Experimental Kings of War Historical

Experimental how? This Italian Wars game sought to try out three new things with Kings of War Historical:

Swiss pike in French service.

1. The opposing sides' armies (French and Venetians) are drawn up from non-Kings of War Historical army lists, and KoWH point values have not been calculated and are almost certainly not equal.  Will the game be competitive and/or interesting?  Or will it be one-sided, predetermined, and boring?

2. How will the addition of my chance cards affect play? 

3.  Kings of War Historical does not have a unit-type that matches the Renaissance troop type of the mounted crossbowman.  Mounted crossbowmen are found in pretty much every conflict from the 1490s to up to 1520 or so. Because I think a nimble mounted horse archer kind of unit profile is not a good match, I'm instead taking the (foot) Crossbowman profile, increasing the speed to 9" land lowering the attack dice from 8 to 7 like light cavalry.  They retain the crossbow's 24" shooting range (with Piercing (1) and Reload) and Nerve of 9/11 of Crossbowmen (Melee, Shooting and Defense stats stay save as Crossbowmen but these are same as Light Cavalry anyways). 

French starting positions. Crossbows on left, Swiss in the center, Gendarmes and a mounted crossbow on the right.

The French army thus ended up being four regiments of Swiss pike, three troops of crossbowmen, one troop of mounted crossbowmen, three troops of Gendarmes (heavy cavalry), one cannon, one organ gun, and a general and two army standard bearers as sub-commanders.

Mercenary arquebusiers in Venetian service.

Opposing them were the Venetians, with an interesting composition of six troops of arquebusiers, two troops of stradiots (light cavalry), two troops of mounted crossbowmen, two troops of Elmeti (heavy cavalry), and one organ gun.  They were led by a general and two army standard bearers (so ending up with 13 units per side, not counting the commanders).

Venetians start with firepower clustered around a village. My "Italian" buildings do not have removable roofs, so I used my English Civil War half-timbered ones instead.

Terrain was laid out with terrain tiles, and ended up being quite open. Deployment was randomized using the more recent draft from my ancients round robin games, which favors putting infantry in a block in the center, with variable wings of lighter infantry and cavalry. The French won the toss and got to go first.

Venetian mercenary arquebusiers.

The French began a general advance, while the Venetians arranged their mass of firepower in the center.  Crossbows and handgunners in Kings of War Historical may not shoot if they moved in the same turn, so there was some urgency in getting everyone in place early on to maximize the number of shots before the Swiss pike blocks closed in.

French Gendarmes looking towards the Venetian positions.

French gendarmes on French right flank.

Venetians set up a firing line.

 

 

The Swiss pike blocks trundle forward.

 

Venetian handgun fire, and mounted crossbow fire against the French right, both scored some hits but nothing major. The French Gendarmes and Venetian cavalry on French right came to grips, while the Swiss pikes closed within a few inches of the Venetian handgunners.

Swiss pike blocks advancing under fire from the Venetians.

The first few melees went overwhelmingly in favor of the French.  Then I realized that I was using a unit print-out from my previous Italian Wars game using KoWH, which had the Gendarmes as regiments and not troops (i.e. rolling 16 dice instead of 8 in melee).  So I reset those figures and refought the melees with Gendarmes as troop-sized units.

French Gendarmes route a troop of arquebusiers.

This still resulted in a troop of arquebusiers being easily routed by some Gendarmes.  On the opposite flank, some concentrated crossbow fire sent a troop of stradiots running, while in the center the Venetians simply were not bringing enough firepower to bear on the Swiss.

A troop of Stadiots are routed by French crossbow volleys.

Venetian arquebus fire not proving terribly effective against advancing Swiss.

Rather quickly it became evident that the Venetian handgunners should have been "counted as" regiments and not troops.  With ten dice instead of eight and a slightly higher waver/route target number, they could have given the Swiss more trouble.

Venetians making a good show of things - their cavalry on their left doesn't completely collapse in face of heavier French Gendarmes.  The center is laying down heavy fire on the Swiss, and the cavalry on the right has engaged the French crossbows.

Even so, the sheer number of handgunner units, plus the single organ gun, make a good show of things. Significant casualties are taken by at least one of the Swiss regiments, causing it to waver/disorder and halting its advance. 

Swiss keep coming on, though.

The good showing is short-lived, however.  The flanking gendarmes route one handgunner unit and a Swiss regiment routes another.

Things going less well... Swiss route some of the Venetian handgunners. French Gendarmes also route a second troop. In the distance, a troop of Venetian mounted crossbows are also routed.

Swiss pikes starting to push through.

Venetian general tries to hold the center.

On the other flank, Venetian Elmeti and Stradiots make slow progress against the French crossbowmen. After losing a troop of Stradiots, the Elmeti do eventually route one and then another of the French crossbow troops, but this will be the only positive result for the Venetians on this day.

Venetian Elmeti and Stradiots on Venetian right route two troops of French crossbows.

In the center, a third regiment of Swiss is able to loop around and attack the Venetian center from the side, routing another unit of handgunners and leaving only the organ gun and the general!

Swiss pikes swarm the center, route yet another troop of arquebuses.

Venetian cavalry, the only success of the day.

Venetian general holds what's left of the center with a stubborn organ gun.

While on the Venetian left, the Elmeti fight the French gendarmes to a standstill, thanks to a Rally! card drawn by the Venetians which removed two casualty markers. But the other two gendarme squadrons are able to route the Venetian crossbowmen and wreak havoc on Venetian arquebusiers in the center.

Elmeti and Gendarmes fight to a standstill.

After six turns, I considered the following conditions: If a side lost 1/3 or more of starting units, it is fatigued.  If it lost more than 1/2 of starting units, it has broken. If one or both sides are fatigued, but not broken, play additional turns until a side is broken at the end of a turn.  The Venetians had lost more than half of their starting units, so the game was over at the end of turn 6.

Mercenary handgunners flee the field.

Results of the experiment?

1. Was the game competitive and/or interesting with armies drawn up from non-Kings of War Historical army lists?  The game was obviously pretty one-sided in favor of the French, which I knew was a probable outcome at the beginning, given that the Venetian army is a bit of a peculiarity with such an emphasis on mounted troops. I definitely goofed in leaving the Venetian handgunners as only troops and not regiments. Those extra two dice for shooting and slightly higher Nerve ratings could have shifted things a bit.  The randomized terrain was also okay but not great for the Venetians. The 'walled villa' tile could have been helpful, and I might add a tile with a "L" shaped section of wall or hedge on it to the deck.

2. How will the addition of my chance cards affect play? The "ammunition shortage" card came up once for both sides.  This probably contributed to more or faster success by Venetian cavalry against the French crossbowmen, but definitely hurt the Venetian center late in the game, seeing as shooting is a key component of the entire army.  The Rally! card came up for the Venetians, and I interpreted it to simply remove 2 casualty markers.  In retrospect, this was pretty ineffective. Maybe remove 1d6 casualties from two units, or twice on the same unit? That could really recharge a unit and make a difference in the game.

3.  How did the Mounted Crossbowmen do? They seemed interesting and not overpowered either.  The more effective use would be to get them around the flank and behind opponent's lines, and then just shoot into the backs the whole game from 24" away. The two Venetian mounted crossbow units were able to lay down some effective fire before the French gendarmes closed. The fact that the Italian Elmeti heavy cavalry was split between both flanks gave the French an 3-1 heavy cavalry advantage on the French left, which consequently tied up the Venetian mounted crossbows in melee and prevented them from harassing other troops from afar.

Conclusions? Definitely worth another try.  The need for larger arquebusier units has caused me to open a bag of Spanish arquebusiers that has been laying around for almost a year.  Those should be table ready as soon as this weekend, along with a bag of mounted arquebusiers that has been unpainted since 2018 (!). Looking forward to trying to be a bit more active with this collection in 2023!