Ochone! Ochone!

 Hi all,

My nefarious, Skeletor-worthy plans are showing fruit.  Actually managed to get the Cub to play some historicals, at his suggestion ;)  Broke out the Scots and Royalists for some Pikemans' Lament.  24 points.  We both had Pike with Shotte wings.  He had good dragoons and gallopers, I had okay trotters and dragoons, with an edge in numbers rather than quality.  As it was his first game, we played the simplest scenario, Ga Pa, which is basically about taking out opposing units, and protecting yours.

The Cub is rapidly emerging as the terrain maker in the family.  He spent a chunk of the Christmas holiday putting together stuff for the old GW Bretonnian jousting game (which he played out with the Puddin').  The Windmill was a kit he put together, and the the house he scratch-built.  

The game unfolded in three phases.  The first involved the Cub charging his elite gallopers into the guts of the Scot infantry (deployed on the right).

This turned out to be a pretty good plan, as he managed to shatter one shotte wing, and generally put the bulk of my Scots on their back foot.

I was able to drive his cavalry back, but he made morale rolls with distressing frequency, and was able to keep hammering them in on a regular basis.  This had the effect of both keeping me more or less on my side of the table, and getting some decent hits on my infantry.

In the meantime, he drove his infantry forward on my left.  We'd had a quick chat about how pike and shot units worked together in the period, along with game mechanics, and he'd clearly taken the conversation to heart, as he used his pike quite effectively to block my cavalry from his shot wings.

On the right, the remnants of his gallopers continued to stall a good chunk of my army, despite my swinging a unit of trotters across to reinforce.

At this point, the game swung solidly in his favour.  A couple of abysmal morale rolls in response to shooting sent my cavalry fleeing from the field, and the Cub was free to swing his infantry over to put more pressure on my right.

There were certainly some things I could have done better (particularly in the use of my dragoons and terrain), but it was a solid game, and the Cub played well.  He's familiar with the core mechanics from Dragon Rampant, and used his units together quite effectively, coordinating his shot with both the pike and various horse units at different times in the game.  I thought he did quite well, and earned the win.

It was such a delight to get to play historicals with him.  SciFi, and so some degree fantasy, remain his main interest, but here's hoping I can tempt him into the occasional game in future.  I suspect working up some more Vikings and French for a Lion Rampant game might help in that regard, so I will see what can be done there.