Connaught Breakthrough 1599

 In July last year (yes I am that far behind in posting my games!) I put on a 28mm game in Tudor Ireland using the Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End rules.

The scenario was actually taken from a different set of rules (To the Banners by Stephen Danes) but adapted to Irregular Wars.

Here are some photos from the rules:

MWS Open Day: Beyond the Pale

Back in June last year (how long ago that seems!), I ran a 28mm game set in Tudor Ireland using the Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World’s End.  Here are some pictures of that game:

Wargaming Weekend: Battle at the Ford

So last weekend was another opportunity for Lenin to visit and for us to break out a few games.  First up was a playtest of the new Pike & Shotte rulesusing my Tudor Ireland figures.

As with our previous game Lenin took command of the English and I took the Irish.  The English force consisted of three battalia, two of foot and one of horse.  Each foot battalia consisted of two units of pike, two of muskets and one each of swordsmen and billmen.  The horse contained two units of Border Horse.   The Irish also had three battalia, again two foot and one horse.  The foot were a mixture of Gallowglass, New Scots muskets, Bonnachts, Kern (including a unit of arquebus) and a bow armed unit of the Rising Out.  The horse were a mix of Irish and Scots.

The English was a relief force whose mission was to advance down the valley, across the ford and off the table.  Whilst the Irish simply had to stop them.

The English began their advance and their horse quickly spotted the units of Kern and Rising Out holding my right flank.  They obviously decided that these were going to be easy meat.  Our bow fire was desultory and the English horse charged home smashing my flank with only the Rising Out managing to avoid the onslaught.

Meanwhile the English foot had continued to march forward.  I advanced my Irish horse to their front and sent the Scots in skirmish order around their flank.  With the impact of their own horse on my foot in mind the English musketeers rushed to the protection of their pike.  With the main body of the English in hedgehog their advance had been nicely slowed I waited for their next move.

It wasn't long in coming.  Rather than move across the front of my foot to engage my horse, the English decided to move to attack my foot defending the river bank.  Unfortunately for them, the river was deeper where they chose to cross and their advance was considerably slowed.  This gave my New Scots enough time to loose a volley of musket fire into them and one of the English units was destroyed.  The other successfully crossed the stream and charged into my foot, who collapsed and routed off the table - followed by the English horse!

With the English cavalry threat neutralised I could concentrate on their foot.  My Scots horse advanced through the wood to the left of the English and emerged behind them - maintaining their need to stay in their hedgehogs.  However, the English were having none of it and their swordsmen and billmen were continuing to advance.

The English mad a beeline for the ford and charged my Gallowglass.  At first this looked like it would work well for the English with the Gallowglass falling back; however, the Irish rallied and the flanking Gallowglass units made a ferocious charge into the English swords and routed them.  They made similarly short work of the English bills.

My other New Scots fired a volley into the leading English pike formation and then the Bonnachts and Gallowglass charged in - at which point the English army's morale broke and the day was ours.

Overall, we were quite pleased with the rules.  Having played Black Powder previously certainly helped.  Although Pike & Shotte do differ is certain areas, it was clear they are derived from Black Powder.  Lenin had more recently read Hail Caesar and commented how different these rules were from those in a number of respects.  I'm certainly going to give these another go once my Montrose figures are all based.

First Look: Pike & Shotte

Pike & Shotte is the latest addition to the Warlord rules stable and another of the "Black Powder family".  In this case the heritage is very obvious as this was apparently originally conceived as a supplement but ended up growing into a full set in its own right.

Pike & Shotte is intended to cover the 16th and 17th Centuries and since I have figures and have enjoyed reading Black Powder and Last Argument of Kings I thought I would pick up a copy.  Pike & Shotte is very like Black Powder both in terms of content and layout.  It is a full stand alone ruleset (which seems very much like Black Powder) but with background for the Italian Wars, Tudor Wars, Thirty Years' War, English Civil Wars and the Wars of the Sun King.  It's hardback with 208 pages and has the same attractive presentation style as Black Powder with lots of eye candy.

The book kicks off providing an overview of "the Age of Pike & Shotte" covering the core troop types and basic tactics.  The next 80-odd pages covers the basic and advanced rules followed by discrete sections on each of the Wars it covers.  These latter sections contain a brief overview, special rules and one or two scenarios along with appropriate army lists.  The book is rounded out by a two page quick reference sheet (which can also be downloaded from Warlord's website).

I haven't really given the Black Powder rules a decent try as yet (having only played a single game) and given the similarity of these I suspect these will play the same albeit with certain period specific aspects (pike for example!).  I'm not sure whether these will end up being my chosen rules for this period (only some more games will tell) but the book is beautifully presented and will nicely grace your bookcase shelf or indeed your coffee table.

Amazon have the rules available for £19.50 (which is where I picked up my copy) - although they do have the wrong cover picture for some reason (pre-production artwork?) - I've popped a link below if you're interested:

Pike & Shotte Rules

Warlord Games have announced that the new addition to the Black Powder rules family - Pike & Shotte - are now available for pre-order.

I had thought that these rules were intended to cover the Thirty Years War and the English Civil War but according to Warlord's announcement they have been expanded to include the Italian Wars, the Tudor Wars in the British Isles and the War of the Grand Alliance.

I am in two minds about ordering them as I know they will be nicely produced with some lovely eye candy and I do have both Tudor Wars and Montrose figures that I could use with them; however, I am still not entirely sold on the Black Powder system.

In any event, if you are interested Amazon have them available for pre-order at a significant discount - £19.50 as opposed to the £30 RRP.  Although you won't get the free miniature that Warlord are offering.

If you're interested I've popped an Amazon affiliate link below:

Wargames Weekend: Breakthrough - Connaught 1599

Time for yet another wargames weekend with Lenin. We have a couple of new rule sets to test out this time so we started off with Tudor Ireland using the To the Banners rules by Stephen Danes. It was also a chance to get my Vendel and Graven Images figures to the table again along with the Warbases movement trays which I picked up to do just this sort of larger game.

The scenario was taken from the rules and involved the English troops advancing up a valley through some woods in an attempt to break through to relieve another English force. The Irish had laid an ambush having blocked the road at the most difficult point for the English to pass.

Things started fairly slowly with the English pike advancing in column up the road flanked on both sides with units of shot. The Irish faced them with four units of Kern with their Gallowglas held in reserve further up the valley.


The English advanced slowly toward the Irish barricade and opened fire on the Irish troops. Eventually the English pike summoned up the courage to charge the Irish who stood their ground. It was not an even match and the pike pushed the kern back again and again until having taken as much punishment as they could they turned and fled. The English pike pushed on into the next unit of Kern with similar results whilst the Gallowglas looked on unable to respond.


With the English pike advancing but their shot stalled at the edge of the wood the pike now came into contact with the lead Gallowglas unit which was a more even match. The charged and the Gallowglas, probably seeking revenge for the Kern, counter charged. A bitter struggle ensued with the units evenly matched. Then suddenly the tables turned and the Gallowglas managed to get the upper hand pushing the pike back until eventually they routed.

With the English pike streaming back through their ranks the English troops were disordered and back to fall back. With the English attack faltering the Irish took to their heels to set up another ambush further along the path of their advance.

After the game we spent a little while reviewing the rules. We liked the innovative approach to the initiative mechanic which provided some real command and control issues for both sides. Although the rules had some significant omissions which did call into question how thoroughly they had been playtested and could have been laid out in a more accessible manner. We plan to give them another go with a more conventional set of forces to see how they perform.