Rating Monmouth's Army for Pikeman's Lament

[soldieroftheline]

I would be interested to have people's thoughts on rating Monmouth's Army for Pikeman's Lament.

A friend has been painting suitable figures and we are planning a game or two in the New Year. We really enjoy the rules, but fitting in Monmouth's men to the troop archetypes requires a bit of thought.

Making them Clubmen might seem obvious at first, but they should surely be better than that, given their performance at Norton St. Philip for example. Initially we are thinking of going with Raw Shot. Our reading suggests that the scythe men were used like grenadier companies, so we are thinking of possibly fielding them as Agressive Folorn Hope.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? We are not keen to tinker with the stats etc. if we don't have to.

[Codsticker]

I admit that I do not know much about the Monmouth Rebellion but I think that is a good place to start. I think of the Monmouth troops use the basic profiles, the superiority of the Royalist troops can use the upgrades (not the Royalist militias though).

[Hu Rhu]

I was looking at this issue some time ago and was thinking along the lines of:

Units would be made up of 2:1 between Pike and Muskets with muskets being the lower number. Some Pike units would be given scythes or other improvised wepaons.

Cavalry would all be Trotters with 50% being rated Raw.
Shot would be rated Raw reflecting their relatively poor training and weapon handling.
PIke would be rated Raw reflecting their poor drill and tactical training.
Some pike armed units (approx 1/3 of the total) would be armed with scythes or other improvised weapons and be classified as Clubmen.
Up to one unit could be rated as Commanded Shot or possibly Folorn Hope.

I am sure there are many other interpretations but I hope the above helps, you decide how you want to apply the stats.

[bigredbat]

I don't know much about Pikemen's Lament, but I don't think one would want to underestimate the rebels. They were well equipped with pikes and muskets that had been brought over by Monmouth, and I think a 2:1 shotte to pike ratio is likely. Although newly raised, they included a small core of experienced soldiers. The scythe men were intended as substitutes for grenadiers and might arguably be picked men - they led the infantry attack at Sedgemoor.

Also, it is worth noting that King James's battalions, although mostly professional soldiers, had been padded out with new recruits.