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!