Ulster Wargames Society - Pike and Shotte ECW game (plus Zulu War, WW3 and FOGR)

UWS club day today and I partook in a very entertaining game using Pike and Shotte (from Black Powder stable) run by Billy with his excellent 28mm English Civil War, Scots Covenanters (apparently first time on table top) and Royalists. 

Not a scenario as such just an encounter set up by Billy with Dave S taking the Scots and I the Royalist forces. We both had two similar Brigades of foot and two cavalry wings with Scots having a extra battery of light guns.

Scots suffered a Blunder on first turn which saw an Infantry Brigade retire off-table (we allowed them to come back on to assist game) and this allowed me to get right onto their side of table on my right. This was just as well as two annoying wooded areas were cramping my movement options here. We both exchanged musketry and cannon shot in equal measure but Scots failed a couple of Break Tests (this was to be story of day for Dave S) and holes appeared in their lines which I was able to exploit. In one instance I did roll 7 hits out of 8 to Daves mere 1 in reply in a melee (wargames are games of skill I tells ya!).

My Cavalry on this flank were able to crush (more failed Break Tests) the Scots mounted who were somewhat inferior types (1 less dice in melee and crucially no ability to counter-charge as reliant on pistols) and I was able to turn this flank almost completely.

In centre I had a lesser Commander (7) who failed to advance quickly (several failed/single move command rolls) but as opposing Scots also held back this was a blessing in disguise somewhat. In later turns I did manage several potent volleys (lots of sixes causing Disorder) to harass the Scots foot.

Story on my left flank was that I had a mounted Brigade which included two Dragoon units who were able to advance quickly, dismount and occupy some buildings located on this flank from which they were able to really annoy the Scots mounted (and destroy an isolated gun battery).

My other mounted cavalry launched several charges of which the first singularly failed seeing me lose a unit of cavalry. However subsequently I launched a fresh unit lead by the Brigade commander (risky but great aid to melee hit chance) which routed enemy horse and conducted a sweeping advance to see off more Scots horse. Brigadier was however lucky not to be unhorsed by effective musketry. This saw Scots cavalry on this flank also broken.

With both flanks gone and his left flank foot Brigade under duress Dave called it a day and Scots yielded the field.

Great fun and things fairly belted along as forces engaged each other pretty quickly. Musketry having a whopping 18” range means pain gets inflicted tout suite. 

Been a long time since I played P&S and it took a couple of turns to again get head around the fact that each Pike and Shot Regiment is comprised of 3 'sub-units' (1 Pike block and 2 Musketeers units) rather than one unit with each being capable of independent action and with separate hits/morale states. This can look a bit odd at times compared to other sets I have used (generally such a unit would be a single entity) but once you accept this method of showing the formations and fighting style of period it mostly works especially if players don't abuse the system too much (melee can be confusing).Break tests (ala Black Powder) can be really brutal but that is how rules generate decisive results with minimal rules overhead.  

Initial deployments from behind Scots lines

Royalist right wing cavalry who were to ride to glory alongside Pike and Shot foot

Royalist Dragoons have dismounted and taken village and annoy Scots horse

From Scots perspective (they had just lost a gun battery to Dragoons in field)

Royalist central command is rather tardy in advancing

Things quickly got hot and heavy on Scots left as I tried to squeeze past the woods

Note Royalist cavalry pushing forward.

And they have now turned Scot left flank supported by their foot Regiments (a Scots pike block has just been destroyed by my pike charging their flank)

Scots horse on their right about to implode due to combo of broken and shaken units.

Pressure on Scots wings evident in this view with my....um...refused center 

Dave contemplates what could have been with Chris as Billy records for posterity

 

 

Also at club were other games for which a selection of pics, I have no idea as to outcomes

A Team Yankee game in 15mm run by Andy with BAOR vs USSR with loads of kit in action

Phil and son ran a Zulu Wars game with his 20(25?)mm and his trusty home brew rules (based on old Wargames Illustrated set)

And last but not least the Two Daves managed 2 Field Of Glory Renaissance games with Ottoman Turks versus Ethiopians which is certainly an army seldom seen in these parts.

 

For King And Parliament - Battle of Montgomery 1644 scenario

As a change from GDA we tried the FK&P rules today using our 15mm (with 6" grid squares) using the introductory scenario 'Battle of Mongomery 1644' with my TYW Imperialist standing in for the Roundhead force (only the flags look out of place).

We decided to skip the use of 'face' cards (which generate events and commander traits) to make learning easier but still found this to be a fun fast game.

I have always felt use of a grid was not ideal for minis game but it certainly made moves and ranges very easy to play (millimeters/angles and suchlike do not matter in this system) and was less obtrusive/annoying than I feared, Stephen simply used small stones to delineate grid which looked odd at first but was soon forgotten during game play.

Rules are fairly broad brush with not a vast variation in troop type or quality but with enough to generate a decent ECW period feel with some nice decisions to make and quick playing movement and shooting/combat.

We used the card system which I must confess I liked (as dice hate me) as it seemed to even out results for us both, but game could be played with D10 or combo of cards and dice. 

Cards work well for the Command/Orders Activation with units potentially able to do multiple activations (although we both drew lots of Aces which are fails) and the increased 'costs' to do fancy moves (most anything other than straight ahead) and is largely intuitive and easy to pick up.

Hits from shooting or in melee are fairly hard to achieve (8+ or 9+ if disordered ie carrying hits) but can be hard to save (generally a 7+) and with units only able to sustain 1-3 hits things can get ugly quickly. Some variation in shooting/melee with things such as 'double fire', 'salvee', 'cavalry dash' garnering extra hit card draws in certain circumstances. We found cavalry got worn out quickly with initial charges generating maybe 5 cards (combo of shooting charging and bonuses) then maybe 2-3 at most thereafter.

Interesting game with plenty of incident, I lost Lt GenFairfax (worth 3 VP !) and several mounted units early on and was looking rather one sided but then I destroyed a unit of dismounted Dragoons whose Rout saw 2 Royalist foot also Disperse due to failed saves (morale) and earlier hits. I also had a couple of off-table units of cavalry (off foraging) which of course failed to arrive as reinforcements. 

Roundheads hit their 13 loss level (basically 1 loss per unit strength point) first but Cavaliers were on 10 of 14 so fairly bloody stuff.

FK&P does pretty much what it says it does ie generates a low complexity fast playing game which was fun and played to completion in a few hours (always a bonus).

Certainly lacking the depth of LadgR or especially FogR but makes up for it in many other aspects.

Only a couple of pics as got engrossed in game which is always a good sign.

Roundhead infantry defend a hill as Cavaliers push forward

My left wing cavalry has mostly been dispersed

Another double whammy game day (Bataille Empire and Pike And Shotte)

Full gaming day of dice rolling joy :-)

First up was at Stephens as we tried Bataille Empire again this time Stephen took Russians 1812 and I had French.
Another interesting game with this very flavoursome set but it is proving hard to assimilate the rules fully (maybe it because we are both pensioners !?) so lots of checking and re-checking what we are doing or trying to do or how we are doing it.
The rules are however fairly logical overall with nothing odd so far.
One or 2 minor clarifications aside the rules are very complete and they definitely give a good game for the period and scale.
The Russians have a couple of Poor commanders and are poor shooters but are tenacious so in Shock Combat they can hold their own and have a couple more units than the French.
The scenario this time was an Encounter which was also interesting with both sides deploying only 1 Brigade on table the others coming on on turns 2 and 3.
I was able to use Operational Moves with first group of reinforcements but unfortunately Stephen had his Cuirassier Brigade coming on on Attack orders in same area and I lost a unit which failed to form square.
Infantry in Line are essentially dead if they fail to form square or cause significant casualties to charging Cavalry as a Retreat becomes a Flee but Cavalry catch Infantry in first 2 UDs of Fleeing.
We also used our full 40mm UD on a 150cm x 100cm table which seemed to work better for us than 30mm on 120x80.

Only a couple of pics (I took loads but seem to have corrupted on phone)

Then in the evening it was off to Billys (after a generous invite) for a game using Pike and Shotte rules (Black Powder stable) with Bryn, Simon and Mike also in attendance.
Game was set in ECW with Billys New Model Army (assisted by Simon and I) against Bryns Royalists (with Mike in tow).
Figures are 10mm Pendraken and very fine they are too.
P&S is a rather odd set of rules in how it 'models' pike and shot units as a 'standard' units is 3 bases 1 of Pike and 2 of muskets, but which can all operate individually if wished (not always a good idea.
This led to some jarring occurrences with single Pike units charging across the field to hit other pikes being able to ignore their accompanying muskets (as not actual targets of charge) and pikes leading the units as they have better saves.
This would be stymied somewhat with house rule Mike proposed that units in same Regt cannot be more than a base width (or maybe the 3" support distance) apart voluntarily.
When muskets are charged (it seems by either Cavalry of Infantry in P&S) they can form hedgehog with nearby by Pikes becoming an immobile block that can spread shooting hits and fights/dies as combined units (ie add all dice together but hits go on pikes).
Chargers can pull up short.
I kept mistaking the 3 base units as single units initially but once we got going it worked better than I thought (the individual option not withstanding)
I faced off against Mike and we had a good old ding dong with his Cavalry Breaking mine easily but my Infantry grinding his down and breaking them, my successful use of Rally order helped.
In hindsight Mike should have used his Cavalry to 'force' my Infantry into hedgehog as dead meat to Cavalry otherwise but they don't move and musketry is lessened so his Infantry could have out shot me.
A very enjoyable and playable game (cannot fault the BP series in this regard) but maybe more game than history as the free flowing nature movement and long shooting ranges seemed a little out of kilter for this period.
The rules do include Tercios, Dutch Brigades and Swedish Brigades but not really sure how they would operate in the game ?
Enjoyed the hospitality and the game which is what it is all about.

Varied quality on pics as I tried to sort new camera app and lighting variable.