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Hey all,

Just stumbled across Pike and Shotte and it looks incredibly interesting. I'm just wondering whether it's worth investing into without a local player base. I was hoping to split the intro box and was just curious as to whether that's feasible. Some historical games go into a level of detail that most would find boring, but I was wondering whether Pike and Shotte was a game capable of engaging those who typically play GW titles, or whether I should just get the AoS box.

Thanks

Like WLG's other games, P&S is streamlined. Always keep in mind: when you buy historical miniatures, you are not tied to a particular ruleset!

I'm also really interested in Pike and Shotte. My fiancee said she'll play it if I paint up some Protestants to take on my Catholics

I'd say it's best with most historicals to approach it as a complete project, by which I mean, you'll be painting up both forces for use most of the time unless you happen to have a strong local scene. The model count in Pike and Shotte is not that high, and you can easily lower it if you want, so making a decent pair of forces out of the starter is not too difficult. Then, by demoing it, you can try to start a local scene.

I've got Hail Caesar and Pike and Shotte, and the latter seems like more fun than the former to me. The Thirty Years War and the English Civil Wars are a really interesting period to play around in.

I've got a regular club I could probably play it in. Like I said, there are plenty of people who are interested in games.

 Da Boss wrote:
The Thirty Years War and the English Civil Wars are a really interesting period to play around in.

WLG recently released a supplement for the 30YW called The Devil's Playground. It is one of the best wargaming books I have had the pleasure to add to my collection.

http://www.warlordgames.com/pre-order-the-devils-playground-pike-shotte-supplement/

Plus it comes with a miniature called Count Trousersnake!

The English Civil Wars (technically, the Wars of the Three Kingdoms) are a hugely interesting period, and see vast amounts of change, both militarily and socially/politically. It's the time of Newton and Pepys and Milton as much as Charles I and Cromwell. Amazon will find you several popular history books (I quite like Diane Purkiss's book - although in places it's factually debatable in places, it's a good generalist introduction to the country and period).

There's also a TON of wargaming stuff for the period, including Osprey books and a lot of specialist material covering the smaller battles. Try Caliver books.

Apart from a handful of big battles, much of the war was fought at a local, skirmish level - father against son, landowner against landowner, and village against village. Since you're in Britain, there's a good chance that there are Civil War stories and personalities from your own area, and even small battlefields and relics of the period. Weird religious and political movements spring up overnight, and it's the time of the Witchfinder General too.

You could certainly split the starter box up to play a small skirmish. Pikes and cannon tended not to be used in small fights, so you could easily play heroes+muskets+horses with Warhammer - hey, there's even an OOP ECW game by Warhammer Historicals. Heck the LotR rules would probably do at a push.

Gamewise, I've not played Pike & Shotte, but it's a variation of Black Powder, isn't it? So basically a looser development of the old Warmaster rules - unit based rather than individual figure removal, and dice to see whether orders are carried out successfully. Black Powder is quite loose about special rules - it has them, with the instruction to use them sparingly to give the feel of a unit type. And although the game seems geared to massive armies, there's nothing to stop you playing with 6-12 figures in a unit. For smaller units, you can reduce the measurements from inches to centimetres. It also works just fine with smaller games of 8-12 units.

I think the £75 starter battalia set comes with two infantry and two cavalry boxes, and I'm sure you could play a game of something with each side consisting of 24 muskets, 12 pike, 4 command and 12 cavalry.

Momotaro wrote:


I think the £75 starter battalia set comes with two infantry and two cavalry boxes, and I'm sure you could play a game of something with each side consisting of 24 muskets, 12 pike, 4 command and 12 cavalry.

The King and Country set comes with the Hardcover rulebook [not mini as they did with Assualt on Normandy] 58 regular infantry and 12 each of cavalry and Firelocks.

Also, you can use Pike and Shot figures for WFB/AoS/KoW. I have a pretty decent sized "Pike and Shot" Swedish army, but have never actually played "Pike and Shot" with them!

(I prefer By Fire and Sword with 15s for my Renaissance gaming!)