Two Scenarios For 'Dominion Of Pike & Shot'

I put together these two scenarios last year but for some reason I forgot to post them.

The ECW one has probably been superseded by one in Dominion Of Cavaliers And Roundheads, but since I put in the work to create it for the pike & shot rules I'm not letting it go to waste.

 Winceby (11th October 1643)

The Battle of Winceby (1643) was a short but decisive cavalry engagement during the First English Civil War, fought on 11 October 1643 near the village of Winceby in Lincolnshire. It was an important Parliamentarian victory, helping to secure control of eastern England and boost the reputation of rising commanders like Oliver Cromwell.

In 1643, the English Civil War was still in its early stages. Control of Lincolnshire was hotly contested. The Parliamentarian stronghold of Hull had resisted a Royalist siege earlier that year, and the Parliamentarians were now trying to secure more of the county to cut off Royalist forces in the north.

Parliament’s Eastern Association army, led by Earl of Manchester and including Oliver Cromwell as cavalry commander, was moving to take Bolingbroke Castle, held by Royalists. In response, the Royalist Northern Army, under Sir William Widdrington and Sir John Henderson, advanced to support the garrison and challenge Parliament's control of the area.

Manchester’s force included about 3,000 horse and 2,000 foot, while the Royalists had around 1,500–2,000 horse and some dragoons. The Royalists hoped to catch Manchester’s army while it was divided near Bolingbroke, but Cromwell’s cavalry quickly regrouped and moved to confront them near Winceby.

Royalists: 5 x Horse, 1 x Dragoons

Parliament: 2 x Elite Horse, 1 x Horse, 1 x Dragoons, 1 x Mixed Missile Foot

Royalists (Attackers)

Horse, Horse, Horse
Horse	Dragoons	Horse
Horse	Dragoons	Horse (E)
Horse (E), Mixed Missile Foot

Parliament (Defenders)

The battle began in the morning with both sides deploying mostly cavalry. The Royalists, positioned on slightly higher ground, charged first, but their attack was poorly coordinated. Cromwell’s Ironsides cavalry, supported by other Parliamentarian troops, counter-charged up the slope.

At the start of the engagement, Cromwell’s horse was killed, and he was briefly stunned, but he quickly remounted and rejoined the fight. His disciplined troopers broke the Royalist front, forcing them back in confusion. The Parliamentarians pursued aggressively, cutting down fleeing cavalry and scattering the enemy across the countryside.

The fighting lasted less than an hour, but it was chaotic and brutal. Many Royalists were killed or captured, and some fled for miles, throwing down their weapons. Parliamentarian forces claimed a decisive victory with hundreds of Royalist casualties, while their own losses were light.

The victory at Winceby allowed Parliament to capture Bolingbroke Castle and soon afterward take Lincoln. It secured Lincolnshire for Parliament and weakened Royalist influence in the north-east. The battle also cemented Cromwell’s reputation as a capable cavalry commander and laid the groundwork for his rise in Parliament’s military and political leadership.

The Dunes (11th October 1658)

The Battle of the Dunes (1658) was an engagement during the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659) and was fought near Dunkirk between a Franco-English army and Spanish forces. It was notable for its unusual setting - on sand dunes by the coast - and for showcasing the rising power of France under Turenne, aided by Cromwell’s England. It also featured former Royalist troops fighting veterans of the New Model Army.

By the late 1650s, the Franco-Spanish War had dragged on for over two decades. France, led by Cardinal Mazarin and Marshal Henri de Turenne, aimed to weaken Spanish control in the Spanish Netherlands. At the same time, Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate in England was eager to undermine Catholic Spain and secure commercial and naval advantages.

In 1657, France and England signed the Treaty of Paris, forming a military alliance. England would send 6,000 troops and naval support in exchange for control of Dunkirk if it were captured. Dunkirk, a Spanish-held port used by privateers to harass English shipping, was a strategic prize for both sides.

In May 1658, Turenne led a combined Franco-English force of around 15,000 men into Flanders and laid siege to Dunkirk. The Spanish, under Don Juan of Austria (the illegitimate son of Philip IV), quickly moved to relieve the city with a force of about 15,000–16,000 men, including French Frondeurs and English Royalist exiles under James, Duke of York (the future James II).

The Spanish hoped to lift the siege before Dunkirk’s defences collapsed. Turenne, anticipating this, prepared his army on the dunes south of the city to block the relief effort.

The battle took place on June 14, 1658, with fighting erupting on soft, shifting dunes - an unusual and difficult battlefield.

French: 1 x Elite Horse (Supported by Warships), 1 x Elite Melee Foot (English), 1 x Missile Foot, 2 x Horse

Spanish: 1 x Horse, 1 x Defended Horse, 1 x Defended Missile Foot, 1 x Missile Foot (French Rebels), 2 x Unreliable Horse (Foraging Cavalry)

French (Attackers)

Horse, Horse
Missile Foot	Melee Foot (E)	Horse (E)
Horse	Missile Foot (D)	Horse (D)
Horse (UR), Horse (UR), Missile Foot

Spanish (Defenders)

The English infantry, under Sir William Lockhart, led the assault on the Spanish right, storming their positions on the dunes with great ferocity. 

Meanwhile, Turenne’s French infantry and cavalry engaged the centre and left eventually pushing the Spanish back. The terrain made cavalry manoeuvres tricky, but the Franco-English eventually outflanked the Spanish and forced them into retreat, inflicting heavy casualties - over 1,200 dead and many captured.

The victory led to the fall of Dunkirk which was handed over to England as promised. The battle boosted the prestige of both Turenne and Cromwell's army, and it marked the beginning of the end for Spanish dominance in the region. Just a year later, the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) brought peace between France and Spain, confirming France’s rising power in Europe.

Note: This scenario uses the Unreliable trait, which is not in 'Dominion of Pike & Shot'. If you do not have access to the rules for the Unreliable trait then simply drop one of the Spanish 'Horse (UR)' and make the other simply 'Horse'.

The Adventures Of Harvey Knight - 11

Harvey Knight's las mission had been aborted when his flotilla had run into a German destroyer, and encounter that had left his boats seriously mauled even if they eventually sunk the enemy vessel. This it was that in terms of operational ships he could now only count on one MTB (Edwars Stewart's MTB 414) and the two MGBs (Lennox Dean's MGB 91 and Ewan McDonald's MGB 103). His own MTB 413 was still badly damaged, and the flotilla was waiting on two replacement MTBs.

So this was the perfect time for a war correspondent to turn up, looking for a chance to do a story about the flotilla by accompanying them on their next mission. To be fair Harvey felt that maybe his reputation could do with a boost. All he had to do was keep the journalist alive.

The much depleted flotilla was assigned the task of picking up a friendly agent from the Belgian coast. For a force that was primarily gunboats this wasn't a bad mission to be assigned, so long as they didn't run into any large enemy vessels. 

It was a moonless night, so good for the kind of work they were doing. However as they approached the rendezvous it was obvious a large German patrol was in the area. The two MGBs sped towards the coast before the Germans could spot them, whilst MTB 414, commanded by Edward Stewart, but with Harvey Knight and the journalist on board as well, headed towards the patrol in order to act as a distraction. 

The MTB bumped into an R-boat, which opened fire. 

Meanwhile the rest of the German patrol had been worryingly active, and as MGB 103 reached the pick-up point a Vorpostenboot ranged up and opened fire, causing some light damage. 

MGB 103 sheered away, and returned fire. 

(This was a mandatory turn on the All At Sea table, so I assumed that it would cause the boat to break contact with the pickup.)

MGB 91 came up in support, but another Vorpostenboot appeared as well. Firing became general. 

The fourth escort was another Vorpostenboot; the flotilla had obviously run into a major patrol. And Harvey had lost contact with his two gunboats in the general melee. 

Under heavy fire from two V-boats Lennox Dean brought MGB 91 into the pick-up point. Amazingly he only suffered light damage; it helped that his small boat was hidden against the shoreline.

The R-boat was also coming up, hotly pursued by MTB 414. The MTB opened fire and badly damaged the R-boat, which began steering erratically. 

Despite the fire being directed at them, Dean's crew picked up the agent, whilst their commander assessed how they would make their escape. 

MGB was running close to the V-boats, and had even damaged one with gunfire. However it had taken another hit in return. 

In desperation McDonald threw his boat across teh bow of one of teh V-boats, launching depth-charges as he did so, but they exploded too far away from the enemy vessel to cause any damage. 

(An All At Sea roll caused him to turn directly towards the German vessel, so any move would have been a collision. But he had the two actions needed for a depth-charge attack, so went for that instead of shooting and then colliding.)

The R-boat ran into some rocks off the coast and was soon hard aground. 

At the same time one of the V-boats ended up stuck on some nearby shoals. MGB 91 was now making a run for it.

Eager to impress the journalist, and at least contribute to the mission in some way, Knight got Edward Stewart to bring his boat around and make a torpedo run at the immobilised V-boat. 

The torpedoes passed close, but missed. 

Unfortunately at the same time MGB 103 ran aground on the same rocks as the R-boat. The two crews worked together to save their crews, but with two V-boats now turning back int the fight there was no change of a rescue for the British crew, and they would end the night as POWs. 

Surviving long-range fire from the grounded V-boat the two other British boats headed for home.

The crews of both boats picked up some valuable experience. Indeed Stewart's crew are close to being Veterans now. But the loss of MGB 103 and its crew soured the mission. The journalist got his story, but Harvey Knight got no increase in reputation out of it. And things got worse. Harvey was invited by a neighbouring squadron to give a talk on tactics - he was an experienced officer with much action under his belt, after all. But still shaken from his recent adventures his talk was poor and his listeners learned little. Harvey was beginning to beginning to doubt himself, and both his mental and physical health were in a bad way now. To make matters worse there were still no replacement boats available. 

On the plus side, the repair crews worked like Trojans and completed nearly all of the repairs, so Harvey got MTB 413 back. Only MGB 91 needed minor repairs still. 

So for the next mission Harvey Knight can only call on two MTBs and a lightly damaged MGB. 

Will things start to look up for Harvey Knight? Find out in the next episode. 

The Autumn Games - 3

 At the start of Round 3 of the games, the Prestige stands as follows:

Catherine - 2 Prestige
Me - 7 Prestige
Tertius - 7 Prestige

Catherine also needed a new gladiator to replace the retiarius Medusa. Since she had one of each weight-class she had a relatively free choice, so went for he barbarian Andromache. barbarians are similar to the murmillo in tone, but less heavily armoured and with a trait of their own. 

The Editor made his preferences known and we ended up with the following bouts:

Victor (Me) vs Artemisia (Catherine)
Apollo (Tertius) vs Andromache (Catherine)
Rufina (Me) vs Scylax (Tertius)

Round 3 - Bout 1 - Victor (Crupellarius) vs Artemisia (Thraex)

The Editor joined us for he first bout, but quickly lost interest.

Victor got off to a strong start, deflecting Artemisia's attacks and pressing forward aggressively. 

A shield charge pushed her back.

And another knocked her down. A third came close to inflicting crushing damage, but she evaded that and even managed an attack from the ground that hurt Victor. 

Artemisia back up and fighting.

The lithe thraex soon got into her stride, and quickly finished Victor. 

This was Catherine's first win and earned her 2 Prestige. The crowd were entertained and spared Victor, so I picked up 1 Prestige. In addition, Victor has survived two bouts, so is eligible for a skill. 

Round 3 - Bout 2 - Apollo (Velite) vs Andromache (Barbarian) 

I didn't get any pictures of this bout bar the starting setup. Andromache pressed forward and, as a good velite should, Apollo fell back. Apollo is skilled, and made the most of his abilities to deflect Andromache's probing attacks. However she pressed on and evaded his javelin throws. A sudden furious attack, fuelled by the enthusiasm of the crowd, saw Apollo on the back foot and defeated!

Another win for Catherine, and this time it was an unskilled gladiator defeating a skilled one, so earned her a whopping 3 Prestige. Apollo was spared by the crowd, giving Tertius 1 Prestige.

Round 3 - Bout 3 - Scylax (Armoured Scissor) vs Rufina (Thraex)

The agile Rufina got to face an armoured behemoth with two blades. 

The fight lasted just long enough for Rufina to close ...

... and strike down Scylax with her first blow.

The crowd obviously wanted to see more of Scylax because, despite this abysmal performance, they spared him. Tertius earned 1 Prestige, whilst Rufina picked up 2 Prestige for me. 

So at the end of teh third round these are the positions:

At the end of the second round the standings are as follows:

Catherine - 7 Prestige (One win, one win against an experienced gladiator, two losses with Missio)

Amazon (Myrmillo) - 1 Bout
Medusa (Retiarius) - 1 Bout
Teucris (Sagittarius) - 1 Bout
Margareites (Secutor) - 1 Bout
Artemisia (Thraex) - 1 Bout
Andromache - 1 Bout

Me - 10 Prestige (Four wins, two losses with Missio)

Volubilis (Myrmillo) - 1 Bout
Victor (Crupellarius) - 2 Bouts
Rufina (Thraex) - 3 Bouts - +1 Speed
Sabrata (Veles) - 0 Bouts

Tertius - 9 Prestige (Three wins and three losses with Missio)

Spiculus (Dimacherius) - 1 Bout
Scylax (Scissor) - 1 Bout
Danaos (Hoplomachus) - 1 Bout
Apollo (Velite) - 3 Bouts - +1 Defence

I need to choose a skill boost for Victor. I'll probably boost his attack; boosting a speed of 1 hardly seems worth it and his defence of 6 is already maxed out.

The Autumn Games - 2

We started Round 2 of our gladiator campaign with the following scores:

Catherine - 1 Prestige
Me - 4 Prestige
Tertius - 3 Prestige

Catherine had to choose a new medium gladiator, so added the thraex Artemisia to her stable. 

For the second round I was obliged to put up a medium gladiator, which meant that Rufina the thraex would fight again. Tertius had to choose a light gladiator, which saw Apollo enter the arena again. Catherine also had to select a light gladiator, and chose the retiarius Medusa. 

We chose gladiators to face these challengers and ended up with the following pairings (in the order that the fights would take place):

Medusa (Catherine) vs Spiculus (Tertius)
Rufina (Me) vs Teucris (Catherine)
Apollo (Tertius) vs Victor (Me)

Round 1 - Bout 1 - Medusa (Retiarius) vs Spiculus (Dimacherius) 

Deft swordsmanship vs a net and a trident!

It started with high comedy as both gladiators tripped each other up. 

It then became a game of cat and mouse as Medusa evaded the blades, looking to find an opening to use her net.

She didn't get it (Catherine seems to be singularly unlucky when it comes to drawing Glory cards), but she did manage to trip Spiculus again. Medusa closed in for the kill ...

... and Spiculus cut her down from the ground. 

The crowd loved Spiculus's ballsy wining move and, sadly, that 'love' extended to them crying out for Medusa to be dispatched.

So Catherine lost another gladiator. Tertius picked up 2 prestige for the win.

Round 2 - Bout 2 - Rufina (Thraex) vs Teucris (Sagittarius)

If Rufina won this she'd gain a skill. The problem was closing with a gladiator that was constantly running away.

The fight went on for a very long time indeed. Teucris could keep evading but couldn't get an arrow on target when he got the chance to shoot one. 

Eventually Rufina managed to get in enough hits to slow him down, catch him and dispatch him. But the crowd were merciful (or had fallen asleep waiting for the bout to end). 

So I got 2 Prestige for the win and Catherine got 1 Prestige for taking part and surviving. 

Round 2 - Bout 3 - Victor (Crupellarius)  vs Apollo (Velite)

This promised to be an interesting fight. Victor managed to be aggressive and pressed the agile velite closely.

A wild swing almost connected. In game terms I made a big mistake here. The attack was a draw, but I forgot I could have boosted it with a Roar Of The Crowd, which would have won by a margin of 2. Because it was a signature Wild Swing attack it would have then got a +3 and I would have won the fight. I realised too late.

Cost me the game. As Victor advanced for another attack Catherine got all her cards together and an accurate javelin throw took down the armoured behemoth. 

Victor was spared and picked up 1 prestige. Catherine finally won a bout, even if she was actually playing for Tertius, who picked up 2 Prestige for the win.

Apollo and Rufina had now both survived two bouts, so were entitled to a skill. I chose to boost Rufina's speed, and rolled a D6 for Apollo. I determined the relative importance of each characteristic, then assigned 1-3 to the primary one, 4-5 to the secondary and 6 to the least important. Victor rolled a 6, so went for a +1 defence. Still, it means he will get good use from Guard cards now. 

At the end of the second round the standings are as follows:

Catherine - 2 Prestige (Two losses with Missio)

Amazon (Myrmillo) - 1 Bout
Medusa (Retiarius) - 1 Bout
Teucris (Sagittarius) - 1 Bout
Margareites (Secutor) - 1 Bout
Artemisia (Thraex) - 0 Bouts

Me - 7 Prestige (Three wins, one loss with Missio)

Volubilis (Myrmillo) - 1 Bout
Victor (Crupellarius) - 1 Bout
Rufina (Thraex) - 2 Bouts - +1 Speed
Sabrata (Veles) - 0 Bouts

Tertius - 7 Prestige (Three wins and one loss with Missio)

Spiculus (Dimacherius) - 1 Bout
Scylax (Scissor) - 0 Bouts
Danaos (Hoplomachus) - 1 Bout
Apollo (Velite) - 2 Bouts - +1 Defence

Catherine is yet to win a bout, and to make matters worse has had terrible luck with the crowd, losing two gladiators to their lust for blood. In the next round she will need to select a new fourth gladiator, but it can be any weight class. Tertius had a good round and he and I are neck and neck. 

But it's still all to play for in the third round. 

Saturday Night Live For Two

Last night was Gaslands week at the Gong Garage Gamers, but with one person crying off sick and others involved testing a game for a forthcoming show we ended up with just two players. 

We rolled a scenario and got Saturday Night Live which, with hindsight, is probably not the best scenario for two people as it involves some quite complex interactions to get the Audience Votes flowing for points. 

Caesar brought two Rutherford performance cars armed with mini-guns. 

I wanted to try out a team for The Order Of The Inferno, to see how it worked. It involves trying to set things on fire, including your own vehicles. I ran:

Jockey Full Of Bourbon - A truck with a flamethrower and napalm dropper
Stay On These Roads - A buggy with a napalm dropper
Picture To Burn - A bike with, you've guessed it, a napalm dropper

They were loaded with perks to repair hits and hazards on each other but to also ignite themselves when it became important to score votes. 

I set up a fairly open arena, and we started on opposite sides of it. 

Here's Jockey Full Of Bourbon (foreground) and Stay On These Roads. The bike had gone off elsewhere. 

One of Caesar's cars came straight at my vehicles, guns blazing but inflicting little damage. However with a spot-prize for initiating a ram, Caesar went for it, turning sharply back  and hitting my buggy. 

It was enough to wipe out his car. My truck shaved very close to it, unleashing flaming death from its side-mounted flamethrower as it did so, and destroying the vehicle. 

Caesar's other car was after my bike but I managed to zip past him before he could shoot at me and dropped some napalm just to be extra mean. Unfortunately Caesar managed to avoid the flames. 

Mind you, in avoiding the flames he nearly came a cropper, narrowly avoiding a collision with a shipping container.

Anyway, after a bit more driving around I got a chance to plonk some more napalm in front of Caesar's surviving vehicle. And I'd set my truck on fire so I could earn Audience Votes once Caesar burst into flames.

He drove through the napalm without taking a hit.

Unfortunately in setting up the napalm my buggy wiped out, crashed into a wall and was destroyed. 

Keen to pick up some sponsor-orientated Audience Votes by setting something on fire I went for another option. I set my bike on fire and then deliberately crashed it into Caesar's car. A collision with something in fire sets you on fire. 

Caesar tried to evade the damage from the bike, so amazingly I survived the crash and actually dealt a decent amount of damage. But I'd misjudged how many hazards Caesar's car had. The crash caused it to wipe out. Wiping out dumps all hazards. And if a vehicle has no hazards any fire it has goes out. 

So once again I'd failed to set something on fire, and now my truck was burning and I had nothing to show for it but damage. Still, the truck soon wiped out and wasn't on fire any more.

The current spot-prize involved ramming an enemy vehicle. Caesar went for it. 

My truck was wrecked. Caesar now had the only vehicle in play until I respawned.

At that point we called the game. We both had 7 or 8 victory points but needed 7 or 8 more to finish the scenario. Neither of us were in much of a position to collect them through sponsor abilities, so it would now be a long slog via spot-prizes. We decided to end the game and call it a draw.

Really we needed at least one more player. But for all that it was a fun game and I found it a useful exercise in trying to understand how best to use a sponsor I'd not tried before.