Wars of the Roses & Never Mind the Billhooks

The latest issue of Wargames Illustrated came with a free set of Wars of the Roses rules, Never Mind the Billhooks by Andy Callan. While my affirmed focus the last couple of years has been horse & musket gaming in the form of enlarging my War of 1812 armies and starting a French & Indian War collection, this free set of rules sparked a long dormant idea for me. Way back in 2010, I made mention in a blog post of a possible foray into the Wars of the Roses but that was quickly overcome by other interests. It's remained in the back of my mind since then and for no other reason than the very elegantly written Never Mind the Billhooks (and its similar ethos to Sharp Practice and the entire Too Fat Lardies output), I quickly jumped onto the Front Rank website. My first order was soon winging its way to the Great White North (and I've since received a second order as well... no self-control). But why metals when there is perfectly serviceable selection of plastics from the Perry Brothers? Two basic reasons: 

1) If I chose to go the Perry plastics route and subsequently wanted to supplement the plastics with metals, I would probably choose them from the Perry catalogue to maintain sculpting style (I try to do this as much as possible). But I am completely unimpressed with Perry Miniatures quality control. Although the sculpting is lovely (in all their ranges, not just WotR), the amount of flash and sometimes pitting on the figures astounds me and thoroughly puts me off. So, no Perry Miniatures for this project. Besides, I love Front Rank figures and they suit my painting style admirably. 

2) I abhor assembling plastic figures! This is no knock on the Perrys or any other plastic manufacturers just the medium. So... metal snob? Most assuredly, yes! ... 'nuff said about that.

The first retinue or ward, with one unit of billmen, one of archers (formed) and one of archers (skirmish). The unit banners are images culled from the interwebs and the one on the command stand from Little Big Men Studios. It will be sacrilege to many but matching historical livery colours to banners and personalities is not a priority for me.

(Front Rank figures)

I estimate that about 80-85% of the painting in this project so far has been with GW contrast paints. The Front Rank figures take the contrast paints well, I think, and require little or no highlights. Some bits (such as armour) are painted with traditional acrylics).

Front Rank has a total of 27 different archer figures in their WotR listings. While there are only three basic poses, they are varied by changing head gear, armour, etc. I'm particularly enamored with the archer captain at the far right of the front rank. As for stringing the bows... my patience does have limits...

The billmen listings in the Front Rank catalogue are similarly varied. I added in a standard bearer and captain for some variety. I will also probably add in a couple of fully-armed men-at-arms to each billmen unit to represent the local knights and lesser lords leading their smaller contingents.

A skirmish-based archer unit. The rules allow archers in formed 12-figure units (as the ones above) or 6-figure skirmish units. Both seem to have their uses and frankly, are an easy add-on to a retinue.

The first unit for my second retinue, billmen. While the first retinue or ward has a red/blue colour scheme, this will sport blue & yellow. Loving these contrast paints!