which I am happy with as a representation of a sort of muddy moorland look.

Some other things to note in the photos...

The Italian cavalry on my side are simply proxies while I complete the Warwick forces. I am pleased with the progress on this Billhooks Warwick army… just one unit to do (some light cavalry) … and that’s it completed. 

Here's the army laid out, without the Italian cavalry unit... I can't wait to post a picture of the finished force.

It has been a productive month at the painting desk. In addition to painting a couple of units for the Warwick army seen in the photos above, I also added plenty of tabletop paraphernalia as well.

At the start of the year, jotting in my hobby journal one night, I created a “Terrain and Vignettes Bits n Bobs” list, for all projects. It included all those items that I’ve picked up at wargames shows but that I haven’t finished yet - Renedra fencing, for example, and sundry other things. So, I’m gradually working through lots of that stuff and it will be appearing on the table throughout the year, and beyond.

I have been working on a few tokens and other items of table extras to enhance the games too. 

Some might see this as a Token Effort, or even Counter Productive, or at worst a Counter Offensive… how ya likin’ these puns?

But... Hark… these Heralds represent order counters… a level three commander has three Heralds to initiate orders each turn, and so on.

Andy’s favourite item is the rudimentary medieval latrines I created to go with the camp as an area in which to place captured enemy morale counters. Seems appropriate.

I also picked up a couple of building kits – the cottage and barn you can see in the photos of the game. Easy to make and paint. And I think useful for games involving the Wars of the Roses armies, and right through the ECW and beyond.

The New Year brought with it the usual sense of fresh beginnings, and for us wargamers that spells new projects (or, “trouble”). I spent a fair amount of time jotting notes in my hobby journal about the state of play of various ongoing projects and concluded that this coming year I will focus back on a couple of old ones and ‘finish them off’. We’ll see.

Meantime, hope you had an equally hobby-filled start to 2025.

 

Bloody Christmas!

The final unit of the year ...probably. Although I have some bits of Wars of the Roses stuff to do before the next Billhooks game on 30th December at Andy's...

However, here is a slight 'departure'; I couldn't resist the Bloody Miniatures, and although they are most often seen in skirmish groups, I decided to add a few Renegade and Bicorne chaps I had lying around to create the regiment of Sir Allen Apsley's Foote... stout Royalists all, and here to stop that damned Cromwell fellow from cancelling Christmas!

With compliments of the season to all readers and visitors to Warcabinet this year. Merry Christmas, one and all!

Best wishes

Phil

Billhookery

The past couple of months have seen me dive into a fresh army for Never Mind the Billhooks (NMTB), and last weekend they got their first outing on the table.

Being a Warwickshire lad, it had to be...

I added a twist to the army in the form of one of the Ward commanders being the fictitious "Mortimer of Arden", sporting a variation on the red livery by adding some light blue and a golden lion (ok, so you will have already guessed the football reference, I'm sure).

There are a few more units to complete for the army, hopefully in the next two months.

Andy and John visited last weekend (Steve being unable to join us due to lurgy, flu, and general pestilence). We had a 180 points a side game in which my 'half' army joined up with Andy's almost complete Lancastrians to face around 180 points of John's Yorkists. The benefit of doing a Warwick army is that they can legitimately be used on either side, of course.

Anyway, here are some snaps of the action...

It was a keenly fought affair, with plenty of laughs, and all three of us putting in performances worthy of the infamous Old Berks Wooden Spoon...
My own dice rolling for the Bonus card draw was atrocious; one of Andy's companies changed sides mid-battle courtesy of John playing the Treachery card; and John's own army collapse was precipitated by a series of about four consecutive dice rolls of 4 (on 2d6) which saw a general rout along the line, just at the point when he was about to deliver a potentially devastating blow to our centre.

An enjoyable way to spend the day.

You will notice the use of my latest terrain acquisition in the form of a Geek Villain mat. The lads liked it, but for me it seems a little 'fussy' and the jury is still out on it. Not sure. Comments welcome!

Other news... it has been a 'mixed' few months... Lisa's brother sadly passed away, and shortly afterwards my Dad passed on too. But, the sadness has been tempered with a desire to do more with the time that is given to us (as a wizard once said), hence the painting and gaming has come to the fore. This was made even more acute when I learned of the passing of a long-standing wargaming friend of well over 30+ years, Peter Nicholson, who many will know as one half of The Iron Brigade who put on such splendid games at shows in Scotland and frequently at Partizan too. Peter will be sadly missed on the hobby circuit, that's for sure, and my condolences go out to Kevin (his hobby partner) and to Dawn and Peter's family, and to all who knew him. 

As for 2024 as a whole, and looking ahead to 2025, I have to say, I am inspired by the number of projects and periods which currently appeal, and the myriad rules sets that are coming out to bring zest to the hobby... Billhooks, yes, but also NMT Matchlocks (more of which soon), and Midgard - the latest fashion, and deservedly so.

It's looking like a bright festive period, and a positive 2025.