Wednesday, February 24, 2021

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.





7 comments:

  1. Very cool, Spencer - solo-gaming?

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    1. Thanks, Dean. Yes, some solo at the moment, especially for these smaller games. Will probably set up remote games for the larger games.

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    2. Sounds good - there are a few folks up here who are gaming in small groups - 2 to 3. I'm waiting for sunny/warm weather and may host something outside in my backyard or porch. :)

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    3. There's a lot to commend remote gaming and an occasional solo game. I like remote gaming on a weekend morning over coffee. However it will be nice to set up a four-player in person game again someday...

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  2. Hi Spencer -
    I kinda like the 'Captains' idea as an 'equaliser', but you might find that in another campaign such a method might not be so convenient. I have used sub-commanders myself, but more as an organisational thing to represent Division or Brigade commanders.

    I am supposing you have found command and troop quality insufficient to make up the difference. Playing a Sengoku PW game recently, I had 32SP of Samurai 'Clan Oda' attacking 50SP of Ikko-Ikki. Clan Oda was led by a superb commander; Ikko-Ikko by a 'poor' one. All the samurai (4 units, 14SP) were elite; the rest average; the 2 Ronin in service of Ikko-Ikki (6SP) were 'average', the ashigaru - all 44SP - were 'poor'.

    Not only did the Ikko-Ikki not stand around to be hit, but they took the fight to their opponents and send them to the rightabout. The Clan Oda leader was unhorsed and slain during the battle; a band of Ronin broke clean through the Clan Oda line on their right flank; half the samurai (7SP) remained on the field at the close. Clan Oda managed to withdraw from the action without routing (the 'rout rule' a 'Sengoku' addition), but the Ikko-Ikki losses were still short of their exhaustion point.

    It seems to me, though, that, though committed to a strategic offensive, the French aren't, upon meeting the Italians, necessarily committed to a tactical offensive.

    This is proving a most interesting campaign, not just from the point of view of narrative, but also in respect of game and campaign mechanics.
    Cheers
    Ion A. Dowman

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    1. The 3-to-1 advantage in the'heavy infantry' category in favor of the Italians was just too much for the French, I think.

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  3. There might be something to your suggestion of offering some deployment modification to the French. If I understand you campaign generator correctly, in effect the French is the 'player character', the Italians the 'non-player' character. Perhaps the French could have a much freer system of deployment. If not total freedom, perhaps, after the random generation, the French may alter the deployment with the sole restriction that all three - right, centre and left must hold at least one of the units selected for it, and the rest can go anywhere the player pleases. The Italian units stay where the deployment generator places them. That might permit a kind of Theban tactic of massing on one wing, or in the centre, whilst keeping just enough in the other sectors to 'amuse the enemy'.
    Cheers,
    Ion

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