Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Pikemen's Lament at EWG

Last night, Dave brought out some of his ECW stuff to play a game using the Pikemen's Lament ruleset.

We played the Battle of Auldearn where I played the Covenator forces under Hurry with Dave Parker.

Below our forces take the field


The forces of Montrose were played by Chen & John? ( a newcomer to the club). Their initial forces were deployed in a line ahead of us. (left side of image)


Things were going back & forth. Montrose arrived & dealt a blow to our pike in the centre. Meanwhile our 2 muskets were whittling down the pike in front of them. As the rules do not allow units within 3" of one another, it was quite a bottleneck. This meant units in the front were stuck in battle til they won or died.


Alas a failed morale by Montrose saw him flee from the field. Macollaugh who was next in command had his unit decimated (he was down to his single figure) & he withdrew.

Our remaining forces lined up, just outside of musket range & were in the process of moving around to the flanks, as marching ahead into musketry hidden behind walls was  a fools errand. At this point the game was called & victory points were applied. Having succeeded in completing 2 of our objectives, the forces of Hurry won the day. 



Thanks Dave for bringing it out.

10 comments:

  1. That looks like a great evening's gaming Terry.

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    1. Thanks Michael. Yes, it was looking a bit nasty when Montrose & his other mounted force caracoled into a couple of our units, firing & then charging the disordered remnants. However it did open up the field to allow our muskets to blast both units.

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  2. Looks like a great game! I've just been reading about the battle of Auldearn and thinking it might be an interesting battle to put together for The Pikeman's Lament - and here Dave's gone and done it!

    Just so you know - friendly units can go within 3" of each other - they just have to be 1" apart. It's only enemy units you have to stay at least 3" away from at all times (unless fighting). I know in Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant everyone needed to stay 3" away, but that's been changed in The Pikeman's Lament. (see page 33 under unit cohesion).

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    1. Thanks Tim, I will pass this along to Dave, unless he pops onto my blog & notes it!

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  3. The 1" rule would allow closer coordination of pike and shot, that makes sense, on the other hand since there is a natural tendency to bunch things up, it will lead to units comingling and confusion especially when everyone is in hodden grey. As for Auldearn - the lack of room for the gov't forces to maneuver is a key element of the scenario if you want to keep the historical flavour. With 1" spacing I would tighten up the terrain funnel.

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    1. I did like the way the 3" rule made it clear which figures were in which units! I've tried to keep a little house rule that figures in different units have to be at least 1" apart and there must be more space between units than there is between figures WITHIN units - so that it is clear which figures are in which unit.

      I have found that the 1" rule means it is easier to play on a smaller table top - I played a game with a full 24 points on each side on one of the 3'x3' boards I made for Sone of Blades and Heroes skirmishing! Also if you DO maintain 3-4' between forces on the table - it leaves room for battered troops to retire behind fresh troops - though, obviously, this is something you were trying to avoid with Auldearn!

      Were you playing with two companies on each side?

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  4. 32 points per side - I reckon around the upper limit for single companies. My next plan is to scale up to a 3 company game of something that looks like Dunbar (in a bathtub) so I can get Cromwell and the New Model Army on the table.

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    1. That would be cool! Looking forward to seeing the game report for that one and cursing myself for living outside of easy commute range of Edmonton...

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    2. Funny that Tim, I think the exact same thing when your running your campaigns, etc.

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  5. Thanks Leang for posting on all of my posts with your advertising links..As well for saying great to see me again at Cangames, Never happened, Cya!

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