Pike and Shotte Italian Wars 1st game - edit: AAR and initial rule thoughts

[olicana]

well the moment of truth is at hand. I've set up for our first game using Pike and Shotte rules by Warlord. My initial thoughts are very positive. I do hope these rules work and give good results, my Italian Wars collection needs a 'new rules adrenaline' injection.

More thoughts (and pics of set up) on P&S here:

http://olicanalad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/pike-and-shotte-pre-game-thoughts.html



I'll post a report on first conclusions reached after the game.

[fred]

Great looking figures.

I've recently been comparing P&S and Baroque, through for the top end of the period covered by the rules (1690s).

The P&S book is lovely, and really makes you want to play a game. The main thing putting me off is the command roll mechanism, its rather binary, roll high do nothing, roll low and charge around the field. We have played loads of Warmaster and Hail Caesar and are used to this mechanism, but if anything are rather fed up with it, and the way it can flip a game due to a couple of dice rolls. With a good big game, this impact can be minimised, and make interesting narrative points, but can lead to frustrations as key units/formations get stuck.

Haven't played Baroque yet - its fairly hard to get just from reading - but it gets good reviews. Its command mechanism seems a bit more balanced, with units getting off a single order, and then having to roll to do extra orders, with the risk of becoming disrupted.

[Hu Rhu]

I look forward to your thoughts on the rules, especially for Italian Wars as this is an area that I want to get into.  I have used P&S for ECW and found them very good.  They are as you say a tool box and are very flexible, simply adding or removing traits to match the period required and are capable of being toned down or tweaked up to get the best effect.

Love your figures by the way.

[archiduque]

Excellent!

[olicana]

Well, we've now fought the battle and I've decided that I quite like the Pike & Shotte rules published by Warlord Games. As a first game it went very well.

For a brief, picture heavy, AAR and my initial conclusions about the Pike & Shotte rules you can read more here:

http://olicanalad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/pike-and-shotte-first-battle-aar-and.html]http://olicanalad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/pike-and-shotte-first-battle-aar-and.html]http://olicanalad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/pike-and-shotte-first-battle-aar-and.html

[fred]

Glad to here the game went well. WE've had loads of great games of Hail Caesar, and P&S is a very close relative so it should give a good game.

You have two cracking looking armies on the able as well - very impressive.

[Hu Rhu]

Thanks for the AAR, it seemed to go well.  I would offer two points regarding command roles and broken battalia.  The annoyance of multiple failures of command roles makes for a boring game for the player concerned but a very realistic outcome (think of the French infantry at Pavia).  Depends on how 'competitive' a gamer you are.

As for the broken battalia, Elite units can ignore riff-raff when checking for broken battalia.  Thus the Gendarmes would not care two hoots if the skirmishers ran away. On the other hand they would worry that their supporting archers were broken. You can thus declare that for that battalia only the formed units would count.  The rules are eminently adaptable.  That's what makes them so good.

[fred]

Thanks for the AAR, it seemed to go well.  I would offer two points regarding command roles and broken battalia.  The annoyance of multiple failures of command roles makes for a boring game for the player concerned but a very realistic outcome (think of the French infantry at Pavia).  Depends on how 'competitive' a gamer you are.

You've hit it with boring - most of us have little enough time for gaming, so spending a lot of the game with a good chunk of your troops doing nothing can be frustrating. If you have enough troops to command then the odd failed command is fine. Its all about finding the right balance between total control at one extreme, and doing nothing due to a couple of dice rolls.

Yes there can be good narrative, and good historical precedent for troops doing little. But command rolls are just random chance, you have to weave the narrative to them, and sometimes it can be rather hard to find the narrative to support the dice.

[Colonel Tubby]

Very impressive collection, thanks for posting.