Pike & Shotte 28mm

Mike & Mark's Scots Covernaters
v.
Jim & Steve's Parliamentarians

Both sides had 2 infantry divisions & 2 cavalry of about 835 points.
Typically the infantry divs had 2 pike + 4 shotte, the cavalry divs 4 horse.
1 Scotts infantry div also had a commanded musket + 3 guns.  1 Scotts horse was just 3 lancers.
1 Parliamentarian cavalry div also had a dragoon unit.
The Scots deployed with all their cavalry on the left, their bigger infantry div on their right..
Parliament deployed with cavalry on each wing, dragoons on the left.
Pic taken from the Scots left flank.

The Scots advanced the cavalry on their left as fast as they could with their left hand infantry following in echelon.  Parliament retired their right flank cavalry & advanced their left flank cavalry.  Their left flank infantry was supposed to advance as well, but at first refused, then did so very slowly.

The Parliamentary cavalry quickly swept around the Scots right flank, but the Scots formed hedgehogs in time to block them off.  The Parliamentarian plan of a combined attack on the Scots right was in ruins due to the failure of their foot to advance.  Their horse cold only fire their pistols at the hedgehogs.

The Parliamentarian foot on their left are advancing slowly.  The Scots cavalry advance has slowed down as their opponents fall back behind the wood.

The Parliamentarian left has finally advanced, but they did so so slowly that the Scots ordnance has taken it's toll and the Scots centre has had time to move to threaten their flank.  The Scots have stopped their cavalry advance and have diverted their lancers to their right.

The Scots are looking jovial & the view from the other end doesn't look any better for Parliament.

The Parliamentarian right is trying to go onto the offensive now the lancers have moved to the other flank, but its all happening too slowly.   On the other flank the Parliamentarian horse desperately tried to break through only to find why they say in the rule book that only the foolhardy charge hedgehogs with cavalry.  The cavalry rallied & returned to using their pistols.  The left flank parliamentarian foot division is about to break as it is raked by artillery and attacked from the flank.

As Parliament's right advances the Scots left has fallen back to buy time while their victorious centre reorganises to come back and help them.

The right flank Parliamentarian horse has finally got to grips with their opponents, but the fight is indecisive.  Their left flank cavalry is still blocked off by hedgehogs and now also under artillery fire.  The remaining Parliamentary foot is now under pressure from front and flank and is doomed.  Parliament conceded the battle.

The Parliamentary plan of a converging infantry & cavalry attack on the Scots right was stymied by the slow advance of their foot which allowed the Scots time to weaken them with artillery and get into their flank from the centre.  Sending a cavalry div with the CIC around the flank where it could be bottled up by hedgehogs & a scrubby hill was a mistake & the Parliamentarians also erred in going too defensive on their right and thus giving the Scots freedom to transfer troops to their right.

It was a very enjoyable battle (even for the losers).  The 28's look great even though some of them aren't quite finished yet.  For our Pike & Shotte 28's we have adopted a standard unit frontage of 15cm for musketeers in 2 ranks & cavalry in one rank, and 10cm for pikes in 3 ranks.   For Hail Caesar we use 20cm as the standard width, but the smaller frontage suits the mixed pike & shotte formations and better match the numbers you get in Warlords boxes (as well as making the figures go further).

We trialed a new house rule for command:  If a unit or group of units has exactly the same order as last turn (whether it passed or failed), they may re-roll their command dice if they fail to get at least 1 move.  This is to mitigate the frustration of too many units doing nothing or making stop-start advances.  Bad command dice still affected the battle (as it should - both sides had some divs with command ratings of 7), but this certainly mitigated extreme results.