A quick picture of a quick game

Last night I had the pleasure of trying out the soon to be released "Galleys, Guns and Glory" rules by Skull and Crown, that go with their great ships.
As I mentioned before, I was able to get a hold of the pre-release ships thanks to trade. I'm doing all the flags that will come with purchase of the ships, in return for a fleet of said ships.

The game was easy to pick up and fun to play. Something I need as most Game nights are essentially mini conventions. There was hasty gun fire, fabulous critical hits, desperate boarding actions and lots of blood in the water.
We didn't use alot of the extras like special Captains or national traits, just to let everyone get ahold of the rules, which they picked up within 2 turns. Victory went to the Turks this time.Now, back to painting ships...

Another Itailan Wars Command stand

Neopolitan Spanish

For the Italian Wars Project. These fellas are from the great The Assault Group miniatures. A pleasure to paint.

Ow! My eye! Yes, in this period the Spanish should technically have "half pikes" or just long spears, but I couldn't bear it.

Hail Caesar Renaissance playtest

First of all, let me apologize for the lack of pictures. It was a playtest, so the terrain was pretty sparse. Also, I'm in the process of repainting/rebasing for this playtest, so I hard to improvise on troops and commanders (thus the War of the Roses command stands).
As a background let me say, this is one of favorite periods. I've been waiting for just the right rules for these guys for literally, years. I've tried every wargames rules set there is for Renaissance (yes, I have. So don't throw out suggestions). Playing Black Powder really got me jazzed when I saw Hail Caesar.
To me, Renaissance is really Ancients with gunpowder. Most generals of the day had been studying ancient texts and were trying to recreate the legions  and phalanxes of years gone by. I wanted a set of rules where I could build the units the way I thought they should look. I don't like counting figures, or a ton of modifiers. I'm getting old, so I like simple, too. HC did it for me.
I've read the rules 3 times but never played, so of course we got things wrong, but there was a lot of right in here too.
The scenario was a fairly even match up between Neopolitan Spanish and the French. The forces were fairly small, 4 commands a side. Each side had two commanders with a unit of Heavy Cavalry (rated as cataphracts) and a mounted crossbow/arquebus unit (rated as missile armed light cav). One general had artillery, a pike unit, and two open order crossbow/arquebus units. The final commander on each side had two pike units and two crossbow.
There were surprisingly few 3 move manuevers, so the sides moved slowly at each other. Our supreme leader (even with a reroll) couldn't get the center forward. The heavy cav on one flank clashed and after a quick see-saw had my Gendarmes running for the hills. On the other flank, our mounted bows kept the enemy tied up all night.
Over all, everybody fought as they should. Regular units that didn't get out the way got smahed by the pike blocks. The pikes scrummed for a bit, til one broke. I gave the pikes a short range attack to simulate the arquebus skirmishers many used, and it worked great. In the future, I might let them detach such units to act as Forlorn Hopes. I'm very pleased with the results. Once everyone got the hang of it, the game went really quick. The French got chased off the field, but just barely.
Huge, huge thumbs up.

Rules found?

As anyone who follows this blog will know, I've officially tried every wargames ruleset for Renaissance. Every single one. And I haven't been satisfied completely with any of them. I have a large collection of minis that have rarely seen battle, except in play test.
I like what I saw and played with Black Powder, so I ordered Hail Caesar! by the same folks. Though similar, there are some significant differences, as there should be.
I'm excited to try out HC! not for ancients, but for my long suffering Italian Wars minis. I think the rules will work for simple the reason that Renaissance thinkers had not only rediscovered classical art, but classical warfare. Many a general was trying recreate the armies of Rpme and Alexander. What are Swiss pikemen, but the Macedonians phalanxes of old?
Only gaming this out will see. I will keep everyone posted.

Friday Update

I haven't painted much stuff lately. Two reasons.

First these guys:

I loves me my Renaissance, but man these guys took forever. I think the results were worth it, but this is only one stand. I need 3 stands for a unit. 

Second. I got two kids in sports. Between the two of them, every week night is taken up by practices, and games on the weekend. Not a whole lot of downtime that doesn't involve house work or errands. My wife, bless her, does her share of chauffeuring, so I still get gaming on Thursday.

I did, however manage to get these guys rebased:

They're Crusader Normans. Nice and chunky, and a joy to paint. Only drawback is the shields have to be pinned on (which I freehanded the designs on). Now, to use my Old Glory discount to buy some Crusader Saxon opponents.

On another note, tried out "Victory Without Quarter" again. After talking with the author, we cleared up some rules. It played fairly well. Again, just like what of read of the period, the cavalry scrapped on the flank til one side was gone, then fell on the infantry in the middle which were exchanging ineffective musketry fire with each other. 

Still think some of Cav rules are a bit fiddly, and way too powerful against infantry. They had those big pointy sticks for a reason. A few tweaks and we should be ready for a retest. I'm also thinking about adding some elements of  "Spanish Fury: Actions!" to add some flavor.

Thursday Spanish Fury

Spanish, meet the French. French, meet the Spanish

This was rules test #4. I dug out my" Spanish Fury Actions!" rules from the Perfect Captain. "Actions!" is really made for smaller battles, somewhere between skirmish and full on big battles, so this clash was going to push the limits of the rules.

THe rules are very straight forward, There are only two steps in the turn sequence and charges, shooting, morale checks, etc, is all handled as each unit activates. As expected, the first few turns saw the units steadily advancing. Most units opted for the "Loose" formation to maximize speed, but formed up once they got close. My poor Gendarmes waited patiently for something to charge, but stuck waiting because cavalry cannot charge formed, disciplined pike. Actions classes troops as disciplined, undisciplined or other. Disciplined troops can force morale checks n units they charge that aren't themselves disciplined, and can forced a 3rd turn of HTH combat.

All combat, shooting or hand to hand, is done very simply by taking your base fighting value, multiplied by the number of stands. Then there is a roll on a chart. Results vary from loss of a stand, nothing or the accumulating of "Terror" markers. For each terror marker a unit it has, it loses the use of a stand and creates negative effects to the morale rolls. So a 6 stand unit with 2 terror markers fights like a 4 stand unit.

Its a slick system and gave realistic results, but it took forever, we ended the game after 3 hours with no real results beyond pushing the Spanish back a little, which is probably how the real battle would have been fought. Any negative thoughts I have about the game, were no fault of the rules. Actions! is really meant for a smaller battle with specific objectives like a holding action, or cattle thievery, not for big meeting engagements that we wargamers love so much. Unfortunately, the Captain's rules for larger battles called, not surprisingly," Spanish Fury, Battle!", is well researched, thought out, and completely unplayable. So, I'll keep these for smaller fights, and keep searching for another for bigger battles.

If you look closely at this picture, you'll see I've created a Hex grid on my mat. Hmmm, what could that be for....?

The search for Renaissance rules continues....

The Swiss say "Give us some Rules!"

People you this blog probably know I have a large Renaissance era figure collection that's been sitting idle for years awaiting a ruleset worthy of them. I playtested two, Tactica Renaissance, which played alright but lacked any fun command and control, and Renaissance Warmaster, which was also OK, and won between the two but wasn't quite there.
So, on the recommendation of a few people on the Lead Adventure Forum, I ordered Renaissance Principles of War. I ordered directly from Principles of War in the UK. Six weeks and 3 unanswered emails about where my order was later, I finally ordered from Noble Knight here in the US an got it 2 days later. I got a refund from PoW the next Monday because they were out of stock. Thanks for the quick response!
Now to the rules. They're everything I hate in a ruleset: written orders, convoluted combat sequence, rosters, lots of different die sizes, and the list goes on. Positive aspects: Single stands for units so you can use any scale fig you want, and lost of army lists.
The quest goes on. Renaissance warfare is very close to Classical Period. So maybe it's finding rules I like for classical and adding mods for Renaissance. I really enjoy Command and Colors. That could be easy to fix. I'll keep everyone updated on my quest.

Unpainted Gendarmes waiting for rules worthy of them

Renaissance Thursday (Rules test #2)

I dug out my, until now much underused Italian Wars miniatures again. This fight we used Warmaster Ancients rules with the modifiers and lists described in "Renaissance Commander".

Gotta say, I think Warmaster gets a bad rap. With the right group, its fun to play. The Command and Control rules were better than the "line 'em up and let 'em go" rules of TACTICA. Having to roll to move your troops frustrated some (Scott), but I really liked them. You'll notice in the pictures not only did I have to repurpose my WotR commanders again, but I mounted everything on shadow bases. This is because Warmaster, like  a lot of games, requires common size frontage. I didn't feel like rebasing 500 minis for a playtest, so there ya go.

Some of the Renaissance mods change how Warmaster is played and make it more like Blitzkrieg Commander. For instance, there is no seperate Shooting phase. All fire must either be "Ordered" or done as part of the "Initiative" phase. 

Overall, it felt like right. I said that abot TACTICA, but more so here. It had more of a gradual wear down to the fight. You really had to grind at a unit to bring it down, with the occasional blow out. I didn't pull stands when they were eliminated, but this proved a problem later on when supporting stands became an issue. Skirmishers acted more like skirmishers and boy do early Spanish pike suck.

So far, it's beating TACTICA, but the next game will be Renaissance Principles of War. I ordered it last week, but it might take awhile to show up from the UK.

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.

Renaissance Light Horse

Here's Old Glory Mounted Crossbows and Arquebusiers. Decent sculpts but only two poses apiece, These will fit in nicely with Leo Tech.

My Di Vinci Tank

I built this baby out of foam core and a lot of push pins. It's not spot on with the original drawing, but I'll be doing more variants.

A command unit:

More Leo Tech

Handgunners advance, protected by a "Clanker"...

....While a sniper takes aim (notice the subdued "camo" colors).

Meanwhile, a war wagon rolls up.

The top figs are Old Glory from the Italian Wars range and the machine is classic GW.

The rest are all Games Workshop. I added extra horses than normally come with the war wagon. Two seemed insufficient to pull it.

Leonardo Tech

I polled the other Basement Generals about which (of my many) projects they'd like to see me finish first. The majority wanted me to finish what I call Leonardo Tech project. This basically combines steampunk with the Renaissance in a "what if" Leonardo Da Vinci had actually finished all those wonderful war machines. Most of the figures could of course be used as regular historical troops (although they're a bit to uniform, in a world that wasn't).
I'll be posting a few pictures along the way. here are the first, handgunners and halberdiers. I'm basing the squads on 10 man units, which is standard for G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., the rules I'm tweeking to fit this era.

Huguenot Foot

Yes, another period. I'm drowning in Renaissance miniatures, early Italian Wars to these fellas from the French Wars of Religion. This is a pike and shot unit of 24 with equal parts of both, from OGs Wars of Religion line.