David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Friday, 7 September 2018

The Second Battle of San Philippe

I modified the table layout slightly, mainly adding more elevation, and moved the walled farm further to the edge of the playing area. I thought I might try the same game with Warlord’s Pike & Shotte rules, to see what differences, if any, emerged to the game and whether of not our one base equals one unit approach would suit the rules. Of course the armies are slightly smaller, missing four bases a side, as Phil’s contingent was not present. Each army consisted of 15 units, including a Command Base to represent the army commander. I took one or two pictures to try and illustrate how the game developed using the rules ~

At the end of Turn 1 ~ the most obvious difference? Well, not every unit
moved due to failed Command Rolls! Jon's pike blocks the main victims.

Turn 2: One of my Gendarme units looses a combat to Mounted Crossbows!
One of Jon's Blunders to its right! Jon's Pike blocks still won't move!!

Turn 3: Most of my Gendarme units have lost and are Routed! Lots of
shooting going on to little effect, the Dice Gods were not happy!

Turn 4: I have too many Shaken units for my sole General to Rally but my
pike blocks may swing it my way, or not!

Turn 5: My Landsknechts fail their Morale Roll and, being Mercenaries, quit
the battle! I really should have paid them!

Turn 6: I hoped my Halberdiers might yet save me. No chance, even though
Shaken  and Disordered, Jon's Handgunners see them off!

At the end of Turn 7 its all up for the Borgias! My army is Broken and Jon
carries the field!

All in all we played seven turns in about an hour and three quarters, not bad given our vague grasp of the rules from one previous ECW game earlier in the year! Jon won in the end as over half my remaining units were Shaken and I quit the field. One memorable moment came when my Mercenary pike block failed a Morale Test while Shaken and went home! Obviously I forgot to pay them!!

As I enjoy Black Powder games I think I could warm to Pike & Shotte if I played the period more often. That seems unlikely though given my focus in the main on the period of the 1770’s through to 1914, so Phil and I will probably stick with our mash up of Neil Thomas plus mods rules, but no doubt Jon and I will revisit Pike & Shotte from time to time, though our next game will be a 1944 set Rapid Fire 2 game! Variety being the spice of a wargamer’s life here in GHQ at least!
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25 comments:

  1. Norm7 September 2018 at 03:13

    A lovely sized battle - interesting to see how Pike and Shotte worked for you. I think the brotherhood of Black Powder, Hail Caesar and Pike & Shotte are close enough to know the system, but also close enough to get caught out by slight rule differences. - all good.

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    1. David7 September 2018 at 05:19

      Black Caesar & Shotte is the problem as you say. I’m sure on reflection we imported some BP rules into our game!

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  2. caveadsum14717 September 2018 at 04:11

    Haven't used Hail Caesar or Blackpowder yet, just pike and shot for ECW games,I enjoy it,I haven't tried it for the Italian wars yet. Once more a lovely looking game and the walled farm is great, do you think moving the terrain influenced the result?
    Best Iain

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    1. David7 September 2018 at 05:21

      Thanks Iain! Moving the terrain opened up the centre and my left flank. Sadly it meant I just got thrashed more easily there! I like the walled farm myself, especially the lion fountain I got for a feature!

      Delete
  3. Peter Douglas7 September 2018 at 05:56

    Sounds like a fun game, and everything looks aces! We've had several P&S games with our Italian Wars collections.

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    1. David7 September 2018 at 23:38

      Thanks Peter. How did your games pan out with P&S?

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    2. Peter Douglas8 September 2018 at 20:46

      We've had mostly good results with P&S, I think that it's gives a good game that's fun to play, and easy to pick up. Mostly the results look reasonable. There's mods available for the early period units.

      Peter

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    3. Peter Douglas8 September 2018 at 20:54

      FYI David, there's an AAR of a recent game on my blog
      https://singlehandedadmiral.blogspot.com/2018/08/pike-and-shotte-game-pass-clearance.html

      Delete
    4. David9 September 2018 at 00:21

      Thanks Peter, I’ll take a look.

      Delete
  4. Jonathan White7 September 2018 at 15:19

    As usual at GHQ a really entertaining game. The photos don't really do justice to just how splendid Mr.B's new project is.
    Game wise I experienced a lot of failed orders (and I mean a lot!) plus I don't think we'd ever had so many drawn combats in any game before. My better shooting dice proved vital inflicting casualties at distance. This told in the end. When Mr.B's troops got up close and personal they'd already suffered attrition. With over half the army becoming shaken and/or failing tests it meant the end for Mr.B's troops.

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    1. David7 September 2018 at 23:39

      Glad you enjoyed your game Jon. I ought to have highlighted your side’s shooting more, you are right. Your Saving Throws were good too though!

      Delete
  5. Matt Crump8 September 2018 at 01:19

    As always lovely to see the armies on the battlefield, I have the rules but somehow never quite manage to spend enough time learning them to use them ?

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    1. David8 September 2018 at 05:18

      You learn rules? I tend to busk it and/or make it up as I go along! Actually, I find it really hard now a days to remember anything other than the core ideas of rule sets unless I’ve played them for years! I rely on Phil & Jon to put me right!

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  6. George Anderson8 September 2018 at 03:15

    Very nice and always good to see how different rule sets handle things, although I tend to stick once I like something.

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    1. David8 September 2018 at 05:20

      As I’ve said often here, “One set to rule them all, one set to bind them...” Or some such gibberish.

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  7. Independentwargamesgroup8 September 2018 at 04:53

    David, I find that Pike and Shotte give a decent game for the Italian Wars. To add an extra bit of detail I occasionally play around with the generalised troop ratings. Cesare had some decent Romagnol pike decked out in a red and white livery so I give them a slightly better rating. Naturally the Italian gendare types whilst man for man were as good as their French counterparts I downgrade them a tad. I like the rules and are a logical improvement from the generic Black Powder. Good looking game by the way.

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    1. David8 September 2018 at 05:22

      Thanks for the helpful pointers Robbie, I’ll do that next time I think. I did use the Mercenary rule, though it backfired on my rather spectacularly.

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  8. Phil Robinson8 September 2018 at 15:15

    Seemed to give a very different dynamic. I think those mounted crossbow were a predecessor of the panzerschreck perhaps?

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    1. David9 September 2018 at 00:19

      A very different flow I thought, but fun and challenging. Not enough Command figures though.

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  9. Vagabond8 September 2018 at 15:45

    I'm a little surprised at a unit of Gendarmes losing to mounted crossbows, what ever next!

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    1. David9 September 2018 at 00:20

      Not as surprised as I was! But, when your dice fail you what can you do?

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  10. Christopher(aka Axebreaker)9 September 2018 at 06:37

    Once again just a lovely looking game!

    Christopher

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  11. Aly Morrison9 September 2018 at 23:31

    Once again a lovely looking game and an enjoyable read.

    All the best. Aly

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