The Pikeman's Lament intro, review and examples 170203

Join me for a run through of the book, the rules and some examples of game play from the eagerly expected "The Pikeman's lament" by Dan Mersey and Michael Leck.

[@Zikekiel]

Very much looking forward to getting my hands on this.

[@ME-hm7zm]

No flanking is kinda weird in an era pretty famous for needing to outflank pikeblocks.

[@TheDiomedef16]

Had my first game, recorded it on my blog. Great game and knowing Lion Rampant, it was like picking up and old friend.

[@RossFigurepaintingCoUK]

I agree. It feels very familiar and I am looking forward to trying out the scenarios. I would be interested to see how you play it - please put a link in the comments. I will also copy into the description

[@RossFigurepaintingCoUK]

Also wondering whether you think shooting is too dominant?

[@TheDiomedef16]

Here is the link Ross. thediomedef16.blogspot.co.uk/

[@RossFigurepaintingCoUK]

Thanks. I enjoyed your blog post. Great characters and personalities. Something very lacking in my games where we tend to have a more tournament type head on

[@TheDiomedef16]

One of the advantages of playing, predominantly solo, I have the time to do all that.

[@paulos0167]

Thanks for the review. Looking forward to trying these myself. The musket issue could be due to the advance in firearms in the period covered. So what looks op for the ECW might be better for games in the early 18th century. As other guys have mentioned try a reload action of some sort for earlier settings. Cheers.

[@fredgunderpants6330]

Subbed - thanks for doing this, more please! I just got the game this week and have only glanced it over. I am looking forward to trying it out.

[@RossFigurepaintingCoUK]

thanks. Really happy to receive your comment. We have the figures ready to play Broken Legions and En Guarde soon and you can find some Lion Rampant reports in the playlists. They should give you a good feel for how Lament will play too.

[@fredgunderpants6330]

I was thinking of useing the En Guarde rules to play out any duels in PL as like you, I felt the best of three dice rolls was rather "dicey". Keep up the good work & thanks for all your efforts.

[@RossFigurepaintingCoUK]

Thanks Fred. I will bear that in mind when we have our en garde game. We haven't bothered with duels so far - my commanders seem to die quick enough as it is!

[@WGRevival]

One thing I'd have liked to see in this ruleset was a reload action, and a consequent easier shoot-after-being-loaded action vs a more difficult load-and-shoot action. The Lion Rampant way (FWIW I love the Lion Rampant way) was great for medieval battles where gunpowder was rare. Here it's more prevalent, thus needs more options. That said I expect I'll enjoy this book tremendously. Great review!

[@RossFigurepaintingCoUK]

I agree. How about - one activation to load hitting on 5's (or even 6's) which can be followed up by an actiation to prepare which reduces the to-hit score by one. A unit can move while staying loaded but would have to prepare again to get the +1. Firearms were still pretty primitive in this period and I am worried they might dominate too much as the rules are written. Hopefully will get some games in soon to see. Thanks for commenting

[@mikeelliott2736]

The obvious way to take out a Natural Leader is to challenge him to a duel!

[@Zikekiel]

Very much looking forward to getting my hands on this.

[@TheDiomedef16]

It is a great set of rules.

[@Zikekiel]

Good excuse to get some 28mm Winged Hussars!