With postal strikes meaning we couldn’t get any orders out of the door, and rail strikes meaning we couldn’t get any stock in the door, coupled with a fire alarm service meaning the lights in the office were out of action, we could cry, moan, and hope Netflix would give us millions of dollars to film it... or we could say “oh well” and ask our mates to come round for a game of Never Mind the Billhooks: Gallia (that’s the Hundred Years' War theatre). Meet the gang ’cos the boys are here, the Capture the Wagon cast, left to right: Michael Perry, Andy Callan, Alan Perry, Nick from North Star, and Dan the Wi Man. We opted for the latter and called up Billhooks author Andy Callan, Nick from North Star, Alan Perry, and Michael Perry. The offer of a pub lunch was enough to lure them in and get them playing their first game (except Andy!) of our newly released medieval small battles ruleset. Alan and Michael had been keen to play Billhooks for a while. They have expansive collections of painted Perry Miniatures for many of ‘their’ periods, but they don’t have huge armies of figures for The Hundred Years’ War (HYW), so a small battles game was exactly what was required to get their modest number of toys on the tabletop. Tray-tastic. One of the benefits of a movement tray is that it can hide a multitude of basing peccadillos. The usefulness of the movement tray I view the movement tray as a useful tool rather than a must-have gaming accessory. They're recommended for Billhooks as they work well with the game’s mechanics, but they are especially recommended when you have a mix of basing styles in your units. The HYW Perry Miniatures from Alan’s collection feature a really varied mix of basing styles; hiding these on a movement tray is really useful. Capturez les wagons There’s nothing better than playing a wargame with someone who either wrote the rules or knows the rules so well the players don’t have to spend time flicking through the rulebook when they could be moving figures, rolling dice, or hurling light-hearted insults at each other. Whilst the players happily went about doing all three things Andy kept the game chugging smoothly along, and was even able to throw in a bit of free-forming when it looked like the French might be sent packing before they even got into melee. The English Free Company Archers let slip a storm of arrows in defence of their wagons. We were playing the ‘Capture the Wagon’ scenario from the Billhooks (Gallia section) rulebook. Alan Perry and I were the attacking French; Nick North
