Designer’s Notes: Never Mind The Billhooks Deluxe

Back in December 2022, with the release of the all singing all dancing version of ‘Billhooks’ on the horizon, we asked  author Andy Callan to give us the backstory on the revamped rules and a guided tour of the new sections.

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.

No more 'Mr One Hit Wonder'

I have written a LOT of wargames rules over the years, some published in magazines, but most just for home consumption. But before Billhooks came out in WI393 the only published set that ever made anything of an impact was my AWI game “Loose Files and American Scramble” published in issue number 1 of the same magazine in 1987. Loose Files has influenced a number of other writers and is still being played today – indeed a 'Son of Loose Files' entitled 'Live Free or Die' (see www.littlewarstv.com) has recently been used to run an epic re-fight of the battle of Brandywine at the historical battlefield centre.

It was immediately apparent, after seeing the first reviews, that Billhooks was going to be a hit. It was somehow hitting a sweet spot between playability and historical credibility that gave it immediate appeal. I don't claim any particular originality in the rules – they use mainly tried and tested mechanisms used previously by (inter alia) the TooFat Lardies, Donald Featherstone, Tony Bath and H.G.Wells – but I like to think I have put together a new cocktail and taste sensation. I wish I knew what the formula for success is – I'd certainly try and do it more often than once every 30-odd years!

One thing that Loose Files and Billhooks do have in common is that they are both set in a very precise historical environment. They don't try to cover a wide swathe of armies and tactics. Instead they concentrate on one very limited period of military history and aim to get the 'feel' of that period just right. To make a literarary analogy, they reflect the classical dramatic unities of time, place and action.

So why, you may well ask, am I now moving Billhooks beyond the Wars of the Roses and mid-fifteenth century England? Well, first of all, I could already see it going that way and said as much in my Introduction to the rules. Secondly, if I didn't do it somebody else certainly would. Indeed, within less than 4 weeks of the creation of the Billhooks Facebook page (more of this later...) Benedict Coffin had posted an early medieval version called Never Mind the Bannerets. Time to get a move on...

Billhooks International

With Dan's encouragement, I went away to have a think about how to go forward. I knew I wanted to 'bagsy' the Italian Wars and the Swiss-Burgundian conflict but to take things further afield I was going to need some help.

By this time, with the help of the Wi team, the Never Mind the Billhooks Facebook page (facebook.com/groups/billhooks) was up, running and beginning to thrive. As a child of the 1950s I had steered clear of social media before this, being only too aware of what a snake pit of venomous conflict it could lure me into. But I really shouldn't have worried. Since the page has launched it has turned into a lively community of over 2500 fellow enthusiasts for the game, who are still regularly posting their battle reports, rules queries and modelling tips and they have proved to be universally supportive. Indeed, they have been described as “the friendliest and most helpful online gaming group”. So this was obviously going to be my first port of call to get some help with the ‘Billux Dillux’ project.

The call went out, the response was instantaneous and I was soon in correspondence with an enthusiastic group of contributors who came to be known as my “Billhooks International Brigade”.

We were going to cover warfare in Western Europe from c1340-1525 as a team of writers from across the continent. The list of 'new theatres and conflicts' was quickly reduced down to its final runners and riders. And since 'Billux Dillux' had a cod Latin sound to it, each chapter would be given its classical, rather than modern, geographical title.

Albion

This will be 'vanilla' WOTR Billhooks, but now re-worked by me to take account of 18 months' worth of feedback and suggestions. There are only a few changes of any real substance - the rules have stood up remarkably well to hundreds of games played all round the world since publication and hardly any local 'House Rules' seem to have been adopted – but I have taken the opportunity to iron out any potential ambiguities in wording that have been drawn to my attention. I think the end result is all the better for it.

Billhooks is less of a traditional wargame, more of a mechanism for generating battle narratives – Players are as much witnesses to events as participants. Blind chance, in the form of the turn of cards and the roll of dice, plays an essential part in what happens. So one change I have adopted is to bow to the will of the Dice Goddess (definitely a female deity!) and rule that there can be no Morale re-rolls in the case of a Double Six or a Double One. This small but significant change would have fundamentally altered the outcome of a recent, epic re-fight of the Battle of Barnet (see shedwars.blogspot.com).

Like all the other chapters, this one will introduce a number of new 'Special Events' to add extra spice to the game. I put out a call for ideas and the overall winner “A Horse! A Horse” came from Scott Driscoll in Australia - the other new cards will also draw on Shakespeare for their titles.

Gallia

The Hundred Years War in France, together with sideshows in Spain and the Low Countries, will be ably covered by Simon MacDowall. Simon was an early enthusiast for Billhooks and was writing about using it in his 100 Years War games as early as WI 395. He introduces some new ideas about the English arrowstorm and French victory conditions but takes the game beyond the classic set-piece battles to take in the smaller scale Chevauchées that devastated the French countryside.  This chapter will have two scenarios, one by Simon and one by Richard Mallet who describes an amphibious Franco-Castilian raid on his native Jersey.

Northumbria

Rascally rustlers of another stamp – the Reivers of the Anglo-Scottish borders – form the subject of Tim Gordon's chapter on 'Anarchy in the Marches'. Not so much warfare, more a sort of semi- institutionalised low level raiding, that kept the authorities on either side of the border occupied for centuries. These are the sort of small-scale actions for which Billhooks was originally designed and Tim has introduced some new troop types and rules tweaks for players looking for a change form the hard slog of formal battle. The chapter will have two scenarios, covering a bold raid on a border town and the 'Hot Trod' launched in its aftermath.

Lusitania

Although the Black Prince's expedition to Castile is relatively well-known that wasn't all that was going on in the Iberian peninsula at the time. Portuguese Billhooker Joao Especial describes warfare in his home country and some special new troop types with their distinctive local look that will be unfamiliar to most reader and a temptation to many kitbashers.  Joao introduces us to the remarkable Pastrana tapestries - a dazzling array of late 15th century military costume - and points out some interesting areas of conflict between England and her oldest ally. Warwick's depredations against merchant shipping in the channel had led Portugal to plan a naval counter- strike which was only averted by the news of his death at the battle of Barnet! The chapter ends with a dynastic civil war scenario from 1449 which bears comparison with Northampton, only 11 years later.

Bohemia

Think of the Hussites and you think of War-Wagons but Czech wargamer Pavel Mančař also introduces us to the the full range of weaponry and tactics used by these remarkable holy warriors. There are some minor but neat changes to the rules which allow us to recreate the distinctive character of warfare between crusaders and heretics (and occasionally between rival Hussite factions!) and the chapter concludes with a scenario based on a small but crucial battlefield success won by the great Jan Žižka at the start of his great run of victories.

Helvetia

“What about the Burgundians?” was an early request on the Facebook page so I have bowed to popular demand and produced rules modifications to cover the short but vicious Swiss-Burgundian wars of the mid 1470s.

Swiss armies of the time were large, terrifying and ruthless and even the rather watered-down Billhooks versions (you should have seen my earlier drafts) will really take some stopping. The Burgundians, like Duke Charles himself, are gorgeous, cosmopolitan but rather flakey and will need very careful handling on the Billhooks battlefield. The main challenge here was to come up with mechanisms that reflect the contrasting command styles of the two armies – the Swiss with their more direct and democratic approach and the Burgundians with a Condottiere-inspired tendency towards over-elaboration.

The battle scenario is a small but little-known encounter from 1474 that brings out the distinctive character of these two armies.

Italia

The 'Theatres and Conflicts' section of the book will conclude with warfare in Italy from 1494-1525, the Golden Age of  Gendsdarmes and Landsknechts. Artillery and gunpowder small-arms become increasingly important on the battlefield but there is still a place for hard-charging knights and Pikemen. There are some new 'exotics' such as Spanish Rodeleros and Albanian Stradiots but the rule changes I needed to make for this Renaissance period are minimal and form a natural progression from the late medieval world of the Wars of the Roses. The battles of the period were notably chaotic and I believe they will fit well with the random turn order created by the Billhooks Play Deck. And, yes, there will of course be a “No money, no Swiss” Special Event!

Kitbashing and modelling

Dan had the idea of making this publication something more than just another rule set. The Deluxe in the book's title will be well-represented by some wonderful eye-candy in this chapter in which the highly talented Richard Lloyd (aka 'Captain Blood' from the Lead Adventure Forum) presents a Masterclass in constructing, kitbashing (i.e. converting) and painting 28mm plastic figures. I challenge anyone not to up their game after seeing what Richard has achieved here.

Some final words

Billhooks Deluxe might have had a quick conception but the gestation has been slow and the birth has proving difficult, but when eventually Billhooks junior makes his/her/its appearance later this year I am sure I will make me a very proud father. I look forward to welcoming the child into the world (and wetting the baby's head!).

By Andy Callan