English Civil War Using the Pike & Shot Rules From Introduction

Thought I'd have a venture into the late Renaissance with an early ECW encounter between a veteran Royalist force and Early Parliamentarian army.

I adopted a later Renaissance unit configuration for infantry with bases arranged 3 wide by 2 deep. This seemed more in keeping with the look of the period with the shot arranged on the respective flanks. It did cause some maneover problems but I quite like these constraints on moving around - reminds me of Armati which does limit your movement options and penalises poor deployment. This seems to ba a cardinal sin of a commander to not visualise where his units will be in the next couple of moves. Bit like chess. I'm afraid I'm not possessed of this foresight - which is a mixed blessing. As I play solo I make mistakes and can't over plan the army moves which adds to the chaos.

The game played rather faster than I thought it would. The Parliamentarians performed much better on the day. The Royalists just didn't seem to have their hearts in the contest with generally lower dice rolls and an unwillingness to commit their combat power. With piecemeal success the Parliamentarians suddenly found themselves three units ahead and closed in on the remaining Royalists who still had a spirited defence but were eventually contained and reduced to two units. Parliament was also poised to start looting the baggage in the rear so Royalist collapse was inevitable.

Observations from the contest. My first venture using the rules in the ECW. It didn't dissapoint. Gave me a quick and realistic game with some nice looking units, interesting battlefield restrictions due to the clumsy unwieldy formations and some dashing displays of cavalry tactics. The additional shot element in the Parliamentarian units gave them some slight advantages and made a firefight more alluring. The Royalists tactic became apparent with a need to get to grips with the enemy and use that pike advantage. This was particularly useful vs the enemy reiters and cuirassiers where pikes use 3 dice. Get them on the flanks in a pincer and despite some medium / heavy armour they usually vapourise.

A good game. Long live Parliament!

Brian