A nut to crack a hammer

With the last of the house guests dropped off at the airport I’ve been able to get back on with some hobby related stuff at last.

I particularly wanted to test out the Never Mind The Billhooks rules now that I’d produced two starter forces. Given that I’m using Billhooks for the Hundred Years’ War the preeminent question to my mind was how strong English archery would turn out to be. With that in mind I set up a very straight forward encounter in the manner of Crecy etc to see what would happen.

One part of the NMTB rule set that I especially like is the ability to manoeuvre your units one at a time until someone shoots or engages in melee at which point the game and the random turn draw actually starts.

On the French side the Comte De Bourganeuf was in overall command, ably assisted by the Duke D’Aubusson. For the English the Earl of Runcorn and Sir Edward Grey headed up the rearguard - attempting to stop the French from reaching the retreating baggage train. 

During the manoeuvre phase I positioned my three French groups of cavalry directly opposite what I considered to be the weakest spot in the English line, a company of English spearmen unprotected by stakes. Knowing the English archers only had six shots each en masse I pushed two groups of skirmishing crossbowmen forward in order to inflict some casualties and hopefully soak up some of those English arrows. The plan was simple, draw fire with the crossbows and smash through the English line with my massed cavalry.

Initial French set up as described above. I did not like the range bands in the rules and changed them such that short range became twelve inches and long range was boosted out to twenty four. 

The French hammer prepares to crack the English nut.

Kiki the wonder cat inspects the troops prior to kick off. 

All was going okay until the French crossbows got a little too close and the English gave them a volley to end the manoeuvring phase and start the game off proper. 

The archers behind the stakes let loose and rolled well. The crossbowmen correspondingly rolled abysmally and the result was the entire unit was wiped out in a shower of arrows. Fortunately the loss of a skirmishing unit had little effect on the rest of the French army’s morale. Didn’t do much for mine mind you.

A bit shaken by the outcome I decided there was no percentage in trying to draw fire and so decided to get stuck in with my cavalry as soon as possible, fortunately the random card draw for the turn allowed them to activate next anyway. When activated via an order a unit can perform two actions. I chose to advance and then charge.

Sorry I had to sneak in a comment bubble.

And that was meant to be that. The might of the French cavalry should have just swept away the English infantry, armed as they were with a right old mish mash of hand weapons, but they didn’t. Both sides inflicted the same amount of limited losses and the melee became a stale mate. 

The second round of melee was another grinding match. The cavalry having lost all of their charge bonuses and re rolls were now at a distinct disadvantage. Again it was a draw so while both units became disordered neither side broke. I consoled myself that the archers could not fire into a melee and I bought up the second company of knights from behind to finish the job. 

Only 50% of the French first wave still survive as fresh reinforcements thunder up behind.

Thunder up they might’ve done but unfortunately the turn gods gave the next move to the Earl of Runcorn and his archers fired en masse into the approaching group of French nobility.

With their two actions the archers fired twice, at close range. Do not try this at home kids. The advancing French nobility went from eight horse to two in the blink of an eye. Ouch. In fairness the English rolled well and the French attempts at saving rolls were appalling. 

Sir Edward Grey was forced to ride over and steady the wavering English spears but the last two knights from the first wave broke and ran from the final third round of melee. Seeing the appalling losses I decided to call the game quits at this point even though I could have pushed on from a morale and fresh forces point of view. 

Other units were of course moving around on the field but in this brief “histoire” I chose to concentrate on the more cinematic aspects of the action.

And as it turned out, this time, the nut actually cracked the hammer! 

I’ve been working to a 1:10 troop ratio so the losses accrued in this battle were:

English. 60 spearmen and 30 archers (hit by crossbow fire).

French. 60 crossbowmen and 120 knights. 

Were the English archers effective? Yup very! I have to say that despite the outcome though they didn’t feel overpowered. The English rolls were good and the French were bad. Another wave of horse with the leader attached might have punched through. I’ll have to give it another go and see. 

Right I’m going to sling my hook and get on with painting that Lanchester.

Toodleooh for now mes amis. 

And now for something completely…err…

Soz, I’m  a bit of a one trick pony at the moment aren’t I? 

I’ve finally completed what passes for 2 x 128pt HYW armies. I shall naturally continue to add to them over time, but for now I think they’re good enough for a quick Billhooks test game. 

The English troops are the rearguard of a larger force currently retreating off board behind them. They are positioned across a gap between two thickly wooded areas through which any enemy intent on catching the baggage train will have to travel. 

The English force consists of two wards. One under a mounted commander is composed of a company of archers and a company of “spears” (a catch all name for hand to hand combat weapons of mixed types in this period). The second ward is commanded by a dismounted leader and consists of two archer company’s and a dismounted men.at arms unit  “en herce” as billhooks defines it. Both wards have deployed a limited frontage of stakes to protect themselves. If this all looks a bit “Azincourt” it’s because I want to test out the efficacy of the longbow under these rules. 

The French who’ve been in a fairly languid “pursuit” anre also composed of two wards. The first ward includes three companies of knights (one of whom is actually English but donated to the French to give them a greater chance, numerically, against the archers) while the second includes companies of crossbowmen, spears and men at arms.   

Our last bunch of family guests left behind a ruddy nasty bug (Covid?) that the wife and I are still struggling to recover from so despite setting this game up on the table it might be a couple of days before I get to play it. (Note to self - put all new rivals through a ruddy sheep dip). Still, lying in bed feeling sorry for myself will at least give me time to decide how the French should approach this I suppose. 

In lieu of anything else of note, the Lanchester has progressed beyond being a bag of parts…

…and this old timey lorry arrived from Sarissa. Choo choos next possibly. 

And finally… I’ve worked out how to add text to photos…

Toodleooh mes amis.

A hard days knight

Rather than continuing to whine like a bitch about how much I hate painting horses I bit the bullet and focussed on getting my French HYW mounted men at arms finished off this week.

Here’s a couple of piccies to chronicle my progress on the HYW and a new addition to the VBCW project.

Mounted men at arms - still musing about heraldry

Same bunch - riding into the sunset.

Another lot - of a slightly lower social standing

Obligatory rear view

The entire French mounted force. I think they look okay. 

Off on a tangent. The first of the VBCW new arrivals. I’ll probably magnetise the turret. I’m expecting a lot more VBCW goodness in the post next week. 

Straight out of the post box - an Empress Miniatures Lanchester 6 wheeled armored car for Oswalds lads.

Right I’m offski. Toodleooh.

Soon be Christmas…

That’s a cheery thought isn’t it. 

If you’re British it’d be best to get the sprouts on about now I reckon.

June’s HYW painting progress has been glacial, though an actual glacier would be very welcome around here at the moment, cos It’s….soooooo…ruddy…hot.

Okay these chaps are Perry 28mm French levy spearmen the front rank of which I’ve equipped with pavises in order to give them a vague stab at survival. 

When it came to a design for the front of the pavis I was a bit stumped until I found inspiration in my local towns 14th century defences. 

This is the Zizim tower in Bourganeuf. Built to house a captive prince, (like you do). It’s the right period too as it happens (the lovely cone shaped roof is a late 15th century addition). 

I get the feeling that progress will be modest on the HYW project given the weather, the number of units I hope to field and the current empty status of my wallet. What’s really needed while this ticks along in the background is a smaller scale skirmish type game that I can use with Mr Lambshead’s dice less rules. You know the sort of thing. 8 - 12 figures per side, bit of character development, ongoing semi campaign etc etc. 

No.

Stop it.

No!

Must stay focussed on the HYW stuff.

Okay we’re sticking to the HYW. Debate over. Good. 

With that settled I guess it wouldn’t hurt to just browse the internet a little bit, would it? 

I mean what’s the worst that could happen? I am, after all, renowned for my iron will…my ability to resist temptation…my erm…

Oh bugger. 

No one’s going to notice if a bit of cash leaks out of the household bills account, are they? Where’s the harm. I’m only stealing from myself when you think about it - and they do say your a long time dead. I mean, I could’ be knocked down by a bus tomorrow never having done 1930’s AVBCW. 

Oh the horror.

Toodleooh mes amis. 

New arrivals and a home front update.

The recent loss of two of my garden friends (Bancroft and Mable) to a Stone Marten has come as quite a nasty shock but in the spirit of “getting back on the horse” and all that I recently acquired these two little bantams to build the flock back up to four. 

Edna and Elsie have expressed an interest in editing the blog. I may take them on as interns and see how they shake out.

The white fluffy one is called Edna, and the mottled grey one is called Elsie. She immediately put me in mind of the Ostrich that Bernie Clifton used to ride in his “variety” act but it turns out that I was another innocent victim of black and white childhood TV and the damned thing was apparently orange.

Black and White Bernie Clifton circa 1970. Funny what passed for entertainment back then. He’d be jailed for that these days.

Painting progress has been slowed by the inexorable growth of l’herbe but I’ve still managed to knock out six Perry men at arms which I present here for your scorn and ridicule. 

I’ve kept the heraldry somewhat light since much of it would be beyond my capability painting wise.

I was of course intending to post another Indian Mutiny battle report instead of this blether but I’ve had a bit of a problem with terrain (needed a none European 28mm compatible bridge and some river sections too) so that’ll have to be later in the month. 

Okay right then I’d best be offski, I can see the grass in the north 40 is over 5cm high again. Sigh. 

Toodleooh.

We few…we happy few.

Well it’s been three years but I’m doing English archers again, (though admittedly in 28mm this time rather than 15mm). What goes around comes around, eh.

Lovely thing about the 100yrs war is that only one side used a lot of cavalry and that should speed up painting progress. I hope. 

Here’s a few pictures of ‘em so you can see where I’m at. They’re Perry’s of course and lovely sculpts to boot but darned fiddly to glue together with my fat fingers and clumsy hands of death.

I probably should have titled the post “look ma no flock” since as you will observe… there’s nary a whisker of the stuff to be seen.

Once again digital photography proves it is not your friend. They look okay from a distance I promise.

 

And here’s the back of them, which is probably the view most opponents will have since I hope to command the French…and lose every encounter with panache. They’re in the colours of John Mowbray by the way, which you probably already knew. 

Lack of flock is heresy I know, but while these lads are intended for Billhooks - they may get a few runs out in Boathooks and I suspect they’ll look a bit daft on board ship with a small garden plot around their feet. I’ve gone with the Kenneth Branagh Agincourt “grubby as fuck” look for the peasantry on the basis that it’s hard as hell to look squeaky clean when you’ve got dysentery and been sleeping under a hedge for several weeks. We’ve all been there…am I right!?

What? Only me?

Cripes!

The blog title obviously refers to the words Shakespeare stuffed into Henry V’s mouth from his play of the same name but it’s also an acknowledgment that after several years of steady posting I’ve finally achieved the magic number of 40 blog followers. Wow. Slightly chastening to think that one of those is my granddaughter (hi Ella) whose only really interest is in finding out what her barmy grandpa is up to and another follower is manifestly dead (R.I.P Graham) ((though I guess he could still be following?)).

Seems like I emotionally invested in the Betamax of content platforms when the world had already moved on to the VHS of Facebook. The wife keeps telling me that size doesn’t matter…and it’s kind of her to reassure me that the number of blog followers isn’t an issue… but still. Too much France? Too much crazy? Too many flights of fancy into new genre’s? Let me know, on the reinstated comments section if you can be arsed. 

Toodleooh