Kings of War Historical

Roughly three years ago I picked up a copy of the Kings of War Historical rulebook, as at the time I had been tinkering with and modifying unit profiles for the Lion Rampant rules for a long time and they still didn't feel quite right.  Kings of War Historical uses the 2nd edition of the Kings of War fantasy battle rules for its mechanics, but with a different set of unit profiles and some additional special rules.  Mechanically, Kings of War Historical is a I-go, you-go rule set carried to its rational and logical conclusion.  Player A will move all their units (no activation rolls required whatsoever) including charges, then resolve any shooting attacks (you cannot shoot into combat) and resultant nerve test (i.e. morale), then resolve any melees and resultant melee-nerve tests.  Melees are not simultaneous - only the attacker rolls dice.  To speed up play, the attacker also rolls the saving throws for the unit they have targeted. If this sounds like Player B does basically nothing while Player A resolves their turn, you are correct! And this was too bizarre to my mind at the time to even really try the rules out.

End of Turn 1 of try out game. Spanish to left, French to right.

Three years later, however, I have since ended up doing quite a bit of solo play, and also remote games where I was moving all figures and rolling all dice.  This experience, coupled with several campaigns using the extremely simple and fast play Portable Wargame rules, caused me to circle back to the Kings of War Historical rules and give them a try.

Spanish and Landsknecht Pike.

The Kings of War Historical book is a slim volume of 125+ pages, with the primary mechanics only taking up 23 or so pages.  Then there about 15 pages of special rules, veteran abilities, and scenarios.  The remaining 75 pages is the 'Master Unit List' and 32 specific army lists.  The army list section took awhile for me to figure out.  Like Hail Caesar and most 'big battle' miniature rules, there is a rather fundamental underlying assumption that the reader has already researched a historical period and collected the armies pertaining to that period.  To use an easy example, a player interested in the Hundred Years War generally, and the Battle of Crecy specifically, already knows that the French army should feature mounted knights and Genoese crossbowmen, and that the English counterpart will feature foot knights and longbowmen.  Assuming this pre-existing player knowledge, Kings of War Historical mainly leans into the profiles provided in the master unit list, and the specific army lists are really only there to add very specific units.  So the English list for Crecy would just use the generic "Heavy Warriors" profile from the Master Unit List for foot knights, but gets the special "Longbowmen" unit from the "English" list.  Their French counterparts would get to use the special "Chevaliers" profile for their mounted knights (if they want) and also the "Genoese Crossbowmen" mercenary units.  French pavisemen, however, could use the Warriors or Heavy Warriors profiles instead from the Master Unit List.

French Stradiots, Swiss Pike, and Gendarmes.

What all this leads to is that for a try-out game featuring Italian Wars French and Spanish armies, I did not use either the French nor the Conquistadors lists, but instead built both sides from the Holy Roman Empire list.  This is because only the HRE list uses both Landsknechts and Swiss Pikemen special units, and these two go a long way to giving the game the right Italian Wars renaissance flavor.  One disappointment is that the HRE list does not allow for light cavalry with a short range attack (i.e. javelins), which is entirely appropriate for both stradiots and ginettes.  Rather than start tweaking the book list, I simply treated those units as generic cavalry, but deployed only as troops of 5. 

End of Turn 2.

This try-out game featured 2,000 points per side and used the six-turn Dominate scenario for victory conditions.  The table was set using the terrain card draw system and deployed the armies using the randomizer from my Italian Wars battle-maker.  

Spanish lines advance.

This resulted in the French deployed in the center of its table edge with its cavalry in front of its infantry (with pikes on the left and missile/artillery on right).  The Spanish were more spread out, with their pikes and rodelleros (sword and buckler men) on their right, their missile and artillery in the center, and their cavalry on the left.

French Gendarmes on the advance. 

For the first turn both sides did their best to adjust their deployments a bit, but given limitations on number of turns a unit can make during a move (a regular move, which is 5" for infantry and 10" for cavalry, can make one turn/pivot up to 90 degrees; but if the unit is moving in a straight line it can make a double move) and a game limit of six turns, there was only so much they could do and they mostly began general advances on Turn 2.

End of Turn 2. From other side of table.

Like many an Italian Wars games before it, the French right/Spanish left quickly turned into a heavy cavalry slugfest as the numerically superior French Gendarmes (three regiments) took on their Spanish counterparts (two regiments of heavy cavalry plus a single troop of ginettes).

French and Spanish cavalry in combat.  Lighter Ginettes (jinettes) are routed.

The ginettes were easily routed by the Gendarme heavies, while the Spanish gendarmes merely became disordered.  The Spanish dispatched two of their three troops of ginettes from their left flank to their right flank.

Heavy cavalry clash.

On the opposite flank, the longer-ranged French artillery fired into the advancing Landsknechts, while  French 'archer' cavalry attacked the Spanish rodeleros (to little effect).

French 'Archer' cavalry tangles with Spanish Rodeleros.

The Spanish center, which consisted of its arquebusiers ('handgunners' per KoWH, actually) and organ guns, formed up to fire upon the advancing Swiss and French pike blocks.

Middle of Turn 3, I think.

Which they did in spectacular fashion! While they failed to slow the Swiss, they dealt a lot of damage upon the French pikemen and put them in disorder.

Spanish arquebuses and organ guns firing on advancing Swiss and French pikemen.

Spanish arquebuses and organ guns firing on advancing Swiss and French pikemen.

Heavy cavalry melee continues.

End of Turn 3.

On Turn 4 the French gendarmes routed the Spanish heavy cavalry completely.  On the opposite flank, Spanish rodeleros and lansknechts began advancing the French crossbows.

Spanish foot (landsknecht and Rodeleros) advance on French missile troops.

Landsknecht and Spanish Rodeleros.

Meanwhile in the center by the villa, the Swiss pikes were finally in position to charge, which they did.

Swiss pikes about to charge.

The Swiss easily routed a unit of Spanish arquebusiers, but the Spanish pike hung around, at least for now.  The Spanish right arranged itself to to avoid flank charges by French stradiots...

Spanish Rodeleros and landsknechts have routed French arquebusiers and crossbowmen. Heavy fighting by the villa.

...and in the center the landsknechts and rodeleros route a troop of French crossbows and a troop of arquebusiers.

Landsknecht breaking through French line.

Swiss and Spanish pike in melee.

Swiss pikes advancing on Spanish arquebusiers.

In the final turn, both sides seek to consolidate their positions in the center (and realize that they have wasted resources fighting at the flanks, as the 'Dominate' scenario bases final scores on units within 12" of the table's center).

Spanish ginettes routed by French stradiots...

On the French turn, stradiots charge and route Spanish ginettes, and the Swiss route the Spanish pike and overrun an organ gun. Also, impressively, a troop of French crossbowmen attack the landsknecht in the flank and route them.

...and Spanish pike routed by Swiss.

On the last Spanish turn and end of game, ginettes in the center flank charge the French pikes which were already fragile from the Spanish cannonade earlier on, and route them. Other Spanish units in the center are disordered or not positioned to try and push the Swiss out of the center area.

End of turn 6. French pike are routed by a flank charge by Spanish ginettes.

Spanish general.  This is a conquistador figure by Eureka Miniatures.

French general by Wargames Foundry.

I'm not a huge fan of points-based victory conditions. They seem usually produce draws or not reflect what was going on narratively on the table. But to complete the try-out experience, I totaled things up.  The French had 785 points worth of troops within 12" of the table center point, and the Spanish 605.  However, the margin of victory had to be 10% of total points per side at game start, so 200 points or more (10% of 2,000).  The French margin of victory was 180 points more than the Spanish, so the Spanish eke out a draw by 20 points.

I like Kings of War Historical's mechanics and fast gameplay. I like the lack of post-melee movement  (loser falls back 6", winner can make complicated follow up charges, etc), and the morale system is simple but works. The bonus effect of commanders on morale checks also felt significant, which is always a plus.  My biggest negative is that the scenario goals are too "competitive play" in design, which makes sense given the fantasy-battle heritage, but I don't like the "last turn, everyone move to certain areas to score points" end-of-game situation, which kinda ruins the conceit of realism. However, I will concede that randomly choosing "Dominate" but having table center empty is probably the real culprit - if there was a bridge or terrain feature that both sides were struggling to control, then the "Dominate" victory conditions would feel more appropriate.

Looking forward to trying these again. I even purchased some more Italian Wars miniatures after this game!