Somewhere in Cornwall - Pike & Shotte Porch Game

Two weeks ago I purchased two eight-foot folding tables. When unfolded and set next to each other they make a eight by five gaming table. Last weekend I set this up on my porch and hosted the first multi-player game at home in two and a half years.  We played an English Civil War game using Warlord Games' Pike & Shotte rules, which I have not used/played since 2017.

Parliament starting positions.

For force determination I used a slightly weighted variant of the force randomizer from my Portable Pike & Shotte Wargame campaign system (weighted in that it was trying to get as many units on table as possible so that all four players had a nice mass of troops), with deployment and terrain also determined with that toolkit.

 

Cornish foot on the Royalist side.

That same force randomizer was used to create unit variety between the two armies.  I used the Hopton-and-Waller in Cornwall-and-the-South early war lists, and Parliament ended up with two units of Curaissier cavalry (i.e. Haselrig's Lobsters, who turned out to be quite effective with their 3+ morale), offset by half their infantry being "freshly raised" Train'd Bands.  Half the Royalist infantry was Cornish Foot (with 'Stubborn' rule) but they had no Train'd Band infantry and they had an extra unit of commanded shotte.  Parliament also had three guns (two medium, one light) to the Royalists' two (one medium, one light). 

Starting positions, Royalists on the left, Parliament on the right.

I also modified the "broken battalia" rule from Pike & Shotte to mirror the Exhaustion Point/Break Point rule from The Portable Pike & Shotte Wargame.  Instead of individual battalias (each side had four) reaching break points, the entire army was deemed to be "exhausted" when one third or more of its units were "lost" (as defined under 'broken battalia' rule).  The negative consequences of this were then applied to entire army (most notably, all units morale became 6+) until one side lost 50% of more of its starting units, at which point it broke entirely and the game was over.

Royalist guns lining up shots.

So this 'Exhausted Army' rule was the first experiment being tried out.  The other was using infantry blocks that had pike and shot models in a single unit and using the 'pike company' rule and disregarding 'hedgehog' entirely.  This was also based on my positive experience with the 'battalia' units in Portable Pike & Shotte Wargame, which I felt gave a more realistic result than multiple units of 'musketeers' running around by themselves.

Royalist Cornish Foot (white jackets) have taken up position behind the hill in the center.

And the result did feel more realistic, I think.  The ebb and flow of the game (at least as I saw it) was that Haselrig's Lobsters threw back the Royalist cavalry on the Royalist right.  Meanwhile the Royalist infantry on the opposite flank threw back an attack by the Parliament cavalry.   

Royalist left taking a commanding position atop the long ridge. 

The Cornish foot attempted to crest the hill in the center, but the Parliament Train'd Bands held their ground, and the Cornish Foot was then flanked by some of Haselrig's Lobsters. On the Royalist left, the foot advanced in good order, delivering several volleys of musketry.  Both sides became exhausted at the end of a Parliament turn.

This is after the game ended. One of the two Cornish Foot companies has been broken, but the solid line of infantry on Royalist right has delivered the game winning round of shooting. 

The situation was that either the Royalists would win the game on their turn (by using shooting to push two or more Parliament units into 'lost' status) or would not and then Parliament would almost certainly win instead. The Royalists then did in fact cause three more Parliament units to become shaken and therefore 'lost,' and the Parliament army broke and the game was over.

Royalist commanded shot.

Overall, an enjoyable game played in a slightly-too-hot sun. Everyone arrived at about 11:00 and we were completely done a little after 2:00.  This included quite a bit of rules-looking-up as we figured out various minutiae. 

Parliament infantry. I think I need to rebase my command stands to 40mm square bases so they can integrate with my infantry better.

The combined pike/shot infantry blocks, the randomized deployment/terrain/armies, and the 'army exhaustion' rule all also worked very well (good to know that positives in one ruleset can be ported to another).  Also, the two eight-foot folding tables made an ideally sized game board. I shall have to make a custom 8x5 flocked mat for it to realize its full potential. 

I also think I would like to generally "touch up" the bases of almost this entire collection. The majority use my earlier basing method of beach sand with some flock applied (with sand painted dark brown or not).

A big mass of Parliament Trained Band foot. By contrast, some of the musketeers in the center of the photo use my more recent basing method - kitty litter then painted a "dried dirt light brown" with flock and tufts applied.  This lighter/brighter basing color scheme causes the minis to "visually pop" off the base better, I think. 

These blue-jackets are Warlord Games plastics.  Over half the pikes have snapped and been replaced with steel wire at this point. 

The two units of Haselrig's Lobsters can be seen in the center here.

It wasn't a factor in the game, but the Royalist cavalry on the Royalist right flank did rally and eventually start to move to reenter the fray. You can see them on right edge of the photo by the edge of the woods.

Here is the full text of the 'Exhaustion Point' ending-the-game rule, which is a modified version of the 'broken battalias' rule.

EXHAUSTION POINT:

If at the start of any side's turn, more than one-third of the total infantry or cavalry units in an army are lost then the whole army is deemed to be 'exhausted'. All the remaining units in the army are then obliged to follow the rules for exhausted armies as described shortly. Once an army is exhausted it remains exhausted for the rest of the game - it cannot recover.

A unit is considered 'lost' for the purposes of calculating army morale if:

• It has been removed from the battlefield because it has been destroyed, or

• It has left the battlefield either deliberately or otherwise, or

• It is 'shaken' at the start of the turn (ie, if it has suffered casualties equal to its stamina)

Ignore artillery pieces when working out whether an army is exhausted, although artillery pieces will be affected by the rules for exhausted armies along with the other units. The exception to this is where artillery forms the majority of units in a battalia, such as a 'grande battery', where guns are counted along with any infantry or cavalry.

When an army loses more than half its units, it has broken and the game is over.

UNITS IN EXHAUSTED ARMIES:

The following rules apply to units from exhausted armies:

• Units that have already left the table, or which leave the table from that point on, cannot return and arc deemed to be out of the battle for good. 
• Units that are shaken cannot be rallied even if they are allowed to recover by means of some special rule. Once shaken, units remain shaken. 
• Units that are disordered remain disordered from turn to turn. Units that have a 'save' against disorder or a special rule that normally allows them to recover can do so. 
• Shaken units are allowed to make a single 'retire' move in the command phase instead of using their initiative or receiving an order. They can do this even if disordered - in which case it is the only move they are allowed to make. Retiring units must attempt to withdraw from the fighting in the most practical way possible. Artillery crew that retire in such circumstances are deemed to abandon their guns. 
• Shaken units within 12" of the enemy and not already engaged in combat must retire as described above unless occupying buildings or other defendable position, or ordered infantry block formations in which case they can hold their ground instead. Infantry units that are hopelessly surrounded and unable to retire remain in place. 
• Unshaken units in an exhausted armies can be given orders normally, but will have their morale reduced to 6+ for the remainder of the game. If they become shaken or disordered they will follow the above rules for shaken/ disordered troops in an exhausted army.