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.