In the bleak mid Winter.

I think its fair to say that January is a non starter for most people in that the weather is invariably pants, as in my case consisting of torrential rain daily with very strong winds. 

   Still it could be far worse given how the media, digital and terrestrial were forecasting another crisis to add to the many crises they forecast, of no power, no heating, no eating, plague and of course financial meltdown. Strangely they never apologise when their predictions don't actually occur. They make Nostradamus seem like a Pulitzer prize winning journalist.

But being of a certain age, the news used to consist of facts and occurrences that actually had occurred, but not now sadly. 

Im very lucky, I can protect myself from fantasy and reality by turning on my table lamps,selecting some figures and then set to painting some lovely toy soldiers. And that is exactly what wargaming has always meant to me, escape.....

 In a former life I had a pretty stressful job and some days I would come home, usually late, and after everyone had gone to bed I would sit in front of my painting table and let all the awfulness disappear whilst carefully painting some figures and dreaming of them marching across a wargames table.

But talking of stress and awfulness my first game of 2023 easily fitted into that category.

 I know a percentage of wargamers like to win and usually at the expense of enjoying the moment. There can be nothing as fine as taking part in a wargame where things actually go well, sixes are rolled effortlessly, your worst unit refuses to rout and your opponent cant roll for toffee. But to be honest sometimes a heavy defeat can be as enjoyable and Ive known a lot of defeats.  

This weeks game probably falls into that category. John and I staged a 250 point Wars of the Roses game. Using Billhooks rules, 250 points equates to between 14 and 16 units, so a decent sized game.

For once I faced a Lancasterian army that was badly deployed due to me winning most of the deployment dice beforehand. They were imbalanced and with a swift response were in danger of being badly beaten.

  I also had opted for light cavalry and heavy artillery. John had opted for none which didnt bode well for him. As the game progressed I was doing well, my archers, were firing torrents of  causality scoring arrows, my cavalry had moved onto their flank halting them from joining the remainder of their army.  John was struggling but I should have known better.

The beauty of Billhooks is that battles can turn very quickly. This encounter was no different as John produced a 'treachery' card that saw one of my billhooks unit attack the flank of a unit of dismounted knights led by my C in C. Amazingly they held their own until another Lancastrian unit piled into the front of the knights. I couldnt extradite him and he was in danger of being killed.

   They were up against it.

In the centre a routing archer unit forced me to roll for the other units in the ward. I would defy anyone not to laugh as I consistently rolled one's. The final ignominy was to watch as my cavalry after failing to beat some badly shot up billmen, decided to quit the field. taking the second unit with them.I had handed over my final token so couldn't carry on.            14 tokens to 6!

               I was stunned. What a defeat but actually what an enjoyable wargame in a perverse way.  

So what did I learn from the experience? Well artillery are a liability if anywhere near their own troops. One cannot fire at targets if your troops are anywhere near them. Cavalry, especially light cavalry are definitely not battle winners and neither should they. And finally, use the tactics of the day. The Roses armies, rarely bothered with gonnes, and usually dismounted to fight and clearly there was a reason for this. Oh, and always win the roll for the event cards otherwise you risk something nasty happening.

                                       But what a way to spend a day.

And the pictures? Well the artillery are a new range from Eureka Miniatures, and very nice they are to. And the infantry are my latest Lion Rampant unit.