Pike & Shotte era, Blackadder vs Mungo Campbell during the English Civil War

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

A game seven years in the making. Story time: when I first met Scott Roach, I visited his basement of doom. It’s dubbed that because he has more stock than most local game stores.  Up on a shelf, he had boxes and boxes of stuff, some of which was a Scottish Covenanter army for Warlord Games’ Pike & Shotte.  Naturally, as my last name is Campbell, I was keen to do them and worked out a ”good deal’, and they were mine.

However, a number of other ‘projects’ came up in between, such as Napoleonics, finishing my Flames and Team Yankee armies, then Bolt Action, then Art de la Guerre, then Covid happened. I finally got to start building and painting and this game is the culmination of roughly six months of painting. Scott, wanting to be the Campbell-murdering scumbags of Montrose’s army, happily obliged, and he painted up some opponents for me. Disclosure: He painted most of this while in the UK and didn’t base them or add pike there for ease of transport, and at the time of this game, they weren’t yet based as he just got back.

As this is our first game of Pike and Shotte, we figured we would take roughly a similar amount of units, with no special rules or characters.  I’ve retroactively added up the lists’ points values (from To Kill a King)

Glorious Scottish Covenanters (746 pts) led by

Alexander ‘Auld Sandy’ Leslie (just a ldr 9 commander today) 50pts

Left Wing commander (ldr 8) 40pts

Highlanders 24

Highlanders 24

Seaforth Pike 34

2x Seaforth Muskets 54

Saker (med gun) 21

 

Center commander (ldr 8) 40pts

Roche Pike 34

2x Roche Muskets 54

Mungo Campbell of Lawers Pike 34

2x Campbell Muskets 54

Argyle Pike 34

2x Argyle Muskets 54

2x light guns 34

 

Cavalry / Right-wing commander Argyle (ldr 8) 40pts

Reivers light horse  32pts

Scots Lancers 38

Fraziers Firelocks (commanded shotte) 34

1x light gun 17

 

vs the Perfidious Montrose army (844pts): ldr 9 commander 50ts

 

Right-Wing ldr 8 commander  40

2x Pike (Oxford and King’s guard) 68

2x muskets (Oxfords) 54

2x Medium guns 42

1x Storming party 34

 

Center ldr 8 commander 40pts

4x pike (Newcastle, etc) 136pts

8x muskets 216

2x medium guns 42

 

Cavalry/left wing

Cuirassiers (from NMA list) 53

Cavalry 35

Capt. Blackadder’s Dragoons  34

 

I had no idea there was a real Blackadder Dragoons, funny, he looks nothing like Rowan Atkinson!

We played on a 6 by 4-foot table, which, as you can see, is tight quarters for this many points:

 

 

Scott put three pike and shot units in a column, with a fourth in reserve to push up vs my three units. The key to victory will be the cavalry fights.

 

Roche Pike and Muskets. Col. John Roche, possible ancestor/relations to Scott Roach? I hope so, and my psychological plan is to present this unit as the central target for Scott’s army! Cmon, kill your own unit!

Scottish Reivers/ Mossers. Light skirmishing cavalry with pistols. They had seen life before this game as Scottish horse for SAGA.

My center, With Roche and Argyle foot up front, Mungo Campbell of Lawers in reserve / rear support.

Scott rolls to go first, and his entire right-wing advances, with the King’s Guard unit leading, Storming party right next to them.   They would shoot and disorder both of my Highlander units, and I had to leapfrog them with the Seaforths and would wind up shooting and disordering the Guard’s Pike.

Scott’s 3x center pike and shot move forward with the rear lining up as a 4th unit of reserve. Both sides shoot muskets causing some disorders, but I inflict wounds on both his forward musket units.

Foreground, my 2x light guns roll double 6s and inflict two wounds on the Cuirassiers, while my Reivers take pistol shots at the dismounted Blackadder dragoons in the wood. The Firelocks only make one move to clear the farmhouse.

After turn 2, the center musket duel brings down one of the wounded Montrose musket units, while inflicting wounds across my front.   My light guns AGAIN inflict a wound on the Cuirassiers, and my lancers move up to charge the survivors.  On the right flank, I do not dare advance any closer to the two medium guns, and take a charge from the Storming party but my pike repel them ( I had more support).

Down the center, I kill off another Musket unit as I leapfrog up with my fresh Mungo Campbell unit.  On the right, my Lancers charge into the Horse as the Cuirassiers had been pulled back to get their wounds rallied off.  My Reivers BLUNDERED to the back farmhouse, but the Frazier’s Firelocks shatter the Blackadder Dragoons with accurate Matchlocks (close range 12 inches not 6!).

Off-screen to the left: the King’s Guard finally understands a Charge order, wipes out my Seaforth Muskets, and then performs a Sweeping advance into my Highlanders unit. Who then proceeds to roll all 5s and 6s on all six dice, destroying the King’s Guard!

 

…perhaps the King’s Guard was distracted by the highlander leader, Maggie Maclean!

Turn 5 or so, Scott’s fresh unit of redcoats charge into the Roche Regiment.  His pike beats my pike, shattering them, one of my Campbell Muskets destroys his muskets with closing fire than a good combat roll, and the other two musket units fight to a stalemate.

Turn 6, The Cuirassiers, the last unit in their battalia, fail their check and flee the table, allowing my right flank to move up.  In the center, I perform a flank charge with the other unit of Highlanders into the musket-less and wounded Pike.

The pike can turn to face, but as they were already wounded and disordered, I win this fight and break them.

Scott simply could not bring his superior numbers to bear in the center and sent in units piecemeal (due to command rolls) and thus I was able to hang on there.    The Cuirassiers really should have demolished my cavalry were it not for the plucky frame gun and falconet gun crews.  Extra Whiskey rations to them, huzzah!

 

Highlanders, hanging on with 2 wounds, were victorious after routing the Pike. That’s a bit of payback from the battle of Inverlochy, ye bastards!

 

We called it here, a narrow victory for the Scottish. We only rolled one BLUNDER among us over six turns, where my Reivers running away from dismounted dragoons. I guess they had seen Blackadder before?

Thanks to Scott for hosting in the Basement of Doom!  Video AAR of this game can be found here:  https://youtu.be/1jg9NIrvPBk