Trying Warlord Games 'Epic Pike and Shotte 'rules using our 15mm figures.

 In recent weeks we have been play-testing the 'in development' rule set 'Never Mind the Matchlocks' by Billhooks author Andy Callan. These have given us some fun games but as we played we also painted and now have enough figures for bigger battles that are perhaps beyond the intended scope of 'Matchlocks'. So today we tried a bigger battle using Warlord Games 'Epic Battles'. Having read the rules they seem a fairly straightforward adaptation of the Black Powder Pike and Shotte rules with the main exception being Pike and Shotte units are now treated as a single unit rather than 3 connected units. 

I set up the table with a deliberately open centre to encourage a straightforward encounter battle. Nigel and I commanded the Parliamentarians and Ian and Stuart were in control of the Royalists. 

Deployment at the start of the game has the Royalists on the left with the Parliamentarians facing them on the right. The Royalists opted to take the first turn and quickly advanced their cavalry. 

Looking along the Royalist line. 

Nigel's shooting was pretty good today, three shots and three 6's!

Sadly Ian saved two of them. 

Looking along the Parliamentarian line as their cavalry advance to meet the challenge of the Royalist cavalry. 

Royalist dragoons supporting their cavalry advance. 

After a couple of turns of melee, the Royalists won the first cavalry clash, chasing the Parliamentarians cavalry away. The dashing cavaliers seemed to be heading for a comfortable win at this point. 

The right flank Parliamentarian infantry lining the hedge, soon cleared the dragoons away with a lot of shooting. 

On the left flank some Parliamentarian skirmishers took refuge in the church and helped stall the Royalist infantry advance. Parliamentarian shooting seemed to be better than the cavaliers, was the outcome of the battle changing. 

Having won the clash of cavalry the Royalist horse then got hit with every fire from every direction which weakened them so much they had to withdraw. 

At this point the Royalists started to withdraw their forces as suddenly it was the Roundhead's who had the advantage. After seeing the Royalists off with another fine turn of shooting a Parliamentarian victory was declared. 

This was one of those great games where possible victory swung first one way then the other. All four players seemed to enjoy the battle so we play again next week.  

The Battle of Torrington using 'Never Mind the Matchlocks'.

 This week's test game of 'Never Mind the Matchlocks' was a scenario very loosely based on the ECW battle of Torrington. I changed/reduced the scenery to simplify the gaming table and adapted the forces used to suit our collection of 15mm figures and give a game of an appropriate size. With the forces fairly equal in number the Royalist infantry were behind a rough barricade with the Parliament Infantry lined up across the hedges facing the. Both sides were then allowed to feed in extra troops as their cards turned up in the first couple of turns. 

In previous games we had played our 15mm multi based units as 'counts as' smaller units to match the unit sizes indicated by Andy in the rules. Today, after discussing the idea with Andy, we played the number of figures you see are what you get to fight with. Overall it worked well. 

Royalists on the left, cowering bend their barricade (which looked like a stone wall!). We played that the barricade increased the defence of any troops behind it by one from Musketry but was no defence against cannon shotte. The Royalist were mainly trained or raw quality troops, the Parliamentarian troops lining the hedge were slightly better quality troops. None of this mattered as Nigel, in charge of the Royalists really battered Ian and I in the first few turns with his ace cannon fire. Our more numerous cannon were nowhere near as effective.

Ian in charge of the Royalist  cavalry went off on one, charging across our right flank. 

The main Parliamentarian infantry, cautiously lining the hedge, waiting for the right time to advance. 

Cotton wool indicates which units have fired.

Ian and his Royalist cavalry ride down the Parliament field gun which did not get to fire in response due to a 'special event' rain shower. 

Nigel formed his purple unit of Pike and Shotte into a hedgehog when threatened by the cavalry. This unit remained almost surrounded by enemy cavalry. Sadly for Ian, his cavalry Brigade commander was only level one so just could not get his forces to do much to counter both the enemy purple infantry and their cavalry. 

As we started to run out of time and we tried to speed through a last couple of moves I once again forgot to take any more photo's. With Nigel and the Royalists on the defensive, he seemed to be slowly forging ahead. However, the loss of one of his units triggered a whole chain re-action of Morale Crisis tests which he promptly failed suddenly giving the Royalists the advantage. A last desperate cavalry charge was won by Nigel and when we counted up the Morale tokens we were at 7 each so a hard fought draw was declared. 

This games tactics were very heavily built around the Royalists trying to hold their position and Parliament trying to push them back. We all felt that this, our third game went very smoothly with only the one question to ask Andy. We seem to know the rules well by now and really enjoy the games they are giving us. 

Finally, my first unit for my 28mm Army of Alexander the Great, some Victrix plastic Greek Light Cavalry. I painted and completed  these in between painting batches of pikemen-I need a lot of them. 

 

First game of 2024: More 'Never Mind the Matchlocks'.

Our first game of 2024 was another try at 'Never Mind the Matchlocks' using our slowly growing range of 15mm English Civil War figures. This time we had 5 players so we had to increase the number of troops used to ensure everyone had a few units to push around and throw dice for. We were just about on the edge of how many troops you can use in a standard game of 'Matchlocks'.I kept the terrain fairly simple so we just played a straightforward encounter battle with the hope that we would actually get more melee in today's game, especially between infantry. 

Ian, Nigel and Oggie (the other Stuart) were commanding the Royalist forces leaving Howard and I in charge of the Parliamentarians. 

Deployment was as above, Parliamentarians are at the bottom table edge. 

The Pike and Shotte units get up close exchanging fore before charging in.  

On the lower line the first unit is Ian's but the next three are Nigel's, all painted over the Xmas period. We use the cotton wool as a reminder of which units have fired. 

I got mixed up on the big cavalry clash, charging my units in in the wrong formation to get maximum benefit and then Stuart (Oggie) threw far better dice than me causing my first two units to withdraw badly damaged and Daunted and Oggie then did the same to my next two units. This caused my dragoons to flee and so the Parliamentarian right flank was totally defeated. 

In the centre Ian and Nigel got the better of Howard and I in the Infantry clash and we did feel the rules worked well here. The game was getting so frantic and close here that I forgot to take anymore photos. Bit by bit the Royalist forces were pushing the Parliamentarians back and eventually defeating them. At this point with only our left wing anywhere near intact we conceded the game.

I was really pleased with how the rules worked and delighted that we got some infantry melee in this game. We are having fun play-testing these rules and once again we have a few questions for the author Andy Callan and he was certainly prompt in answering our last set of queries. We play again in two weeks.   

 Finally I finished these 28mm viking archers over the Christmas period.

These are for a variety of rules including Hail Caesar, On Bloody Ground and War and Conquest.