AAR ECW 10mm 11th August 2024

We played the second of our ECW battles, Tony B was playing for Parliament on the left whilst I fighting for the King was on the right and here is the First AAR

As we are still learning the ropes I set up the table so each side was the same left to right. In the AAR I'll probably refer to the top, or bottom of the table/picture rather than my/his left/right wing. 

I've given each side the same amount of units:
4 x Combined Pike regiments
2 x Galloping Guns
1 x Commanded Shotte
4 x Cavalry
1 x Cuirassiers
1 x Dragoons
4 x Shotte to be fielded with the Cavalry
2 x Medium Cannons
All HQs have a command of 8 and CiC has a command of 9.

Setup
Tony set up quickly and I managed to do the same after him and without looking, not to many differences other than use of the terrain. This photo is of  the game after I've moved just one unit. We'd both put our Cuirassiers on our left flanks and dragoons on the right.

Surprisingly different set ups, considering we have the same terrain and troops.

Turn One
Royalist the top wing advanced one move towards the trees, whilst the Commanded Shotte had to move to the other side of the Cannon, (poor setup) and rolled an 8. The pike line advanced one move and the bottom Cavalry said neigh.

Parliament moved the top wing to discourage my horse, the commanded shotte failed, the Pike advanced but with only one move so some were left behind and the bottom Cavalry rode forth to challenge, neither side managed any shooting.

End of turn one

Turn Two

Royalist 

The top Wing advanced the horse around the wood, the Dragoons rode up to the woods and dismounted then moved to the edge of the woods to shoot the opposing cavalry, whilst the shotte decided to sit this move out. 

The Commanded shot therefore went to the edge of the woods to block off the Cuirassiers. However as the Pike also failed to advance they had no exposed flank to protect, but hurrah the cavalry at the bottom (both Gallopers)  charged forwards into the opposing horse who counter charged whilst their Cuirassiers unable to charge the dragoons advanced to discourage them.
There was a lot of ineffective fire but the Dragoons managed one wound on a cavalry unit.
In the cavalry Melee both Parliamentary Cavalry units broke and the dragoons pushed back. 

The dragoons somehow survived a sweeping advance. 

End Royalist turn two

Parliament 
Prioritised getting the remaining bottom wing out of trouble, with two moves the Shotte went into to the woods and the dragoons dropped back effectively blocking passage. The pike in the centre got two moves and tided up their line. Commanded Shotte were unmoved whilst the cavalry charged the Royals and each side lost a unit.

End parliament turn two

Turn Three

Royalist 

Top Cavalry came around the trees to charge the disordered Parliamentary Cuirassiers in the flank, unfortunately that meant they also hit the unit behind. It ended up as a draw, however as the R. Cavalry was shaken they rolled a break test and failed. 

The pike advanced one move and the 'R' Cuirassiers fell back from the Pike. The other cavalry unit was disordered so stayed where it was, not close enough to withdraw under initiative.

The Royalist shooting was very effective and most Parliament infantry was disordered.

End Royalist turn three

Parliament 

The top wing of cavalry was commanded to go around the woods and roll up the pike and guns. They didn't, however successful shooting from the dragoons and supporting Shotte sent another Royalist cavalry unit at the bottom packing.

Turn Four

Royalist 

Nobody passed a command roll! Fortunately the Commanded shotte has moved under initiative as had the Dragoons and shotte in the woods.

End of Royalist turn four

Parliament 

The Top Cavalry now obeyed and charged around the woods, unfortunately they only got two moves and also were caught by traversing fire and became disordered. 

The Commanded Shotte FINALLY moved! Many Shots were exchanged.

End of Parliament's fourth turn

Fifth Turn - End Game

The Royalist Shotte and Dragoons walked back to the other side of the woods and along with the Commanded Shotte and pivoted cannon blew away the Cuirassiers.

Final Shotte

Conclusion

Another Draw, the game had swung each way, each of us sharing poor dice rolls, but a great game we both enjoyed. - And that's what it is all about.

Next game ECW AAR September 2024

Polish units for a Kislev style army HC!-FAN

More 10mm miniatures, this time I've completed (if there is such a word in wargaming) a Warmaster Kislev style army for the HC! Fantasy game I'm throwing together.

Economical as always these troops will also be available to fight a Renaissance battle against an Ottoman Turk army, once built, in Pike & Shotte. A

All Models are Pendraken either their 16th C Polish Renaissance range, or their 12mm Fantasy Monster Bears, I went for the unarmoured variant. 

One of the bears may in due course end up as a transformed Wizard, truly there is no end to the madness.

The Hussite War wagons are from Pendraken, Medieval Late European range.

 

Winged Hussars, why else would you have the army?

Zaporozhian Cossack / Axemen

Bear followed up with Polish Horse Archers

Hussite War wagons, two stands make a unit/base positioned either in columns 30mm wide by 200mm long or in Laagered position as in the bottom image 100mm wide x 60mm deep.

See also

Arabic Army for fantasy, HC or even P&S
Lizard Men For Hail Caesar - Lost Children of the Fallen Gods
Orc army based up  rebasing for HC Fantasy

Arab Units for HC!-FAN

I like to consider using armies in multiple scenarios.

These Arabic fighters are destined to fight in a Fantasy HC! version of Warmaster. 

Via a reality warp they could fight Medieval Crusaders in a Hail Caesar! Battle or even skip a century and fight  allied/levied troops with the Ottoman Turk Renaissance Armies in a Pike and Shotte game.

The flags are homemade.

Elephants are from Newline Designs and the Arabic masses from Pendraken Dark Ages

Large Fan Elephant unit with two single based for HC and a command Elephant base.

Heavy Cavalry with a Commands

Medium Cavalry Unit

Arabic Infantry with a command base

Arabic Archers with a command base and a Skirmish line to the front.

See also

Lizard Men For Hail Caesar - Lost Children of the Fallen Gods
Orc army based up  rebasing for HC Fantasy
Polish Army for P&S and a little fantasy  Kislev

ECW Combined Pike & Shotte - Process

This link P&S in 10mm will take you to the beginnings and end of the process, in fact it took a while to work out how to layout a combine unit, especially as we wanted to avoid sub units that some players allowed to wander off and which also would have to be removed if the main unit was broken.

So we toyed with this idea, a nice big Large unit on a 150mm x 50mm base the Shotte taking up 25mm on each side and Pike 100m in the centre. 

It was then pointed out by the in house expert that there would be:
* Two NCO's and an Officer at the rear to encourage them forwards or stop a rout.
* Additional drummers at each corner of the Pike to 'echo' the Commander's drummer's message. 
* Also there'd be a flag for every Company in the Pike Block, so four flags, at front for parade and the rear for battle. 

So I mocked it up again, this time with painted models.

Some of you might note the men are mounted on thin strips of plastic card, I did this to allow me to move them about without chipping them. I also worked out that if added the basing material and flocked each strip it would make life easier when basing up later.

However it seemed to large and unwieldy to move about on the table and yes I know they were, but this is a game. so we reduced the width of the Pike increasing it's depth to 5 men. Which meant we could base them on a 100mm x 60mm base.

Initially like this 6 x 5 pike.

However it looked too crushed so we lost a rank of Pike and we ended up with this leaving a space between the rows of Shotte.

As Pendraken has no NCO's I shortened the pike squashed the tip and add a little plastic card I now had my Sergeants

.

I based up each strip of men then superglued them to my base later adding the front and rear officers.

If you are interested in doing a similar base here are the measurements.

12mm to the front, five rows of 7.5 mm leaving about 8-9mm at the rear

Pre-basing the strips was a life saver can you imaging basing and flocking between those men?

The finished regiments

ECW Three combined Pike & Shotte - For the King

I hadn't realised I'd not added these to my blog in 2022.

 
Anyway for the record I plan to do a fourth combined Pike & Shotte for the Royalists

Henry Bard's, my 1st Pike & Shotte Regiment

Sir Alan Apsley's, my 2nd Pike & Shot Regiment. 

Sir Gerard's, my 3rd Pike & Shotte Regiment.

There were two brothers Charles & Gilbert Gerard and each raised a regiment, both regiments wore blue but I've not determined which brother had what regimental flag.

So this is Sir Charles Gerard's or Sir Gilberts Gerard's colours.

If you know the difference please tell me in the comments.

The Cannons Arrive

My Royalist army is getting bigger with the arrival of  their Medium Cannon and Galloper guns, unfortunately for them the Parliamentary guns arrived too.

The range is a little close.

Men and guns from Pendraken and Gabions from Last Man Last Bullet   

I based the guns separately as I wanted to remove them from position of they were destroyed and leave the earthworks etc behind  I'll always try to make things harder.

The Royalist Infantry

ECW Pike and Shotte 10mm AAR 20th July 2024

Tony B.and I played a game of ECW today, using the Pike & Shotte Rules. We were using a mix of wooden bases and Pendraken models. One day all the models will be painted; in the meantime, this allows us to play a game.

Tony elected to fight for Parliament (grey boards) and we both set up. Tony based all his models on a hill, whilst I lined mine up opposite. The game - Tony chose to redeploy to the foot of the hill and use his stronger fire power to whittle away the Royalists, while I had to get in contact as that is where the royalist strengths lie.

As usual my left flank blundered leaving the table but I managed to get them back in play however my CIC was bouncing from right to left wing trying to get things moving as both wings stumbled forwards. In the end both wings got close enough for Tony to charge them and get to a position to enfilade my left Pike block, with help from his pike and cannon in front of my unit he fired in 16 shots, causing 12 hits sadly his glee was short lived as I saved the majority.

On my left I chased off his cavalry and then revenged myself on the small units of Shotte. In the end his wing was broken as two of five units were broken and the rest were shaken. With nothing to protect the flanks of his pike from my cavalry and Shotte his central position was perilous. On the other flank honours were about even but in the centre my Pike was almost all shaken and suffering.

We should have taken photos, but I wasn’t expecting a game, more of a tutorial, however we managed 5 turns and at the end both side were sufficiently weakened that they’d probably have discretely left the field of battle. So we called a draw. First image is immediately after Tony’s charge on my wings had been repulsed turn 4. The second at the end of the game after turn 5 his broken wing retreating and my centre one 'wound' away from breaking.

The painted combatants

Brigaded Musket Shotte - Standard Unit

Brigaded Musket Shotte - Small unit to support the cavalry

Three units of Royalist combined Pike and Musket

The reason we used boards for unassembled units  ECW Pike & Shotte

ECW Pike and Shotte in 10mm

 Pike and Shotte

The challenge: Do it in 10mm keep basing simple and standardise to other 10mm games we play HC! and a Fantasy addon game I'm developing.

The participants were a Teacher who had written a thesis on the ECW for his masters, a reenactor-wargamer and myself a simple wargamer, but my business life had been spent as a project manager. As a team we work well get ideas, facts and concepts sorted.

We wanted to do it in 10mm and we didn't like the idea of the Combined P&S unit's Shotte sub units walking off to some other location away from the Pike, which we have seen done by others. So we resolved to base them together so nobody could separate them. 

Then in the 'To Kill A King' supplement. we found on pages 144-147 special units for the period. So that is a must purchase alongside the main rule book if you want to play ECW.

As with many games the desire to play sometimes comes before you've managed to paint the armies so for a change we decided to use blank bases to represent the units. 

Board Armies

In the end the standard frontage is 100mm and small units 50mm, Horse and Combined Pike units being 60mm deep and normal infantry 50mm deep. 

Galloping cannons (Infantry) are 30mm x50mm. Medium cannon are 50 mm wide by 60m deep.

Command units are on 40mm discs, the General on a 50mm disc.

In the board armies the Parliament army is Red and the King's is Grey, you'll note the difference in the Combined P&S units more Pike and less Muskets in the King's army whilst the reverse is true of the Parliament's army which is represented below.

For actual models we decided on the above layouts.

The agreed opinion was to make it look as much like a real unit would with a lead drummer 'D' by the CO 'O' and drummers behind and to the rear that would echo the command.

The Regimental flag 'F' would be at the front with the CO and the company flags in the second rank.

In reality this was the parade position, in battle the flags would be moved to the rear ranks to protect them. Pike is either 'P' or 'X' if armoured and of course the 'M' is for musket. I've chosen to have less armoured pike in the Parliament army. 

At the rear of the block would be a lower ranked officer and two NCO's 'J'.

And it would look like this from above.

To my shame I've not yet finished the armies but I plough on.

A Brigaded Musket unit and a small unit that would support the Cavalry units. 

As units are completed they replace the blank boards.

We played a number of games with these and they worked well, all ranges and movement were as per the rule book we didn't reduce them we saw no need to do so. In the opinion of the Historical elements of the team they fought as they should and lost or won in the correct way. Unless I started rolling super dice, I habit I have that upsets people. 

Image of games played with tokens, I'd certainly recommend the idea as it gets you playing and encourages the painting, yes it's a little like playing 40K with unpainted minis, but who didn't?

Wound and Stamina marking - Why are there little pegs on your bases?

The Cannons arrive

Tracking Wounds and Stamina - Why are there little poles on your bases?

 Wound markers - Why are there little poles on your bases?

Picture above says it all without the waffle.

We all need to track wounds and there are many ways of doing it. Dice, coloured or numbered counters are some options and most of the time they are positioned next to the unit and so often left behind when the unit moves. The solution is to balance the marker on the base I've seen discs balanced between ranks of troops and I want to cry.

We were using small dice green indicating wounds, replaced with a red die when they were shaken. These also get left behind and worse would get knocked so five wounds became one. Using dice holders gave mixed results, some too tight you can't get the dice out, or too loose and fall out.

Then we started playing a lot of Hail Caesar! and it soon became clear we had to identify which units belonged to an HQ, to stop errors in command.

SWMBO required a trip to IKEA and I saw a cheap version of Hama beads 'PYSSLA' and the solution came to me.

Use the beads at one rear corner to denote wounds using the current colour system, use the other colours on the other edge to denote HQ and its units. 

This is a 10 point Stamina version whilst HC goes up to 8 stamina I allowed for the possibility of 10 stamina. (Fantasy version with Monsters). 

Each red dice represent a point where the unit might be shaken, depending on what its stamina is 4, 6, 8 or 10 use red or if unit has a higher stamina value use the pink, orange or black token at that point instead.