Friday 21 September 2018

The Brigadier for Pikeman's Lament

No, not Lethbridge-Stewart.

In our most recent game of Pikeman's Lament, Kevin was frustrated that his three infantry units didn't advance across the field in a nice column.  The first would move, then the second would fail its move activation roll.  The result was that the first unit got multiple turns of defensive fire, while the follow-on units dawdled in the rear.  Doug had previously noted something similar in his playtesting of his Napoleonic variant of Lion Rampant, which he call 'Hussar Rampant".  Doug's solution is to allow each force an officer, whose only function is to coordinate movements by a group of cavalry units.

For Pikeman's Lament, I think we can try a hybrid between the PL officer rules with Doug's Hussar Rampant officer.  

Brigadier (Pikeman's Lament)
Each force is entitled to an officer.  The officer is to be individually mounted, either as a single model or as a small vignette (see Kevin's version of Carl XII on his blog here).


  • The officer is not part of a unit. 
  • Officers can move up to 12" in a turn.  Officers move at the end of the turn, without testing for activation, unless they moved as part of a group move.
  • The officer can order a group of units to move together.  All units performing the group move must be within 6" of the officer before the move order is given. 
    • Test for activation (Move) as normal.  If the units have different activation numbers use the highest (most difficult) target number.
    • Move is limited by the slowest movement rate of the units, including penalties for moving in difficult terrain.
  • Officers do not fight and do not shoot.
  • Officers cannot be targeted for shooting or charges.  If one of the officer's units is shot at while he is within 4", however, check for a 'lucky blow' to determine if he will be a casualty. 

Otherwise, officers are as in the Pikeman's Lament rulebook.  (i.e., officer gives +1 to activation tests, +1 to morale tests, and can have officer traits, honour, duels etc.)





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