Warlord Games Pike & Shotte Rules - First Impressions

As mentioned in my last post, I wanted to trial a variety of rulesets for the 'pike & shotte' era, to hopefully find one that really piqued my interest. Given last years major foray with Black Powder II, Warlord Games Pike & Shotte rules seemed the best place to start, given that they share most of the same mechanisms, with a few minor tweaks here and there.

As the League of Augsburg and The Glorious Revolution periods are currently of interest, I decided to use the stats and suggestions as laid out in the book by Barry Hilton. I kept everything pretty simple as you will see, so I could focus on the core rules and the game itself. In future games I will add in more detail, but more of that later.

 

A broad overview of the game, with 14 units per side, spread across a 3 1/2' x 2 1/2' table, with a bit of room on the flanks, but not much.

My wooden blocks once again pressed into service to allow me quickly and effectivelt to try rules out. The top row are infantry with a pike column attached and an artillery unit to the right. The unit at the bottom is standard infantry without a pike column.

A Turn or two in, with the action spread right across the table.

The Red force has broken a Blue infantry unit (top left) whilst the cavalry are involved in a clash on the right flank.

The Blue cavalry have gained the upper hand in the cavalry clash, with the Red Brigade becoming broken and fleeing the table, leaving the Red right flank wide open.

The fighting is becoming very fragmented across the board, with each sides flanks taking punishment.

Disaster for the Blue force's right flank, as the Cavalry Brigade breaks and an infantry unit is also broken.

The Red right flank is forced to offer a refused flank to cover the threat posed by the Blue Cavalry Brigade, who are free to roam now that the Red Cavalry Brigade has gone.

The End Game is upon us as both sides right flanks are refused and begin to pivot to counter the threat from the Cavalry Brigades.

The Red Left Flank is pressurising Blue's right Flank, which is having to bend back to deal with it, but the Red Infantry are unrelenting in their attacks.

The Blue Cavalry Brigade has prevented the Red Infantry from bringing their numbers to bear upon the Blue Left Flank.

 

Post Game Thoughts

A fun and quick game that played well and went along at a fair old lick and gave me a good feel for the game. I certainly enjoyed it which was good and it did feel different to BPII which is obviously good given it is representing quite a different period in terms firearms, tactics etc. I made some notes as I went along on my thoughts, which can be found below:

• Having the same core mechanics certainly helped a lot as the game felt very familiar and I could concentrate on my tactics, only rarely stopping to check some things in the rulebook that I knew from a read through were different to BPII. This was a big bonus in my book and looking forward, keeping things simple in terms of rules played is my aim for this year and for the future. The period specific rules courtesy of Barry Hilton worked well and were a big help in sorting out unit stats etc and have only whetted my appetite to find out more about the LoA period.
• Cavalry combat can be brutal, more so than my BPII games, where cavalry hasn't featured that much. Certainly in this game my poor die rolling for Break Tests led to both side losing a whole Cavalry Brigade in one Turn! So I've learnt I need to time my attacks with care, so as not to leave a flank wide open early on.
• Movement was slower and the shooting ranges shorter which felt right, given the period being gamed. Having both sides up close and personal was fun, but I was unable to close for H-t-H combat, which by the look of it could be brutal.
• I need to make some counters or markers to keep track of things such as 'First Fire' or Plug Bayonets' as these are important in the game. I could use a unit roster but i dislike these and prefer to keep my eyes on the table as much as possible.
• My unit frontage was 80mm, which is about right for when playing on my smaller table. I've yet to decide whether to go with three 1" bases, or 3 30mm ones. I ned to dig my figures out of the attack and stick them on some card to see what works for me. Units with a Pike Company will simply have a base tacked onto the rear as seen in the rulebook, which is a nice and simple solution and also has the benefit of being able to be removed if i want to field them as all 'shotte'.
• Infantry units with a Pike Company are vital on a flank to help protect said flank should the enemy cavalry break through, as their rules make cavalry charges against them somewhat suicidal.
• I need to try out some simple small H-t-H combat to get a feel for this as I think it is/will be more important than shooting to win a game. Hopefully in my next game I will be able to really try this out.
• Disordered and Shaken units being able to make a 'free' retreat move is a nice touch, assuming I have read the rules correctly of course! But then this is what this sort of game is for.
• The QRS sheet is extremely useful and the best I've seen from Warlord Games. It certainly meant I didn't need to refer to the rulebook much, which is great.
• If I wanted to game the ECW, then the 'To Kill a King' supplement would be useful but essential, given there is plenty of info in the main rulebook. However the supplement does have more detail and rules for playing sieges, the latter being useful for gaming the LoA.
• As with most rules I've played aside from WWII, placing artillery in the right place at the start of the game is crucial. You are able to move medium artillery a small distance, but from my limited knowledge once deployed they pretty much stayed in place. Again another thing I need to read up on.

Well for a first game I would give the rules 10/10. Previously I was put off giving these a run out as I hadn't really played any Warlord Games rules, despite having these and Black Powder. However as mentioned above, having played lots of BPII last year meant that these rules seemed very accessible and certainly gave me a good game, with a minimal learning curve, which was good. 

For my next game I'm going to introduce terrain, but nothing too fancy, as well as some more detail in terms of units such as Guards, Militia etc, again just to see how they play. Some simple counters as per my BBB games will be made to allow me to keep track of things with my wooden blocks. when using figures with flags etc, this should reduce markedly which will aid the visual look of the game no end! So until next time...