GAME REPORT: PIKEMAN'S LAMENT IN THE "WAR DESERT"

Trotters (foreground) and Gallopers of Mark D's Company on the Move.

Life has has been intruding on art for the last few weeks, depriving me of the uninterrupted time needed for posting.  However, there has been unrecorded gaming activity going on, dear reader, some of which I will reveal in this post...

 

Amiable company and sporting opponents AJ (left) and Mark D preparing for combat.

 

Several weeks ago, on Labor Day (a bank holiday here in the US), I ran an impromptu familiarization game of Pikeman's Lament for fellow club members and bloggists Mark D (of Mark D's Gaming Site) and AJ (of AJ's Wargaming Blog).  This was also a familiarization game for me and also a first: 1) Although I had played PL, I had not yet run a game, and so this was a familiarization game for me from the perspective of facilitating PL 2) This game marked the return to face to face gaming to my man cave, a long anticipated moment (even if it turned out to be impromptu and low key). As usual, in this post you may clix pix for BIG PIX.

 

The initial deployments

 

I used the Ga Pa scenario for the game (essentially a "tournament" game where each side tries to knock the other side out: no concern about objectives or other special victory conditions).  For the setting, I put together a "War Desert"--a term of reference during the Thirty Years War for regions that were devastated and depopulated by the war.  Rather than buildings, there are foundations (aka, ruins), to include a ruined tollhouse next to a bridge (all of these were treated as "rough" terrain in PL terms and not as cover/buildings).  Two roads converge leading to the only intact bridge in the region--with the opposing companies bumping into each other as they were making for this crossing.  In order to provide a good overview of the game system, I put together mirror companies, each providing a good cross section of unit types and special abilities (as illustarted in the above for those interested in the mix for PL).  We were very involved with the game, so this report will be rather narrative and visual rather than detailed.

AJ's Pikes and Trotters size up Mark D's Company in the Distance. 

The view from the right end of AJ's line; the Croats (foreground) were operating as Dragoons in this game.

View from the extreme left of Mark D's array, where his Dragoons (actual dragoon figures in this case) are mirroring the Croats/Dragoons on the opposite side of the table.

The view down the line of Mark D's Company, his Trotters and Gallopers on the extreme right.

Mark D's Center: Pike and Shot, with his officer deployed with the Shot.

AJ's left moves forward: Commanded Shot (represented by Haiduks), Trotters, and Blue Bonnets (ie, Scottish Shot)-with AJ's officer.

Mark D's right wing begins to respond: his commanded shot (represented by Cossacks) begins the show by moving up through the vineyard.

Mark's Trotters, two figures down, taking fire from AJ's Haiduks posted in the orchard.  These would prove to be a thorn in Mark's side all afternoon. 

The view from behind Mark D's Gallopers: in the distance, his Trotters suffering under the fire of AJ's Haiduks in the orchard. The Gallopers would take a roundabout path towards the center to avoid a similar fate, arriving too late to influence events (but I must say they looked splendid doing so!).

Mark's Commanded Shot move up to challenge AJ's Haiduks in the orchard.

Back towards the center, AJ's Blue Bonnets (Shot) swing around the ruins and take up position on the hill while his Aggressive Gallopers push forward...

...and Mark's Pike counter, taking up Close Order and moving out, demonstration an amusing dirty trick in Pikeman's Lament vs "Wild Charge" units.  In the next phase, AJ's Gallopers failed (or passed, depending on your perspective) their "Wild Charge" roll and wound up involuntarily throwing themselves onto the Pikes--end of Gallopers, for practical purposes. 

 I got practice using my players aids to facilitate the game, and was happy with how they worked. 

The game was characterized by extreme dice on both sides.  AJ kept on failing activation rolls, terminating his turns prematurely or even entirely in some cases, while Mark could not manage to get a hit (I think we counted something like 72 dice tossed over the course of a few actions resulting in only two or three casualties).  In the end, AJ managed to get a normal run of activations and deliver average damage, which we agreed was enough to give him an edge, albeit a narrow one. In the end, we called the game on time, the point of it being about familiarization with the system more than anything else, which we certainly achieved--and of course, playing with toy soldiers on the lad's day off, which we also achieved (being recently retired, every day is a day off for me!). Thanks to the players, Mark D and AJ, for their sporting attitudes and good company; we're looking forward to more of the same.

 

Excelsior!

BANG! RTW RUSSIAN ARTILLERY DONE

Russian Foot Battery: Outpost Wargame Service Russo Turkish War Figures with Outpost 75mm Krupp gun.

 

Perhaps at the expense of my readership (I've noticed that I've recently lost two followers), I continue with my singular focus on the RTW Russian Army project. In that regard, I am happy to report the completion of the penultimate stage of this effort: the artillery park.  Although not as extensive as some of the other stages, this was the last of the "big" hurdles to get through (made no less so because assembling and painting equipment--in this case guns--is among my least favorite things to do: squeezing out even horses).  

 

Left to right: (new offering) Outpost Wargame Service 60mm Russian RTW Mountain Gun, Foundry Franco Prussian War Prussian Field Gun, and Outpost Wargame Service Krupp RTW 75mm Field Gun (suitable for 60-90mm variants). 

I use the Foundry FPW Prussian Field Gun as the standard medium foot gun across all of my post-Napoleonic forces (to include these recently completed Russians).  I find that it is a nice mid-sized model that looks the mid-century part and works well with gunner figures from almost any line. Jeff at Outpost Wargame Service brought my attention to a new 60mm Russian Mountain Gun that they were offering (not as yet on their online catalog), which I will use for my Russian Horse Artillery and also to represent light foot guns.  I use the larger Outpost Wargame Service 75mm Krupp models for heavy guns (for Russians and Romanians)--I wound up doing a medium and a heavy gun model for each foot battery: double the effort but maximizes flexibility. 

Russian 41st Artillery Brigade during Russo Turkish War (Wikimedia Commons).  

 

The Russian artillery of the RTW was not the big-battery, gun-heavy force of earlier periods. Batteries were 8 guns (some sources suggest horse batteries were 6 guns).  Each Army Corps had two artillery brigades, each consisting of six batteries: three 9 pounder and three 4 pounder. Each artillery brigade operated in direct support of an infantry division. In addition, each corps had two horse batteries (of 4 pounders) that operated in support of the corps cavalry division. There were no supplemental corps guns or army artillery reserve formations (there were separate siege artillery organizations).  So much for my thumbnail lesson on the RTW Russian Artillery. Here is my study of how I rendered my Russian gunners. As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX in this post:

 

I very much like the animation of the Outpost gunners. I went with black facings with red piping. 

The Foot Artillery Park, shown with the Foundry Prussian Field guns. For my purposes four batteries will suffice. 

 

Horse Artillery Batteries: the kepi plumes are a conversion...

...for the kepis, I used a by-now familiar routine: I drilled a hole and inserted a bit of florist wire, secured with some J&B Qwik Weld (above left), and then I snipped the wire to length and used green stuff to shape the plume. The kepi plume was part of the Russian uniform, used on dress and parade occasions--so it's not a complete fabrication to show it, and it is, after all, consistent with the  "Chocolate Box Soldier" look of the era I'm after.

I ran across an illustration showing Russian horse artillerists wearing the standard blue cavalry trousers, so I added this touch as well (anyone surprised?).  The gun model is the small Outpost Russian Mountain gun.

 

Horse and Foot: the completed Russian Artillery Park.  

 

The next (and last) stage in the project will be the Russian Command.

 

Excelsior!