'The Pikeman's Lament' arrives

In today’s post I received a familiar shaped cardboard package. It was, as I hoped, the latest release from Osprey Publishing, ‘The Pikeman's Lament’. This is the most recent addition to the Lion Rampant family of rules, following on from ‘Dragon Rampant’ and ‘The Men Who Would Be Kings’. This particular book was co-written by Dan Mersey and Michael Leck.

Obligatory poor quality photo courtesy of me.

Regular readers of the blog may know I was involved in a small degree playtesting of the rules and as a sign of gratitude I received a free copy of the rules from the authors and the publishers.

The quality of the publishing is what we have come to expect from this Osprey ‘Blue Book’ series. Lots of top quality painted figures and illustrations from Osprey’s impressive back catalogue. 

I’ll leave to others to review the rules as I’m obviously biased. However I will say that they are probably my favourite set of skirmish rules. Anyone familiar with the Lion Rampant rules will already know the basics. I also suspect some may use them (with a few alterations) to play late medieval (Wars of the Roses etc.). This new book contains a clever officer generation and a simple campaign system which could also be used with the Lion Rampant rules.

I will be sitting down over the weekend to read through the book to see if anything has changed or rules I’ve been playing incorrectly over the past year or so.

The rules are officially released on the 26th January 2017 (from Osprey Publishing) although I know some people have already received copies (even before the authors apparently)

The Pikeman's Lament - Playtesting January 2016

I looking around my blog when I noticed these pictures from a couple of games played a year ago which, from some reason, I never got round to posting at the time. With the immenient release of the new 17th century skirmish game The Pikeman's Lament (from Osprey) I thought it might be an appropriate time to post now.

As far as I remember the games, played at Asgard Games in Walsall, involved having to rescue/guard a VIP (a captured general?) but represented here by a D10 as I didn’t have any spare single figures on my at the time.

In the first game my opponent Mark (Parliament orange movement) was the attacking force where I was defending (Royalist red movement). General D10 was held in central building defended by a limited number of units. Other units could be bought on with a successful activation.

Mark split his forces in a pincer movement sending a cavalry towards my right flank. There was a major clash on my left flank with Mark’s cavalry and a unit of musketeers. Mark’s cavalry took heavy casualties but advanced to intercept my units that were desperately trying to reach the building to defend hold onto General D10.

There was a clash of horseflesh with both mounted units being knocked out of play. Meanwhile my supporting(?) unit of musket units carried on in an attempt to reach the building in time.

Meanwhile Mark’s musket and pike units easily pushed back my defenders and snatched General D10.

Mark's force then quickly retraced their steps, with General D10 in tow, seeing off any attempts by myself. A group of Mark's musketeers advanced into an ambush position just to make sure I'd get any closer, all of which rounded off a resounding victory for Mark.

The following pictures are of the next game where the roles were reversed. In my excitement of actually doing well I forgot to take enough photographs and the ones I did take were blurred.

The game ended with my brave troops making a mad dash off the table (very) closely followed by Mark's cavarly. A narrow victory for me this time.

The Pikeman's Lament is officially due out 26th January.

The Pikeman's Lament - Rescue Mission

These photos were taken at a recent demo game of The Pikeman's Lament (TPL) held at my friendly little game store, [Asgard Games Uk] in sunny Walsall. 

We were both had, more or less identical, companies: two units of pike, two shot, two units of mounted troops. Sam chose to try a units of dragoons and Gallopers whilst I had two units of Gallopers.

As I happened to have a spare figure I decided to play out the 'Rescue Mission' scenario. I rolled the higher die thus becoming the attacker in this game.

The scenario was to rescue Sir Marmaduke Quondam, the daring garrison commander of Bescot Hall, who has somehow managed to get himself captured. Sir Marmaduke was being held in the local priory ruins awaiting transfer to higher authorities and is being guarded by ruthless units of pike and shot under the command of equally ruthless Lady Samantha de Bermingham (a.k.a. Sam who was playing her first game of any of the Lion Rampant variants).

As this was Sam's first ever game I didn't want to overwhelm her with the full version and so agreed to just concentrate on the gaming principles and mechanics. Therefore we didn't create the commanding officer's character nor background or use the Honour Special Orders (the equivalent of Boast points in the original game).

Being the best defensive troops Sam (units marked blue) set up two units of pike and one of shot amongst the ruins to guard Sir Marmaduke (circled in yellow). 

My tactic was to simply try and dash in with a single cavalry and use the rest of the company (marked red) to try and block or hinder Sam's defending units.

The scenario dictates that the defender (Lady Sam in this case) had to have half her company guarding the prisoner while the other half were off patrolling the area to the north. These units could try to move onto the table at Turn 2. 

Charging in to engage the enemy.
"Hang on Sir Marmaduke, we're coming!"

The gallant forces of continental dandy Lieutenant-Colonel Eduard Van Verloren Wapen, (a.k.a. me) supported by his loyal Scottish infantry, coming to the rescue. These came charging in across the river from the south-east. His task was to make contact with Sir Marmaduke and ride off into the sunset together (these continental types are very...well... continental).

Sam was fortunate that she activated her other forces quite quickly. Her dragoons came in blazing over the bridge to bolster the guards. She was less lucky when she rolled a double one during her activation phase followed by another equally low die. This resulted in her losing a whole unit of infantry just after they had entered the field. This is a new concept in the Lion Rampant family rule set where double six rolls equals a reward and double one means you suffer a penalty to various degrees. This new feature is probably my favourite addition to the rules if only because it creates the funniest reactions - either good or bad depending on the results and how it affects the game. 

Congestion - 17th century style

My right wing cavalry unit charged in early and were lucky and managed to push the defending pike unit back. This pike block were forced to retreat and I initially thought this game would be over pretty quickly. How wrong was I!.

My other, left wing, unit of cavalry got completed battered by first Sam's unit of shot and then by the dragoons. They eventually somehow managing to scarper back out of range. Equally my two units of shot got decimated with one breaking and leaving the field. Fortunately both of my pike units held. 

"Don't panic men, we can still retreat..oh dear..cavalry."

Sam sent a unit of Gallopers (regular cavalry) sweeping around the back of my forces which was quite sneaky, I thought. This would force me to engage them in order to succeed in the mission. 

"Charge boys, they're gaining on us!"

Having repeatedly charging pike units (not the best tactic) my cavalry unit made contact with Sir Marmaduke, turned tail and tried to make their escape. Again I thought the game would soon be over as I left the pike units to try and block and delay Sam's company from trying to recapture Sir Marmaduke. Sam's units quickly began their aggressive counter-attack.

Sir Marmaduke (circled in yellow) sees his chance for freedom as my brave pike blocks try and fend of Sam's attack.

What I hadn't taken into account was how tough and deadly Sam's remaining units would be. The Gallopers that had swept round the back of my company slammed into the rescue party and wiped themselves and my unit out leaving Sir Marmaduke sucking his thumb on the edge of the field. Sam was unlucky again as she failed to activate her units thus prevented them from closing in on their prey.

I just about managed to get a unit of pike to contact Sir Marmaduke before Sam did, meaning he could finally escape.

Technically it was a victory for my company but a Pyrrhic one at that. At least we both had fun (I hope) playing the game. Sam played a good game and used clever tactics (better than mine) but she was let down by her unlucky dice rolls which prevented her being able to activate units when she needed them.

It is pretty typical of the kind of games Pikeman's Lament generates. The units are balanced, without one particular type being unbeatable. The tide of battle swings back and forth so we are never quite sure what is going to happen even towards the very end of a game.

Sir Marmaduke rides into the sunset.
"Thanks lads, I'm off."

As usual I was having too much fun playing that I forgot to take enough photographs but hopefully the images will give you a favour of the action.

Regular readers will know that I've never produced a batrep for this blog before (I didn't even know what AAR meant until I looking it up). I don't want to give away too much info about the rules and spoil the fun for anyone in the future, so I've deliberately left the game mechanics vague. Plus I think it would seriously annoy the writers and the game isn't due for release until early 2017 anyway. Nearer to release I may discuss more games and detail a few more of the new aspects of the rules but I'll see what the reactions are like to this post first.

Bronze Age Chariot, Wargames Foundry - Part 2 of 2

This is the second set of (lost?) models painted for Wargames Foundry painted around four years ago. Another example can be found [here]. As mentioned previously I don't believe these chariot models were ever released commercially by Wargames Foundry but if any readers have a set please let me know.

Bronze Age Chariot, Wargames Foundry - Part 1 of 2

The miniatures featured in the following posts are quite unusual for this blog for a couple of reasons. One is that although I'm interested in ancient history (on my travels I've visited places such as Mycenae and Troy, locations associated with these figures) I'm not that interested in playing games set in the period. Another reason is that because, as far as I can tell, these figures have never actually been available to buy from the manufacturer, Wargames Foundry. These figures were painted around four years ago.

It was only after my brother reminded me about them that I had a rummage for the photographs. Eventually after a long search I found them. The models depict Mycenaean Bronze Age chariots. I say this because the models weren't labelled but appear to be based on an illustration by Angus McBride from an Osprey book 'The Mycenaeans c.1650–1100 BC (ELITE 130) an image from which can be seen [here].

In the famous siege of Troy the armour worn by the warriors would have been very similar to an example discovered at Dendra.  It's interesting to note that when the warrior was carrying a shield the only part of the body left exposed would have been the back of the leg i.e. the Achilles heel region.

Note the boar tusk decoration on the helmet.

Wargames Foundry have a massive range of figures and they were pioneers of the wargaming miniature market, being an early employer of the Perry brothers for example. I think these particular models got misplaced (literally by the looks of it) during the management changes that took place over the last few years when the son of the owner, Bryan Ansell, eventually took charge. 

As seems to be a regular pattern within the wargaming world that for a period companies become almost social pariahs for some reason or the other. A few years ago Wargames Foundry received an awful lot of negative comments on certain sites whenever they were mentioned, mainly it seems for their price/packaging structure and shipping costs. With the change of management it seems they have restored their image/reputation and now can be seen regularly at wargame shows.

Despite this golden age of affordable plastic miniatures Foundry still produce some very attractive and sometimes obscure metal figures. I recently purchased from them some very nice 17th century civilians to decorate my tabletop for ECW games.

Playtesting The Pikeman's Lament, Osprey Games

As I'm sure many readers will be aware, Osprey Publishing are releasing more and more board games and wargame rules. The company have recently announced another half a dozen titles to be released over the coming months, details of which can be found in the following link: 

Osprey Publishing Wargames The Big Reveal 

However one that isn't listed is 'The Pikeman's Lament'. This is the forthcoming 17th century pike & shot rule set, due for release in early 2017, co-written by Dan Mersey and Michael Leck. This will be the third variant of the successful and popular core Lion Rampant (LR) rule system. You can follow both authors progress on their blogs here [Mersey Books] and here [Dalauppror]. 

For obvious reasons I won't go into too much detail about the rules. I will say however that although the core mechanics are the same as LR there is enough difference in the new version to justify another rule book. In particular Dan & Michael have developed a simple and intuitive method of creating a campaign which revolves around your commanding officer. The chance of that character being killed off completely by a lucky strike is still present but new system allows the possibility that your officer may escape to fight again. The rules are still being modified and added to as playtesting irons out any issues, this is another reason why I won't be detailing many of the mechanics or principles of the rules as they may not even appear in the final book. 

Although the rules as designed for skirmish games I was curious if they could be scaled up for larger battles using my entire collection. A normal game would consist of around 40-60 models using 24 points per side. This setup consisted in total of around one hundred and fifty infantry, thirty six cavalry and two artillery units (working out at about forty points per side). 

With this larger scale of game to lose your activation in the first turn could be potentially disastrous (admittedly very funny to witness but very frustrating if it happens to you). Therefore a house rule we came up with was to divide each army into different infantry or cavalry companies/regiments made up various units. If you lose activation for one unit within a particular company/regiment you can then move on to the next company rather than passing control over to your opponent. This is similar to how you could play the game if multiple players are taking part. It is, of course, still possible to fail the first activation for every company (especially if you have the same kind of 'lucky' dice as me) but at least using this method you may get a better chance to move or fight with some of your figures per turn.

The photos in this post don't depict an actual game. This was just an initial setup to see if a large scale game was viable on our small table.

I'm currently working on a group of dragoons for my army so hopefully I shall be able to post more images soon. I'm on the look out for civilian and casualty marker figures for the period which I'm hoping to purchase at the forthcoming Derby/Donnington show.

Osprey Wargames Resources

In case anyone missed the original post (details here) by the author of the new Lion Rampant rules, Dan Mersey, here is a very useful link to the Osprey Wargame Resources page <here>.

Not only are there quick reference and muster sheets for Lion Rampant the page has support material for all the previous Osprey rule sets.

OWG 1: Dux Bellorum
OWG 2: A World Aflame
OWG 3: In Her Majesty's Name
OWG 4: Ronin
OWG 5: Of Gods and Mortals
OWG 6: A Fistful of Kung Fu
OWG 7: On the Seven Seas
OWG 8: Lion Rampant

Osprey Publishing games - wargames coming in 2015

Just noticed this tweet from Osprey:

Osprey Publishing games - wargames coming in 2015

There has been nothing officially announced from Warlord Games (as far as I know) but of particular interest was 'Bolt Action: World War I (September 2015)'. It is not too surprising seeing as they have recently released several WWI tanks but this, as far as I know, is the first official news that Warlord will be releasing a dedicated WWI rulebook this time next year. It would seem reasonable to assume that Warlord will also release figures to support the rules and tanks. This is something that I'll be following with interest.

Othon de Grandson - Knight, Fireforge Games & Crusader Miniatures

This is another figure based on a illustration by Richard Hook the Osprey book 'The Crusades' (Elite Series E19). This time it is the Savoy knight, Othon de Grandson (d.1328).

It was the colourful heraldic shield that initially attracted me but in a happy coincidence the real Othon had a very close connection to Edward I, one that I happened to notice on a recent visit to Beaumaris castle on the isle of Anglesey. This connection resulted in Othon being appointed as first justiciar of North Wales between 1284–1294.

Othon de Grandson (sometimes spelt Otto or Otton de Grandison) was a knight from the Savoy region which is now covers parts of modern day eastern France, western Switzerland and north western Italy.

The English Plantagenet kings had close family ties to the area. Count Philip of Savoy was Edward I's great uncle and also owned him homage for part of his lands. One result of this connection was that many Savoyards joined the English royal household.

Othon de Grandson himself entered the service of English king Henry III and was placed in the household of the young prince Edward, later being knighted in 1268. He became a lifetime friend and confidant of the future king Edward I. As a result many other Savoyards went on to serve with Edward in his Welsh wars.

In 1271 Othon accompanied Edward on the Ninth Crusade where he served at Acre. Here he commanded a small force of English volunteers defending a section of city's walls. During the siege he saved the life of fellow Savoyard Jean I de Grailly, the heraldry of whom I hope to recreate in miniature form for my ongoing Cry Havoc project. It was possible that it was Othon, and not Edward's wife, that it is supposed to have sucked the poison from the wound inflicted by an assassin's blade on the future king.

Interestingly on Edward's return he appointed the builder/mason/architect Master James of Saint George to build the now famous castles in north-west Wales such as Conway, Harlech, Caernarfon and Beaumaris. James was also a fellow Savoyard and is thought to have travelled on Crusade himself. Many of Edward's castles feature architectural details that appear in both north Wales and Savoy but rarely elsewhere.

Dismounted knight with mace

A more detailed (i.e. better) history of Othon de Grandson can be found online.

With this character I realised that after looking over the metal and plastic figures I had available I knew I could utilise a dismounted knight from Crusader and modify a mounted plastic Fireforge figure (as the Italian company do not currently make knights on foot) to suit as it is far easier to modify a plastic figure to match a metal figure than visa versa. Although not identical they could be made to look similar enough to suit my purposes.

As I wanted to have a bit of variety with the mounted knights I decided to depict the knight on a unbarded horse. This meant that I would have to use the plastic horse model from the Fireforge 'Mounted Sergeants/Men at Arms' set. To match the metal Crusader figure however I used the head, limbs and body of the mounted knight figure Fireforge 'Teutonic Knights Cavalry' set.

The picture above better illustrates the changes I made to the original model but note that the large horns have already been removed from the other plastic helmet.

After removing the horns/wings from the Teutonic helmet and smoothing the surface I added the tiny vent holes to the faceplate by poking it with a sharp metal scribe. Next I removed the head from the triangular plastic mace, shortened the handle to match the metal version, and replaced it with a metal mace head taken another Crusader figure.

I also rounded off the plastic shield so it resembled the one shown in the Osprey book.

I attempted to copy the shield illustrated in the Osprey book and totally messed it up as I thought the heraldic designs were stylised flowers so painted a simple five petal pattern on the shield. A short time afterwards however by chance I found an online image (link) of Othon's effigy which is in Lausanne Cathedral.

I noticed that the symbol I thought was a stylised flower in the Osprey illustration was actually a scallop shell, quite appropriate as the shell was a symbol of pilgrimage. After a liberal amount of swearing I decided to try a paint the shell symbols over the other pattern.

Although they're not a perfect match, for instance the plastic Fireforge helmet is noticeably larger than the metal Crusader version, I'm pleased with the overall look of both figures and how they turned out.

Peter of Dreux - Knight, Firefore Games & Crusader Miniatures

The matching pair of figures detailed in this post have been painted to represent Peter of Dreux, Duke of Brittany, based on the Richard Hook illustrations of Peter in the Osprey book 'The Crusades' (Elite Series E19).

The livery of Peter of Dreux is alternate squares of blue and gold (designating the house of Dreux) quartered with ermines (representing Brittany), or to be precise 'Chequy or and azure within a border gules a quarter ermine'.

Regarding the model itself I had noticed that fortunately one of the plastic Fireforge mounted sergeants and one of the metal Crusader knights matched each other and bore a close enough resemblance to the illustration to represent this character.

Please note that I intentional didn't fit the horse's tail piece on this model and I'll explain why. I read an interesting discussion on the Fireforge Games Facebook page, where someone pointed out something I'd never noticed before. To paraphrase, someone basically said, "On all the medieval illustrations of fully barded horses the horse's tail is covered and is not visible." Out of curiosity I double checked all my image reference books and was slightly surprised to find that I couldn't see any that showed the tail on a fully caparisoned horse (if anyone can provide a contemporary medieval illustration/glassed glass image or reference etc. showing otherwise I'd genuinely like to see it, it would save me a lot of work in the future!). 

I thought it may be an interesting challenge to make and paint a proper fully barded horse. The problem with this approach is that it left me having to fill a large gap at the rear of the model where the caparison/barding is modelled flapping open. This issue was solved by using a thin sheet of greenstuff and blending it in as best I could to match the folds before it set.

As the mounted figure is depicted as having drawn his sword I cut away the hilt, grip and pommel of the sword the scabbard on the figure's waist. I also cut away a small section of the material from the area beneath the saddle area so as to create a similar look to the one show in the Osprey book.

Obviously one the initial attractions of this character was the eye-catching heraldry. However attempting to paint it may, at first glance, appear quite intimidating but the final appearance is actually more down to using simple techniques than any artist skill on my part. I will however freely admit it did eventually prove to be a bit of tough bugger to paint (all this after saying in a previous post that I was sticking with simple geometric designs).

After the base colours, yellow at the front and the off white/grey for the rear, were applied I then used a small, square single piece of cardboard loosely stuck to the model horse with Blu-Tac. I lightly traced the edges using a H6 pencil, repeating the pattern until the front half of the horse was covered with faint grid lines. With the tricky areas around the neck and head I simply drew the lines in by eye. I used a H6 pencil for this as it is traditionally used to create trace lines, the hard lead produces a very fine, faint line (being a draughtsman by trade its nice to be able to return to using a pencil instead of a computer). Once satisfied with the pattern the alternate squares were painted and filled in with blue paint.

For the ermine pattern once again I traced in very faint horizontal lines across the whole of the rear of the horse. Then using the horizontal lines as a boundary guide I painted in short black vertical lines. Once that was done I then painted an inverted V at the bottom of each line. I tried to paint the three dots using a brush but repeatedly made a mess of it. I eventually tried using a cocktail stick, dipped the tip into black paint and placed the three dots on top of the vertical line (although I'm still spotting the odd one or two I missed). I'm not particularly looking forward to painting the wounded/dead version of the same figure if I ever get round to it (I might just cheat and stick to using generic casualty markers).

'A Knight with a Big Weapon'

The dismounted figure is from the 'Knights with Big Weapons' pack (MCF003) by Crusader Miniatures and is painted straight out of the box i.e. no modifications were made to the figure.

Unfortunately neither illustration in the Osprey book (unusually the artwork on the cover is not replicated inside the book) shows his shield but a quick search using Google 'all hail' Images soon revealed the appropriate details.

With hindsight I should have added the greenstuff to repilcate the fancy strips of material that form the sleeves in the original illustration but this only occurred to me after I'd starting to paint the figure.

This figure is a substitute for Sir Conrad in the Cry Havoc game who carries a yellow and blue checked shield and whose horse has a matching caparison.

In an interesting historical footnote Peter of Dreux's original sword pommel, displaying his coat of arms, actually turned up for sale in Damascus a number of years ago. Peter had been wounded at the battle of Mansourah (February 1250) where he had fought with Robert of Artois, the Master of the Templars. He was taken prisoner along with King Louis and other barons. He later died as a result of his facial wounds. The pommel is now in the Metropolitan Museum of New York.