Volterra (1494) - Charles VIII's Italian War campaign game #2

Continuing the pseudo-historical French descent into Italy under command of king Charles VIII, the French press on into the Tuscany region after having brushed aside the Italians at Sarzana in the Genoa region.  However, Italians in Tuscany have been inspired by the brave defense made by their northern neighbors against the French invaders, and outside of Volterra, several French companies find themselves confronted by a larger Italian force.

Initial, randomized deployments: French to right, Italians to left.

The battle maker generated the pictured terrain, and gave the French two gendarmes and a mounted crossbowmen unit (again, I did this wrong - it should have been three gendarmes), a single Swiss pike unit and two crossbowmen units and no artillery.  

The outnumbered French.

The outnumbered French.

The Tuscans received 2 men at arms, two pike and a double-pay men unit, and two crossbowmen.  What's key here is that the two pikes and single doppelsoldner units: this is three heavy infantry units to the single Swiss pike unit opposing them. Since crossbowmen are rated at 2SP, the French have very little to impede the advance of the Italian infantry.  If the French were defending, they would have 10 "edges" of earthworks to deploy two squares in front of their forwardmost infantry unit to make up for the deficiency in SPs.  But the French are attacking so I was not sure what "equalizer" they should receive.  My only thought (to be tried when the occasion next occurs) continues to be the assignment of "captains" at 4 SP a pop, equal to the difference in SP vs the defender (rounded up - so if the defender has 9 SP more in troops the attacker gets 12 SP of captains (so 3 captains)).  Captains are exactly the same as a general but only count as 4 SP for calculating Exhaustion Point and do not count as victory points.    

The Italians used their non-attacking free move to bunch their spread-out lines closer together, and advanced crossbowmen into the central villa's walls.

After the first French move.

Italians crossbows in the villa.

The French devised a way to be cautiously aggressive, and dispatched their gendarmes to the left to dispose of a single stradiot unit.

French on the advance.

The French crossbows and the Swiss were then able to destroy the Italian crossbows in the villa, while the gendarmes hooked back to the center.  The orientation of the battle had now rotated, with the French moving thier line roughly from the north to the east and the Italians from the south to the west.

The realigned battle.

However, the French exhaustion point was so much lower than the Italians (8 vs 11) and the Swiss had piled up 3 lost SP and one of the gendarmes 2 (out of 3), so the French capability to keep fighting had faded fast.  Sure enough, the Italian gendarmes, uninjured at full SP, were able to dispatch both the Swiss and the near-exhausted gendarme unit, then sweep away a French crossbow unit, then chase and pin the last crossbow unit against the edge of the woods when, at last, the Italians hit thier 11th SP lost and ended the game.

End of game - the Italians have practically swept the field.

The Italians handily won this game 4-2 in victory points (3 for destroyed French unit and one for occupying the "SW" quarter of the board).  It could have been worse if the French had not positioned their remaining units in such a way as to deny the Italians two more points for being sole occupiers of a quarter of the board. 

This game certainly affirmed the need for something like the above proposed "captains" rule should the attacker be outnumbered.  3 captains at 12 points would have lifted the French exhaustion point to 11, allowing a smaller force to fight longer than it should.  The three figures could also have all been teamed with the various ranged units, adding +1 to hit on shooting and close combat.  More accurate shooting may have dampened the Italian edge in heavy infantry and the game may have been a more close run thing.  Although even without help, the French looked like they were working on upset early on, which I take as a compliment to the rules, in that the French were able to make a tactical decision, carry it out, and almost tip the game in their favor. 

On the campaign board, the Italians roll a 3 but stop immediately on the "battle near Florence" square - this means a second battle (and third overall) will be fought in Tuscany but with the Italians as attackers and French as defenders.  It will also be the last of the "small" battles.