Pikeman Rampant: A Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPZ3gXPC6n0 

So don’t say he’s behind the times. Only just got around to having a go with these. Anyway here are my thoughts. 

So to start off with, I expect big things from these. Lion Rampant is certainly my go to set of rules for the medieval period 1346-1530. They are quick, easy to pick up, hard to master, there is a minimum of stress and complicated mechanics, it is very much a set of pick up and play rules, that does get a modicum of period feel (although formations are not part of their gamut-need to look elsewhere for rules on using the herce). That said though, they are a set of pick up and play rules, that require no previous experience to play and can be over and done within a good 2 hours maximum. 

So onto Pikeman’s Lament (and not common campfire song on many an SK campsite). Pros wise, they do what they say on the tin, they are easy to learn, basically transplanting the Lion Rampant rules into the 17th century. Emphasis is on violent, destructive melees and shooting phases. Nothing wrong with that. 

The problem is that it feels like too much of a derivative of LR, without the period feel. In fact, if the player had no feel for the 17th century, it would just be another LR game with different models. While certainly they have tacked on an honour system for your officer/general, allowing him to issue special orders, accrue rank and honour, to match with the common perception of swashbuckling daring doe associated with The Three Musketeers, it might well have just been me, but I felt that while it was nice to have, it did not automatically change the game play at all, and merely felt tacked on to make it a different product. Maybe I just didn’t get a facet of the rules. Whatever the case didn’t really add anything. 

While 12” and 2” command and cohesion radius are applied, little is given over to regimental rank and file tactics of the period. The rules on just looking at the cover, do not make it 100% percent clear it is a skirmish set. From the size of the rules, I would put it as large skirmish, or company scale. As such, bodies of pike and shot are required to choreograph in cadence, according to a set order of battle, or dignity, so your most experienced soldiers, file leaders/markers, are on the right, all other companies dressing off their example. There is no concession made to this-it would certainly make a clear difference to command and control at this scale, placing it apart from its rules counterparts. 

As well, where cannon and musketry come into play, the rules make no concession for the difficulties of rain, user error, smoke, or other reasons why such weapons wouldn’t go off. Indeed it felt little different than dealing with archery in LR. Artillery is just put into the rules, without covering how they limber, unlimber, reload, crew error, or use of hail shot. These are the things that make Pike and Shot warfare tick. 

Now I am not saying the rules are bad. It’s a tried and tested system, it is easy to learn and for someone starting off in the 17th century, it’s a jumping off point. Personally though, for anyone tried and tested in the period though, I found myself tacking on rules from WECW, Pike and Shotte and The Kingdom is Ours, which shouldn’t be the case. All rule sets are meant to be guidelines, but certainly further concession was needed to make this a true 17th century rule set. Might have to go and have a look at Sharp Practice’s derivative. 

Now have still to try out rules for pike, that weight for my next Solo campaign game on 10th, (another post upcoming soon), but I would argue the rules are very good for small outpost work, and beating up quarters. Certainly not suited for large battle encounters. Will try one more game for Newburn campaign and then might switch to P&S 

Score-3/5

Solo Wargaming Mechanics

Let the sofa be mountains, the carpet be sea,

There I’ll establish a city for me:

A Kirk and a mill and a palace beside,

And a harbour as well where my vessels may ride.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Well what better way than to start this edition, than with poetry from one of the early dabblers in the hobby-certainly of the HG Wells crowd. 

We all get to that stage, when getting any gaming time, in between real life is a chore. We work 9-5, we endure the commute, we go to the wargames club, we’re tired, and we want a nice quick game with minimal preparation and hassle, not too demanding on the noggin, so we can get away in time to make it to last calling at the club. Tiredness brings down the game, we can’t wait for it to finish, our attention isn’t there, so we make silly moves and then overly worry about the minutiae of rules mechanisms and whether we are doing it right. The game has no narrative, so it feels repetitive and unfulfilled and if your local wargaming fix are of the wargames magpie leaning, (aren’t we all), you will have to learn a new set of rules every week. It sucks the fun out of it.

Now obviously, we come into the hobby to game in two ways-simulations and game. Games are easy to do-they are sit down and play-with the humdrum of everyday life, this is what we mostly achieve, without the thought process. But simulation, playing a game in the manner of the period you’re portraying, often gets left behind in favour of speed and efficiency.

So naturally resources and simulation wishes had gone out the window for me. When I last looked, it had been almost two years since I had properly played a wargame. That needed to change rapidly-it provides a purpose to other pleasure pursuits. Terrain wise, that wasn’t a problem; enough terrain has been built over the years, and while needing some TLC recently due to various moves, setting it up over bed, with blankets, books and stacked boxes, solved that issue.

Down and out, in terms of getting to the local club, pursuing my own gaming wishes, the logical next step is solo wargaming. Now many people veer away from this very quickly, with the perception it is just you, playing toy soldiers with yourself. If anything, that is far from the truth. The things you need to focus on are randomness. The way I get around this is by firstly assigning a set of indoctrinations drilled into every army. For example, a unit of 95th Rifles sole purpose is picket duty and skirmishing. Therefore they are going to try and find as much cover as possible, from commanding positions, with good line of sight of the enemy, to shoot down officers and NCOs, to have a slower shooting rate, but higher accuracy, but when the going gets really tough, willing to get themselves out of contact quickly. If you can keep to these tactical doctrines, personal preference gets removed.

Activation can also be brought to bear. In something like Lion Rampant, the player relies on an IGO-UGO system, to delegate orders, which in the normal run of things can actually sew a level of predictability into your games. However, if we go with the tenet that you personally are not commanding the other unit, removing activation rolls for most units associated with the other side (barring possibly musket/artillery units), meaning only you have to pass them, makes it even more unpredictable. Couple this with the activation system advocated by Bolt Action, picking Dice out of a bag, advocating initiative, followed by the need to pass the activation roll to use that unit-with failed rolls meaning full activation can pass to the enemy, creates a system where you have to plan for every eventuality.

Nor can we ultimately plan where and how an enemy army is going to deploy. Alright, norm is armies between 1618-1721 lined up with infantry at the centre, cavalry on the flanks, but we have seen this done so many times in games at the club, that it often devolves into a stand up and shoot standoff, with no predictability. Break down the enemy table edge into 6 sections. Roll a die for each unit, the number corresponding to their position on the battlefield.

No plan with the enemy survives first contact either. A regiment might be drunk, badly officered, untrained or truncated. A popular general might have been killed; the baggage train might be tantalizingly close to a light fingered unit’s position. All these will naturally have a role on how an army acts in the field. Create a series of events cards depicting typical scenarios and modifiers that will have an effect on the battle.

Rain makes a bigger bang. We all too frequently play wargames without the weather factor. As a reenactor, it becomes all too apparent what standing around in wet clothing, trudging through mud, trying to get your gun to go off in a snowstorm, waiting for the water carrier to come forward in a heat wave, feels like. Using the following table again apply possible modifiers to reflect this.

http://prometheusinaspic.blogspot.com/2010/12/weather-in-wargames.html

Lastly, it has become modern parlance that the wargames general plays god; he can give an order, divisive of distance, terrain or attrition. On any battlefield, it takes any general cognition time, relaying and travelling distance via ADCs to convey an order across the battlefield, rather than doing it instantly without radio or GPS. Way back in the misty days of yore, Order sheets for wargames were part and parcel of the hobby, but the time factor did away from them. However, again they can provide uncertainty. By designating a 10 minute period to write down all rules, for your side, onto an orders sheet, not being able to deviate from orders once written means that a set route has to be followed, meaning you are not always on the winning side. Couple that with some period research into availability of ammunition and the period needed to expend it, forces you into following select tactics.

https://battlegames.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/sample-orders-sheet.jpg

But above all, something advocated quite heavily in the Black Powder set of rules, is the spirit of Gentlemanly Wargaming, or Old School Wargaming. Rules are there only as a guideline, they are never supposed to be the be all and end all. In all rule sets there are some things we like, some we hate. If you see a hole in a set of rules, or a means to make it more period specific, or independent, or programmable, just add it. Who’s stopping you?

Although not too original, hopefully this article will provide some food for thought regarding the workings of solo wargaming. Have you got any further thoughts on solo wargaming? Give me a buzz.

The bible when it comes to Solo Wargaming

Random Musings and New Year Resolutions! I promise I'm not mad ;

So another year gone, output on the blog gone slightly lax, but real life does get in the way. And it has been an eventful year, if not a particularly great one. As some of you may, or may not know, was basically laid off with stress and depression, last September-partly work/leisure mix related and as such, it has made me reevaluate  priorities in life. Naturally, the triple evils of life (work, further work, home, transport and life-actually that's a bit more than three) are still there, but ultimately we have to remember we work to live, rather than live to work. Now naturally the odd hours work, do put strain on how rest of life progresses, but I think we need to remember that, provided we keep on progressing and striving to better ourselves, there is still room, outside this to pursue hobbies-it keeps us grounded, something to strive towards at the end of the day-ultimately something that doesn’t drive us mad.

Too True

As such, these need to be realistic and achievable. If you put too much on your plate, nothing gets done. If you put little by little onto your plat and finish it early, you have the surprise at the end of the project of going, what’s next.

So , with that tenet in mind, here’s New Year’s hobby resolutions:

a)      Finish the Hougoumont Diorama (54mm)

b)      Finish 28mm late 17^th century Covenanter  Rebellion/Jacobite/NYW project

c)       More blogging, maybe post fortnightly-comment on outside blogs as well-if not weekly, then fortnightly, as long as its monthly. As long as it’s something attainable-painting progress, rules review, battle report etc. Short But Sweet

d)      As transport is currently an issue both reenactment/wargaming wise, at least one solo wargame per month.

e)      30 minute a day painting challenge. It doesn’t need to even be that long or just painting. As long as it’s something hobby related for as long or short as is possible in an evening after you’ve finished work, that would be fantastic.

Pretty attainable I think.

Panther, panther, burning bright?

Mostly military modelling, rather than wargaming today. WW2 isn't generally a theatre I would usually go to for this, it's drab colours have a tendency not to jump out at you. However, having perused Tamiya figures for a while (they are beautiful) and the majority of model stores reverting to this conflict, rather than Napoleonic, it seems a natural stepping stone.

 This was an impulse buy at our local HobbyCraft. Seeing the size of the hull in the box made me ask the question could I do justice to that. I hope to some extent I have. It has certainly allowed me to pursue new modelling techniques e.g applying camp net from gauze dressing, applying zimmerit with a soldering iron, buying an airbrush for future projects. And for a lot first produced in the 1970s, it's not half bad, minimal rebuilding was needed to fit the underside of the hull and track arches.

It depicts 116 Panzer Division with an added section of Pander Grenadiers, on one of the limited Panthers in Normandy. So not a bad 10 months work. Although I am now considering whether it needs a case or diorama base. Any thoughts on display?

We haven't the proper facilities for your surrender...sorry!

Painting continues apace. Before too long need to get back to Covenanter/Scots Army Late C17th project.

However in the meantime, have been painting up plenty of WW2 for Bolt Action.

Firstly a star attraction I've wanted to add to my British paras for years. Based off of the amalgamated character of Major Carlyle from A Bridge Too Far (or the real life Digby Tatham-Warter), I've painted up the model of him from Artisan Designs. A lovely little model with tons of character. He carries an umbrella due to his tendency to forget passwords and prove he was a n English Gentleman. That said, still think a mad order from Stoessi's Heroes is in order before long.

As well as that, adding some much needed firepower to my German Heer, an 81mm mortar.

More soon☺

Bounty Hunters?... We don't need this scum!

Two posts in two days...must be on a roll.

So going along with the general Star Wars hype back in December (deserved the previous two years, a bit of a let down last year), and wanting a project tat I could try varying military modelling techniques, I splashed out on the Revell model of Slave 1. Who wouldn't want Boba Fett's Ship?

En-route to collect the bounty on Han Solo

I'm relatively pleased with the model. Easy to put together, detail is crisp, the model easy to put together and paint. Was going for an image of the engines being lit, but a previous blackwash bled into this. Something to watch out for. Also frosting on the canopy means from now on using Tamiya Thin Cement from preventing this from happening next time. A solid little model, I've now got eyes on their model of the snowspeeder. Watch this space.

Elrond Halfelven, Ereinion Gilgalad, Elendil the Fair "Elf-Friend" and Isildur

Wargames painting continues anew, with the leaders of The Last Alliance making it to the Table. Sculpted by Brian Nelson, they were an absolute joy to make, the detail absolutely stunning. Finished off with gloss varnish, picking out the shine of the armour, these are still some of the best minis I've painted in a while.

Detail on Gilgalad's cloak.

Finally, to fill in a hole in my 28mm WW2 German collection, I've painted up a downed Luftwaffe fighter pilot. More for Scenario play than general wargaming, the ability to basically play capture the flag with pilots is quite common. Now need to find a reciprocal RAF fighter ace. Lovely model to paint, again the leather jacket and goggles have been picked out in gloss, to show their shine.

Finally WIPs. Currently finishing off a 28mm German Heer 81mm mortar and needing to take the final steps with my Tamiya 1/35 Panther Ausf.A with Panzer-Grenadier crew. Just need to make up some scrim to cover a slight fault. Still trying to decide how to display- diorama base, plain display base, or no base. Any thoughts?

Drums In the Deep

Recently painting and gaming time has been at a premium. Real life, job, driving tests and continuing research towards a new publication in the future have meant that hobby time has been severely limited. Who would blame anyone when their work involves umpiring wargames 6x a day, four days a week, the gaming mojo is going to come under fire.

However coupled with a recent spate of rereading Tolkien, plus a growing wargames calendar (three events and counting, with the possibility of more) growing, the paint brushes have been brushed off and the paint restocked.

Fantasy isn't my typical domain, the macho-impending doom, skulls, muscles and big guns of Warhammer never really floated my boat. However, reading The Lord of the Rings at Age 10, the advent of the film and the discovery of the then to be released GW game, with beautiful miniatures designed by my favourite Sculptors, The Perries I was hooked. Looking back now, this was the school of my painting (a lot to be desired back then), and certainly then with many of the models outside my price range, it is quite nice to return to these exquisite miniatures, albeit trying to avoid extortionate eBay prices.

Initially hesitant with the blending on the troll, I think I've done a rather good job. It might well be due to a now good source of natural light (ironic for a troll, certainly at a premium in Scotland) it may well also have something to do with a larger miniature.

This is a temporary lapse, I haven't converted completely to the Black T-shirt club, a recommencing of all things historical will be along soon, along with a semi regular book review section (Helion Century of the Soldier may be prominent) and maybe the odd battlefield walk. We'll see