I got together with fellow Bloggers
Ed M and
Mark D (click their names to see their blogs) for a game of Pikeman's Lament that Ed was hosting for Mark and I. Both Mark and I are relatively new to playing the rules and Ed wanted to polish up his hosting skills for the rules.
As you can see, Ed hosts a beautiful game. The scenario was a meeting engagement in the 30 Years War with mirror forces (for ease of teaching the rules). Mark and I both got up to speed fairly quickly. Mark's ran afoul of the dice in shooting and I in activation throughout the game. It started off with me blasting one of Mark's cavalry units with musketry, then mark did the same to my pike block. Mark followed this up with an aggressive push from his pike drawing my gallopers into charge range, which they failed to resist and went into the pike to their detriment.
The following turns I got some activation dice (finally) and shot up mark's Dragoons and turned his flank threatening his pike with caracole and musketry which it wasn't well prepared to defend against without his dragoons. I also did a number on his commanded shot with my own commanded shot and musketeers.
This was a fun game. It's definitely a bit of beer and pretzels. General dice matters as much as tactics and strategy that's for sure. Have a game then pop off to the pub as the Brits would say. Thanks for the fun afternoon to both of my fellow Northern Conspirators and bloggers.