The Fictional Battle of Gioco di Guerra - An Italian Wars AAR

Having done solo and one on one playtests with my adapted Flower of Chivalry rules for the Italian Wars, it was time to stress test them with a group of Rejects.  So, via Zoom, Jonathan, Ray and Dan took up the Valois cause whilst Steve, Surjit and Lee defended Habsburg honour.

For a report from a player's point of view, let me refer you to Jonathan's post - Palouse Wargaming Journal: Clash Course in Flower of Chivalry

Background
King Francis I is marching his army north to overwinter around Milan.  However, Charles V is in pursuit.  At Gioco di Guerra it becomes clear to Francis that Charles is catching up and that he must turn to fight.

The Armies

French – Army Morale : 9 Francois I - Efficient	Imperialist – Army Morale : 9 Charles V - Plodding
Vanguard (Jonathan) De la Pole (initiative 7) 1 x Gendarmes 1 x Swiss Pike 1 x Crossbow	Vanguard (Steve) Colonna (initiative 7) 1 x Men at Arms 1 x Landsknecht 1 x Arquebusier
Main Battle (Ray) Seigneur de Monluc (initiative 6) 1 x Swiss with x/bow 2 x Crossbow 1 x Artillery	Main Battle (Surjit) Pescara (initiative 7) 1 x Colunela 2 x Arquebusier 1 x Artillery
Rearward (Dan) Aubergny (initiative 6) 1 x Gendarmes 1 x Landsknecht 1 x Crossbow	Rearward (Lee) Leyva (initiative 7) 1 x Men at Arms 1 x Landsknecht 1 x Arquebusier

The Deployment

The French are marching and facing north.  The Imperialists have already starting shaking themselves out of march order.  They are facing north-west, towards the French.

A view from the north looking south.
The hills do represent obstacles to movement.  The wooded hexes can only be entered by the missile foot.

A view from the south looking north.  The Imperialist direction of travel indicated by the arrow.

The Battle

Colonna wastes no time, and energy, in rushing to secure the hill that threatens the French left and vanguard under de la Pole.  De la Pole responds by quickly turning and beginning to deploy.  The French rearward, under Aubergny does likewise, taking advantage of Imperialist sluggishness by Leyva and Pescara in the centre and rear.  However Monluc, leading the French Main, does not seem to have got the message and has not moved at all!

Whilst Charles' centre and rearward shuffle forward in unison.  Colonna is finding that his troops need to rest after their dash to the hill.  Meanwhile, de la Pole moves menacingly closer.  At last, the French centre has woken up and turns to deploy whilst Aubergny starts moving towards the southern hill.

De la Pole is now in a position to start engaging.  With great lethality, his Gascon crossbowmen let loose their bolts at Colonna's now exposed men at arms...

... their morale (and armour) dented by the volley, the men at arms retire to lick their wounds.
Meanwhile, Monluc is beginning to advance the French centre towards Pescara's deployed main battle.

With both the Imperialist flanks stalled or needing to rest, Pescara deploys his artillery and stiffens the resolve of his men.  It is clear that the French are going to bring the fight to them.
Seeking to win some sort of advantage, Aubergny issues a personal challenge to Leyva.  Both rearward commanders clashed in a deadly duel, from which Aubergny was carried back dead!

Taking advantage of the lack of command in the French rear, Leyva and the Imperialist rearward obtain the south hill.
On the northern flank, a combination de la Pole's and Monluc's crossbowmen disperse Colonna's Landsknechts.  As the imperialist pikemen's morale collapsed, de la Pole's gendarmes charged Colonna's arquebusiers.  For some reason, the charge was soft and failed to sweep the gunners from the field.

All Battles are now engaged:  Colonna's damaged men at arms barely managing to approach the northern hill; Monluc's Swiss and Pescara's colunela engaged in a titanic push of pike: Leyva's men at arms charging down from the south hill to crash into Aubergny's gendarmes.

The French gendarmes manage to withstand the initial armoured impact while a brutal battle of the pikes continue in the centre.

In swift and decisive fashion, the Imperialist centre and vanguard collapsed.  Colonna's men at arms are done away with by de la Pole's pike.  Leyva's gendarmes are thrown back by the German men arms in the south.  And whilst the Swiss in the centre were annihilated, the colunela succumbed to missile fire which was the straw that broke their weakened back! 

Leyva's gendarmes and pike attack the Imperialist pike defending the southern hill.

In the north, the gendarmes make heavy weather in dealing with the arquebusiers - actually, I made an error in reading a stat line!!!

So, after just under 3 hours of play the French win a decisive victory.

Both armies started with 9 army morale points.  The final score was 7 - 0 to the French.

The dead pile.

Afterthoughts
From a game perspective, the French probably played it better by deploying and holding a line.  This allowed a missile unit from their centre to support Jon's vanguard in its attack on the hill.  The Habsburg vanguard dashing off may have led to that command being isolated and easier to pick off.

From a rules/playtest point of view I was pleased with how things panned out.  I thought that it was fun and completed in just less than 3 hours - and that's with players not familiar with the rules.

I will look at the rules about personal challenges.  Whilst they are a lot of fun and provide some drama and jeopardy, I will probably calm them down a little and limit the number of challenges permitted.

I made a couple of mistakes during the game.  Both being a misreading of a unit's stats line during a melee.  Each unit has two melee factors - one versus mounted, the other versus foot.  I muddled them.  Both times it affected the French for the worse.  So, my error did not impact the result.

I will also take a little time to reflect on those melee factors to consider if small tweaks are necessary.  My first thoughts are that they worked fine.  However, I'll bend some thought towards it.

The command/orders worked well to create uncertainty.  The players were far from able to do what they wanted when they wanted.  However, a sound plan and patience can still be rewarded.

I look forward to feedback from the players.