More Characters for Pike & Shotte

As it says in the title here are some more characters for use with Pike & Shotte or any ECW rules you wish to use them with.

The Shepherd

This Character is based as a single vignette with a flock of sheep. The Shepherd with his flock are placed mid way between the wings of cavalry on either flank as per the discretion of the owning player. Further to this roll one d6 to determine how many inches in from the flank the Shepherd is:

d6      Effect
1        6 inches from flank edge
2-3    12 inches from flank edge
4-5    18 inches from flank edge
6       24 inches from flank edge

Both wings of the armies must call a halt to hostilities until the Shepherd has safely moved off the table. The shepherd moves after both sides have completed their movement and travels at a speed of 6 inches per turn off towards the flank edge of the table until he is removed from play. No actions of any sort are allowed to the battalias or brigades on this flank that have any unit with 36 inches until such time that the Shepherd is off the table.

The Shepherd vignette may be swapped out for a Gentleman walking his dogs, a travelling wagon, a group of civilians or any other similar group that takes your fancy.

The Shepherd with his flock

The Buffoon

This Character is simply based as single vignette depicting any normal commander or general figure. The character is played upon your opponent at the start of the game after all deployment. Upon receiving this card off your opponent you must nominate one of your commanders and declare that he is the Buffoon for the rest of the game.

Now that the commander is the Buffoon his command rating declines by one point such as from an 8 to a 7 and further to this each time this commander rolls dice to make an order he will Blunder on a roll of 11 or 12 following all the normal rules for Blunders.

Once declared as the Buffoon, the commander cannot be swapped out for another commander or retired from the game unless injured in some way. He is blissfully unaware of his shortcomings and will carry on in his role as befits his rank.

The rationale for Buffoons is that your general may not be quite as good as he led you to believe, or that he may on the day of battle be under the weather or still suffering the effects of last nights drinking bout. No matter how you want to explain it to yourself for the coming battle at least the general is not quite up to the task ahead.

Unfortunately this general in his fine armour is a Buffoon

The Assassin

This Character is based as a single vignette which may or may not include a dung heap, bush or tree from which he leaps to make his deadly attack. The Assassin will hide in a predetermined spot until the enemy commander comes within 6 inches of his position, even if this is just passing by whilst moving from one place to the next. At this point the owning player declares that the Assassin has been activated and rolls one d6 with the following results:

d6    Effect
1      The Assassin is killed outright and removed from play
2      The Assassin is wounded, captured and removed from play
3      The Commander is unhorsed and suffers a -1 to his command rating next turn
4      The Commander is unhorsed and suffers a -1 to his command rating for one d3 turns
5      The Commander is wounded and must receive treatment or else he will die
6      The Commander is killed outright and removed from play

Placement of the Assassin is made after deployment and before the first turn begins, the owning player draws an accurate map of exactly where the Assassin is to be placed and this must be on a terrain feature that could give natural cover. Suitable terrain would be hedges, walls, ditches, river or stream banks, under a bridge or in a building, fields, copse or orchard, marsh or broken ground, or any other similar terrain type.

The Assassin may not be placed in the enemy deployment zone for obvious reasons and may not be placed within 6 inches of any enemy unit. If an enemy unit moves over the position where the Assassin is hiding then there is a chance that he is discovered. The enemy player is cordially asked to roll one d6 after by the owning player without being told the location or which unit has moved onto the Assassin, and on a score of 6 the Assassin is discovered and captured. This is done each time a unit moves over on stays on the Assassin's position.

Remember that the Assassin is very well hidden and is sneakily trying to avoid capture at any cost. Once he has been discovered or used the Assassin is removed from play.

'Don't worry lads, I am safe here by these trees, you lot go and check out that building over there.'

If you wish to download a fancy dandy PDF version of these Characters, including the original three Characters, then click on the link below.

characters pdf

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