Black Powder Pike and Shotte Last Gasp of Summer Break Game

It's back to school for me. Our break from students started May 28. It ends tomorrow, July 21. I needed this break a little more this time than others. I'm just getting older I guess and the "bounce back" is taking longer than usual.  We played a Black Powder Pike and Shotte game.  I've got two full orders of battle-infantry, artillery and cavalry. One for each side.  We did what I call a "normal sized game".  Here's a little bit of an AAR. The photos tell the story much better than I.  

Bird's eye view of the center and a bit of the right

We played 6 units of infantry in two battalias, 6 regiments of horse on the wings, 2 arty batteries per battalia.  I wanted to see how some of the cooler stuff played so I brought in F'Lorn Hopes for each side (commanded shotte), clubmen (for the Royalists), a sharpshooter, and Firelock artillery guard elements for both sides.  That pretty much sums up my ECW collection.  12 regiments of foote, 12 regiments of horse, 2 Dragoons, 8 pieces of ordnance, clubmen, and associated cool stuff like the sheep and surgeon from Warlord.

The game went south for the Parliamentary side from the beginning.  My left wing of horse decided to not show up and retreated off table in a "blunder result.  That's fitting and rather fun.  One of the things I like about this game system.  My esteemed opponent took that opportunity to gain the high ground and waited for my Commander of the Horse to quit drinking and get to work.

The left flank horse eventually passed command test to come back on table.  My opponent launched his horse and stopped my advance around Smith's Mill.

The center was a hard fought area throughout the battle with clubmen actually able to stand to pike and shotte units for a bit.  I will need to paint some updated clubmen figures. My units are old Minifigs, Hinchcliffe and Old Glory figures I scrappled together from the "gonna' paint someday box.  I'm sure modern figures are probably cooler but there's just something about a load of older figures in mass.

Clubmen

The right flank was a bit easier for my right flank commander.  He picked up the rules quickly. Black Powder Pike and Shotte lends itself to this due to its flat learning curve and some basic gaming concepts that go "way back" and are common to most games.  The Royalist horse and foote were pushed back by a hard charging Scott Clinton.  I'm thinking he enjoyed the game. He sure did enjoy smacking down the Royalists!

Who 'dat?

I lost my flank in error because I didn't read the rules about "hedgehog" and fought it straight up against Royalist horse instead of doubling the dice. Dumbass move of the day! I just played on and my flank crumbled quickly as the rest of the infantry battalia melted away.

The center dissolved into a slugfest with the Parliamentary forces getting the worst of melee. Some days you win.  Some days you lose.   Most days, it's just best to drink MORE Guinness!

 

What did we learn from this game?

1. Bring more Stout!
2. Expand the table from 8x6 to 12x6 
3. Reduce the amount of crowded terrain to facilitate play.  Sure, I could have reduced the amount of toys on the table but who the hell ever does THAT? 
4. RTFM. We spent way too much time reading the rules for little things we should have remembered. Just need to play more.
5. Black Powder Pike and Shotte is definitely unpredictable due to its die-ness.  That's a good thing for us.  Predictable outcomes are not what we want in a game. If we wanted that, we'd be at work.
6. Time for the campaign! Everything's in place. 

Here's a small gallery:

Warlord Ordnance

Artillery Guard Firelocks

Right Flank horse

Royalist horse smacked down the Rebel Horse

Hedgehog!!

The real reason this battle was fought....

Old Glory ECW Commander I painted several years ago

Notice the center has advanced toward Rusty. What happened to the left flank?

Horse finally get to the battle

Why I don't like bases for artillery!

Summer Gaming at the Rat Palace Redux in Red Oak!

Summer Gaming at the Rat Palace Redux in Red Oak! Make it a ROAD TRIP if you're from out of the DFW area!!! You're always welcome!!!

Friday: Black Powder Pike and Shotte
7:00 PM
We'll order in. Adult beverages in the cabana fridge.
Nothing needed unless you want to bring your collection to add to the fun!

Saturday Afternoon: Napoleon at War
1:00 PM
We'll order in. Adult beverages in the cabana fridge.
Bring 2K of Napoleonics. We'll choose sides once you get here. Don't have 2K? Bring whatcha' got. Loaner Austrian army available.

Sunday Afternoon: 54mm All the King's Men American Revolution
Breakfast:10:00 AM-Norm's Grill
Game: 12:00 noon
Nothing needed to bring unless you want to bring 54mm AWI units to "the ball"

RSVP as per Jeff's group if interested.
Steve Miller

Summer Break Painting Marathon-Part 2-Pike and Shotte Casualty Markers and SHEEP!

I finished out the casualty markers for Black Powder Pike and Shotte. I stole the idea from Brian Smaller's post on The Miniatures Page.  I used Warlord Pike and Shotte casualty figures with a couple of Old Glory I had already painted.  This is a straight up process, the manufacturer is easy to work with. If you need to keep up with numbers of casualties, this is the way to do it!  Highly recommended.

Warlord makes some pretty cool "eye candy" items for folks whose collections are pretty complete.  I ordered and received a shepherd diorama and a surgeon diorama.  Here's the shepherd and the sheep; keep your troops under tight discipline, no buggering the sheep or the shepherd!  That is all!

Sheep and Mr. Wilson

Warlord dead guy laying down (duh)

Warlord guy shot in the...uh...gut.

Another laying down dead guy from Warlord

Another and last picture of yet another guy shot in the uh...gut. Seems that
being gut shot is a Warlord thang....LOLZ

English Civil War Mini Campaign-Pike And Shotte!

I've really enjoyed learning the Black Powder Pike and Shotte rules. So much so, I dug out my old copy of Warhammer English Civil War rules and scraped out the campaign system.  

This is a very easy campaign system to play. It's set up in "seasons" (sorta' like a Football or Soccer season) where the players set the number of games in the season and play these games out. Winners and losers generate some really interesting results.  

Let me know (DFW area folks or Texas folks if you like road trips!) if you're interested in playing this mini-campaign.  You won't need figures, rules, or diddlee-squat unless you want to paint specific units, generals, etc.  I'd like to get started on the campaign on the second weekend in June and play it through periodically through the summer.  The game map will be on the wall at the Rat Palace Redux in Red Oak.  I'm not planning on taking the campaign on the road at this time. 
Here is a link to the game rules, map and files.  They're on my Google Drive. Please let me know if you're having difficulty accessing them. click here for file access.

Casualty Counters for Black Powder Pike and Shotte!

 I read a great post from Brian Smaller on The Miniatures Page recently.  He used these casulty counters for his Napoleonic collection and game.

Being the thief of good ideas, I snatched the URL and promptly ordered 24 of them (to start). I had several ECW casulties and guys falling down already finished out. I put them on these counters. Liked the result so I ordered a bunch more casualties from Warlord Games. These counters are like Heroclix counters my son played (still has I do believe). Instead of littering the game table with multiple poker chips, disorder and shaken counters; we'll only have counters, disorder and shaken markers.  I'll upgrade those pesky markers when this part of the project is done.

Here's a closer up shot. I apologize for the painting. I painted these guys when I had cataracts. you can see how the markers work.

Another shot of the marker.  You can get them from Warbases.com

Here's the URL:  www. warbases.com

Oh yeah, they make other cool stuff too like wagons, carts, sheep, chickens and definitely some Longhorn cattle for my ECW/30 Years War games.

Ready for Black Powder Pike and Shotte ECW on the 22nd!

I'm ready for Black Powder/Pike and Shotte on the 22nd. I was pretty sure I had enough for at least two armies.  Yep...right arm! I've got two full armies as portrayed in the rules.  Here's how it breaks down.
4 Battalias of 3 regiments of horse-144 figures
4 Battalias of 3 regiments of pike/shotte-240 figures
2 Forlorn Hopes-small 12 figure units on single bases
2 Dragoon units and appropriate dismounts-mounted in skirmish order
8 artillery pieces
1 Mortar
1 Sharpshooter/Sniper
2 firelock units (for guarding baggage and/or detached to artillery unit
Generals and CICs for both Parliamentary and Royalist forces

All I need to do is add players and roll some dice. Here's a small gallery. Pictures are taken in my gaming house. It's called the Rat Palace Redux. It's located in Red Oak, Texas. Come over and let's roll some bones. You're always welcome!

Force A array 

Ordnance and Firelock Guards

Chas his own sef' with wrong flag

Forlorn Hope-A good use for extra figures HA!

All hail the yeoman clubmen!

Horse Battalia and Canary Dragoons

Horse Battalia and no Dragoons

Shot of Sandy Botond constructed windmill and horse wing

I'm a doctor not a general!

Typical size of infantry units-I'm making this my standard 

Give Fire!

Norwich Dragoons

Ordnance and sharpshooter/sniper

Why We Fight!

Infantry array

Horse wings face off

Warlord Artillery Set. Not too shabby for resin and metal 

Force B Array

Force A Array

Black Powder Solo Game-54mm AWI Actually Works!

I dug out my copy of Black Powder again after a several year hiatus. The game we played previously left my group and myself a little cold. After reading several posts from a group of guys in "Yankeeland", I thought another try was warranted since the rules were originally a sizable investment.  I put a small solo game together to work out some of the more clunky mechanics that made us turn up our noses at Black Powder.  Used the stats from the Freeman's Farm game.

The rules call for larger sized (in the number of  miniatures) units.  My collection has been constructed for All the King's Men by Ken Cliffe.  Figures are based individually and are magnetically attached to movement stands. I decided the following convention would be in place for my game....
Regular Line Infantry: "normal sized unit"
Grenadiers or Highlanders: "large sized unit"
Jagers, Regular Light Infantry: musket skirmishers, riflemen: "small sized unit"
Cavalry: "regular sized unit"
Artillery: Battalion Gun for the Patriots, Regular sized gun for the British
The rules call for a larger table size. My game house can handle up to a 16x6 but since this was a solo game, I wanted to be able to reach quickly and work the rules rather than work the table.

British OB:
CIC: General Lord Foppe:8

Kilroy's Bde:
1st Battalion of Foote
Light Infantry
Highlanders without Kilts
Royal Artillery

Von Miller's Germans
Jagers
Knyphausen Fusliers
Von Rall's Grenadiers

Tarleton's Tories
Tarleton's Green Dragoons (unreliable)

Patriot OB:
CIC: General "Hard" Knox:8

Granny Smith's Brigade
2nd Mass. Continentals
1st Virginia Continentals
Men of Charleston (militia-unreliable)
South Carolina State Militia (unreliable)
Knox' Left Over Artillery-(batt. gun)

Lonesome Jones' Brigade
U.S. Continental Marines
Simpson's Militia (unreliable)
Lobsterhead Militia (unreliable)
Boone's Farm Rifles (small unit)

Harry Lee's Light Horse
Volunteer Light Dragoons (militia-unreliable)


Turn 1:
British win First Turn and brigade moved both infantry brigades one turn. Artillery caused 1 hit (saved).

Patriots move smartly to deny the Germans the sunken road. Marines and militia roll one move only. Boone's Farm Rifles move to occupy the Old Irish Church (ruins)
Simpson's militia causes one casualty to Jagers and disorders them. I'm not sure how to get the Jagers un-disordered other than to leave them where they are. They continue to take fire from the militia and stay disordered. That's a question for the Yahoo Group folks.  How to unscrew a unit once it is screwed.



Turn 2:
Insignificant fire, lots of saves, British move on the crossroads, Germans and USMC move to keep the sunken road from the other. Single moves for both sides. Patriot Light Horse moves to support the weak right flank of the Patriot line.  Anhalt infantry and Knyphausen Fusiliers open up on USMC. Three hits on USMC, becomes shaken.

Turn 3:Tarleton fails the order to support the wing of the British foot. British foot advance to clear the village of Fugpee. Knyphausen Fusiliers charge USMC with three moves. USMC shoots, no closing casualties to the Hessians. Melee results in the USMC retreating 1 move to the rear. Knyphausen stays in place.  I probably played this wrong as I considered the terrain a bit of sunken road and after reading the rules and a response on the BP Yahoo Group, I probably couldn't have seen the unit as they may have been obscured.  I'll remember next time but hey, it was a charge and melee on turn 3! That was cool!

Decided to stop at that point since I worked through the basic order, move, shooting, melee and morale phases.

I like the rules pretty well. I don't care for the point of having to keep numbers of hits and saves but that's a minor mechanics issue. It's not a game breaker for me. It just seems a bit familiar (LOL)

Next up is to play Black Powder Pike and Shotte solo and then host a game. Keep checking back.