Too much organ gun

At some point, you end up with a collection that make two almost solid lines of figures across an eight foot table. This is same table as prior game, but Italians are now on left side and French are on right.

I did not take as many photos of Saturday's Italian Wars game of Kings of War Historical, which had a full four players and was played to a final sixth turn. But the game confirmed a growing suspicion by all involved... that organ guns in large numbers have an unbalancing effect, at least against the historical flavor of the period.

I should have brought different buildings that units could occupy - these ones just ended up being unpassable terrain created a weird gap in the center of the lines of which ever army was deploying on this side of table.

For deployment in these games, each side took a turn deploying either all their cavalry, all their pikes, or all their ranged units and artillery.  While deploying pikes early on, the Italians deployed all pikes towards the center and left the extreme right flank open. The French then two Swiss pike units opposite of that opening. The Italians, having already deployed all their pike, remedied this by placing two organ guns, a cannon, and a troop of Spanish arquebusiers in a tight line facing the Swiss, supported by some Balkan cavalry.

The concentrated firepower of the organ guns then proceeded to absolutely shred and rout one Swiss pike regiment and then the other. For those unfamiliar with Kings of War Historical, a cannon throws one dice to hit (on 5+) and then rolls a 1d6+1 for potential casualties.  An organ gun, however, throws 12 dice (also hitting on 5+).  The troop of Spanish arquebusiers added another 8 dice to the two organ guns, so the output in ranged attacks was overwhelming.

Swiss pikes facing their doom in form of Spanish organ guns.

"But isn't this exactly what happened at Cerignola in 1503?" you might ask. Yes and no? Because while gunpowder weapons were critical at Cerignola in repulsing French cavalry and Swiss pikemen, they were part of a more involved defensive deployment by Gonsalvo Córdoba.  This game, by contrast, had a few organ guns, without any additional support, out by themselves on a flank, which were able to entirely route multiple French units.  Rather than defense in depth, the French player commented that it felt more like attacking a machine gun nest via frontal assault. 

Swiss pikemen by Essex miniatures.

After the game (a devastating French defeat - the entire left side of the French army was routed), some discussion was had about what to do about the organ guns.  Perhaps modify their stats? I didn't like that as I want to avoid tacking house rules on to rules-as-written as much as possible. Better solutions pointed at simply not having too many organ guns, or creating deployment stipulations about where and how guns could be deployed (deployment stipulations might also work well for Spanish coronelías, or pike and cavalry blocks). 

French attacking the Spanish-Italian left flank (to some good effect).

I struck on a simpler solution a few days later at home.  Part of the issue is that I have two organ gun models and four 'Burgundian carriage' light artillery models, as well as six larger cannons. I have been treating the Burgundian carriage pieces as organ guns.  I usually give the French four of the larger cannons and two organ guns, with the Spanish/Italians ending up with an inverse of two cannons and four organ guns.  The Kings of War Historical book, however, includes a unit profile for a "small bolt thrower", which is actually stats-wise a down-scaled cannon (shorter range of 36" instead of 48", throw 2 dice instead of 1 but on success roll 1d3 instead of 1d6+1).  If all the Burgundian pieces use this stat line then there would only be a max of two organ guns available, and they could stipulated as "Spanish only" and be required to be deployed as in support of a coronelía.

Lance Fournies debut

Last weekend was a special treat, as I got to play two games of Kings of War Historical in two days. The first game was on Friday evening. This featured the first tabletop appearance of my newly painted/reorganized French lance fournies (pictured above). 

Armies still being deployed. French to left, Italo-Imperials to right.

A lance fournie (French for "equipped lance") was a French cavalry organizational unit consisting of a gendarme (noble heavy armored horseman), a coutillier (a more lightly-armed fellow combatant), a non-combatant page, and three mounted archers meant as infantry support. The archers were intended to ride to battle and dismount to shoot with their bows, and did so until late in the fifteenth century, when they took to fighting on horseback as a sort of lighter variety of gendarme, though still called "Archers." For wargaming, a useful shorthand for this organization is a trio of units consisting of one gendarme (elite heavy cavalry), one coutillier (heavy cavalry), and one 'Archer' (regular cavalry).

Deployment done.

 
I already had three units of Gendarmes, and had six Old Glory 'archers' already painted as well, so I added 20 War of the Roses knights on unbarded horses as the coutilliers, and got another 10 'archers' to add the the four unpainted ones I already had. Now the French can field 70 cavalry in a lance fournie set up (30 gendarmes, 20 coutilliers, 20 'archers'). 

Landsknects in Italian/Imperial service.

The game was at a leisurely pace and went smoothly. The French cavalry retained its punch with the new lance fournies organization but didn't feel unbalanced as much as before.

Balkan cavalry (stradiots and Romanians) in front of Elmeti heavy cavalry.

This game also featured the addition of several new banners to cavalry units.

Spanish infantry in my best impersonation of a 'colunella' formation - troops of arquebusiers interspersed between regiments of pike.

I also tried out a deployment scheme for the Spanish that mimicked the colunella formation.  This consisted of troops of arquebusiers alternated with regiments of heavy pike, supported by a few lighter artillery pieces ("treat as"organ guns). In the early rounds this formidable line was able to easily dispatch a French crossbow regiment with concentrated fire. However, the French generally kept their distance until the colunella began to advance, which created gaps in the formation which the French were able to exploit when they made their big attack in the center.

French coutilliers and 'archers' clash with Balkan light cavalry while heavier troops wait in second lines.

The decisive moments were around the third and fourth turns, when the French threw gendarmes and Swiss pikemen up the center of the table and were able to land flanking attacks (double attack dice) against several Imperial units.

The Spanish general directs the defense against a charge of French 'archers'.

Spanish infantry. In the distance another Spanish pike block is being flanked by coutilliers.

Landsknecht have taken the hill in the center. French heavy cavalry and Swiss pike starting to close in on French left.

Gendarmes flank a landsknect pike regiment.

French gunners look up to see Landsknecht above them!

French making a big push in the center, to good effect.

Things seemed dire for a second for the Imperials and their Italian allies, but they were able to counterattack with several flank attacks of their own, effectively routing and repelling the entire French attack in the center.

By end of game, French are doing okay on their right flank. But Swiss regiments are a bit far from the action still, despite engaging the Landsknechts on the hill.

Situation at end of game - Spanish have effectively routed the French left (crossbow unit at center right is all that remains) and are facing towards the center of the field. French attack in center reduced to an 'archer' and Swiss pike regiment each, both whom are vulnerable to flank attacks from advancing Spanish.

So another victory for the Imperials. I'm thinking that the Spanish colunella might need its pike components downgraded to 'regular' pike instead of 'heavy,' just to make the pikes and arquebusiers more dependent on each other.