For me the advantages and disadvantages of Pike and Shotte are:
Advantages
1. They are fun and easy to pick up, which means that club players can join in games even if they are not familiar with the rules. People always seem to enjoy the game, which is always a plus.
2. The special rules allow you to differentiate between different units and give them realistic characteristics.
3. To my mind, they are able to give a historically realistic representation of the Italian Wars battles.
4. They are fast playing even with quite a few troops (500+ per side).
5. They are relaxed on basing standards, so as long as the two armies are roughly similarly based, it will be fine.
6. They are a "relaxed" set of rules, which are good for players who are not rules lawyers.
7. A lot of people have played Hail Caesar or Black Powder, so while they might not know all of the rules in Pike and Shotte, they have an understanding of the basic structure of the rules.
Disadvantages:
1. Due to the relaxed nature they are definitely not a set of rules for tournaments, which suits me just fine.
2. The hedgehog rules are probably suitable for ECW and TYW periods (which I believe are the periods gamed by the authors), but don't fit with my views on the Italian Wars. I have had to make some minor house rule modifications to resolve Hedgehogs and Conuellas.
3. They don't handle the super large pike blocks seen in the Italian wars – such as the Swiss and Marignano and the Landschnekts at Ravenna. Again I have added some simple house rules to cover these blocks.
4. In my opinion, the command roll situation needs a slight change, as you can have a situation where a player can do nothing for multiple turns if he command rolls badly – there is nothing worse to turn a player off a set of rules. Again I have made a house rule to resolve this one.
5. The Blunder rule – people love it or hate it. I have chosen not to apply it at the moment and therefore I don't have a strong view at this time.
I totally get that some people don't like Pike and Shotte as they have different needs from a set of rules. But for me, Pike and Shotte ticks a lot of the boxes that I am looking for from a set of rules.
Having said all that, I still am intrigued by the set of rules that Olicanalad uses: "Hell Broke Loose" and when I get time, I would like to get copy and try them.