"Pikes in Pikeman's Lament: Second Try" Topic

Reposting since the Bug seems to have pushed this off the main topics of discussion:

So, having only played one game of Pikeman's Lament, it became sort of obvious that the Pikeman's Lament is, "How do I protect the shot?"

Since neither shot nor pike have no reaction to being charged, and cavalry can choose to charge anyone in range, how can the pike unit protect the shot?

I mean, I sorta don't mind if pikes have a diminished role at this level of representation, since they were rarely dispatched for small unit actions. Forces represented at this level would most likely consist of all cavalry or a combination of horse and shot. You might run into pikes in more of a defensive role.

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The Dux Rampant forum has sections for all of Dan Mersey's rules for Osprey and he's very good about answering questions.

LT

Although you may want to read the 'Message from Dan Mersey'in the featured topics section on that page about why he may not be so fast in answering questions on that site (if at all) from Oct 16.

However – still worth a visit as there are lots of other people who are knowledgeable and more than willing to answer your concerns.

Thanks guys. I sent him an email, but I'll also join the forum to see what others think.

OK, I only have LR, DR and TMWWBK, but do you need a full frontage to fire in PL? You don't in LR, so you can space good melee infantry with a gap the bows can shoot through while leaving them protected from charging cavalry. Might be worth looking into.

In our games, the shot have usually weakened galloper cavalry before the cavalry can get into combat- shot have range of 18 inches, gallopers only move at 10. If you can get the shotte behind hedges, they are likely to do a lot of damage to cavalry without any help from the pike.
Stronglyrecommend having some dragoons, move faster than cavalry, able to shoot, have an evade option if charged and this sort of action is exactly why they were raised in the first place. I have only ever used a maximum of one pike unit in my company.

In my one game of PL, I used my one pike unit in a bottleneck between two pieces of terrain to screen off a flanking cavalry unit. My shot went on to do their thing in the middle, with my cavalry coving the flank on the other side.

These are all interesting tactics, but they don't really address the issue that the interaction of pike and shot is not represented at all. Using pike in front of shot is possible, but you usually have only one or two pike and many more shot units. Sending pikes off on their own is valid, but again does not address the role of pkes protecting shot.

Michael Leck recommended the idea of moving your pike a bit in advance of the shot. Then the cavalry MIGHT attack them instead of the shot, but they are not required to charge the nearest enemy, or anything. He goes on to suggest that if the cavalry do attack the shot, then your pikes can fall on them and kill them. Again, that is fine, but it is "avenging" the shot, not "protecting" them. They are still probably dead as the pikes stood next and watched it happen.

Our solution in the last game was so much terrain that pike were deemed to be out of their element. With 36 points on each side, there was only one pike unit in the game. We did not miss them.

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Here's a house rule – cavalry are entitled to a second round of melee if they successfully charge foot. If, at the initial attack, the foot is adjacent (2 inches away) from a pike unit which is not wavering and is not under half strength, then the cavalry does not get the second attack.

Can units pass through eachother in these rules?