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.