Pike & Shotte - another (and better) Grand Alliance outing

Another game with Pike & Shotte at Billys with Simon and Bryn (Shane came, saw and cleared off early :-) ).
Essentially a repeat set up of last time, with Jacobites defending a ridgeline, but trying reduced Musket ranges (half for all small arms) and couple of rules we had forgotten last time.
Simon and I were the Jacobites with Billy and Bryn the Alliance forces.
Simon cannily withdrew his whole wing backwards to refuse our whole right and this frustrated Bryn whose forces failed to advance quickly enough to engage.
Simon had left one battery of guns on the ridge which managed to annoy Bryns forces.
Bryn did however send his Cavalry force to assist Billy on the Allied right.
And so the Jacobite left wing saw a real ding dong engagement from the get go with Billys Cavalry crashing into mine but being initially repulsed.
However his second wave pushed one of my Brigades back but thankfully some dismounted Dragoons and a supporting Brigade shored up this flank.
Simon did have some Cavalry support poised but not required.
Meanwhile (and in stark contrast to last encounter) Billys foot advanced en mass and even managed to get opening volley (I was holding mine for inevitable close combat) but thankfully this was mostly ineffective. Before engaging my ridge line units.
A to and fro battle ensued which the Jacobites managed to win breaking several Allied Foot units and eventually breaking 2 Brigades.
My Cavalry were battered and one Brigade broke but the other held.....just.....and with Billys Foot beaten the Allies yielded.
All in all a much better game with reduced firing ranges as more manouvre possible and units do get eyeball to eyeball much more.
Still find Black Powder system a bit too free and easy for my sensibilities at times especially in this period of slow/staid movements but it certainly plays quickly and decisively with lots of units in action.
Billys 15mm troops are a joy to behold (pics do not do them justice)
One thing to note in the above I had no moans about my dicing for once !

Pike & Shotte - A Nine Years War encounter

Game at Billys last night using Pike & Shotte rules with his super 15mm Grand Alliance troops of which there are copious amounts !
Billy set up forces to accommodate 5-6 players but in the end just Billy, Shane and I controlled the hordes.
I took Jacobite force (5 Brigades of Foot and 4 Cavalry with 3 Gun Batteries) nominally defending a ridge line with the chaps controlling the Grand Alliance forces (6-8 Foot and 5-6 Mounted Brigades and 3 Cannon ?).
Lots to control but with Black Powder stable of rules highly doable.
Grand Alliance had poor Command Rolls and then hit a steel wall/storm of musketry and cannon fire (of which more later) which pretty much stopped any general advance with lots of units Disordered and several Shaken.
In P&S units with Pikes in Disorder can cause Disorder on units interpenetrating or interpenetrated, a nice simple rule although we got this slightly wrong as made it an auto cause instead of on a dice roll of 6 only.
The Pike Company rule is good (Cavalry lose all bonuses against Infantry units with a Pike component and such Infantry gains versus Mounted) meaning its a foolhardy Cavalry unit that would charge Pike assisted units in most circumstances.
On Allied right Billy charged from get go (its BP system !) hitting my own mounted and 2 units of Dismounted Dragoons (treated as small units of skirmishing Infantry).
One Dragoon Fired and Evaded the other failed to Evade but performed heroically (good dice rolls) halting the enemy Mounted unit.
My impacted Cavalry lost and retired and Billy used a Sweeping Advance to hit support which also Retired.
However his unit now isolated and vulnerable to my supports.
On my turn my supporting Cavalry Brigade duly charged into Billys defeating them and with supporting Musketry he soon had Shaken.
Meanwhile my dismounted Dragoons continued to hang on inflicting casualties on enemy horse and surviving 2 Break Tests which with my dice rolls is no mean feat !
Subsequently Billy Brigade broke (3 out of 5 units Shaken) and he had to commit a fresh Brigade which fared little better with several being Disordered from my shooting (several opportune 6's !!!).
On my right Shane and I exchanged volleys with Allies suffering slightly worse and both reticent to commit Mounted Brigades (after having seen the carnage elsewhere was probably prudent).
Only 1 Allied Foot Brigade even got close to my lines and its front ranks were Shaken and Disordered by Close Range Volleys.
We called it there as seemed Allies were never going to get in any sort of order or strength.
Spectacular looking game with lots and lots of units and indeed very fast playing.

BUT.........I do feel this period is ill served overall by BP/P&S (as written) rules as the musket volleys are equally as 'good' as those of SYW or Napoleonic period and with a massive 18" range ! (no doubt with 28mm it would not look just as 'bad').
This jarred for the period and meant at up to 18" with First Fire I could unload 4 dice per unit (more than Arty which only gets 2 dice) and even I when firing say 10 units (40 dice) will manage at least 1 or 2 sixes to Disorder the enemy with hits added bonus.
Cavalry all get 1 Dice to fire as well (up to a huge 12") which of course means on a 6 they can Disorder target, again this just does not gel with my feel of the period (Pistol armed types 'only' fire to 6" but as this is Close Range they hit on 3+ rather than default 4+ as we understood rules !?).
If I were to House Rule I would try reducing Muskets/Carbines/Pistols to half range (keeping moves and artillery as is) with no + at Close Range and -1 at 3-9".
I would be tempted to reduce these ranges further as in period, volleys were generally  loosed off at well under 100yds indeed often at under 50yds due to training, accuracy (lack thereof) and doctrine, maybe 6" maximum.
Only if charged would I allow the +1 hit benefit, if only to discourage relentless charging.
Mounted I would only allow the 1 shot as Closing Fire and without any +1 benefit.
Only Shock Cavalry (essentially the French) would get +1 to hit benefit in Charge/Counter-charge situation Firearm types get the 1 dice shot.
I would consider this Mounted Shot as not being able to Disorder but that might be too severe.
For Foot I would not allow a Charge to Contact with enemy until after First Fire has been used.
I would also consider making it harder to get 2 or 3 moves with Foot (-3/4 = 2 moves -4 = 3 moves vis Command Roll ?) to reflect ponderous non-cadenced moves of the period as opposed to 'Exocet missile' mode they currently possess (an overall BP system 'problem/issue').

Not fully sure there would be no unintended consequences with these tweaks and could slow game slightly (maybe not so desirable for a big evening game ?) but do on face value seem at least in principle somewhat more akin to late 17th Century European Warfare as I understand it.
Otherwise its just another Lace War (or Blue Team vs Red Team) in different uniforms, only real difference being the Pike Companies (a nice rule that works and is easy).

Always a balancing act between game speed/playability and history I guess, but personally I much prefer more historically based substance to a simple 'moving diorama' and/or 'dice fest'.


All figures and terrain courtesy of Billy (his room is a treasure trove of figures in all scales and periods !).
The amount of troops and units present here certainly put 'Grand' into the War of Grand Alliance for an evening game.
His hospitality (and on this occasion dice rolling) much appreciated especially as mine was much better than usual.
Is this how the 'Dice Demon' gets to feel every game/roll !!!!!?????










Billy deploys his ill-fated Horse Brigades (note just some of his collection visible behind)

Central massed Alliance Foot Brigades (and more shelves of figures)

Alliance left commanded by Shane.

My right

Jacobite centre

And left wing

Dragoon 'heroes' just about visible on extreme left

Green 'puff' indicates a Jacobite Brigade with Freshly Raised and Untested units

My right wing Cavalry moves forward but never went further as Allied Dragoons dismounted in wooded area

The lone Allied Infantry 'almost' assault. The purple dice on my unit to right signifies that its Untested outcome gave it a very desirable 4 Stamina

Allied right in disarray as one Brigade breaks

Allied horse repelled. The hero Dragoons still in situ despite having hits (should read 3)

Musket balls exchanged at 18" (it even looks daft to me here) and note hits and disorders on enemy waaaayy across field

Shanes Guard units with hits from my 'long range snipers'

Good view of Allied lines staggered far too far from my ridge line but it does look epic

Jacobite cavalry begin to push their advantage on left wing

Jacobite centre also with several Disordered units from Allied long range laser guided Musket Volleys. Two were also Shaken out of 5 Unit Brigade at this point.

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.