Greg and I met at my house today at noon and tried ourselves with the "new" Black Powder Pike & Shotte rule set. We played Edgehill Roayalist vs. Parliament troops.
The armies met on the battlefield on October 23rd, 1642 after King Charles I from England set up his standard in Nottingham having fled London due to a Protestant uprising and the support of parliament.
The two armies faced each other off near Edgehill with approx. 14,000 troops on each side.
I used simply the already designed game and OOB from a GMT hex game, and show the army set-up on a GMT map in the beginning of the attached photos.
I had set-up the gaming table as close to the GMT gaming map as possible, and I thought that I did a reasonable job given the fact that I really thought about playing a game in the first place the afternoon the day before.
I was running out of hedge rows and substituted many with mostly small trees placed in zig-zag lines wherever they were supposed to go. It worked for the game and it was still aesthetically pleasing. Also, the river shown is actually a bit big for what I had intended, and it was supposed to be a small creek with no influence on moving troops. Just eye candy, and hence we decided to leave my set-up from the night before. Although Greg made a huge effort to bring all sorts of terrain and troops. Thanks Greg!
I actually had all the troops with the exception of one pike & shot unit as well as one small 3-lb artillery battery. It turns out that the shown and used troops are about 60% of what I actually own. All is painted, but not all is based yet. Basing and adding flags will have to be next on my agenda for my ECW and TYW troopers.
The game mechanics are identical to all BP rule sets, but the Pike & Shotte, of course brings period flavor to the table. We did not bother, or better I ran out of time, to distinguish the various troop types and adding elites, caracole horse, cuirassiers, harquebusiers, etc. We simply called all cavalry regular horse equipped with pistols. And all pike & shot units were the same, which made it easier to ran through this test game to see how the Pike & Shotte supplement for BP works.
The pike & shot units are actually considered to be 3 different units and are supposed to be deployed a little apart from each other. Cavalry can decide to just attack the shot unit, but as a combat response, the shot unit may role their morale test and and when passed is allowed to attach themselves to the pike unit, which will give the horse a lot of trouble bringing the hand-to-hand home safely.
All in all, Greg and I had a wonderful Sunday afternoon gaming. Greg pulled a win off for Parliament as was the outcome for the real battle, and denied King Charles I a return to London to put an end to the silly uprising and show who is King! At first, both the Parliament and Royalist left and right flank respectively started to crumble at the end of the second turn and were ready to retreat. At the beginning of the third turn, the Royalists also had big set-backs on their left flank which forced them to retreat, as well as major signs that the center body was starting to crumble under the strong Parliament pressure applied. A fair win for Greg and his VERY strong Parliament with an incredible amount of 5 & 6 dice rolls to safe just about any hit dished out by the Royalists.
I pull my hat for such a smooth win. A great day indeed for both of us.
Thank you Greg.
GMT gaming map and hex game counters.
Dark spot depicts a plowed field which slows down the movement in half.
Hedgerows and road seen in both the map and table top pictures. Road not yet actually added to the table top in the photo, since the first photos were taken prior to Greg's arrival.
Hedgerows with wood substitutes planted in zig-zag lines.
My ECW / TYW army safely stored in sweater boxes. This is about 60% of what I actually own.
I went ahead and placed all the troops per OOB for the GMT game, This Accursed Civil War before Greg stopped by to speed up the start of the actual game. It turned out to be a good plan! Royalists seen in foreground and Parliament (boooo!!) to the far left.
Royalists.
Royalists cavalry. I need to get flags purchased for the ECW now too and make sets so I can switch them out depending if I want to game TYW or ECW.
Detached Musketeers or Dragoons lurking behind a self made hedgerow.
Royalist artillery line, which I had intended to make it into a Royal(ist) pain in the Parliament you-know-what
Entire Royalist pike & shot battilia line in the center.
Parliaments opposing center.
Parliaments left wing.
And their respective right wing with 4 cavalry units in the 2nd line as reserves. Those proofed to be well worth, since after my collaps of the Royalists left wing, this reserve cavalry would've rolled up the Royalists center pike & shot body like nothing. But, we did not go that far since we both had to pack up.
The Parliaments huge pike & shot battilia of 6 such units. Wow. What a sight!
Nasty Parliament musketeer units staggered behind the hedgerows waiting for the Royalists.
The two antagonists. King Charles I, and below
The Earl of Essex, or aka Greg Hanson, The Earl of West Hartford, or better known as the Sleeping Beauty.
Important provisions, not only for troops and beasts alike, but also for the generals!
The Royalist mighty artillery salvos did a whole heck of a lot of NADA.
They sure made a lot of smoke, though!
First cavalry move for the Royalists.
My first blood on the Parliament. That felt good, hehehe.
Clashing cavalry in the alley-way, oh my!
One of countless cavalry and other close combats clashes.
The lines have moved considerably toward each other.
Do you want a piece of me?
Close quarter fighting.
Skirmish against skirmish.
This reminds me of a Black Friday sales day, which I try to avoid as much as a real close combat.
My Royalist left flank's cavalry is already in deep doodoo as seen not only by the number of hits, but also symbolized by the pink bead showing that 2 out of the 3 cavalry units are now shaken, and the first is disordered as well. Not a good day for the King, oh no!
A nice shot over the entire length of the battlefield.
Greg's dead.
My dead. See the difference? Huh? See it?
A puny musketeer dead unit of Greg's on his other flank. Greg was a lucky man. A lucky man...
