Italian Wars Solo Fast Rules Trial on Hexes

After successfully testing out my Italian Wars adaptation of the old Age of Chivalry rules as a fast play option (see here), I decided to adapt my adaptation (try and keep up!) for playing on a hex battle mat. See my purchase here.  My motivation is to open up remote gaming opportunities for quick evening games.

With a couple of tweaks the changes were quickly achieved.  So, to the game.

The premise and general outline for the game came from a scenario in the Honours of War rule book, The Clash at Kutzdorf.  Here, the Imperialist forces have been surprised by the French appearing on their flank.

A birds eye view of the depositions.

The view from behind the attacking French, looking north.

The Imperialist troops.  Their leader was graded as efficient.  The army was divided with the vanguard of men at arms, the main battle of two landsknecht blocks and the rearward containing aquebusiers and artillery.

The French commander was also graded as efficient.  The vanguard made up of gendarmes, the main battle being two Swiss blocks and an artillery.  Whilst on the French left, was the rearward of Gascon crossbowmen.

The French advanced along the line.  The plan being to move swiftly before the Imperialists could complete any redeployment.  The Imperialist troops struggled to get going with orders not being executed as fast as hoped.  However, the exposed Landsknecht did manage to turn to face the danger.

With rather more impetuosity than the Imperial commander ordered, the men at arms charged swiftly forward and engaged the surprised gendarmes.

One unit of gendarmes recovered to stay in the fight.  However, the right most one crumbled under the shock of impact.

The French hopes of a fast advance against the Imperialist defenders was starting to fade.  Battle commanders seemed to be following their own, sluggish, orders instead of their leader.

In the rules, each Battle of the army is given an order by the army commander.  Dice are then rolled to determine if they receive/accept those orders and which ones they will actually carry out.  There is a very high percentage chance of the order given being accepted.  However, the chance of a different one applying is present.

The French as they slowly edge towards the Imperialists.

All the while, the Emperor's troops are redeploying to negate the French flank advantage.

An adaptation that I have made to the rules, to convert them to the Renaissance, was to rewrite the troop lists and stats.  I also included the option for pike blocks to include shot and other supports like halberdiers.  For example, representing the Spanish colunela with shot, and sword and buckler.

On the French right, the victorious Imperial men at arms swings into the gendarmes.

This assault, when already fiercely engaged, is too much for the French nobility who are slain and scattered.

With the French Battle leaders, seemingly unable to either obey orders or do so with urgency, creep forward.  The Imperialists are able to take advantage to swing more of their line round to face.

Once the orders have been diced for and established, a card is turned to reveal the number of actions the units can take that turn.  Actions include pivoting, moving and shooting - 1 action to do each.  The French seem to be suffering from wilful Battle commanders and/or limited actions... perhaps reflecting reluctance amongst other things.

The Gascon crossbowmen start emerging from the woods.

The men at arms now have a position on the exposed French flank.  However, the horses are blown and the troops fatigued from their impetuous charges and hard fought melee.  They desperately need some time to recover if they are to be effective.

At last, the French crossbows take aim and shoot...

...giving a block of Landsknecht enough pause for thought to make them withdraw from the frontline.  However, German arquebusiers have joined the line and shoot in return.

All hopes of a French attack to roll up the Imperialist defenders has now gone as the redeployment is complete.

But seeing an opportunity, both Swiss pike blocks charge a lone Landsknecht block while the Gascons' charge the arquebusiers.

The arquebusiers stand their ground well.  However, the Landsknecht are overwhelmed by the ferocity of the Swiss.  Perhaps, the French may be able to pull off a victory before the men at arms can fall on their flank?

Alas for the French, the men at arms have rested and recovered and begin to bear down on the French left.  At the same time, more arquebusiers are turning in to rain leaden hell down on the Swiss.

As the men at arms approach, the leftmost Swiss turns to face.  Unluckily for the French, the Landsknecht have rallied and are also approaching.

With the French confined to a small space, they are almost completely surrounded.  With a great crash, the arquebusiers fire, the men at arms charge in and the Landsknecht fall on the flank.

A Swiss block being assaulted from front and rear.  Plus, arquebusiers shoot from the flank.

A heroic, but futile stand, as the Swiss are utterly destroyed.

As for the other Swiss pike.  Under the weight of numbers and Imperial vigour...

...it is scattered.  Most never to return to their mountain and valley homes!

With only the Gascon crossbowmen remaining, the French army breaks up and runs.

With the best and most valuable units destroyed or dispersed and the remainder almost surrounded, the French defeat is total and irrefutable.  The Gascons make the best escape they can.  Their only consolation being that the Imperial cavalry is near exhaustion and unable to pursue.

Afterthoughts

I really enjoyed playing this game.  It was a little frustrating for the French.  Having said that, the Imperialists sometimes had issues with orders as well.  Probably their biggest was getting the right orders to rest the cavalry.  The lack of which, I thought might just give the French enough time to crack the infantry.  But it wasn't to be.

Was it a fast play game?  Yes, it was.  I had my phone on stopwatch to time it.  One hour and 4 minutes plus.

I've made a tweak to one order as a consequence of this game.  The "react" order allows a unit to pivot to face a unit charging, or already meleeing it.  I've added that the "react" may also include one action to either pivot, shoot or withdraw.  Withdrawing takes an army point away from the army.  Once army points are at zero the game is lost!

On the issue of army points.  I was quite pleased that my change from the last game (when each destroyed or retreating unit was the loss of one army point) to valuable units (gendarmes and pike blocks) being worth two points each worked.  Though, I can't help but feel that the French ought to have withdrawn earlier.  I will look at the starting level for the army points - it was probably too high and/or I need to add a situational loss of army points.  Things to ponder on.  

Nonetheless, I'm marking this as a job done.  My next adaptation to hexes will be 18th century, WAS/SYW.  Though I'm not sure when that will appear.  I think that I ought to type up these rules first and stick them on the blog at some point.

Thanks for joining me.

A New-ish Mat

A quick post.

At the Broadside show, 2024, some battle mats were being sold off cheaply.  There was a nice hexed one going for £5!  I snapped it up.  Despite that the mat was only about 2 feet wide, it was too good a bargain to miss.

So, with a sharp pair of scissors, I have managed to produce a mat which is just slightly smaller than 6x4.

Above, I have placed 28mm and 6mm units to size the mat up.  The hex nicely takes base/units of up to 100mm wide and up to 60mm depth.

The last bonus is that it is a fleece mat.  So, I can make hills and undulations by hiding things under the cloth and, therefore, not lose the hex.

This nicely opens up remote games where gridded tables seem to work best.  Now, I'm off to adapt some of my rules for hex play.  Happy days!

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.