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.