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Miniatures Adventure => Pikes, Muskets and Flouncy Shirts => Topic started by: tim in saskatoon on April 01, 2017, 05:17:34 AM

Title: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: tim in saskatoon on April 01, 2017, 05:17:34 AM
I finally got in a game of The Pikeman's Lament on Friday afternoon. Just a quick little skirmish with 12 points a side - to get us started. Can't wait to play it again!

A complete report of the action (with lots of pictures) can be found on my blog:

http://saskminigamer.blogspot.ca/2017/03/pikemans-lament-pork-on-trotters.html (http://saskminigamer.blogspot.ca/2017/03/pikemans-lament-pork-on-trotters.html)

Here are a few quick pics of the action...

(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zM_zBK14Ppc/WN8k2ADf6HI/AAAAAAAAd5Y/15G-0REjQRc4-WUoSiyEBm6UTr4GD4hhgCLcB/s1600/PL0107.jpg)

Forces of the Scots Government trying to make of with some supplies - a solitary unit of Highlanders stands in their way...

(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g0Ww-nTJkPg/WN8k2QUFDQI/AAAAAAAAd5c/wrayE_O3SZYnN9tpCZ8dbaAkP47LfIyLgCLcB/s1600/PL0108.jpg)

But wait - what's lurking in those woods!?

(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x7nDjU1gHKw/WN8k4JQGHKI/AAAAAAAAd5g/sefUgzpg5BwkRfr7w0vdCz4SHlCx8TwbgCLcB/s1600/PL0110.jpg)

Highland Clansmen charge out of the woods

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--LFDvUPAJTM/WN8k9tMidlI/AAAAAAAAd6E/6Er6rnDmfLox43j6pg9tdvVWOuUYex6vACLcB/s1600/PL0118.jpg)

MORE Highland Clansmen!

But who will claim the poor sheep and pigs!? Check out the blog...
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: tim in saskatoon on April 01, 2017, 04:24:00 PM
My plan is to do it in 15mm, but based on 25mm square bases with 2 figures per base, and with each base counting as '1' model (so still 12 bases per unit but the unit will have 24 figs) - to try and give an impression of numbers,

That will probably have a really nice look to it - with the larger numbers!

Your game looks great and it's got my modelling juices flowing.

Thanks! Love to see some pictures of it when you get to it!
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: Dalauppror on April 01, 2017, 08:11:33 PM
Very nice AAR !
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: Marine0846 on April 01, 2017, 08:17:46 PM
Nice looking game.
Like your figures.
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: DoctorPete on April 01, 2017, 08:19:27 PM
"Gae us ar sheep an' piggies!"  Nicely painted figures and a fine looking game all round.   :)
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: GamesPoet on April 03, 2017, 01:07:31 PM
Looks like a fun game!
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: mellis1644 on April 03, 2017, 01:52:51 PM
Pikeman's Lament is a great game and it looks like you had fun.

I play in 15mm - using figs based for DBR. I used each base as 2 figs - so have a single marker for a casualty on a base. That works well and to be honest gives the units a little more 'structure to units' on the table so it looks really good as well.
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: katie on April 03, 2017, 06:21:26 PM
"in case it went out of print"

I believe they're set up to PoD books these days, so they don't have to have "print runs" with the attendant financial risk.
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: vodkafan on April 03, 2017, 09:25:34 PM
 It's great to see kids playing and enjoying it. And it shows that a scaled down limited points game works just as well with these rules as a full sized one.
Great painted figures too.
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: mweaver on April 04, 2017, 04:01:15 AM
A great-looking game, and sounds like a lot of fun.  Thanks for the report!

-Michael
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: hallmarkFPS on April 09, 2017, 08:49:45 PM
Looks great, i am very tempted to buy a copy but have so much else to do....
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: Wirelizard on April 09, 2017, 11:27:18 PM
Just picked up copy of Pikeman's Lament at the start of April; I've got a mixed force of Warlord ECW/TYW figures hanging out from Field of Glory: Renaissance's brief popularity a few years ago, before I realized just how many figures FOG:R required!

Skirmish-sized forces like PL are much more my thing and I'm looking forward to getting a game in sometime soon. Need to base a whole bunch of partly painted figures first, and fix some of the finished figures that have gotten lightly damaged in storage.
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: tim in saskatoon on April 10, 2017, 12:01:28 AM
... before I realized just how many figures FOG:R required!

Ha! I picked up FOG:R as well - and had pretty much the same reaction. I'd seen FOG around for a long time, and there were so many books for the different periods, it couldn't be THAT bad... thought I'd pick it up the Renaissance version to see what it was all about and had a look through and said to myself, I will never own this many ECW figures...

I like Pikeman's Lament - well for MANY reasons - but one of the big ones is that the basing doesn't really matter. I can have all my guys on individual bases - which can be used in other smaller scale skirmishy games (like En Garde or Flashing Steel). Or I could, in a pinch, use some of my multi-figure-based elements from the DBA armies I have (as I did with the scottish horse in this game).   
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: SteveBurt on April 10, 2017, 01:08:29 PM
FOG:R doesn't require any more figures than any other mass battle ECW game - a couple of hundred a side is ample.
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: Wirelizard on April 10, 2017, 05:32:22 PM
FOG:R doesn't require any more figures than any other mass battle ECW game - a couple of hundred a side is ample.

Yeah, and as I'm a skirmish gamer by inclination and practice that's at least a hundred figures more than I'm used to!

My biggest project to date, doing up both Red and White forces for the Russian Civil War in 28mm, is at about 120 figures all told fully painted for both sides. That's not even a full single side of a FOG:R battle...

I'll happily play mass battle, shovel-figures-onto-the-table Napoleonics or ECW or whatever, but my interest in painting that many figures is very, very low. I quite enjoyed FOG:R as a set of rules, but for a personal project Pikeman's Lament-sized games are better.
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: Leigh Metford on April 11, 2017, 11:59:46 AM
I sympathise with your aversion; mass battles are much more manageable and affordable, and by the figure painting is much quicker and simpler, in the smaller scales. Like its immediate predecessor FoG was written primarily with 15mm figures in mind.
Title: Re: The Pikeman's Lament - First Game
Post by: Wirelizard on April 19, 2017, 08:29:34 PM
We had our first game of PL last weekend. The forces were kind of odd, based on what figures we had at hand.

Side A consisted of two units of Elite Gallopers, two Field Guns, and nothing else. Side B had a unit of Pike, two Forlorn Hope units, a unit of Gallopers, and a unit of Trotters.

The Trotters got shot to pieces by the two guns and then ran over by one of the Elite Galloper units; the regular Gallopers got chased away by the other Elite Galloper unit. The Gallopers then ran into the Pike and one of the Forlorn Hope units, which was tucked into a small patch of woods, and generally got roughly handled.

We didn't really pay any attention to the victory conditions of the Ga Pa basic scenario, but it was close to a draw.

Good fast play system, anyway, and we're looking forward to more games! I've got a bunch of stuff on the painting bench to put more full size Pike and Shot units on the table soon.