First Go With Pikeman's Lament

[Wirelizard]

Had two games of Pikeman's Lament this Sunday and one the previous Saturday. None of them have been full 24 point games yet, but enough to get a taste and a bit of a feel for the rules.

Last Saturday's game was 24 points but with really unbalanced forces - one side had two field guns, two Elite Gallopers, and nothing else. Side two wasn't quite as weird, with one unit of Pike, two Forlorn Hopes, and one each of Trotters and Gallopers, but still a bit odd.

This Sunday's games were only 12 points a side but a bit more balanced. It really pointed out the need for a proper core of full size Pike and/or Shot units in a force, as that side won each of our two games. The smaller, fancier six figure units can do all sorts of neat stuff but don't have the sheer staying power of the bigger, more basic 12 figure Pike or Shot units.

The photo is from our run-through of the King's Gold (pay carts) scenario from Sunday. That ended in a tie, just barely! We knocked the scenario down to just two pay carts instead of three, and wound up with one each plus each of our extra-Honour special missions completed.

Looking forward to getting some games in with fully developed 24 point forces, I like the system so far. A bunch of the folks in our local game club have ECW/TYW figures in their collections from FOG:R's release a few years ago, and we're talking about dusting them off and getting some sort of casual narrative campaign going with Pikeman's Lament, either an imaginary county somewhere in England during the ECW or some invented German principality during the TYW!

[Codsticker]

Needs moar pixpls!

BTW, I like your blog. *thumbs up*

[mweaver]

Sounds like a solid set of rules - and some intersting games.

-Michael

[Wirelizard]

More pix will be coming, although it'll probably be a couple of weeks before I get another game in... which might give me enough time to have a full 24pt force fully assembled, although almost certainly not fully painted!

Pikeman's Lament question for those more familiar with the rules: Are there any states aside from Wavering that you might need to mark next to units on the table?

Thinking of doing some small (probably 1"/25mm) tokens for Wavering and wondering if there's anything else that might need a token. Make Rally the flip side of Wavering, I guess, to remember that those units Rallied instead of getting a regular Ordered Action?

[Kamandi]

I like the idea with counters. I could do some for Dragon Rampant with "Battered" & "Rallying".

[Codsticker]

...wondering if there's anything else that might need a token. Make Rally the flip side of Wavering, I guess, to remember that those units Rallied instead of getting a regular Ordered Action?

I don't think so. In our experience we never had a problem remembering which units had been Rallied but that might be a problem in bigger games.

[DintheDin]

Pikeman's Lament question for those more familiar with the rules: Are there any states aside from Wavering that you might need to mark next to units on the table?

A "First shot" marker perhaps? Having in mind that first shot may (and must) be used not only at the shooting phase, but also if the group attacks or defends for the first time, before having spent its first shot. Also, with a good die, a group may gain its first shot again. And "Close order" maybe.

[mellis1644]

We just use different color counters...

White - first fire
Green - wavering
Blue - close order
red - hits which have not been marked with base removal.

Not pretty but it works. I have some casualty figs to paint for the hits but they are down the painting priority at present.

P.S. it's a very good set of rules, and scale up/down well. I have couple of different reports on my blog.

[Wirelizard]

Out of Round 6 of the current LPL, where they lost to some really crisply painted WW2 British Paras, here's the first group of foot painted for my pike & shot forces.

All Warlord plastics from their pike & shot infantry box set, two pikemen and three command type figures.



I've got a batch of musketeers coming up in Round 8 of LPL11; I have to say I prefer painting the pikemen, as the muskets have such a clutter of extra equipment around them, the powder canisters, loops of slowmatch, and such!

I've also got 24 cavalry in various stages of completion, ranging from "finished several years ago but now needing touchups" to "still on sprue in the box"... that will give me 12 medium cav and 12 currassiers eventually.

I picked up an extra infantry sprue and an extra infantry command sprue from Warlord recently, as well as the Forlorn Hope box (18 figures, I think) which will give me lots of options; I should have enough figures for two full pike units (using command figures, standard bearers, and musicians to pad the numbers as needed), two full shot units, and lots of commanded shot or forlorn hope units under the Pikeman's Lament rules, in addition to the four full cav units deployable various ways, including mixing with infantry for dragoon units.

I've also got two or three metal Warlord commander figures somewhere around, all mounted, but I'm not presently sure where those blisters are... lost in the Stygian depths of the lead mountain for the moment.

The only thing I'm lacking is one or two guns; I might chuck an order at TAG to see what their figures look like, just for a change from Warlord, as the two ranges seem quite compatible.

BTW, I like your blog. *thumbs up*

Thank you! I realized recently that as of this November, I will have had a wargaming web presence of one sort or another for 19 years (!) - I first started a gaming website on GeoCities back in November 1998. Also, some of you need to get off my lawn...  

[Kamandi]

Looks good Wirelizard. I haven't got the figures for Pikeman's Lament,  but I enjoy a good a game of Lion/Dragon Rampant or TMWWBK.

[Wirelizard]

I sat down over the weekend and organized my entire pike & shot foot collection to date, sorting them into Pikeman's Lament-sized units and then assembling some extra figures to fill out the ranks where required.



Assembled and in various stages all the way from finished to not even primed yet I've got two Pike units, two Shot units, a Forlorn Hope or Commanded shot unit, and far more officers or character figures than I'll ever need for PL!

Left to right in the photo above is a Shot unit, Pikes, more Shot, seven officers/characters, the Forlorn Hope on the skirmish base, and finally the second Pike unit.

Unassembled or not shown in this photo is another 14 musketeers, 12 firelock musketeers, 12 cuirassier cav, and finally another 12 regular pistoleer cav! Oh, and at least two more mounted characters but those blisters have been eaten by the lead mountain. Everything so far is from Warlord.

No artillery, though. All I need to be set for all sorts of PL games is a gun or two, but I've got lots of other stuff to paint first!

A bit more of a writeup and another photo over on the blog: http://www.warbard.ca/2017/06/12/the-workbench-this-week-12-june-2017/

[vodkafan]

Looking good so far!

[Widows Son]

Watching this with great interest!  Looking forward to more... 

[flatpack]

Doing the same thing at this end.
Painting up warlord plastic figures for our first game of "Pikeman's" in 2 weeks time.
Good reason to get my act together and get some paint onto my unfinished figures.

[Wirelizard]

Planning on getting a game in this coming Sunday against a friend's Ottoman figures, which we'll figure out a roughly appropriate list for on the day of.

I think I have enough assembled figures for a vaguely sensible 24pt force, but need to sit down with the rule book again to see. Hopefully will have time for that this evening!

Worst case I think another six firelock or musketeer figures for a second Commanded Shot or Forlorn Hope unit will round out my troops for now.

I'll try and get photos during the game to share here and on the blog.