Sunday, August 2, 2015

New Pike & Shot rules under way!


 The Pikeman´s Lament mocked up cover, Swedish style - this is not final!

Today, we bring you an exciting joint news flash from the desks of the Dalauppror and Merseybooks blogs: we are working together on a new set of rules!

The Pikeman´s Lament is our forthcoming adaptation of the Origins Award-nominated Lion Rampant skirmish rules. Where Lion Rampant focuses on bringing medieval combat to life on the tabletop, The Pikeman´s Lament helps you to refight battles in the Seventeenth Century (broadly 1611-1721, spanning conflicts such as the British Civil Wars, the Thirty Years War, and the Great Northern War).

Written as a collaboration between British Lion Rampant designer Daniel Mersey and Swedish Lion Rampant demonstrator and Pike and Shot gamer Michael Leck, we combine the simplicity of the original medieval rules with the feel of pike and shot warfare.

The core rules remain similar to Lion Rampant, but new troops types and additional special rules provide period flavour. We include plenty of new scenarios and a personality-led campaign system suitable for the period, along with sample army lists to help you get started.

Michael´s involvement means that these rules are so much more than the British Civil War with some European afterthought: he approaches the period from a Scandinavian perspective, incorporating visions of the Scanian Wars, Great Northern War, and Thirty Years War. There´s also scope for adventuring in the Americas, Africa, and other exotic places. Michael originally approached Daniel with the idea of adapting the rules non-commercially, but with Osprey´s enthusiastic backing, The Pikeman´s Lament will be published in book format as part of the Osprey Wargames Series in January 2017. 

The Pikeman´s Lament is a stand alone set of rules retaining the simplicity, feel, and ease of play of Lion Rampant.

Follow our playtest progress and further news updates at our blogs:

Merseybooks

Dalauppror

Thanks for reading! Daniel and Michael



28 comments:

  1. Interesting to say the least. I guess we can expect some playtesting on the blog soon?

    By the way, I saw that Hat make Swedish Napoleonics in plastic. Not sure about scale or quality of the plastic tough. (They make both soft and hard plastic.)

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  2. Really looking forward to these rules guys, lots of dust on my 30 Years War and ECW collections!

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  3. Congratulations on getting the final green light for this project! I'm looking forward to some more play testing.

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    1. thanks matey ! Glad that you are on the playtesting boat for this project.

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  4. Nice - this and Dragon Rampant are on my list!

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  5. Exciting!! I'm looking forward to this as I have a box full of Pike and Shot miniatures and this will be a great excuse to go finish them and get gaming. Thanks for the news!!

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    1. Looking forward to see you Pike and Shot project Jay!

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  6. great news. look forward to seeing them

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  7. This is excellent news. On my cycle to work each day I go down a street that was 'stormed' (they were 'let into the city' by an agent) during the Siege of Bristol by a small band of men (circa 20 IIRC). The pikemen used cut down pikes as their normal length was too unwieldy for use in skirmishes.

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    1. Sounds like a perfect scenario for The Pikeman's Lament :)

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    2. That's what I thought. I also live a stone's throw away from the pub that Cromwell used as his HQ for his campaign to take Bristol, plus the River Avon that King Charles escaped along at one point. Add in Lansdown Hill which is a few miles away and I have plenty of scope for actions already. Happy Days:)

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    3. Excellent Steve ! I look forward to get a chanse to read your scenarios.

      Best regards Michael

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  8. Glad that you sounds as exited as I and Dan are to start up this project. I hope you all Will like the end result :)

    Best regards Michael

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  9. Great news, can't wait to see more of this project.

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  10. Congrats Michael this is awesome news. Looking forward to finding out more.

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  11. This is great! I look forward to some testing along the way. /Mattias

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  12. Cool that you are going to make your own game rules!

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  13. Count me in on this one... could be just the excuse I need to finally get some ECW on the gaming table :)
    - and yes, any advance info on units etc would be a welcome bonus!

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  14. Congratulations Micke, the LR rules are great, and I look forward to testing yours and Dan's Pike & Shot version!

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  15. Michael, this is great news, and sounds fantastic. Time to dust off my late 17th Century Williamites and Louis XIV French in time for 2017! VEry best of luck to you and Dan for the play-testing!

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  16. I'm late to this, but those are very good news!! I think it's the only way to get an army painted for me, relatively small armies!!

    Good luck!

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