We played a Pike & Shotte English Civil War game on Friday, featuring 539 points of Scots Covenanter vs. 531 of Royalists.
NOTES:
*There is no "frame gun" profile in the P&S
rulebook. Classed as a light gun, but figured that two frame guns could
be a "unit".
*Royalists had to muster up twelve "old school" (early
'80s Garrison figs, I think) painted-by-someone-else ECW cavalry to get 6 units
of cavalry.
*Scots
Lancers are armed with lances. The 'Lance' special rule (!) says that
when you charge or counter charge, enemy must make any resulting morale save
(i.e. saving throw) at -1 if cavalry and -2 if infantry! Note that
average infantry morale is 4+ so infantry's gonna need to toss 6s to shrug off
Lancer hits!
ORDERS OF BATTLE:
Covenanters
Overall
commander: 40pts
Battalia
of Horse:
Cavalry
Commander: 40pts
4
lancer units @38 each = 152 pts
Two
Battalias of Foote:
Infantry
commander: 40pts
2
pike unit @34pts = 68pts
4
musketeer units @27pts each = 108pts
Battery
of Ordnance:
Artillery
Commander: 40pts
2
light guns @ 17pts each = 34pts
1
frame gun unit (consisting of 2 frame guns, count entire unit as one light
gun?) @ 17pts
TOTAL:
499 points
Royalists
Overall
commander: 40pts
Two
Battalias of Horse:
Cavalry
Commander: 40pts
6
cavalry units @41 each, -2 each for Galloper rule (must countercharge,
must making sweeping advance, move 12" instead of 9"), so @39s pts
each = 234pts
Battalia
of Foote:
Infantry
commander: 40pts
1
pike unit @34pts
2
musketeer units @27pts each = 54pts
1
Commanded Shotte unit @34pts
Battery
of Ordnance:
Artillery
Commander: 40pts
2
light guns @ 17pts each = 34pts
1
medium gun @ 21 pts
TOTAL:
491 points
We diced
to see if overall commanders were exceptional or unexceptional at all. A '1' meant command rating was lowered to 7,
and a '6' meant it was raised to 9. The
Royalists diced lucky and were commanded by a dashing dapper brilliant cavalier
with a 9 command rating.
The board
was kept simple, with no buildings, bordered by some hills to the
"south" and some woods to the "north, and a shallow river
running through the middle (counting as an obstacle to cross, deduct 3"
from movement to cross). We diced to see who went first and the Scots
Covenanters won and immediately commenced a game of who would blink first.
Both sides moved
their lines forward a bit and exchanged some rudimentary long-range artillery
fire but generally waited to see who would commit first, which turned out to be
the Royalist left, where Royalist cavaliers advanced on the Scottish left,
which was unprotected by the Scottish lancers who were on the other side of the
field. The first squadron of cavaliers' charge came up short, however, and was
broken by hailshot.
Meanwhile,
the mass of Scots lancers began to move behind their own infantry. The Royalist
cavalry on the Royalist left continued their assault and overran a Scots
falconet crew, then turned and charged a unit of musketeers. The resulting melee lasted an impressive 3
rounds but effectively tied up the entire Scots' left. Concurrently, the Scots' lancers charged en
masse at the Royalist foote but came up short and were shot to pieces, then
counter charged by the other battalia of Royalist horse, who preceded to route
the entirely of the lancers piecemeal.
On the
Scottish left, the unit of musketeers finally succumbed to the cavaliers'
onslaught. Left with two units pike and
3 shotte, and almost all already a little bloodied, and faced with Royalist
cavalry closing in on both flanks, the Scots decided to yield the field and
call the game in favor of the Royalists.
ERRATA:
Some melee
involving cavalry was not done correct per the rules. There were several "draw" results
and the rules say in a draw situation the cavalry unit must make a retire move
and the combatants do not stay "locked" like infantry do. This could have altered the outcome of the
musketeer-cavalry fight on the Scottish left.
Additionally,
if a unit is broken in melee, any supporting units of the broken unit
must also take a break test. This was
not done during the game.
