New Meets Old, A first test of Pikemen's Lament

     The only person that could make it for the game on the 19th was my rules-junkie buddy Joe. Knowing this I decided that we would give Pikeman's Lament a try. Everybody else in my gaming group has pretty well made up their mind about the pike and shot era (and in a very negative way, I might add).
      These rules are derivative of the Lion Rampant system but have enough differentiation to feel rather specific to the period. In reading the rules one of the scenarios gave me the idea for our game; a redoubt has been constructed in front of the main gate of the fortress and last night the big guns have been moved into position, these guns must be destroyed before they can blow in the the gate and allow the besieging army access to the fortress. To this end a desperate force of volunteers has been assembled and will attack at first light. They must place an unwavering unit on each gun for a full turn to spike the barrels and burn the carriages, anything else is failure.

the Gallopers burst forth from the main gate and headed hell-bent toward the guns

the Commanded Shot and artillerymen were taken completely aback by this development

 

the next turn Joe failed his orders tests and the Gallopers stood still,

my troops in the redoubt also failed to get a shot off to warn the others

 

the next turn things got back to normal, the Gallopers continued their headlong attack

  as the support troops filed out of the gate and began to form up

 

my Commanded shot opened fire, emptying some saddles

 all the was needed was a blast of grapeshot from the gunners 

just an eight or higher and everything would be.....

 

....so instead of being blown to perdition

 the Gallopers stormed over the rampart and slew the gunners

 

in my turn I managed to get two units of reserves activated, 

of course these arrived at the extreme opposite ends of the battlefield

 

in Joe's turn he rolled a twelve for his orders test with his second unit of Gallopers, 

the follow-up test allowed this unit to move twice, 

suddenly my reserves were fighting to remain on the table

 

the gunners finally had a group of targets worthy of their attention,

but the presence of the enemy in the redoubt distracted them and they once more failed to deliver,

eight or higher, guys, eight or higher!

 

they paid for their hesitation as the enemy did not fail to open fire

 

meanwhile, on my left, we were about to see whose theories worked best, 

Gallopers (in white) vs Trotters (in armor)

 
a general overview of developments,
my reinforcements streaming in from the corners
while the assault force forms up outside the main gate


the same view from the opposite end of the table

 
having failed to perform their Caracole maneuver the Trotters had to meet the charge of the Gallopers flat-footed, it was a foredoomed encounter

 
but, losing a fight is one thing, running away is another,
the Trotters passed all of their morale tests and battled on against the odds 



spurning their defeated enemy, the Gallopers turned and attacked a fresh enemy unit
catching the end of the Fusileers lines

 
as could be expected, this went poorly for the Fusileers

 
they recoiled, and the Gallopers followed up

 

the sides exchanged blows sending the Fusileers into another morale test 

and eventually a headlong flight from the battlefield

 

in the center my fire had caused one of the forlorn hope units to waver and fall back ,

the rest ground slowly forward

 

the irrepressible Gallopers found themselves a fresh target 

and slammed into the flank of a unit from the Greys

 

a short, bloody melee and the graycoats were in full retreat

 

despite being forced back the graycoats shrugged off the situation 

and killed the last of the  hyperactive Gallopers

 

and the forlorn hope got ever closer

having failed to fire upon the approaching Garden til Fods the Commanded Shot now found themselves having to defend the redoubt ....................

 

.....and they promptly managed to hit one enemy soldier......

 

as you might have guessed, the storming party hit rather harder

 

awakened to action at long last the Commanded shot on the other flank opened fire

 

as did the cannon (finally!)

 

further fire from the Trotters unit on the right finished off 

the Forlorn Hope unit and gave a moments respite

 

the situation in the center,

 the combined fire of three units has finally wiped out a assault unit 

this did them little good as the two remaining Forlorn Hope units attacked relentlessly, 

slaughtering the gunners and  driving away the last unit of Commanded Shot 

they took sole possession of the redoubt

 

with no opponents in the redoubt, and me failing order test after order test 

the Garden til Fods set fire to the guns and spiked the barrels

 

the blues had advanced to support the Forlorn Hope, 

the redoubt having been captured they chose to fire at my remaining Trotters

(just off-screen to the lower left)

 

they managed to kill one but the other advanced undaunted to open fire upon them 

 

on my far right the reds and the other unit of blues

 had become engaged in a largely ineffective long-range firefight

 

having captured the redoubt, killed the gunners, destroyed the guns the Garden til Fods decided that they had done their part for the day and started back to the gate, the only thing standing in their way was a small unit of cavalry, they had never read their Military Manuals and didn't know that Foot can't attack Horse so they went ahead and did it (quite successfully, I might add)

 

having lost the fight all that I could do now was to make the price too high for the fortress commander, I dogged the retiring enemy troops firing steadily at them as they headed home

 

poor dice-rolling and long-range shooting made this effort ineffective

 

Joe drew his troops back toward the gate in good order 

covering the Forlorn Hope with his flanking units

 

until, at last, they filed back into their fortress

     All in all the game played well, giving an appropriate feel and decisive results. Mind you this is a skirmish game and is probably unsuited for grand battles like Naseby but most of this period is loaded with small fights at bridges and villages along the point of contact between armies.