Solo Battle Report: Great Italian Wars... but how fast?.

Having tested my big game rules for the Italian Wars with success (see here for report), it was time to try out what I hope will be fast play rules for smaller games.

It is hoped that, with these rules, small campaigns can be played by the Rejects with multiple games in a day.  Plus, I'm looking to use these rules for quick remote games.

Anyway, let's find out how they played.

The two armies deployed across the battlefield.  In this encounter the nominal sides are Imperial/Spanish versus a French force.

The French army deployed in three Battles.  Their commander rolled up as an efficient leader.

The Imperial forces, also in three Battles.  Their leader turned out to be plodding.

The status of the army commander mostly determines command radius.  If a Battle leader is out of command then that Battle may be able to do less in a turn.  

Each turn, each army reveals a card which determines the number of actions each unit can carry out (e.g. 1, 2 or 3 actions: move, wheel and shoot).  The better the army commander, the more high action cards are available.  An Battle out of command always loses an action. 

Both armies slowly advance towards each other.  Both sides choosing to manoeuvre forward.

Whilst the French vanguard wanted to continue manoeuvring forward, the gendarmes had other things in mind and charged forward.

Alas, the distance was too great to take the Spanish men at arms totally by surprise with the gendarmes falling short of contact.

The rules call for each Battle in an army to be given an order from charge, manoeuvre, react, stand and defend, and voluntary retreat.  A percentage dice roll then determines if the Battle gets that order or something else.  For example, if a manoeuvre order is given, a roll between 21 and 84 ensures the order, but if the roll is 85 to 100 then the Battle must charge instead.  This means that the troops won't always do what you want.  Which can be both frustrating and fun.

The Spanish take the opportunity to charge the gendarmes.  However, they fail to drive the French back and find themselves embroiled in an ongoing melee.

The sword and buckler unit found itself having to withstand a, thankfully, feeble charge from what may be blown horses.

Meanwhile, the Swiss and Landsknechts continue to close the distance.  In the north, the missile troops of both sides found themselves in a ranged stand-off.

With a slight shift of focus, the Imperial arquebusiers poured fire into a French pike block and sent it reeling backwards in alarm.

On the southern flank, the Spanish men at arms and the sword and buckler units are scattered.
The Imperial flank is looking rather exposed.

In the north, the French's weight of shooting causes an Imperial arquebusier unit to rout and disperse. (sorry, the label in the photo is wrong... me bad!)

With the centre yet to clash, the Imperial army is having a bad time of it!

The French charge the Landsknecht.  However, the Swiss Pike is now running on "tired" and can't make the most of their impact.

Each order adds or takes away from a Battle's exhaustion level.  For example, a charge order is +3, manoeuvre is +1, stand and defend is -3.  When a Battle reaches 5 it is tired, at 7 it is exhausted.  If the Battle gets to -5 it is discouraged, at -7 it is demoralised.  Essentially, fatigue leads to minuses to melee and shooting; low morale leads to minuses to unit morale checks.

These melees could be critical for the encounter.

The push of pike is lengthy and bloody.

Some melees can last multiple rounds/turns.  Whilst one unit may take more casualties, the result is really all about undermining the morale of the opponent.  Thus, the enemy either routs back upon morale failure or is dispersed and removed from play.

Whilst, on the northern flank the French crossbowmen move further onto the Imperial flank.

Hope rears its smiling face for the Imperial army as the Swiss are unable to resist the Landsknechts.  However, the gendarmes are piling in...

...which they cannot counter and fall to the armoured punch.

With both flanks horribly open, the Imperial commander is forced to choose prudence over bravery and must withdraw while he can.

So, a French victory.

Afterthoughts

The rules played well.  They made for a fun game.  Sometimes the Battles did what was being asked of them.  However, at some crucial moments they just didn't!  To take one instance: with the gendarmes' charge stalled in front of the Spanish men at arms, they had the opportunity to charge.  Unfortunately, their order was downgraded to "manoeuvre".  They could still move into contact with the gendarmes but did not have the impact to earn the plus 1 in melee.

The rules are an adaptation of an old set bought decades ago.  Every time I read them, I find them to my liking.  With no desire to start a medieval project, I ran with them and made some changes for the Italian Wars.  So far, so good.

So, how long did the game take? and does it meet the quick play criteria of about an hour? 

Well, I timed the playing time at1 hour 20 minutes.  This included references to the rules during the game.  I think that next time it will play faster.  Perhaps, I need to limit the number of units to six (there were eight a side in this one) in two Battles a side?  I'll ponder on that.

Back to the painting desk, I think.

A Hand Full of Gendarmes from the Painting Queue

A quick post with a unit of French Gendarmes freshly finished and based.

The models are from Wargames Foundry.  They are on a 100mm by 60mm base.  Five Foundry cavalry on a base is a little bit of a squeeze.  Hence the staggered alignment of the figures.  However, they do better represent heavy armoured cavalry that use weight of impact to rollover their opponents.  The "weight" here is both metaphorical and literal.

Flags are from Pete's Flags.

I have another five Foundry Gendarmes on the table.  The horse flesh is already painted.  I just have to move on to the more interesting livery of the caparisons and men.  However, I have had some miniatures that have jumped ahead in the queue.  More on this in a future post.

Thanks for your time with me.

Review of Death and the Landsknecht

I've purchased Warlord Games' new Pike and Shotte supplement, 'Death and the Landsknecht', as well as their new command figures.  So, I thought that I ought to do a quick review of the supplement.

Now, I don't use Pike and Shotte for either of my Renaissance projects (Great Italian Wars and the French Wars of Religion).  Nonetheless, I was interested to see what they might include and whether there was any potential use I could make of this tome.

First up, it is sensibly organised with the following 'chapters':

A history

The troops and weapons

Leaders and generals

Special rules

The army lists

Scenarios

Rules for gaming sieges

A campaign to play

Further reading

The history section is an appetite whetter. It is helpfully concise to quickly acquire the ebb and flow of the wars. At the same time, it doesn't fall into the trap of being weighed down by the numerous twists and turns.  It gives enough. The assumption (I think) is that you either know the period and that's why you want the book, or you are new and excited about period and will follow up later with more detailed reading.

A sample of the history section.

I think the theme of giving 'enough' information without getting too bogged down in detail continues throughout.  It is certainly true in the troops and weapons section. It mentions all the troop types a gamer might wish to represent, along with their 'tools' of the trade.

The leader section is handy and short.  When reading one history of the wars, I compiled a list and got around 60 leaders and generals before I stopped.  This is far more select.  One drawback is that its focus seems to be on the period up to around 1525... so, Pavia and just after.

I found the special rules section drew my attention.  It included some useful information on the different formations, such as the Spanish Colunela, and how to simulate them in Pike and Shotte.  If you are unfamiliar with the formations then this is a good starter.  I enjoyed this part.

The army lists are interesting to read too.  I don't use these rules. Nor do I use army lists.  However, I can see how I might adapt and use these for creating 'balanced' fictional encounters if I was minded to.

What was very pleasing was that lists were included for the Peasant Wars, English, Scots and the Ottoman Turks as well.  The latter opens up using your Venetian and/or Imperial armies in the Balkans.

The scenarios are a nice mix of battles.  Again, the focus being pre-Pavia.  Possibly because it was increasingly sieges thereafter, and possibly to avoid straying into battles in the wider Habsburg-Valois wars.  Who knows?

The OOBs are obviously designed on a points basis to fit with the rules and this supplement.  So, if you are looking for detailed orbats you will be disappointed. Each vanguard, battle and rearguard is given a points allocation and a sense of the troop types you should 'buy'.  The exact composition is down to you.  This has an advantage of allowing gamers to select to match their collection.

There is a helpful section on playing siege games.  Whilst geared to to the rules they could give ideas to those looking to explore this area of the conflict.  For me, I have neither the models, space to store, nor the current inclination to dabble in siegecraft.

Lastly, comes the campaign.  The authors have set it around Milan circa 1515.  This kind of fits in with the general focus of the supplement.  It reads okay. In very simple terms it's a two player game (they say two teams or sides). You dice to see how many battles in a campaign season and of what type.  These are played and then renown is earned at the end of each season.  Depending on results, players can gain a various numbers of towns.  Armies can be worn down over a number of seasons.  Victory goes to the side that either captures all the towns, has the most towns after a certain number of seasons, or one side is too worn down to continue.  There's more to it than this quick description suggests and it requires my closer inspection.

Last thoughts
I did hesitate about purchasing this.  I couldn't see how it would add anything to my understanding of the period that I hadn't acquired through other sources and from Helion's "All is Lost Save Honour".  Nor am I a player of Warlord Games' Pike and Shotte rules.  However, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed seeing how the supplement translated troops and formations of the period to their rules.  It is a nice book to look at - as you might expect.  Plus, having someone's take on scenarios and armies is interesting and may come in useful at a later date.

If you know a lot about these wars and don't use Pike and Shotte then this may not be useful other than expensive eye candy.  Moreover, there isn't much for those interested in the wars after 1525.

I also purchased some command figures at the same time.  All now prepped and awaiting some colour.

Some other Warlord Games command purchased at the same time: (L to R)Old Emperor Maximillian; Young "Max"; and the freebie with the supplement, Richard de la Pole - the last Yorkist claimant to the English throne and leader of the Landsknecht Black Bands at Pavia.

These are new command figures from Warlord Games:  Bartolomeo D'Alviano; Gaston de la Foix; and Giovanni de Medici of the Black Bands.  All of them plastic.  I don't know if Warlord have changed their "recipe" but the plastic is different from previously and have an hard rubber feel when trimming.

In short, I'm glad that I bought the supplement but it won't be an essential asset.  Please bear in mind that this is my view.  Others may see things differently.

Great Italian Wars Solo Game

With my home empty of family, I seized my opportunity to commandeer the dining room table to try out my battle mat and get my Italian Wars models deployed for action.

I have two sets of rules written for this period. One to accommodate fast games in the One Hour Wargames vein. The other, more suited for bigger and longer games.  This opportunity gave the chance to try out the latter which are based on my French Wars of Religion rules with a number of amendments.

I'm not going to pretend that the forces are historical in composition.  I need a bit more of everything, but what I currently significantly lack is light cavalry.

The Game
This is an encounter. The winner is the side that forces the other to break first.

The forces arrayed. The Spanish to the left. The French to the right.

The Spanish disposition.  Totally three arquebusier units, one deployed artillery, one mounted men at arms and two landsknecht pike units - one with arquebusiers attached; the other with sword and buckler.

The French force consisted of four crossbow units, one deployed artillery, two gendarmes and a Swiss pike block.

The Spanish made the first advances towards the French.  Possibly to try and limit the space available to the gendarmes.

The French gun would prove to be better positioned than the Spanish.  Its early shots were quite effective against some arquebusiers who strayed into range.  

Both sides continue to advance.

The Spanish were clearly hoping to inflict some damage on the gendarmes to even up the inevitable contest that was coming.

The French gun continued to enjoy an open field.  The closest Spanish arquebusiers finding the fire particularly galling...

... prompting an unplanned and rash advance to get stuck in and deal a blow against their tormentor. 

However, this hot-headed action left them even more exposed to the artillery and now the Gascon crossbowmen.
It became a case of now you see it...

... now you don't!

Meanwhile, closer to the town, the Spanish do some shooting of their own against charging gendarmes.

Whilst the gendarmes lost a little cohesion, it did not stop them from annihilating the arquebusiers.  The charge and impetuosity to ride down survivors would leave the gendarmes blown and somewhat disordered.

A unit of French gendarmes have punched a hole in the Spanish line.  However, they need to restore some cohesion before becoming effective again.
Meanwhile, the Spanish pike has moved into striking distance.

A view down the line.

The Spanish grab the initiative and charge the Swiss as the men at arms and gendarmes charge each other.

A mighty cavalry clash.

With the Spanish arquebusiers able to cause some damage earlier, the Spanish horse win and drive the gendarmes back... battered but not destroyed!

Might rivals clash.

But Spanish use of sword and buckler men to support the pike is enough to counter the quality of the Swiss, who are pushed back.  Yet ready to return to the fray.

Behind the Spanish lines the disordered French gendarmes are now harassed by the Spanish gun.

Unable to regain cohesion, their morale starts to suffer as they put distance between themselves and danger.

Meanwhile, their noble friends engage the Spanish men at arms again.

However, luck and feat of arms is speaking Spanish today.  Nonetheless, both sets of armoured horse are left exhausted by their exertions.

It's a close run thing, but with the French seeing their gendarmes in a poor state and the Swiss knocked back, their hearts are no longer in the fight.  The decision is to cede the field and extricate themselves as best they can.

This comes as some relief to the Spanish who fear the damage the gun and crossbow might do.

However, with two landsknecht blocks bearing down on the Swiss, a number of the Gascon crossbowmen are doing the maths!

Afterthought
A Spanish victory, but closely contested.

I had fun and the rules, amended for the early 16th century, worked very well.  I do need to look at the value of units to determine victory.  With the French Wars of Religion version, each unit is worth one point towards a victory.  Here I'm strongly inclined to give certain units two points, especially armoured cavalry and pike blocks.  It, hopefully, removes the temptation for a player to only go after the softer targets in order to accrue the points.  I can't have a side losing when it still has all its pike and gendarmes intact... that sounds like madness!

I'm still very slowly painted gendarmes.  My next outing with these will be to test out the fast play rules.  This game took around two and a half hours.  With more units and if played with action and luck cards, I imagine possibly three plus hours - to account for player thinking, consultation and dithering time.  Hopefully the fast play rules will do the job in an hour... I will be timing it closely.