Pikeman's Lament @ Little Wars Club in Stockholm

Business and Pleasure

I had a business trip to Stockholm and used the opportunity to visit my gaming pals at Little Wars -club in Stockholm.

As Pikeman's Lament had just been published by Osprey, we played a Great Northern War battle. You can find battle report by the rules co-author Micke here. Once again I enjoyed a great game in a beautiful terrain!

Some further pics and some story telling below.

Our Swedish and Finnish troops were attacking Trondheim (in Norway) 1718, that was defended by surprisingly: Norwegians! 

I commanded the right flank forces in this team game: each team member would command his units until he would fail a command roll or have given each unit an order.

 I started the game with a first fire volley from Finish musketeers and succeeded taking out 2 Norwegians - huzzah! Then my Finish pikes advanced and two units of Swedish Livgard followed suit.

Overview of the battlefield

As a response, the Norwegian musketeers let fly towards my tough pikemen, whom just gritted their teeth and pushed forward!

Without much of delay (once my Musketeers were driven back by the enemy fire) my forces pushed forward, utilizing the cover of the woods as they went. Norwegians started their retreat towards the defensive positions over the frozen lake, but they were too late - Swedish cavalry was closing in fast!

Soon, after two cavalry attacks, the Norwegian musketeers were no more and the near by grenadiers were retreating in horror.

This terrible havoc spurred the players into heavy photo shooting 

- Micke focusing and Jesper retaliating.

As the cavalry (led by Mark) was a bit winded after their dashing performance, it was now again my turn to push forward and keep the  pressure on - it seemed the dice gods were also favoring me, because during several rounds I managed to activate all my units.

Mark, our American commander led his surviving cavalry to outflank the enemy eg. to get away from their cannon's fire arc - one thing theNorwegians were succeeding in was 

shooting their cannon almost every round. Jesper looking slightly concerned already.

Luckily our raw recruits on the left flank (led by Ulf) had kept the cannon and the one musket unit already behind defenses busy, so that my pikemen could reach the Norwegian defenses almost  unscathed. First they dispatched the musketeer unit still out on the open (it had been softened up by last cavalry attacks and by some shooting) and then took the gun position and drove the cannon crew away. Trondheim defenses were breached!

Trondheim is ours! (Pic by Micke)

Game ended as the gun crew kept fleeing and the NOrwegian army was broken. Close call, as even if Swedes (and Finns) had done well, our army was not far from breaking either...

Situation in the end.