Ó Súilleabháin's lament: The Pikeman's Lament AAR

Chris Craft and I played a 24-point per side game of The Pikeman's Lament today. We used my 28mm English and Irish from Timeline Miniatures. I truly love this range of figures. They're the old Graven Images/Monolith Designs Border Reivers figures that were sculpted by Jim Bowen and sold to Timeline after Jim died. I have a pile of them, which I painted a few years back for The Irish Project back in '17. I've managed to game with them several times, though too few in my opinion. Luckily, I have enough to put on large games supplying the figures for both sides—and I still have more to paint.

We played The River Crossing scenario from The Pikeman's Lament rules, only we ran the river straight across the middle rather than cantered corner to corner. I had fun setting up the board. I've amassed a pretty impressive amount of terrain over the years.

I also took the opportunity to deploy some of the new hedgerows I've been working on.

Chris took the hated English and I took the Irish. Chris' army was pretty straightforward:

   2 x Pikes
   4 x Shot

I went a little more diverse:

   1 x Aggressive Forlorn Hope
   1 x Aggressive Gallopers
   2 x Shot
   3 x Commanded Shot

I had a slight advantage in shooting, although the Commanded Shot can be brittle with only 6 figures. My thinking was that the advantage of moving freely through the rough terrain would help. It didn't. My real hope was that my aggressive melee units would pack the punch I needed.

The river between us and the brambles lining the banks were all rough terrain with just one bridge in the middle. Chris deployed with his two Pike units aimed straight at the bridge supported by his Shot.

I kept my two Shot opposite the bridge, supported by my Forlorn Hope (gallowglas) and the Gallopers. I put the Commanded Shot (kern) out on my flanks.

On Turn 1, Chris rolled the Holy Grail of 6-6+6 for his first activation. He took another 4-point Pike unit. I hoped I might get the same luck, but I settled for at least not getting the unHoly Grail of 1-1+1 and losing 4 points of troops.

A lot of our shooting was less deadly than it might have been because we shot a lot at each other while in cover or across the stream, which we counted as cover with all the brambles 'n' such obscuring the target.

Chris came on the first turn making a beeline over the bridge with two Pike units. I responded by shooting—or trying to shoot.

My left Shot unit started banging away at the lead Pike unit getting a few hits. My right Shot unit kept flubbing its activation rolls. We used the alternative activation that allows a player to attempt to activate all units in a turn rather than the standard one fail and done method.

Chris moved his third Pike unit, the reinforcements he got from his lucky 6-6+6 activation roll, against my kern (Commanded Shot) on the left. He also ran one of his Shot units up in support.

The action at the bridge see-sawed. After getting just the head of the column over, Chris' Pikes got sent back after taking shot and failing morale. After rallying, Chris pushed the pikes back over and got sent back again.

All the while, my Shot, which has been targeting Chris' Pikes, has been taking fire from Chris' Shot and taking casualties. After several failed activation attempts, my right Shot unit finally gets into action. I couldn't pass my activation, but I managed to hang tough on every morale check.

I moved up my gallowglas—commanded by himself, The Ó Súilleabháin—to get within striking range of the Pikes, but then I shot the Pikes and sent them scurrying out of my charge range.

On my left, Chris was pressing with his Pikes. I'd managed to cause one Shot unit to rout away, but had lost one of the two kern units I had there. Chris charged his Pikes across the river into my kern, but since we were fighting in rough terrain, the advantage was mine. He got repulsed with loss, but I took some damage as well.

He charged once again with similar result. I finally managed to get a shot at him that made his Pikes go away after a badly failed moraled test.

After a few more turns of sparring, I finally got the chance to strike in with my gallowglas, The Ó Súilleabháin at their head. Chris' Pikes were much diminished now and the charge broke them.

With his lead Pike unit gone, Chris formed his second one, commanded by his officer, in Close Order awaiting my onslaught. Rather than strike in with my gallowglass, I sent in my horsemen.

The result was predictable. I got bounced with loss, but I managed to inflict some loss on him. I charged in again and again got bounced with loss. We were chewing each other up pretty equally, except that I had fewer men to lose. I did, however, manage to pass all my morale tests.

With my horse battered down to a lone survivor, I sent the gallowglas against Chris' now much-battered last Pike unit. At the same time, I sent my last horsemen against Chris' Shot unit.

This finally did the trick and the unit went down, with Chris' officer. My last horseman did enough damage to cause Chris' Shot unit to waver from which it never recovered until it finally broke from a failed rally test.

The Ó Súilleabháin was now alone, his gallant gallowglas dead around him. He dodged every lucky blow. My only other unit was a half-strength Shot unit.

In the ensuing turns—we'd rolled for end of game, but it didn't—I got my Shot unit over the river, wisely avoiding the bridge where I wouldn't benefit from cover. Chris had two diminished, but still above half-strength, Shot units. He used these to dispatch The Ó Súilleabháin. No foe could beat him hand-to-hand; his end came from an enemy far away.

My last battered unit of Irish Shot grimly held its ground across the bloody river, giving the honor of the day to the Irish—no Englishmen had made it across and lived. But like Doughty Douglas at Otterburn, a dead man won the fight and The Ó Súilleabháin's favorite piper played his lament as the sun set.

Cnoc Uí Chinnéide: Pikeman's Lament AAR

We played The Pikeman's Lament on Saturday. We wound up being a bit short staffed. I planned a six-player game and set up the terrain on Friday afternoon. Based on feedback about who was planning on playing, I initially worried that there would be too many people showing up to play, but at 11:00 it was just John Kennedy and I there—and John had to be there because he owns the place. I was afraid I'd given a war and nobody came. However, about 11:30 a newcomer named Mason showed up. He'd seen John's posting about the scheduled game and was eager to give The Pikeman's Lament a try, so John, Mason, and I gave it go. It turned out to be a great game.

The scenario was set sometime during the Nine Years War (a.k.a. Tyrone's Rebellion) in Ireland—late 1590s. The English had a command atop a central elevation, Cnoc Uí Chinnéide (Kennedy's Hill). Behind that was a river too deep to cross except at a ford and a small bridge.

The field of battle

The Irish were all on the same side of the river as the hill and were in position to begin pressing the English hard. The narrowness of the approach for the other two English commands would provide a few turns of opportunity for the Irish to concentrate against the hill.

Control of the hill depending on proximity to a large Celtic cross erected in some bygone age. To claim control of the hill one side had to have at least one unwavering unit within 3" of the cross without any unwavering enemy also within 3". If neither or both side were within 3" then the hill was contested and no points for control awarded.

English in sole control of the hill

You can download a PDF of the scenario showing each command here.

I ran all three Irish commands, John ran the English left flank command, Mason ran the English right and the center command on the hill.

The defence of the hill: pike, shot, and billmen

In past games I've run with the English and Irish, the Irish tended to get the better of the English because they outshot them. When I started creating the armies a few years ago, I imagined the Irish kern as clouds of skirmishers that would annoy a column of English troops. However, the mechanics of Pikeman's Lament are such that skirmishers (commanded shot) can shoot pretty much as well as shot units, in addition to moving faster and treating rough terrain like clear—but cost half the price. The only downside was smaller units and a 12" maximum range. But what it means for play is that the Irish can throw 24 dice in a firefight for every 12 dice the English throw. The Irish kern shot the English columns to bits in both games I ran of the Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits. The game I ran at Enfilade! this May saw the English win by the skin of their teeth and only by meeting the condition of getting their wagons over the ford unharmed; the English force itself had been decimated by Irish firepower.

Irish shot and Irish kern with calivers

For this game, I wanted to tame the Irish shooting a bit, so I combined the 6-figure kern units into 12-figure shot units, and then I made them raw shot (hit on 6/18"). I don't think I'll make them raw if/when I replay this. Raw shot are pretty awful. I made the English shot all veteran (4+/18"), which were pretty deadly. However, while the Irish certainly didn't shoot the English to pieces in this game, neither did the English obliterate the Irish. It seemed to be mostly balanced, at least in terms of actual results in the game, which must take into consideration some really bad waver test rolls that saw a few units routed even though they had minimal casualties. Rolling snake-eyes has consequences...

The raw shot has a maximum range of 18", but shoot hitting on 6s only. Beyond 12" they're -1 on the die roll. Since they can't roll 7s on a D6, they're really only able to fire at 12" except for their first fire, which adds +1 to the die.

The Irish left wing: lots of raw shot

The Irish moved first. I adopted the Rebels and Patriots activation style and instead of a side's turn ending on a failed activation, I allowed players to go on to attempt activations of all their units. In multiplayer games especially, the loss of a turn when you fail your first activation is a bit deflating. Some players in our past games have been bereft of taking a turn for several turns running. I rather like allowing an attempt to activate all one's units before passing initiative over.

My plan was to strike quick in the center against the command on the hill while delaying the English reinforcements as much as possible with parts of the flank commands, while other parts of the flanks aided the battle in the center.

Moving up the horsemen

My plane sort of worked, but took longer than I figured. The fire of the English veteran shot on the hill caused a lot of pain, although I was able to pass my waver tests for several turns running. I also found myself critically outmatched when I tried my raw shot against Mason's veterans. My one unit of skirmishers (kern with javelins, whom I gave only a 6" range) was supposed  to advance through a bog and harass/distract on of Mason's shot units. It never had a chance to fling its javelins, but it did occupy them for a couple turns, enough to get my cavalry in place and get a unit of raw shot over from my right flank to provide more fire (anemically).

The kern advance to prove that one should never bring a javelin to a gunfight

The Irish cavalry took one shot from Mason's calivermen on the hill and lost 1/3 of their strength. However, they were in position to strike.

Before the carnage and glory

Even though the first few turns were desultory, on turn 3 I was able to strike hard. My Irish shot (real shot, not the saffron-wearing kern) got off a telling volley at Mason's pikes and sent them back wavering. I was then able to charge my cavalry against Mason's shot. I did good damage on impact, although I also took another loss, which put me a half strength. The shot retreated and failed its waver test. I then followed up (gallopers) and in my second strike at them they took more losses and routed after a badly failed waver test.

My diminished cavalry sitting where the English shot made its last stand

Defeating the English shot took a lot of pressure off my forces. Shooters—especially veteran shot—matter. The loss of a unit like that hurts. However, the Irish cavalry didn't last long on the hilltop. Mason attempted to attack with his billmen (and officer) but failed the activation. In my turn I charged only to get repulsed with loss. In Mason's next turn, he charged home and took out my last horse standing. Theirs was a short, but glorious career.

On the English right, Mason's forces were crossing the bridge. The narrow access kept their advance from being strongly felt for a few turns, but before long they were starting to worry me.

English forces cross the bridge against the Irish left

I had a bit of luck at this point. Mason lead with one of his veteran shot units, who advanced within 12" of my raw shot hunkered down behind a stone wall. With the first volley (getting a +1 for a grand effect of 5+ on their shot) they inflicted 2 casualties, Mason rolled snake-eyes for his morale test with no officer within 12". With a result of exactly 0, his fine unfired veteran shot went away. It was the last hurrah for the Irish kern—also their first. It was their only hurrah, but they'll be making much of it and embellishing the story down the generations.

A glorious victory in the making

On my right, John was getting across the ford, slowly. He'd had a string of bad activation rolls, which gave me a bit of time to get in relatively good position. He led with his commanded shot. His officer;s unit was way in the rear and didn't add much to his activations, morale, and rally tests.

John's forces cross the ford

The fight for the hill between Mason's billmen and officer and my gallowglass and officer went for a few rounds. The initial clash was a draw and I was forced to retire.

St. Patrick and St. George content for the hilltop

On the last turn of the game, however, I got one more charge in and wiped out the billmen, killing Mason's officer.

Preparing for the final charge

All the while, John was putting a steady pressure on the Irish right. He was outgunned, having just two veteran commanded shot against two Irish shot units plus a unit of raw shot (kern). Although, my feckless kern spent most of their wasted effort not hitting Mason's billmen on the hill.

Battle shaping up on the right

The Irish shot, on the other hand, managed to eliminate one of John's commanded shot and damaged the other. They also put a few casualties on one of John's pike blocks. In the course of things, though, John put some casualties on one of my shot units, which rolled snake-eyes for its morale test (a trick they'd learned from watching Mason) and they went running back to the bogs of Ballyshannon.

Getting near to push of pike on the Irish right

We sparred a bit with our pikes, but that's kind of ineffectual. Pikes are better defending than attacking. To attack pikes with pikes is to put yourself at a disadvantage. John tried that once and got bounced back. I stood my ground until one of my shot units managed to inflict some casualties and John failed the morale test, becoming wavering. Nevertheless, my attack on his wavering pikes didn't do much more than inflict some casualties and send him backwards. He was able to rally on his next move and our pikes spent the rest of the game glowering at each other.

Taking out Mason's billment on the hilltop was my last good deed for the day. His right flank forces were coming in now. Despite losing one of his two veteran shot, he still had a formidable force, especially against the raw shot I could send against him.

Mason held off my left with his pike unit and moved his remaining shot and his billment to the hill. He also had the right hand shot unit from the hilltop command. I'd been keeping that unit busy with my left flank command, but had suffered much from them, while doing little harm in return since they were well ensconced in a wee wood.

Trying to press him on that flank proved disastrous. One of my raw shot was shot away and my pikes were as well. I had a forlorn hope unit (redshanks mercenaries), but it had taken some damage attacking Mason's sot in the woods and was at half strength. For some reason, the unit of gallowglass—along with my officer—on the Irish left spent the whole game in a wood. I was so focused elsewhere, I just forgot to get them into the fight. I think somewhere in the back of my mind, too, I was regarding them as my last reserve to be committed only to stave off calamity.

The end wasn't calamitous, although it was an English victory 14-9. We played out 8 turns in about 2 hours. The English held the hill uncontested for most of the game. At game's end neither side had uncontested control, so no one got points for that. As for shooting troops, the English had one intact unit of veteran shot, one that was a bit shot up, and a nearly half strength unit of commanded shot. The Irish still had two units of shot, two units of raw shot (for what they were worth), and the redshanks at half strength.

Post mortem

It was great to play The Pikeman's Lament again. We've been playing a lot of Rebels and Patriots, so going back to TPL was a bit of a sea change and it took a few turns to get into the flow. I did use the R&P activation rule that players can keep activating units after one fails until they've made an activation attempt for all their units. It worked very well that way.

I think I tamed the Irish shot, as I hoped. Maybe they were a bit too tame, or maybe making the English veteran shot was too much. Shooting a 4+ is a big advantage, especially when your opponent is firing back a 6.

Pike are clearly a defensive unit type and best used facing cavalry.

I'll run this again later in the year, hopefully when there are a few more people who can play.

Not entirely indolent

It's been a few weeks since my last post. Historically, that's not surprising. I get busy, life goes on, yadda yadda—then all of a sudden I haven't blogged in 3 months. But I am trying to do better and get at least one post every month; more if I'm diligent.

But it's not like I'm doing nothing.

We have our Lion Rampant/Dragon Rampant tournament coming up on March 24. I've been working on the long-delayed Spanish and am down to just completing the bases, which I expect to do this weekend. It's been a long time coming and I hope the army does well in the tourney.

I actually have many more figures painted than I need for a single retinue, so I'll have a lot of flexibility in retinue composition. I have even more figures unpainted (you knew I would) that, once painted (there's the rub), will give me even more flexibility for building retinues. The unpainted minis include 24 figures of serfs because you never know when you'll want to deploy speed bumps to prevent your enemy killing you too quickly.

Back before Grendel died, I'd completed 10 figures of mounted men-at-arms and lots of skirmisher/shooty types (including slingers, of course). What was partially painted were the light horse (to be mounted yeoman with javelins):

And spearmen (to be foot sergeants):

I recently added crossbowmen to the mix after it dawned on me that slingers, alas, are pretty crappy missile troops in Lion Rampant. I'll keep slingers as bidowers, but my firepower will be crossbows:

By the start of the month, I'd completed the painting and dipping. I let the dip "cure" for several days before I do anything, but by midweek, all the figures were based, had the coarse pumice gel applied (and left to cure also) and the base coat of Vallejo Mud Brown applied.

Today was spent doing a lot of flocking on 35 bases:

At this point, I have the fine flocking done and have the coarse flocking yet to do. By Sunday night, I expect to have everything complete, figures dullcoated, and stored in their box until next Saturday.

I'm also going great guns now on my Irish Project units. I recently got some more Irish kern, pikes, and calivermen. I'm also up to my eyebrows painting a lot of the English:

What's on the painting table now will, soon I hope, be three 12-figure units of English pike, four 12-figure units of English calivermen, 2 units of 6-figure English commanded shot, 1 6-figure unit of English billmen, various command figures, 2 6-figure units of Irish cavalry, 2 12-figure units of Irish calivermen, 4 6-figure units of Irish kern with calivers, and one 12-figure unit of Irish pikes.

174 figures. All to be complete by late May.

That's a tall order, but helping me out is the fact that I went TV-less today. I called in the 1-800-GOT-JUNK guys to haul away (among other things) my old Sony Trinitron and the big oak cabinet it was in:

I'll put a bookcase there. That will alleviate my bookspace crisis for a little while.

I'm not sure if being without TV will make me paint more, but I will have no more temptation to sit on the couch watching TV and eating. I hope I'll fill the time painting. Or reading. But I could also spend it surfing the Interwebs. Let's hope I do the former.

Taking Meg (or Pike me, baby, one more time)

We played our second game of The Pikeman's Lament this Saturday at The Panzer Depot in Kirkland, WA. We'd been pretty much on haitus through the summer, but now that Fall is here, there's more time to play.

The forces

We had four players on a 6' x 8' table. Mike Lombardy and I were on one side, Troy Wold and a new player named Ralph (or Malcolm depending on when you asked Troy) were on the other. The forces were two 24-point companies per side.

Mike Lombardy had his atomic Poles:
2 x Elite Aggressive Gallopers (wingéd hussars)
3 x Aggressive Gallopers (pancerni)

I had my 16th c. Irish in their first game:
1 x Elite Forlorn Hope (redshanks)
1 x Aggressive Forlorn Hope (gallowglass with my commander)
1 x Pike
1 x Shot
1 x Commanded Shot (kern with calivers)

Troy had a 30 Years War force:
2 x Elite Pike
1 x Pike
2 x Shot

Ralph had a force using my ECW figures:
1 x Aggressive Forlorn Hope (angry pikemen plus the commander)
1 x Elite Forlorn Hope (firelocks)
2 x Commanded Shot (dismounted dragoons)
1 x Field Gun ("Murderin' Meg")

Scenario and deployment

We played the Gå På scenario, basically a free for all. No objective other than the enemy.

The field I set up had a lot of terrain. I was fearing a replay of Mike's Pancerni division coming at me and wanted enough places to hide to make a game of it. It turns out that Mike was my ally this game and so I gave good ground to Troy, who was opposite Mike with his units taking position in difficult terrain and behind stone walls and hedges.

Ralph was opposite me. He had a bit of a problem in placing his field gun, which is immovable in the game, but can command the field—if you manage to keep rolling 8s for activation.

I put my pikes and shot just left of our center with the idea of advancing them up to fight on the hill that dominated the center of the board. The kern, redshanks, and gallowglass were on the far left in the town on the other side of the river. My plan for them was to advance up the side and attack Ralph's field gun from the flank while my pikes and calivers were getting shelled from three feet away.

Kern in the bog, gallowglass and redshanks in the town

The game

Mike's aggressive Poles couldn't help but quickly pitch into Troy's pikes. Aggressive Gallopers in TPL really aren't a subtle unit type. In a broader tactical situation, you might keep them as a force de frappe to be unleashed after you've softened up a position with shooting. But with no shooters, Mike had to go pretty much straight at 'em from the get-go.

It wasn't pretty.

Mike's Pancerni division crashes into Troy's pikes

Mike managed to inflict a lot of hurt on Troy, but at a cost. Hard-hitting 6-figure units can do a lot of damage, but can't take a lot before they're in trouble. In the initial clash, Mike managed to rout one of Troy's pike units, but had to struggle against another.

Donnybrook on the right

The advance of my pike and shot in the center was harassed by "Murderin' Meg." There were enough attempts where Ralph failed to activate—rolling an 8 is on the wrong side of the odds. However, when he managed to shoot, it was Katie-bar-the-door.

The Hiberno-Polish center advances

The shot wavered and rolled back from one shot, but the pikes seemed to stand it well, even after taking losses.

Irish pike crest the hill and on to glory (and death)

Working my flanking force along the river took a while and it was several turns before I got in range.

Gallowglass and kern leaving the town to march on the flank

By then, Ralph had moved his firelocks over to protect "Murderin' Meg" and there was a brisk firefight at long range between his firelocks and my redshanks.

Redshanks engage the firelocks at long distance

My kern, however, entered in and the weight of shot soon took out the firelocks.

"Murderin' Meg" and the firelocks

In the center, my pikes managed to crest the hill and drive one of Ralph's dismounted dragoon units out from behind a hedge. That was their high-water maker, however. I couldn't get them to advance across the hedge to the green fields beyond and Ralph's other dragoon unit and Troy's shot peppered away at me until I spectacularly failed my morale test. Good-bye pikes.

The pikes take the hedge

Troy and Mike kept at it hammer and tongs on our right. It seemed bad for Mike, he lost his commander along with his unit and two of his pancerni. But he rolled the blesséd 6-6-6 activation (boxcars followed a by a 6 on the special chart), which brought 4 points of units on the table for him. He resurrected on of his pancerni and went right back to it. Troy, meanwhile, had lost his other two pike units, including his general, and had his centermost shot unit—the one that shot up my pikes—in danger of being overrun.

Ralph blasted my shot unit down to three figures and I couldn't pass the moral test to keep 'em around. That left him free to turn "Murderin' Meg" towards my flanking force. But I was able to shoot his crew away before he could unleash a whiff of grapeshot at me. My gallowglass, The O'Sullivan at its head, rushed in to take the gun position.

The O'Sullivan and his gallowglass take "Murderin' Meg"

Mike had swept away Troy's shot unit in the center, leaving Troy with just his one shot unit that was over on the other flank. Mike then started to move towards Ralph's troops, ignoring Troy's surviving shot. He caught Ralph's dragoons, who failed their evade test, and killed every figure in the unti. Being Commanded Shot in the open, the dragoons had a stamina of 1, which is not what you want to have when you struck by Polish Wingéd Hussars.

At this point, all that Ralph had left was his Aggressive Forlorn Hope. Troy only had a single, damaged shot unit. My redshanks and gallowglass were in great shape, Mike's hussars and pancerni were both at full strength. We'd been rolling for game end for a couple turns and still getting to roll to play on, but Troy and Ralph threw in the towel. They'd lost 38 out of 48 points. We'd lost 22 of our original 48, but Mike had gained 4 points in reinforcements.

This is the end

The whole game lasted about 2 hours and we all had a great time at it. I've come to love the "Rampant" series of games from Dan Mersey. The Pikeman's Lament is especially nice because there's a lot of versatility with defining unit types. For example, I used the dragoon units in our first game as Dragoons, but made them Commanded Shot to try out how they'd work in a terrain-heavy game where they could skulk and shoot. Although Ralph put them in open ground and even my kern (also Commanded Shot) spend the game in the open. It never really came up to have to put them in cover.

I'm happy that my Irish did reasonably well in their first game as a company. When I made the ECW company list, I gave it "Murderin' Meg" thinking that I'd be the one throwing thunderbolts with it. It's not a pleasant thing to be on the receiving end—but I have the delight of having captured the gun by game's end.

Dice and accoutrements

I was able to get another of my unique "Rampant" barker markers into play.

I have two of these, which I got from Warbases in the UK. They're made of MDF and assemble quickly with a bit of white glue. After they were assembled, I distressed them severely with a small knifing file to make a lot of nicks in them. Nothing looks pretty after sitting in the Irish countryside for a few centuries.

I also went back to using my beloved Viking bone dice. My game, my misshapen non-cuboid instruments of chance.

They didn't fail me. My rolls were never spectacular, but I passed nearly all of my activation tests, even getting boxcars twice—and never rolled snake-eyes. My shooting and combat dice were well enough to do the job, so I was happy with the little guys.

They didn't get in the game—but might have if I'd rolled the 6-6-6 activation—however, I wanted to show a pic of the first of my English units for the Irish Project: Pikes.

Lizzie's boys looking formidable

The Timeline/Graven Images/Hoka Hey! line makes a nice command set for the "garrison troops," so I can add some flags for color. The flags I used for them are Pete's Flags, which are available from his eBay store. He only has one sheet of Irish flags, but three for the English. It's a pity, though, that there isn't a corresponding command for Irish pikes. Even with the flags, there's no one to wave them.