Friday, April 23, 2010

Renaissance Wednesday

Oh Happy Day! I've had a large Italian Wars collection collecting dust for almost 10 years. I've got pike blocks of Landsckencts where every single figure is unique (pose, dress, paint job), horribly expensive Foundry Gendarmes, endless numbers of crossbows. They've never seen battle, till Wednesday night.

As large as my collection is, it's not entirely complete, so I had some stand ins from my other giant collection of War of the Roses figs.
I'm trying an experiment. I'm doing the same battle three times, using three rule sets. Last night was Tactica Medieval using the Renaissance add ons created by some of the guys over at the Yahoo group.
I've always liked Tactica for its simplicity. The rules are very "Old School" using single figure removal, or blocks with some kind of marker. Movement is limited, and skirmishers are dispersed if touched by a formed unit.

Over all, it felt right. The battle seemed to play out like what I've studied. The skirmishers harassed the slower pike blocks and shielded them from other fire. They were eventually dispersed and it came down to the dueling pike blocks. But, that simplicity also had drawbacks. Command and control is a little too easy. As long as your commanders (which essentially just act as markers) are within command range, your troops move, albeit slowly, just fine. Very "wind them up and let them go".
Single figure removal can be a bit fiddly and I could see several chances to be "gamey".
Next, we're going to try Historiccal WarMaster with , again, the Renaissance modifiers/troop types. I can see where this would work as Renaissance commanders were studying tactics of Roman and Greek armies, even referring to their troops as the "new Legions".
After that, maybe Command and Colors. I've heard good things about Renaissance Principles of War, but I don't know about yet another ruleset.
Some WotR commanders stand in for the French Generals


Some mounted crossbows sweep around the flank.


As in all Renaissance games, it comes to the push of pike.


These crossbowmen get hit by two pike blocks. They held for a turn, then dissolved.

6 comments:

El Grego said...

Beautiful minis!

You might try Warfare in the Age of Discovery, a Renaissance-era ruleset, that is if you can find a copy - On Military Matters might have one.

Spanish Fury might be good also; a free download from The Perfect Captain.

BaronVonJ said...

Thanks. Have both. Age of Discovery is completely unplayable.
I play Spanish Fury, great fun but too small a scale. I'm very picky as you can see.
-J

Eli Arndt said...

Great looking game and minis. Ren. armies are always really magnifiscent to look at but I can't imagine the insanity they must induce painting them up.

El Grego said...

You are a bit picky aren't you! :)

Hmmm, I would have thought that SF-Battle might work; SF-Actions would definitely be too small.

I have seen some rough notes on converting Command & Colors to the Renaissance... somewhere.

Maybe the rules from Crusader? (grasping for straws now)

Rules choice is always one of my weak points!

Mad Carew said...

Splendid looking game - well worth waiting for, though 10 years IS a long time

Bluebear Jeff said...

Jaye,

Congratulations on getting your troops onto the table and into action!

I think that you should try out a number of rule sets . . . if only to get your men back onto the table top . . . they need exercise after all this time.

Please keep us posted.


-- Jeff