Saturday, February 22, 2014

Play Test

Here are some pictures of my attempted play test of some basic mechanics of the Pike and Shotte rule set.
The set up is that an Imperialist battalia is guarding a river crossing, setting themselves up in a partially walled field flanking the road leading to the only local crossing, the bridge.
King Gustaf Adolf of Sweden has ordered General Beornsson to take his brigade of two Battalia, the Yellow and the Black Regiments, to take, seize or carry the river crossing.
The following pictures give a bit of an idea how the attack went.
I won't attempt to explain the dice rolling except to say that the game mechanics strike me as extraordinarily complicated, and I'm not sure I go a bundle on the damage auditing, neither.

The Black Regiment outstripped their tardy fellows in the Yellow, reaching the wall first.  At this point, Swedish losses somewhat exceeded those of the Imperialists, but not enough to hold them back.

All unaided the Black regiment struggles up the hill and tries to force the position.
The Yellow Regiment (having halted for two whole moves!) at last makes a move to help their embattled comrades.
Meanwhile, the unengaged Swedish left flank swings round to engage the flank of the Imperialist line.  Owing to the proximity of the Yellow regiment, the Imperialist are reluctant to reciprocate with their unengaged flank.
So far the fight has only marginally favoured the Imperialists, but heavy losses in successive turns on their right flank renders the position untenable.  The Imperialists abandon the walled position and retire - in some disorder - across the bridge.
I can't say this play test was an unqualified success - there is quite a bit more to the game mechanics than meets the eye.  But it was a start...

Acknowledgements:
My thanks to four recent new followers:
99: Mauther (papermau)
100: Bacon fat (baconfat.log)
101: Lord of Excess
102: Corporal Trim
If the latter two will bear with me, I'll create links in my next posting.
One hundred followers: quite a milestone!



13 comments:

  1. Congrats on the milestone, will be interested on further thoughts on the rules as we have yet to settle on a set for the ECW in 15mm.

    Ian

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    1. I am hoping in the near future to get in a game or two with (Uncle) Brian - see how we go.

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  2. Congratulations on reaching 100 followers! We really should do a Pike & Shotte game at some stage.

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    1. Thanks Brian, and yep - I reckon we should make it pretty soon. If I were to do it again with simply the stands I was using, I think I would reduce the ground scale according. It didn't look right as I had it.

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  3. Not familiar with these rules, so I won't comment. Too Fat Lardies seem to be turning their attention to the ECW period, if that's of any interest to you. May be a while before anything is published.
    Congratulations on 100 followers.

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    1. Thanks, Padre... At the moment the only rule set for this period with which I have any familiarity at all is DBR, and that in my view has serious limitations (mostly developmental, I think, but the lack of unit identity makes for rather a bland style game I'm thinking). I daresay that the TFL ECW set ought to be adaptable to 30YW...

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  4. We did a bit of play testing for some of our historical games, well worth the effort!

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    1. That sounds encouraging at least! Thanks for your comment, Al.

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  5. You will either love Pike and Shotte or hate them. We use them exclusively for TYW and similar and have had some great games.

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    1. I take that as another 'reckon they're pretty good' vote. That sort of thing I find encouraging enough to give them a fair sort of go. I began with a fairly straightforward infantry-only action, and might give them another go of this type.
      Cheers -

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  6. As a serious ECW nerd I've not taken Pike and Shotte on board yet so your playtest was interesting- my own preferred rules for ECW at least are Forlorn Hope- whose mechanics are pretty simple . Havn't really got around to TYW proper yet and I keep asking myself am I willing to choke out 30 quid- and possibly a shed load of re-basing just to find out if I like a set from an outfit whose first ruleset- Black powder was mediocre - but with a few good bits .... Hmmmmmm

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    1. That is one of the concerns I have. Pike and Shotte will require a major rebasing if I do go that way, and the creation of 'casualty' markers (probably more correctly 'status' markers) as well. Can't say I go a bundle on that sort of thing... I guess it will be a case that if the rules a re so good they grab me by the throat and growl between clenched teeth 'Make the switch - you know you want to!' then I'll will make the switch. But the margin will be a wide one to bridge.

      That's the thing with change. Not only has the end result to be an improvement, the margin of improvement has to be not less than the costs (effort, time, money, irritation) of making the change. Pity no politician on the planet nor corporate high flyer on the make has ever grasped this elementary fact.

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    2. Andy, your v welcome to come up to my place and try them out if you like. I am not v mobile at the moment so would have difficulty getting down the valley.

      Colin

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