Last of the sun?

Hi all, 

September has been a busy month, with work ramping up again, the kids back to school, and much scurrying about getting the house ready for the 8 months of inclement weather we enjoy here in sunny Nova Scotia.  That said, I have been puttering away at the Bolt Action soviets when I can scratch together a few moments, and am getting close to 500 points of painted figures.  Once they're done, I'll throw up a post showing them off, along with a starter game I managed to cram in.

More recently, I was able to take advantage of a rare day of decent weather to get in a backyard game against Jura, once again taking the Covenanters and Royalists out for a spin with Pikeman's Lament.  Covenanters had two shot, and a unit apiece of trotters, dragoons, pike, and a regimental gun.  Royalists had two shot and a pike, and elite or veteran gallopers and dragoons.

Pictures courtesy of Jura, so from his side of the table.  Covenanters to the top, Royalists at the bottom.

This was one of those games where the activation mechanic of PL was visible.  For those of you unfamiliar with the system, units activate on a two-dice roll, different actions have different degrees of difficulty, and failure on a roll ends one's turn.  

Early in the game, Jura couldn't get his boys moving for love nor money (in point of fact, his gallopers opened things up with a blunder that sent them running away from the battle for a turn), but this evened out later in the game, when I had the same problem - I couldn't get my guys to attack on a couple of turns where it was critical for them to do so.

Festivities opened up on the right, with a clash of horse.  The Royalist elite gallopers had an advantage over the Covenanter trotters, who were sent packing on a bad morale roll.

As it happens, I quite like both PL and the "Rampant" series of sister games, in part because of this command friction mechanic.  That said, it can be mind-bogglingly frustrating at times, when your opponent presents you with a perfect opportunity, and your units Just. Won't. Act.  ;)

I imaging this kind of hair-pulling frustration isn't entirely unknown to actual field commanders.  What I like about the PL system is it's much more about managing a force, rather than controlling it.  You are constantly reacting to events and frictions in game, while still actively trying to implement a plan; there's an adaptive process throughout that keeps one thoroughly engaged.

Infantry begins to close.  Royalists have already sent packing one of the Covenanter shot wings.

We've been playing infrequently enough that we're still sticking to pretty basic scenarios, and haven't really brought in the more campaign-focused mechanics (like commander traits and experience).  I'd love to do that at some point, but as it goes right now, we often struggle to remember the point of the scenario.  The one we played, Patrol, was supposed to have us trying to get across the table, with a time limit.  We pretty much forgot about the latter element, and aside from Jura's dragoons, generally abandoned the "moving across" bit in favour of a slugfest.

Covenanters have some success in the middle, as they push back and rout the Royalist pike, but they're now flanked by a unit of Shotte.

By the end of the game, we were down to a couple of damaged units apiece, with everything else either routed or otherwise off the board.  Not to worry, however.  It was great to actually get minis on the table, including a couple of units that hadn't seen action yet (the dragoons on both sides, for eg.). 

End game.  For a scenario that was supposed to be a running battle, it turned out to be a meatgrinder.

I'm more or less satisfied with the Royalist opposition force for now, so I think my ECW efforts will refocus on the Covenanters, with an eye to grow them to something closer to small Pike and Shotte scale games.  With the Bolt Action Soviets close to playable, ECW will likely return to the painting queue, along with the victrix vikings I picked up a while back.  There's a few folks in town with vikings, and the Cub has inherited both my old Wargames Factory stuff, and added to them some fantasy elements for use in Dragon Rampant.  Vikings and Scots will likely see me busy through Christmas, at which point, no doubt, Santa will be the Magpie enabler he so often is.  Normans in Italy is something I've thought about for a while (and those new Victrix normans are looking AWFULLY nice), and there's always the prospect of some other craziness.  Victrix adding Persians to it's range is making it harder to resist the idea of an Antigonid force, for example . . . .

Pikes for Vicky

 Hi all,

It's Victoria Day here in Canada, also known as May two-four.  This was, historically, the occasion upon which my grandmother (who I've come to realize was eccentric, though to me, she was just Nana), would ritually intone the following:

The 24th of May,

is the Queen's burthday.

We shall have a holiday,

or all run away.

The beauty of May two-four, is of course, that while it is a beacon of tradition, precisely what tradition one follows seems pretty flexible.  Based on the super-abundance of memes on my social media feed, this is the weekend that many of my fellow Canadians traditionally devote to getting pie-faced and piloting Sea-Doos.  

I know it more as the weekend after which one traditionally can plant with only reasonable risk of frost, aka, the weekend I spend digging out the garden.  These days, since I do much of the gardening, live in a place where it rains 3 days in 4, and am married to someone with Olympic-class pollen allergies, I managed to duck that traditional duty, and instead spent a pleasant couple of hours playing Pikeman's Lament.  While the garden will still need digging, I'm currently enjoying a nice glass of Dewar's, and writing this, which seems a far more civilized way to commemorate Queen Vic than either spreading diesel waste or digging in the mud ;)

View from the Royalist side.  Pay no attention to the night-camo unit.

It's the second game of PL I've played, and I opted, perhaps unsurprisingly, for the second scenario, Patrol.  This has the two forces attempting to pass by each other, to exit the table on the opposing side.  It has a turn limit, based on the slowest movement on the table.  Basically, enough turns that the slowest moving unit could travel across the table, in a straight line, along the shortest path.  For my game, it was 10 turns.  It quickly became clear that actually getting units, particularly Foot, off the table would be tricky, but the scenario did impact game choices; in the end, you win based on the units that "escape", and that gives you reasons to try and evade where possible.

My self-painted Royalist continent continues to grow, if slowly.

I used different lists this time around.  Although the core of my Scots remained more or less the same (Pike, 2x shot, regimental gun, Trotters), I dropped the unit upgrades, and took a unit of dragoons.  I was impressed last game with their utility, and will likely turn my hand to updating the ones I have.  My current supply of dragoons arrive painted as part of the Big Trade, and while they're nicely done, they don't fit in as well as I'd like with what I have.  Some TLC and rebasing are likely in order.

The Scots horde arrives on the table.

The Royalist side was a significant departure, in that I built it around a core of the Warlord figs I've painted up since last time.  The Royalists took 2x Pike, 3x Shot, and a unit of Gallopers.  While PL seems very much oriented towards the Petite Guerre elements of the ECW/W3K, this would be a clash of more conventional forces.

Royalists advance.

Scots won the roll to be the attacker, and deployment commenced.  There's a nice element to PL in which slower units (foot, basically) deploy before faster ones, or scout units like Dragoons, and defenders deploy before attackers.  This leads to a staggered, alternating deployment in which one gets to respond to one's opponent - and presumably might influence force selection for a more analytical player than I am ;)

Scots push forward.  Dragoons move to secure the fords.

After a slow start (Scots rolled a blunder to activate their first unit of the game, causing them to lose their turn, and the unit itself to waver), the Scots pushed forward.  The Trotters moved out to the flank, while the Dragoons pushed up to try and cover the fords.  I'd set the table up with a creek running across it (difficult ground).  While crossable, it would slow progress, except at the fords.

Royalists continue to press forward.

The Royalist side, at this point, caught a bit of a break, when their Gallopers rolled a double 6 to activate.  I seemed to roll a surprising number of both double-1s and double-6s this game.  Don't know if that was just the odds, or if the Auld Queen was looking over my shoulder.  In any event, the Royalist horse (which I'd just put together the other day), surged ahead on a double activation.

This game actually looked "proper", at least to my novice eyes.

There were a few turns of manouevring at this point.  Both the Royalists and Scots pushed forward, shaking out into lines in an effort to both block the opponent, and bring their forces to bear.

Royalist pike advance.  Wish I'd gotten the last bases finished in time ;)

The festivities opened when the Scots frame gun, which had struggled to activate for several turns. managed a beauty of a shot at the approaching Royalist horse, which was followed up by a volley from the Scots Shot at the Ford.  Riddled with shot and cannister, the Royalist Horse recoiled.

Scots horse cross the river, and prepare to charge.

This gave the Scots horse the chance to cross the river (leaving the ford open to the infantry), and set themselves up for a charge.  At the other ford, the Scots dragoons and second Shot had established a defensive line, but the Royalists had seized the hill, and their Pike were pushing down the road.

Dragoons in the woods, Shot at the ford.

Pike and Shotte, together at last.

The Scots horse charged, scattering their Royalist opponents, but effective fire from the Royalist lines withered the Scots dragoons, and drove them back from the copse of woods in which they were hidden.

State of the battle from the Royalist side.

In the meantime, the forward Royalist units, particularly the shot, continued to pour fire into the Scots pushing towards them.

Royalists on the hill.

Scots at the ford.

The Royalist pike block on the right flank surged forward.  While they'd have to weather a turn of fire, they were poised to smash into the Scots shot defending the ford.

Royalist pike charge, and push back the Scots.

The charge of the pike was enough to drive back the Scots shot, who wavered, but rallied in the next turn.  While they'd be able to stand, they lost the turn reorganizing themselves.  

On the other flank, the Scots horse pushed forward, looping around the woods to threaten the Royalist flank.

The game was winding down now.  The Scots charged the Royalist shot unit, drove them back wavering, survived the next turn (when the Royalists flubbed their activation roll), and then made haste for the table edge.  They were the one unit with a chance to get off table before the game ended.

Meanwhile, on the other flank, the Royalist pike kept driving back the Scots shot, which, while taking casualties, held on, and managed not to break.

Discretion, rather than valour.

With the Scots horse off table, and the Royalists pushing hard on the right, the game more or less wound down.  No other unit was going to make it, and with each side having dedicated the bulk of it's strength to the right flank, had the game continued, they'd likely have been free to either push past, or need to significantly redeploy to engage.

The Royalist right.  Might be a fight brewing across those woods, but then again, maybe not.

The Scots took it, essentially 1:0.  This was a much more even fight than the last game, and the scenario, while perhaps not determining, did matter.  It meant that fighting was more about breaking a hole for other units to follow, rather than the point itself, and affected some choices directly (for example, the Scots pike kept pushing to the flank in an effort to evade the barney in the middle of the table).

I quite like Pikeman's Lament.  Given the small sample I've experienced, the game moves well, the scenarios impact play, different units play clear roles, and it looks good on the table.  While I suspect there's a fair bit of learning curve to go, this game went much smoother than the first, and I'm looking forward to many more games to come.  I'd been losing a little steam on painting the Royalist opposition, but I'm now looking forward both to getting the horse finished, and adding some options to the Scots.

Plans, progress, and painting

 Hi all,

Still getting darker pictures.  I must live on the coast, or something.

I've been plugging away at the ECW stuff, mostly the Royalist opposition for the Covenanters in Pikemans' Lament, and have been making reasonable progress.  Pike is 2/3 finished, along with a sleeve of Shotte, and I've got pics to prove it.

I've also found my attention wandering a bit to other projects, new and old, which has got me thinking.  Add in that I've now got time to listen to podcasts (as I'm getting in solid blocks of painting time, rather than snatching 15-20 minutes here and there), and a general sort of hobby rumination has been going on in the background.

I quite like the Warlord pike and command figs, but the muskets are so-so.

Two podcasts I've been listening to quite a bit have been the God's Own Scale podcast, and the Yarkshire Gamer's Reet Big Wargames Podcast, which share a passion for the hobby, and more or less diametrically opposed visions of what that hobby can and should be ;)  What I find interesting is I rather enjoy, and to some degree sympathize, with both.  That, in turn, got me thinking about my own sense of the hobby, what I want out of it, and what I'm willing to put in.

I've been mildly surprised by the level of focus I've been able to maintain on the ECW project.  It's what I've worked on, pretty much exclusively, since before Christmas, which is almost unheard of for me.  Compared to how quickly I stalled out on the Carthaginians, it's shocking, and I've been trying to figure out what accounts for this relative success.

Bit of a departure on these guys - tried a white basecoat and lots of washes.

I think a major factor has been the "intermediate" scale of Pikeman's Lament; not so much the game itself, but rather the force "scale" (maybe 4 dozen figures a side), and the flexible approach to basing.  PL means I can hit a "game-able" number of figures, while still maintaining basing designed for larger games.  I can build a range of units, and use them, but still fantasize about the "big game" somewhere in the future, without having to build exclusively for that theoretical future goal.

Turned out okay, but I can see a few places that might need a little more shading.

What I'd somehow managed to overlook, up until a couple days ago, was the applicability of PL's sister game, Lion Rampant (and the open architecture of the "fantasy" variant, Dragon Rampant) in that role.  Although designed for medieval games, the core mechanics are readily adaptable to earlier periods.  This realization seems to have triggered a burst of energy; in addition to painting up some Carthaginians for the first time in ages, I've finally caved and ordered a box of the Victrix vikings as well.

Lybian skirmishers.  Focal depth a little off here, apologies.

L/DR is perfect for the kind of ancients / dark ages "petite guerre" I'm interested in.  On the Carthaginian side, it means I can also build their hodge-podge army while doing historically relevant gaming at the same time (Carthos vs. Numidians, Cartho-Numidian vs. Spanish, CNS vs. Gauls, etc.).  On the viking front, I can start even smaller with Ravenfeast, and have some locals interested in games as well.  Once they're hooked, I can introduce Lion (or Dragon) rampant, and Bob's your uncle.

Honestly, I'm just happy to get these guys done, they've been dragging for ages.

This puts me in the happy position of having multiple projects on the go, all of which I'm interested in pursuing - 28mm Carthos, Vikings, and ECW, 6mm Nap Russians, and 6mm SYW (which I've not forgotten about, never fear).  Happy days.

I've spent a chunk of the weekend putting together a couple of tester dark ages houses.  Once they're done up, I'll post some pics.  Until then.

Progress

 Hi all,

The semester is over, grades are in, I have several months to look forward to in which I can focus on revamping courses and writing . . . and we've gone into lockdown.  The main impact in Monkeyland is likely to be a few weeks without the Cub, as he's at his mom's, and we're not bringing him up into the lockdown zone.  Skype and email will serve for now..  He's shifted well into teenager mode at this point, which means we generally have to lure him out of the basement with food, but still, I'll miss him.

In hobby news, I finished up the bases for my first unit of Scots cavalry.  Cav units in Pikeman's Lament are six strong, so that's where I started.  I figure as the collection grows, I can either supplement existing units, or combine them into larger 12+ bunches.

Pics are a little dark, I'm afraid - I struggle to get decent ones in the office, despite my best efforts.  Next time I get them on the table, I'll see about some glamour shots.

I've based them on the Pike and Shotte standard of 25x50mm per figure.  Double basing for some, single for others (and casualty removal).

In addition to finishing off the cavalry, I made a start on a few opponents for them, and broke open the warlord box I received at Christmas.  A couple of stands of shot and one of pike were enough to get a feel for the figures, and how they compare to the Old Glory figures that make up the Covenanter force.

Generally speaking, the warlord figs (all plastic) are a little taller and slimmer than the Old Glory.  Not enough of a difference to matter on the table, certainly, and the varying height seems well within the kind of range you'd normally see among humans.

The Warlord plastics seem to fall somewhere between "old school" GW, and their newer plastics.  They're more refined than the old plastic kits (I'm talking about the old multi-part, mix-and match), with fine details generally well picked out.  They do require a bit of fiddling, however (I've found arms especially so), and there's a limited amount of mixing and matching you can do without breaking out the hobby knife.

You get quite a bit of variation in head-gear, and my sense is that's one's greatest option for customization.  I'm sticking to a majority of floppy hats, and some Montereo and stocking caps for variety for the Royalists I'll put together.

While I'm generally a fan of plastics, for reasons of durability, storage, etc., I'm finding that the figs are already getting a bit "same-y" to paint.  While metal figs can be a paint, I found the OGs to have a ton of character, and like most of their range, they "take paint well".

That said, they'll do just fine as opponents for the Covenanters in Pikeman's Lament.  The nefarious plan is to get a couple of forces together by summer.  That will give me the opportunity (weather, plague, etc. permitting) to have some folks over for games in the backyard, and perhaps spur some local interest in the period.  I'm reliably informed there's at least some folks out there with the makings of 28mm ECW armies, so anything to get folks out and interested would be great.

FMB

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