Cnoc Uí Chinnéide: Pikeman's Lament AAR

We played The Pikeman's Lament on Saturday. We wound up being a bit short staffed. I planned a six-player game and set up the terrain on Friday afternoon. Based on feedback about who was planning on playing, I initially worried that there would be too many people showing up to play, but at 11:00 it was just John Kennedy and I there—and John had to be there because he owns the place. I was afraid I'd given a war and nobody came. However, about 11:30 a newcomer named Mason showed up. He'd seen John's posting about the scheduled game and was eager to give The Pikeman's Lament a try, so John, Mason, and I gave it go. It turned out to be a great game.

The scenario was set sometime during the Nine Years War (a.k.a. Tyrone's Rebellion) in Ireland—late 1590s. The English had a command atop a central elevation, Cnoc Uí Chinnéide (Kennedy's Hill). Behind that was a river too deep to cross except at a ford and a small bridge.

The field of battle

The Irish were all on the same side of the river as the hill and were in position to begin pressing the English hard. The narrowness of the approach for the other two English commands would provide a few turns of opportunity for the Irish to concentrate against the hill.

Control of the hill depending on proximity to a large Celtic cross erected in some bygone age. To claim control of the hill one side had to have at least one unwavering unit within 3" of the cross without any unwavering enemy also within 3". If neither or both side were within 3" then the hill was contested and no points for control awarded.

English in sole control of the hill

You can download a PDF of the scenario showing each command here.

I ran all three Irish commands, John ran the English left flank command, Mason ran the English right and the center command on the hill.

The defence of the hill: pike, shot, and billmen

In past games I've run with the English and Irish, the Irish tended to get the better of the English because they outshot them. When I started creating the armies a few years ago, I imagined the Irish kern as clouds of skirmishers that would annoy a column of English troops. However, the mechanics of Pikeman's Lament are such that skirmishers (commanded shot) can shoot pretty much as well as shot units, in addition to moving faster and treating rough terrain like clear—but cost half the price. The only downside was smaller units and a 12" maximum range. But what it means for play is that the Irish can throw 24 dice in a firefight for every 12 dice the English throw. The Irish kern shot the English columns to bits in both games I ran of the Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits. The game I ran at Enfilade! this May saw the English win by the skin of their teeth and only by meeting the condition of getting their wagons over the ford unharmed; the English force itself had been decimated by Irish firepower.

Irish shot and Irish kern with calivers

For this game, I wanted to tame the Irish shooting a bit, so I combined the 6-figure kern units into 12-figure shot units, and then I made them raw shot (hit on 6/18"). I don't think I'll make them raw if/when I replay this. Raw shot are pretty awful. I made the English shot all veteran (4+/18"), which were pretty deadly. However, while the Irish certainly didn't shoot the English to pieces in this game, neither did the English obliterate the Irish. It seemed to be mostly balanced, at least in terms of actual results in the game, which must take into consideration some really bad waver test rolls that saw a few units routed even though they had minimal casualties. Rolling snake-eyes has consequences...

The raw shot has a maximum range of 18", but shoot hitting on 6s only. Beyond 12" they're -1 on the die roll. Since they can't roll 7s on a D6, they're really only able to fire at 12" except for their first fire, which adds +1 to the die.

The Irish left wing: lots of raw shot

The Irish moved first. I adopted the Rebels and Patriots activation style and instead of a side's turn ending on a failed activation, I allowed players to go on to attempt activations of all their units. In multiplayer games especially, the loss of a turn when you fail your first activation is a bit deflating. Some players in our past games have been bereft of taking a turn for several turns running. I rather like allowing an attempt to activate all one's units before passing initiative over.

My plan was to strike quick in the center against the command on the hill while delaying the English reinforcements as much as possible with parts of the flank commands, while other parts of the flanks aided the battle in the center.

Moving up the horsemen

My plane sort of worked, but took longer than I figured. The fire of the English veteran shot on the hill caused a lot of pain, although I was able to pass my waver tests for several turns running. I also found myself critically outmatched when I tried my raw shot against Mason's veterans. My one unit of skirmishers (kern with javelins, whom I gave only a 6" range) was supposed  to advance through a bog and harass/distract on of Mason's shot units. It never had a chance to fling its javelins, but it did occupy them for a couple turns, enough to get my cavalry in place and get a unit of raw shot over from my right flank to provide more fire (anemically).

The kern advance to prove that one should never bring a javelin to a gunfight

The Irish cavalry took one shot from Mason's calivermen on the hill and lost 1/3 of their strength. However, they were in position to strike.

Before the carnage and glory

Even though the first few turns were desultory, on turn 3 I was able to strike hard. My Irish shot (real shot, not the saffron-wearing kern) got off a telling volley at Mason's pikes and sent them back wavering. I was then able to charge my cavalry against Mason's shot. I did good damage on impact, although I also took another loss, which put me a half strength. The shot retreated and failed its waver test. I then followed up (gallopers) and in my second strike at them they took more losses and routed after a badly failed waver test.

My diminished cavalry sitting where the English shot made its last stand

Defeating the English shot took a lot of pressure off my forces. Shooters—especially veteran shot—matter. The loss of a unit like that hurts. However, the Irish cavalry didn't last long on the hilltop. Mason attempted to attack with his billmen (and officer) but failed the activation. In my turn I charged only to get repulsed with loss. In Mason's next turn, he charged home and took out my last horse standing. Theirs was a short, but glorious career.

On the English right, Mason's forces were crossing the bridge. The narrow access kept their advance from being strongly felt for a few turns, but before long they were starting to worry me.

English forces cross the bridge against the Irish left

I had a bit of luck at this point. Mason lead with one of his veteran shot units, who advanced within 12" of my raw shot hunkered down behind a stone wall. With the first volley (getting a +1 for a grand effect of 5+ on their shot) they inflicted 2 casualties, Mason rolled snake-eyes for his morale test with no officer within 12". With a result of exactly 0, his fine unfired veteran shot went away. It was the last hurrah for the Irish kern—also their first. It was their only hurrah, but they'll be making much of it and embellishing the story down the generations.

A glorious victory in the making

On my right, John was getting across the ford, slowly. He'd had a string of bad activation rolls, which gave me a bit of time to get in relatively good position. He led with his commanded shot. His officer;s unit was way in the rear and didn't add much to his activations, morale, and rally tests.

John's forces cross the ford

The fight for the hill between Mason's billmen and officer and my gallowglass and officer went for a few rounds. The initial clash was a draw and I was forced to retire.

St. Patrick and St. George content for the hilltop

On the last turn of the game, however, I got one more charge in and wiped out the billmen, killing Mason's officer.

Preparing for the final charge

All the while, John was putting a steady pressure on the Irish right. He was outgunned, having just two veteran commanded shot against two Irish shot units plus a unit of raw shot (kern). Although, my feckless kern spent most of their wasted effort not hitting Mason's billmen on the hill.

Battle shaping up on the right

The Irish shot, on the other hand, managed to eliminate one of John's commanded shot and damaged the other. They also put a few casualties on one of John's pike blocks. In the course of things, though, John put some casualties on one of my shot units, which rolled snake-eyes for its morale test (a trick they'd learned from watching Mason) and they went running back to the bogs of Ballyshannon.

Getting near to push of pike on the Irish right

We sparred a bit with our pikes, but that's kind of ineffectual. Pikes are better defending than attacking. To attack pikes with pikes is to put yourself at a disadvantage. John tried that once and got bounced back. I stood my ground until one of my shot units managed to inflict some casualties and John failed the morale test, becoming wavering. Nevertheless, my attack on his wavering pikes didn't do much more than inflict some casualties and send him backwards. He was able to rally on his next move and our pikes spent the rest of the game glowering at each other.

Taking out Mason's billment on the hilltop was my last good deed for the day. His right flank forces were coming in now. Despite losing one of his two veteran shot, he still had a formidable force, especially against the raw shot I could send against him.

Mason held off my left with his pike unit and moved his remaining shot and his billment to the hill. He also had the right hand shot unit from the hilltop command. I'd been keeping that unit busy with my left flank command, but had suffered much from them, while doing little harm in return since they were well ensconced in a wee wood.

Trying to press him on that flank proved disastrous. One of my raw shot was shot away and my pikes were as well. I had a forlorn hope unit (redshanks mercenaries), but it had taken some damage attacking Mason's sot in the woods and was at half strength. For some reason, the unit of gallowglass—along with my officer—on the Irish left spent the whole game in a wood. I was so focused elsewhere, I just forgot to get them into the fight. I think somewhere in the back of my mind, too, I was regarding them as my last reserve to be committed only to stave off calamity.

The end wasn't calamitous, although it was an English victory 14-9. We played out 8 turns in about 2 hours. The English held the hill uncontested for most of the game. At game's end neither side had uncontested control, so no one got points for that. As for shooting troops, the English had one intact unit of veteran shot, one that was a bit shot up, and a nearly half strength unit of commanded shot. The Irish still had two units of shot, two units of raw shot (for what they were worth), and the redshanks at half strength.

Post mortem

It was great to play The Pikeman's Lament again. We've been playing a lot of Rebels and Patriots, so going back to TPL was a bit of a sea change and it took a few turns to get into the flow. I did use the R&P activation rule that players can keep activating units after one fails until they've made an activation attempt for all their units. It worked very well that way.

I think I tamed the Irish shot, as I hoped. Maybe they were a bit too tame, or maybe making the English veteran shot was too much. Shooting a 4+ is a big advantage, especially when your opponent is firing back a 6.

Pike are clearly a defensive unit type and best used facing cavalry.

I'll run this again later in the year, hopefully when there are a few more people who can play.