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.