Trial run. Possibly a running trial

 

Hi all,

Been in a bit of a funk the last couple of months, likely a combination of weather, work, and the accumulated stress of a world gone mad.  I've had zero energy or motivation for hobby, aside from some Command and Colours games via Vassal (which has me increasingly interested in C&C).  In the last week or so, however, the clouds seem to have lifted, and I've not only finished up the last of the Scots cav which have been glaring dourly at me, but also cracked open the Warlord ECW box I got at Christmas, and started in on some Royalists to oppose / ally with them.

The boost from getting some painting done, in turn, prompted me to set up a table, and try out a test game of Pikeman's Lament.  I picked up the rules a ways back, and read them, but hadn't actually bothered to paint them.  With the "core" Covenanter force done, I figured they deserved an outing, so I carved out some time this afternoon to set up a table.  It turned out to be a shockingly one-sided affair, and I've a few reservations about unit balance in the game, but overall, I was quite chuffed with the rules; they seem to provide for smooth, intuitive play, and once I get into the more developed scenarios, are likely to prove quite fun.

Royalist deploy in the woods.

I tried to keep the game pretty simple to start with.  The table had patches of woods in one corner, and a hill and broken ground in the opposing corner.  A small creek, with a track paralleling it, crossed the table, broken by a couple of fords.  Trees, rocks, and non-ford creek were rough ground, and the woods gave cover.

Captain Donald Monroe leads his Covenanters forward.

My covenanters were made up of the minis I had painted so far; a unit of pike, two of shot (all three veterans), along with a unit of "Trotter" horse, and a regimental gun.  Pikeman's Lament has a bit of character flair for commanding officers; my Covenanter leader, Capt. Donald Monroe, rolled the "Strong" background, which gave the unit to which he was attached (the pike) a free re-roll in combat.

Royalists line up to stop the (other) Scots.

The Royalists were made up of a hodge-podge of units I got in The Big Swap, in a range of states.  Unlike the Covenanters, I went with bog-standard units, and rather than the "regular" troops, I used 3 units of dragoons, and three of commanded shot.  I somehow missed that the commanded shot only cost 2 points each (a standard force is 24 points, and most units are 4), which meant the Royalists were actually fighting at a disadvantage.  In theory.  They also had an officer I didn't bother to name, who rolled the "Brutal" characteristic, meaning he could execute a model to force a successful morale check.  40k, eat your heart out ;)

Turn 1.  Covenanters move to take the southern Ford, Royalist Dragoons surge forward to take the northern.

This raises the first question I ended up with post-game.  I have no idea why Commanded shot units are worth only 2 points, or why Dragoons are worth the same as most other units, as it quickly became clear that the Covenanters didn't stand a snowball's chance against the Royalist light troops.  Even with a 4:3 advantage in points, the Royalists steamrollered the Covenanters in this game.

Lesson 1.  Commanded shot and Dragoons move faster than everyone else.

The early stages of the game saw the two sides advance, and take up positions.  The Royalist foot moved up through the woods (which Commanded shot can traverse without penalty), and established a firing line at the edge.  The dragoons, which out-numbered the Covenanter cavalry 3:1 pushed toward the northern ford to block it.

Covenanters move up.

On the other side, The Covenanters pushed forward.  I think I had some notion that they'd defend the river edge, but that turned out to be a bad idea.

They have no idea what they're in for.

It quickly became apparent that the superior number of guns the Royalists could bring to bear were going to be decisive.  Commanded Shot and Dragoons both have a shorter range (12 vs. 18 inches), but their base shooting ability is the same in terms of numbers of shots and chance to hit - despite that both of those units have half the number of models in their unit.  Commanded shot are also just as resistant to shooting as regular shot, and Dragoons are more resistant.  It's just as easy to get Commanded Shot to act as with "regular" shot, and easier to get Dragoons shooting.

First blood.  The Royalist Dragoons fire on, and damage, the Covenanter cavalry.

While they had fewer models per unit, the sheer number of shots the Royalists could put out meant the Covenanters very quickly came under significant fire, and started taking casualties.

Under fire from three Royalist units, Captain Monroe urges his men forward; if they can just get into contact.

On the right, the Covenanter cavalry launched a charge against the Dragoons guarding the ford.  They have an advantage against the lighter Dragoons, and should have been able to drive back at least one unit.  Dragoons, however, have an evasion ability.  Even if an attacker successfully motivates to charge, the Dragoons, more than half the time, can not only pull back out of the way, but also shoot while doing so.  So, having weathered fire on the way in, the Trotters launched a charge into what turned out to be thin air, and took casualties for their trouble.

Pike start to push across the creek, but it's slow going.  Shot are finally in position to lay down some covering fire, but can't match the number of shots coming back.

A critical moment in the game came when the Covenanters brought their Shot and Gun units in range; their major advantage being that they have a longer range than the light troops on the Royalist side.  On that critical turn, however, I rolled a double 1 (a blunder) for the first unit I tried to activate, thus ending my turn (and causing sundry other negative effects).  The Royalists effectively got 2 turns in a row, and the Covenanters never recovered.

In the later stages of the game, the Covenanter horse were shot off the table, and the pike eventually suffered the same fate (after taking more than 50% casualties, they simply broke and fled as fire from multiple units raked them).  

The high-water mark for the Covenanters.  This was about as far forward as they got; they were driven back by musketry, and eventually broke and fled.

The Covenanter shot did have some effect on the game, as did the gun, but not enough to balance the Royalist firepower.  Once the Covanter horse were gone, the Royalist Dragoons advanced, brought the Covenanter right flank under fire, and started to claw up the Shot unit anchoring it.

View from the Royalist side.  Someone's getting knighted for this.

I kept playing, but it quickly became clear the Covenanters were going to lose this one.  While I realise that there are situations where the "irregulars" are going to be at a disadvantage - if the pike had ever made contact, they should have pushed the Royalists out of the way - it seems unlikely to me that they'd ever have the chance to do so.  The Royalist force, for the same points, was simply better than the Covenanters, which raises the question of why someone would ever take regular troops outside of a specific scenario..

Covenanters driven back.

The table, in retrospect, also favoured the royalists.  It slowed the pike, and gave much of the Royalist shot cover - making them even tougher against shooting.  I also had some extremely lopsided dice.  The Covenanters regularly struggled to activate units (and got the only blunder of the game, on the first unit to activate, no less!), while the Royalists shooting regularly posted results far beyond what probability would suggest.

Just before the Pike broke.

I get the sense that while the game absolutely involves skill and choices, luck is definitely a factor.  It simulates command friction with an activation role for each unit, which forces the player to make choices about what moves are important vs. what moves are more likely to succeed.  A bad roll at the wrong time, however, can throw all of your plans in an uproar.  For those of you who've played Blood Bowl, it actually felt quite like that; you can clearly learn to play the game well, but at some level, what happened was in the hands of Nuffle.

Nearing the end.  Pike have broken, Shot on the right are being driven back.

That said, I do actually like the game.  Even when the Covenanters were clearly going to lose, there were always choices to make, and a reason to stay engaged.  The outcome was also predictable in retrospect.  Dense, slow moving troops should struggle against swarms of mobile effective shooting.

I suspect there's a learning curve regarding the role of the different troop types, and playing more equivalent force constructions will likely also help.

Last stand of the Covenant Shot.

From set-up to break down took 1.5 hours, the game ran about 7 turns, and that was with me looking up damn near everything.  I could easily see a couple of experienced players getting in multiple games in an afternoon or evening.  The rules are also relatively flexible (in regards to things like basing, for example), and are intuitive.  Once I started to get the unit profiles down, the game ran smoothly; any time I had trouble finding a specific rule and just guessed, it turned out later I'd been correct.  The "character and campaign" elements would be fun, I suspect (your officers grow and develop, over time), and I'm keen to try one of the other scenarios (which quickly move from the meeting engagement I played to a range of objective-based options).

As one-sided as this game was (even with me playing both sides), I'm keen to see what else the rules have to offer.

FMB