Hell Broke Loose: Play Test part 1

Firstly, sorry, but there will not be a Porcinorci part 2. That and another game played between then and now will not be reported on further.

As most of you will know, Peter and I have been developing and play testing a set of rules aimed at the Italian Wars. They are based on the original work Field of Battle by Brent Oman and my, and Peter's, 'Ager' series published in Miniature Wargames.

Initially, I thought I would call them Thirst of War and Blood. This is a line from Erasmus' Colloquies but, after some thought, I have decided to call them after the specific title of the work (written in 1522 AD) in which that line can be found: Hell Broke Loose.

I have just completed the first full draft of the rules. Those wanting a copy to play test should contact me now. The documents are in MS Word format and include the rules, the quick play sheets, and my card stock. The latter include several pictures that are probably held under copyright by someone (the pictures were found on google images) and I ask that if you take a copy, that you do not make the card stock more widely, and definitely not commercially, available.

Although I am happy to make these rules available, please, will only people that are genuinely interested in rules for this period, or with the subject of rule mechanisms specifically, email me for them.

In the following post, I will try to show you where we are. I am not going to publish the rules here in full. Rather, I am going to go through part of a game to show how the game is played. I may, if I feel the rule is important, or slightly unusual, give details and my reasoning. The play-test game is quite a large one, but this is to draw out as many rule mechanisms as possible in one 'honest', to keep it interesting for me, solo-play battle.

Set Up

The battle is between a French force and an Imperial force. It is an open field battle. 

In the set up, each side rolls a D12 for its army die and sequence deck. The French rolled a 5 for an average D10 army dice and sequence deck. The Spanish rolled a 9 for a better than average D10* army dice and a D10* sequence deck. (Poor D8, and excellent D12 army die and sequence decks are possible.) The army die and sequence decks, as you will see, are the backbone of the game. 

The army die also determines the modifiers for officer quality rolls, again using D12. The D10* gives the Spanish officers a +1 adjustment.  Unbelievably, they all rolled up as D10 quality.

The French army comprises units with a total of 90 unit integrity points (to be explained later) . This, divided by 12, gives 7 characterisation cards. 

These cards, dealt from the Army Characterisation Deck (ACD), give morale chip cards and special ability cards: from the start, every army is slightly different.

The French army has 54 morale chips, a Like Hail Missile Reload Up 1 sequence card, and  Chow Bella Group Wild Card sequence card.

The Spanish army comprises 94 unit integrity points and gets 8 ACD cards. These give the Spanish 50 morale chips, a Stratagem card, a Four Horsemen sequence card, and a Look Sir, Army Morale sequence card.

The Stratagem (not pictured) was deemed, by the draw of a normal playing card (a 10 of spades was drawn), a Forlorn Hope stratagem: this allowed the Spanish to deploy up to one quarter of its unit integrity points up to the table's centre line[ish]. 


The morale chips give an army its staying power. ACD sequence cards replace similar cards in the army's sequence deck or they are added to it - they are always advantageous. 

The game is now ready to start. But that is the subject of the next post. Until then, here are a few pictures of the deployments.

Spanish forlorn hope facing the French right.

Spanish forlorn hope facing the French right.

 The French right.

 The French centre.

The Spanish main line.

Porcinorci - battle report, part 1

On the French right the battle opened with both sides pushing forward mixed light cavalry 

The Imperials came off the better, but the skirmishing is far from over.

The cavalry were followed into battle by the infantry. The Swiss, both pike squares up, are seen here advancing into a hail of deadly arquebus fire from a Spanish colonela - they rolled an 11 Vs a 1, taking out 3 unit integrity at a stroke.

On the Imperial left the Landsknecht and Spanish foot, supported by Genitors, go in hard against the French infantry.

 A fire fight is developing, but the Gascon crossbow is no match for the massed troops of the Empire.

 In the centre, the French Gendarmerie advances into the teeth of the oncoming Spanish.

 This contest might well decide the day. Gendarmes, supported by artillery, taking on pike square.

It will be interesting to see how the rules work with this.
















We only played a single turn of the battle last Wednesday night so there is plenty left in it. It will resume next Wednesday.

I have also been doing lots of work on the rules. In a couple of weeks I should have a play test version ready for those who want to check them out.

The Battle of Porcinorci - the set up

I have set up this fictional Italian Wars battle to test some rules in 'open field' situations. Consequently, the terrain has been set up to aesthetically form an amphitheatre in which the main action will take place.

The battle features armies with an identical (unless my mathematics are wrong) unit integrity point total. I have not tried to balance quality, but I don't think that the sides are too far off par. It will be interesting to see how the rules are working: there is nothing like a reasonably large battle on open ground to do that. Here are a few shots of the set up.

Spanish (left) and French (right) showing, in the foreground, the open flank beyond the ridge.

Spanish right: Light and heavy cavalry supported by two colonelas. 

Spanish centre and left: Artillery, two colonelas, two 72 figure Landsknecht pike squares, plus a light sprinkling of cavalry.

French right and centre: French infantry (Gascons and Picard pikemen) and Gendarmes d'Ordnance supported by artillery.

French left: Swiss infantry (two blocks of 54 pikemen) supported by mixed light horse.

Colonela and light cavalry.

Massed pike.

Swiss pike units 'coming up'.

Gendarmes.

Gascons and Picard pike.















Peter and I will fight this battle out next week.

Cerignola - One last time

Last night I christened the upgraded war game table with another refight of Cerignola. The deployment featured the alternate (and not very historical) set up of having the French artillery present; plus a few other minor balancing changes.

Probably the biggest change occurred off table, so to speak. I have been working on the rules and I have classified the troop types differently. The Spanish infantry were downgraded to 'C Class' (D8 CC, D6 DD) with arquebus specialist status. This massively changed how the battle was fought - there were no grizzled Spanish veterans here! The Swiss were 'A Class' (D12 CC, D8 DD) with stubborn status. The reversion to rather old school classifications (A - E) has proved to be a very useful and flexible tool for this period.

The other alteration is to bite the bullet and do away with, light through heavy, artillery classification. After much reading, I have decided that the weight of artillery is of little matter in a field battle situation. Artillery in the early 16th century was so inaccurate, and so slow firing, and the quality of powder and projectile construction was so varied, that the size of a cannon ball would make little difference (except when fired at castle walls and the like). This flies in the face of most wargames rules, but just because cannon size features in most renaissance rule sets doesn't mean it is based in fact - personally, I now rather think it is based in 'wargames tradition'. Crew quality, and the quality of the cannon's construction, was probably far more important at this date so it is probably better to adjust fire dice by crew classification - usually D class (D6, D6), C class (D8, D6) for the good stuff (French?), with specialist shooter status for the very best.

So what happened? Well. here is a short report.

 The French launched the Swiss at the defences

 Routing a Spanish colunela.

As the melee continued between the Swiss and German pike, the French launched their Gendarmes into the fray.

On the other side of the field French pike were halted at the ditch and subjected to volley after volley of deadly arquebus and cannon fire.

The fight became general along the entire front of the defences.

Following an explosion (Stratagem) in the lines, the french gain an advantage and cross the earthwork.

Fabricio is killed. The Landsknechts, after a fight that lasted most of the battle, finally give way.

The Spanish position is outflanked.

The French have won!!!!

Peter has won; again; bastard. I tried three bloody times to win this battle using the French, and he does it first time!










Next week we will fight an open field battle. It will be fictional, but might involve the same armies.

Chow.

Out of chaos......

I have not posted or played much lately. My mother died at the end of October, and family business, and family generally, have been my main priority.

My house has also been in absolute chaos for over two months. Builders have been knocking down big supporting walls for a new kitchen diner. But, out of that chaos came two big  kitchen base units (one was a cupboard and one held up the old kitchen sink) to add an extension to my wargames table.


This has , for a short time, created more chaos in the hallowed halls of my games room. It's amazing how much junk you can store in a secret passage!


This shot shows the new kitchen units added to the two banks of existing units that hold up my table (and the 'secret passage' between). With the top off, it clearly shows how my table is constructed.

This shot shows one of the unit banks, and the drop leaf extension which has been moved to one side, out of the way. The fact they don't match makes little difference to me as I rarely see more than the top.


             

This shot shows the new section of 18mm table-top being screwed into place. This section measures 6' x 4' feet. It makes the table a rigid 12' x 6'. This is the same size as the table was before with the drop leaf and a 'floating extension' piece.

This shot shows the drop leaf section 2'8" x 6' in place. It is connected to the main table with a battened 6' long brass piano hinge. The leaf has been strengthened and made rigid with 2 x 1 inch batons, glued and screwed to the under side, along the three outer sides.

The 2" x 1" batons also form the top anchor point for the legs. These legs are 2" x 2" in section. They are held in place by a long bolt, 50mm washers and a wing nut that pass through leg and baton.

Additional strength is provided to each leg by two long metal braces (pinched from an old wall paper pasting table) at 90 degrees to each other. These are simply secured in holes in the leg and batons.

This drop leaf creates a table 14' 8" x 6'. The gap at the end is not that great, but it is passable. It will only be used for very big games, or games involving a 'long flank' for off table march ons.

This shot shows the drop leaf down, and the long hinge. It also shows the chaos retreating.

Another shot of the drop leaf in its 'redundant' position, this time from the side. Drop leaf extensions are usually worth having because, when not in use, they take up so little space. You can see why it is 2' 8" long - the table height is 2' 9"!   The legs, bolts, braces, etc. are tucked away just under, and behind, the drop leaf.

Cerignola Battle Report

Having shaken itself out into two supporting lines the French gendarmerie charge the defences....

....before being forced back in disorder.

The Swiss and French infantry charge whilst d'Alegre's command tries to outflank the Spanish position. 

D'Ars, leading a desperate charge in person, falls at the ditch. A classic case of having your D'Ars kicked.

Nemours rides into the fray to restore order.

Heavy fighting on the French left is going their way - French gendarmes being gallantly, and effectively, supported by Gascon missilery.

At the entrenchment the fighting is at it's height. The French are making some progress, but they are taking heavy casualties.

Here, Spanish cavalry countercharge gendarmes in support of a hard pressed colunela.

The French are spent, and start to withdraw.

Only on the left are the French now threatening to take the entrechment....

 .....but the right wing collapses and the battle is effectively at an end.















This Battle was much more closely fought than last time. If the Spanish had not had a string of high dice rolls at the critical moment it might have been very much closer. The French will always be hard pressed to win this battle (which is just as well) but, with luck on their side, it might be possible. The French player (that would be me) also made a big mistake early on: I spent far too many morale points keeping d'Ars' cavalry fully intact, when partially might well have been enough. Also, just as a footnote, not one Stratagem was successfully played.