Pike and Shotte Epic Scale

[Zingara]

Well I weakened and bought the Warlord Games Pike & Shotte Epic scale box set. There are a lot of figures in the box. It took one long solid evening to remove one of the armies from its sprues and base them I spread the rest out over a couple of evenings or so - in smaller chunks. You can call it clever marketing, but the example battle scenarios in the supplied rules have many more cavalry  than the 2 Harquebusier and 1 Dragoons supplied per side. Here I come to an observation having set them up on a 5ft by 3 ft 4" table - there is enough soldiery here to pack it out. Even upping to a standard 6ft by 4ft table my friend commented he had trouble fitting things in. So for most of us there is enough in this box to keep us going.  Due to space limitations I am inclined to  reduce the Harquebusier to 2 bases per unit (upping the number of units) and the 6 cuirassier figure supplied could then be deployed as a unit with 3 figures per base - giving 4 cavalry and one dragoon unit per side.

Having played the rules a couple of times solo and once with a live opponent I have a couple of observations - no mention of hills whatsoever. I wonder how other folks are dealing with the apart from the obvious line of sight issues. If thought sufficiently helpful then either a +1 morale save if defending uphill in melee or maybe a +1 combat resolution.

One thing I thought odd - but have not got anywhere near a balance evaluation is that Imperial and Swedish independent musket units have a shoot value of 2 which I thought low and a melee of 3 and 4 which I thought high - I'd be interested in other's observations.

A couple of pictures on the wargames table - unpainted. I am not sure I will ever get round to painting these thinking the days of me paining large armies are in the past.

[panzer-attack]

I'm busy painting my way through the infantry at the moment, building units and painting as I go.  Haven't even really had a chance to read through the rules properly yet.  This is the first epic scale game I've tried and even with just 5 units built and painted I'm quite pleased with the look of such a mass of troops.

[Codsticker]

Oddly enough I don't think we ever had a combat involving one unit uphill. My inclination would be to convey a Combat Result bonus of +1. There are rules in the hardcover book for elevated guns shooting over intervening units. I believe that the justification for the low shoot value is that musket fire is based on the belief that compared to melee, shooting was more discomfiting than damaging in this era; hence disordering units with 6's in shooting but not melee, but more dice being rolled in melee.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

[Zingara]

Panzer-Attack - you'll have to post some pictures - might encourage me to apply the odd bit of paint :-).

Cod-Sticker - thanks for the response. I take the nuisance value of the fire - it is interesting that units are not disordered in melee apart from falling back results. A lot of rule systems these days have melee as disruptive to cohesion.

[Codsticker]

Cod-Sticker - thanks for the response. I take the nuisance value of the fire - it is interesting that units are not disordered in melee apart from falling back results. A lot of rule systems these days have melee as disruptive to cohesion.

My guess is that they believed order to be very important when manuevreing and closing with the enemy but once engaged in melee, maintaining files and ranks became less important (or nearly impossible) and therefore fighting spirit and morale became key.

[panzer-attack]

Not the greatest photos, but here you go:





And here's the troops back on the shelf:

[Metternich]

Charlemagne and I plan on using them (and Steel Fist cavalry) with the For King and Parliament rules, for 30 Years War Swedes and Imperials (no Croats yet, alas).

[Zingara]

Thanks Panzer-Attack - they are looking very good, especially en masse.

[Zingara]

Metternich - I have For King and Parliament rules - read but never played. Now no excuse not to give them a try out sometime.

[Metternich]

We played one game (ECW) with our club a few weeks ago - our first intro to the rules, with someone else's armies - and thought they give a good game.

[Eric the Shed]

Ref Hills - we houserule that the attacking unit loses its charge bonus

[has.been]

Good start there Gregor.
As to painting such formations, may I suggest the following?

1) Paint it all a dark brown.
2) When that is dry, dry brush (from the top diagonally downwards) an off-white.
3) When that is dry add a FEW touches of colour.
    e.g. some sleeves in a regimental colour, hats in greys & browns (go through several
    units doing some hats grey, then go through again & do similar with brown.
4) Take some metallic Gel pens & tough up helmets. pike points, gun barrels etc.

Save any detailed paint work for the general