The recent upsurge of interest in skirmish wargaming has prompted me to examine a variety of periods for their suitability to the skirmish format. The colonial era of the late 19th Century, the modern era and medievals, are all well represented by skirmish rules. The Pike and Shot period however, has always been thought of in terms of large, set piece battles. On closer examination, we can see that this need not be the case. The journals of the famous warriors of the period are full of descriptions of small, skirmish type actions, well suited to reproduction on the tabletop. Granted, a skirmish game in this period will have a very different look than the large battles we are used to seeing. The primary difference will be in the organization of the forces involved in actions. You will find that in a smaller scale game, you will have a much larger proportion of missile armed troops, (muskets, crossbows, etc.) than normal, as well as light cavalry and dragoons. Gone will be the great blocks of pikemen; instead, you will need numbers of swordsmen and halberdiers, who are better suited for the close work of the skirmish. The scale of the game is up to you. It can vary from real one on one melees with a couple of figures per side, to small scale battles with up to 100 or so figures. It depends on the sort of action you want to represent. Personally, I find the latter more appealing. Rules, however, present more of a problem. There are at this time, no sets of rules that will accurately depict warfare at the individual level in the pike and shot period. The wargamer has two options to be considered; one, write your own rules, reflecting your understanding of the period; or two, adapt a set of existing skirmish rules to the period. This is relatively easy to do. Basically, all you need is a set of rules that covers melee weapons in fair detail, and can be altered to include the proper gunpowder weapons. Some examples are the following: 1. Chainmail: This classic set of rules is designed for the medieval period, but does extend up to the period of the Swiss pikemen. it would be an easy task to update it for later years. 2. Cry Havoc: This newer game is essentially a miniatures game played with counters. it is an easy task to update the game to include the early gunpowder weapons of the period. 3. The Sword and the Flame: This versatile set of rules can be adapted to almost any period, and by shortening the ranges and slowing the rates of fire, you can play a fairly acceptable game with a large number of figures. The figures would of course need to be individually based to aid in identification, record keeping and move sequence. Scenarios Scenarios are plentiful, and while I won't go into great detail, I will present a few as examples. 1. Forlorn Hope: Parties of opposing dragoons, foot or cavalry, could be ordered to advance and secure important features of terrain, such as a farm or river crossing. This could be done as a preliminary to a larger battle played with conventional rules. House to house fighting, grenades and bitter melees, would all be part of such an action. To spice it up further, one or both sides could be given a mobile galloper gun, to provide long range support. 2. Raids: Far ranging parties of horse and dragoons can be assigned the task of disrupting the enemy's rear, burning villages, and cutting off supplies and communications. This could become a mini-campaign, with the other side racing to hunt down and capture the raiders. 3. Ambushes: The classic skirmish encounter, supply wagons, pay wagons, etc., can be presented with a series of optional roads to reach an objective, not knowing which one might be covered by the ambushers. This could also be done as a kidnapping or assassination attempt. 4. Sieges: The English Civil War is full of stores which tell of the valiant defense and siege of the walled manor houses of the nobility. Such actions are ideal for skirmishes, and give modellers a chance to make some really neat buildings. 5. Campaigns: Wars don't always have to take place with large countries; neighboring duchies or towns can feud with each other, providing endless reasons for small battles. As you can see, small scale actions in this period are far from impossible, and can, in fact, be a lot of fun. So the next time you begin to tire of playing games in which you are lucky to finish 3 turns in 4 hours, give some time to trying a skirmish game. Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VIII No. 2 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1988 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com