The 6th annual Billhooks Bash was held on Saturday 14th September at the Boards and Swords venue in Derby. Organised by Pete Harris, and assisted by his new apprentice Steve Wood, this event is a celebration of Never Mind the Billhooks. Played in a non-competitive spirit, with an emphasis on having a fun and an enjoyable day with like-minded enthusiasts. The players are split into Yorkist or Lancastrian supporters and the winning faction can enjoy boasting rights at the end of the day!

The August issue of Wargames Illustrated Magazine (Wi440) features a Billhooks Fantasía battle report, written by Billhooks author and temporary dark lord Andy Callan. His opponent, the (permanently) upstanding and chivalrous Steve Wood, provides his angle on the encounter.

When we asked Billhooks author Andy Callan if he could provide us with a collection of example Army Lists for Never Mind the Billhoooks Deluxe, he said “But one of the thrills of Billhooks Deluxe is putting together your own army list and selecting which troops to have in your force” we said “… yeah, but can you do it anyway”… he said “go on then”. So, over the following few pages we present the non-thinkers, quick start, no messing guide to putting together a Never Mind the Billhoooks Deluxe army for each of the theatres covered in the rules.

It all started with a throwaway remark...

I was at Wargames Illustrated HQ back in September 2020 to record a series of short videos (now on YouTube) about my recently-published Wars of the Roses rules and there was a bit of banter going on while the technical boys set up their gizmos.  “If we did a sequel” I said to Dan “and added some new periods and armies, we could call it Billhooks deluxe...”.

And that's how ‘Billux Dillux’ as we have come to know it, was conceived.

Keen Billhooker Mike Peters presents a guide to the game’s core units (with a focus on the Wars of the Roses, his most played period) and highlights a few of the new treats he found in his pre-release peek at Billhooks Deluxe.

Mike Peters adds unique character to his award-winning Never Mind the Billhooks army with some custom morale markers.

A story of (and scenario for) medieval-era combined operations going badly wrong, by Andy Callan.

You will hopefully recall that around 18 months ago Wargames Illustrated published a set of rules called Never Mind the Billhooks (NMTBH), which they [generously: Ed] gave away with Wi393.  Written by Andy Callan these rules were designed for simple fast play wargaming set during the Wars of the Roses, with each side fielding around 100 figures. Around that same time my gaming group were discussing our next collective project and playing the dynastic civil wars of the WotR was already high on our wish list. We tentatively played a couple of games of NMTBH and found the rules ticked our top priority boxes.

Father and son duo Robert and Austen Kime were recently introduced to Never Mind the Boathooks by author Andy Callan and co-conspirator Stephen Wood. Peter Harris also joined the game, and in this post, Austen provides a battle report on how he and Steve’s English fleet faired against Robert and Pete French.