Pike and Shotte

-

Warlord Games' Pike & Shotte variant of Black Powder/Hail Caesar is the latest set of rules to come under the spotlight.

Like Black Powder (and Hail Caesar), Pike & Shotte is described as a toolkit set of rules - there are not rules for every eventuality, players have explicit permission in the rules to tweak and adapt as they see fit (something everyone has probably been doing with every set of rules ever written since H.G. Wells was a lad).


Pike & Shotte takes the Black Powder game mechanisms and gives them a C16th and C17th flavour. These are generic rules for the period covering everything from Henrician armies, 30YW, samurai, to the wars of Louis XIV. A number of supplements give specific conflict 'flavour'.

In our case 'To Kill A King' covers the English Civil War. Of the 168 pages of the supplement, there are just 21 of 'new' rules, and of those only 4 are ECW specific rules (the other rules cover campaigns and sieges). The rest of the supplement is an introduction to the Wars, tactics, troop types, army lists and scenarios. And lots and lots of very pretty photos of toy soldiers.

But back to the core rulebook.

Everything seems very familiar - it shares some DNA strands with 1644, and Warhammer ECW, as it comes from the Nottingham leadbelt. All three rulesets share, to some extent, writers and playtesters.

Just over 200 pages of full colour hardback book. A truly lovely thing. Ruleset binding can be an issue, some really great rulebooks fail due to being softback bindings - they don't stay open at a page, or if they do you've cracked the spine and it is only a matter of time before you have to transplant the pages into a ring binder. Hardbacks and spiral bound rules for the win every time.

Approximately sixty pages of rules, which sounds really daunting - lots of illustrations of game mechanisms, and pretty pictures whittle this down considerably.

The other 140 or so pages give scenarios, history, army lists and lots and lots of pretty pictures.

Did I mention that both books are chockful of pretty pictures?

Theses are very definitely new skool bish bash bosh rules, no tedious table modifiers; these are 'get lots of figures on a very big table, do some measuring and roll some dice rules, and be home in time for tea and medals'. Fun, simple to learn.

So what's not to love about them? Well, they really struggle handling combined pike and shot units, as they are written and published. As combined pike and shot units are probably the defining military unit of the period, that is a bit of a problem. Easily overcome with a 'house rule' but quite a big hole in a pike and shot period set of rules.

Quick reference sheet included in the book, but more helpfully can be downloaded here. Warlord do run a rules forum and there are a number of Facebook groups which could help with any queries.

As Warlord's boss, John Stallard, is a massive ECW buff; coupled with Warlord's new battle system of uniquely sized 12/13mm figures, Epic Battles, surely it must only be a matter of time before Epic ECW come into existence... Whilst I won't really be looking at Epic figures to bulk out my armies I would like to see some interesting terrain 'extras'. February 2023 update Epic ECW/30YW just been announced - do I win £5 for guessing right?

Equipment needed:

  • ruler or tape measure (inches, or I use cm with 15mm figures)
  •  Lots of D6

If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider supporting the blog. 
Thanks.

Comments

  1. Codsticker14 November 2022 at 17:23

    We use P&S quite a bit with To Kill A King; the additional rules do add quite a bit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous15 November 2022 at 18:16

    What house rules do you suggest?

    Also, is there any historical support for the idea that the soldiers armed with pikes and those with muskets formed separate bodies that operated separately but in coordination?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Radar16 November 2022 at 08:23

      House rule: something along the lines of the sub-units rule from Hail Caesar. There are a number available online.


      Not quite sure what your second question is... the drill manuals of the day (the best evidence that we have, and that is of course 'ideal scenario') have drill diagrams for units of combined pike and shot working together, but the individual drill for pikemen and musketeers is very different. It's fair to imagine the two as parts of a Portuguese man-of-war: separate parts that have a symbiotic relationship and function as one.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Newark's Defences - a town under siege

-
Image
The ECWtravelogue has visited Newark many times. The King, Queen Henrietta Maria, Prince Rupert all visited; it is home to the National Civil War Centre ; and is the location of possibly the best preserved Civil War earthwork - The Queen's Sconce . So why does it deserve another blog entry? In a word: Clampe's Plan ( but that's two! ). Clampe drew a plan of the Royalist defences of Newark and the Parliamentarian, and Scots siege lines. There's also another, slightly different, later version of the map: Buck's Map, which is held in the Royal Collection and can be viewed online here . The Queen's Sconce survived, did anything else? Clampe's Plan  I've seen photographs of other earthworks in Newark, but no locations for them. A little sleuthery comparing Nottingham's register of ancient monuments, and Historic England's records has resulted in an extensive list of sites. Unfortunately, the locations are so complex that they don't fit my normal
Read more

Houses of Interest: Staffordshire

-
Image
The  ECW Travelogue turns its attention on Staffordshire. For some reason, rather than starting the entry at the bit of Staffs that is 'next door' to  Château KeepYourPowderDry I started with the corner of Staffs that was furthest away. The first entries look at the escape of Charles II after the Battle of Worcester. Of course any post about Staffordshire requires, by law, pictures of Staffordshire slipware - this one by Thomas Toft; Potteries Museum, Hanley First up is Moseley Old Hall  on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, and is cared for by the National Trust. Moseley bills itself as "the home that saved a king" - considering the number of close calls that Charles had during his escape, this isn't really the unique selling point that you might expect it to be. I do wonder how many other houses, along the Monarch's Way could also make that claim? Built about 1600, the National Trust have recreated a seventeenth century garden on the estate. A rather s
Read more

Houses of Interest: West Yorkshire

-
Image
For more Yorkshire 'related stuff' you can find North Yorkshire here ,  South Yorkshire here ,   East Riding here . See also the Rupert Travelogue  entry for Yorkshire, and the entry for Adwalton Moor Oakwell Hall    was the inspiration for Charlotte Brontë's Fieldhead in "Shirley". More recently it has been used a number of times as a film set, including "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell". Located close to the M62 and the Leeds branch of purgatory on Earth (aka Ikea), this Tudor manor house is beautifully maintained by Kirklees Borough Council. The hall is presented as a seventeenth century home. I really like this approach, as so often historic houses have different rooms decorated for different eras, so it is really nice to see a house presented from one era in it's entirety. Oakwell was in the ownership of the Batt family, who supported the King; John Batt was a captain and most probably fought at Adwalton Moor. The retreating Parli
Read more

Trees

-
Image
It has been said of wargamers that they spend all their time painstakingly painting figures and then ignore the terrain. A trend that I feel is changing for the better with printed game mats and 'teddy bear fur'.   Today's post looks at trees: more specifically, Woodland Scenics deciduous Realistic Tree Kits. 2"-3" trees, light green foliage, PP and SF figures for comparison Warning: great trees, messy process. The trees come in several different sizes. Packaging varies, sample kits consisting of armatures and foliage are available, or alternatively elements can be bought separately. They all 'work' the same regardless of 'version'. 2"-3" on the left, 3"-5" on the right I've gone for the 2"-3" armatures and 3" - 5" armatures. Armatures are tree trunk brown plastic and look very uninspiring when you first encounter them., as they are 2 dimensional. But do not be put off, the 2D branches can be bent and the
Read more

Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot

-
Image
Continuing my therapeutic blogging (write rather than rant) antidote to incorrect English Civil War coat colour tables for wargamers, I give you the Royalist Regiments of Foot. For all of my coat colour articles see: Introduction   Part 1  Parliamentarian coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B  Montrose and the Irish Brigade Part 4  Dragoons, Horse and the New Model Army coat colours The Trained Bands London Trained Bands Auxiliary regiments Scarves   Same rules apply here, as they did with the Parliamentarian coat colours: Regiments often got renamed when command passed to a new colonel - these regiments are listed under their first name e.g. Jacob Astley's Regiment was originally Richard Fielding's Regiment. Coat colour notes refer to contemporaneous references and some of the deductions made by Reid, Spring,  Peachey and Prince. You will also notice that some regiments have several coat colours listed. Where there is some question around a coat colour I have t
Read more

Coat Colours Part 3b: The Army of Montrose and the Irish

-
Image
I suppose this post was inevitable; I started wondering what colour palette I would need to use to paint my forthcoming Montrose army. I've already investigated coat colours , general dye colours and how that roughly translates to paint codes , but I needed a rough idea of tartan colours, shirts and in particular those colours favoured by the Irish. Just as there is a wargamer fact™  that 'the London Trained Bands all wore red coats' so there are also quite a number of well established wargamer facts™  concerning the clothing of the Irish and Highlanders. But how factual are these facts? Highlanders Wargamer Fact™: the Highlanders wore yellow shirts .  Highlanders did wear shirts, and some, at least were dyed yellow. Highlander's shirts were made from coarse linen, they certainly didn't lace up at the front (in an Adam and The Ants style). James Gordon's History of Scots Affairs 1637-1641 (written 1841) has this description “As for their apparel; next the skin,
Read more

Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot

-
Image
When I first started my Civil War gaming project I relied upon the many ECW coat colour tables on wargaming websites. As my project has progressed, my library has got bigger, my research has gone back to primary sources rather than relying upon second and third hand sources; and I have noticed quite a few errors in these lists for wargamers. I have also noticed the same errors appearing in multiple lists.     As a result of continually seeing 'the London Trained Bands and their Auxiliaries wore red coats' (there is no evidence supporting this at all, the evidence, whilst not explicit suggests that the London Trained Bands wore civilian clothes - some of the Auxiliaries might have been issued with blue winter coats) I decided to write my own list.  So here it is. If your allegiance lies elsewhere you might want to look at  Introduction   Part 2  Royalist coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B  Montrose and the Irish Brigade Pa
Read more

Houses of Interest: Lincolnshire

-
Image
The #ECWtravelogue has dipped its toe into Lincolnshire, gateway to the heartlands of the Eastern Association, and the important ports connecting England to the Low Countries. Make yourself a cup of tea and settle back for a story of blue on blue killing, and the use of  human shields. Please note that several entries are private residences with little or no public vantage points - they are included for 'completeness'. Do not trespass or irritate their owners please. At the outbreak of the Wars, Lincolnshire was a divided County, Parliament having slightly more support than the King. Following the 1643 campaign the County was a stronghold of Parliament - not that they had it all their own way. The Royalist strongholds at Newark and Belvoir Castle providing considerable nuisance when the Eastern Association left the County to pursue bigger goals. Gainsborough saw a small, but important, battle on the 28th July 1643; so it was only fitting that I visited on the anniversary of the
Read more

Lurkio ECW Range

-
Image
Always on the look out for new toys, I spotted Lurkio have started releasing their new ECW range after a bit of a hiatus. Thank you to Lurkio for kindly sending me some figures for review. My favourite figure from the samples I was sent, not quite sure what has happened to his face though I'll be very straight here, these might not be to everybody's taste. Why? They are headless (yay!) and the pikemen are open handed (double yay!). Whilst that makes me very happy, I know that many baulk at the idea of having to assemble teeny bits on figures, and see any assembly on anything smaller than 28mm figures a complete no-no.  The return of the scale-o-matic, horizontal lines are at 5mm spacing For those of you new to this 'sticking things together' game it isn't a problem, in fact it is pretty straightforward*. I find putting a big blob of superglue onto a palette, then use a cocktail stick as a glue spreader, the best way to get superglue into the precise area that you wa
Read more

Pikes

-
Image
I must not write "don't tell him your name Pike".  I must not write "don't tell him your name Pike". Oh damn! Pikemen figures come in two varieties, with cast on pikes, and open handed. Having previously owned 6mm ECW pikemen armed with pikes which quickly turn to overcooked spaghetti, I went the open handed pikemen route.  For those of you who choose this path, open handed pikemen raises two questions: how long should a pike be?, and where can I buy pikes from?  All this gives me an excuse to have a closer look at the 'queen of weapons'. How long should a pike be? You'd think that this question would be fairly easy to answer, it is in fact more than a little problematical. Pikes were between 15' and 18' in length, which should be quite easy to scale down, or so you would think. Sir James Turner  (Pallas Armata p.176) and General Monck (Observations p.26) both stated that the proper length for a pike should be 18'.The 1639 Direction
Read more