BILLS, BOWS & BLOODSHED

◗ ebay ◗ £12.50

I picked up a copy of a rules set at Salute called Bills, Bows& Bloodshed. Written and produced by Barry Slemmings, this is a self published item that – in many ways – harks back to the history of wargaming, in more than one sense.

Aimed at allowing play in the Wars of the Roses, they are the fruits of fifty years or Mr Slemmings’experience as a gamer and member of the Lance and Longbow Society along with much research and are born out of his dissatisfaction with the organisation style and‘disconnect’(his words) of many available rule sets that cover the period.

This edition (it’s actually version 2.2) does not require base changes if one already plays either DBA or Bloody Barons

(for example). Games are aimed at mass units with 10 to 12, multi-figure bases (or ‘modules’as he refers to them) for infantry, less for cavalry and half a dozen or so units per side, on a six by four table make for a reasonable game. When I referred to it being a nod at historical rules I meant in terms of layout: it’s in A4 and 32 (unnumbered) pages in length and – four colour pages at the rear showing shots of unit layouts aside

– is devoid of any illustration whatsoever: just well laid out, clear text.You’ll need some handfuls of regular d6, a pair of classic average d6 and a d10 for the calculation of some melee results.

The rules are about half the book and after that are tips, pieces on livery colours, a list of famous deaths and their dates, a few figure manufacturers’details and some army lists. There’s also a pair of play sheets and an errata list. Pick them up from ebay or Dave Lanchester Books at a show.