Push of Pike

(Renaissance Rules)

by Tom McMillen

Wargames Rules for 1639-1660 by Craig Burnett: Emerging from the chaotic void of 'Renaissance' and 'Pike and Shot' rules comes easily the most interesting, least derivative set of rules we've seen in some time. From Australia, 'Push of Pike' is intended solely for simulating combat in the English Civil War, a narrowing of scope that makes for much better simulations than do rules that try to accommodate Francis I and Gustavus on the same table. The guts of this system is the importance of Fire Effect. Whereas most rules for the period allow muskets good effect against horse against foot they merely get off a few desultory shots before melee begins and the pike take over. Were this realistic, why were the great majority of combatants armed with a largely useless weapon, and why was the function of pike inevitably described as being to protect the shot from cavalry charges?

In Push of Pike fire is simple, (there are no charts in these rules, only simple formulae), a unit's Fire Effect is compared to a target's Withstand Fire ability, losses are taken, and based on the radon of FE to WF, the unit is either repelled or allowed to advance. In essence then Mr, Burnett sees ECW warfare as much more of a precursor to Marlboro, or even the linear warfare that followed, than as an appendix to the Swiss/Lansknecht period that proceeded it. Given the firepower present, this is almost certainly the correct approach. If there is a question about these rules, it is that they use the now ubiquitous 'card system' for alternate movement, which can perhaps be fun but certainly lessens the realism of the simulation.

Having a body of veteran musketeer's march to effective shooting range, then have the misfortune to forget what they were supposed to do next while their opponents move twice and charge them is hardly the best way to measure generalship. I think that Mr. Burnett underestimates his work - he states that this is primarily a 'FUN' set of rules when it really is much better than that in terms of giving a good simulation of the period, even with the cards. (Frankly, if I were looking for a 'FUN' evening of beer and pretzels, the ECW wouldn't exactly jump to mind!) Some rebasing of figures would be needed for those with 'standard' armies. Pikemen are based 2X2, the author dares to toss off the Pommie yoke to use inches, and he likes large bases to create a diorama effect for each base, if desired. However, it seems that no major problem would develop if both sides ignored all this and used more normally based armies. Recommended. Available from The Armory, 4145 Amos Ave., Baltimore, MD 21215 for approximately $8.

More Reviews

Back to Table of Contents -- Courier # 59
To Courier List of Issues
To MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1992 by The Courier Publishing Company.
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com