I mentioned recently that in the 1980s we enjoyed playing Renaissance games with a set published by Dodo. I am glad to report that they are available as a free download from Wargame Developments, at the following link.
http://www.wargamedevelopments.org/game_downloads/Pands.pdf The author was John Armatys.. These were billed at the time as a Big Battles rules set, being much less detailed than the then-prevalent fashion for complicated calculations and record keeping. In many respects they would fit in well with today's rules The movement, shooting and combat systems are simple and easily remembered. The morale system is especially elegant: units accrue counters that slow down movement, impair fighting ability and make reaction tests harder to pass. Stationary unengaged units can remove counters, while each morale class can only take so many counters before being broken. It is important to try to take stressed units out of the line as they can be ground down pretty quickly in the presence of the enemy. The one thing I miss in these rules is a command system: generals are only really used to rally units. I imagine today's tastes would prefer to see more limitations on a player's freedom to move his units. But I'm sure this could be remedied with a 'patch' from another rules set. I would recommend these rules to more than just fans of Old School wargames. They give a fun game that is actually quite close to today's streamlined style. We will be using them for our next Renaissance game.
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Browsing the stands at The Warfare show in Reading a couple of years ago, I chanced upon Lancashire Games' resculpted Renaissance ranges. The quality and the prices were just right, so I left with a sack of Commonwealth and Muscovite figures.
I have uploaded pdfs onto the scenarios page, consisting of a quick reference sheet and Eastern Renaissance unit statistics for Warlord Games’ Pike and Shotte. The QRS includes a few house rules, for example for war waggons, as well as adjusted distances to fit figures mounted on 40mm bases. The unit stats include troop types not included in the rules but present in the 1660 campaign, built using the guidelines in the rule book. We have tested and adjusted the stats over several games.
I have struggled for years to settle on a rules set for Renaissance gaming. I'm not sure I'm alone: it does seem to be a Cinderella period. I never took to WRG's original rules or DBR, although I rebased my figures to fit DBR conventions. We did have some fun games in the late 80s with Dodo Publications' ECW rules, which used simpler mechanisms than WRG and had quite a lot in common with some of today's rules. After a few years ignoring the period, I came back to it in the 2000s. I enjoyed reading Field of Glory Renaissance and was impressed by its army lists, but I just haven't got around to playing them. I may be missing a gem. Other rules bought but not played include Bacchus's Polemos ECW rules, as well as Captain General and Husaria, both by the Pike and Shot Society. They were all fun to read but Warlord Games' Pike and Shotte is the first set for many years that I actually played. I'm very glad I did as I really enjoyed it. We had to devise additional unit profiles to allow us to field Muscovite and Cossack armies and we toned down the factors for Polish Hussars (they were good but not superhuman) but otherwise the rules play very well. We also played a game using Honour Games' Maurice, which was certainly fun and I expect we'll play it again as one or two regulars don't like the command rules in Pike and Shotte. But for my money, Pike and Shotte is currently the best set for this theatre and period.
It may seem contrary not to have picked up the Wargamer's With Fire and Sword, which I know is highly regarded and was written specifically for the 17th Century. I have bought a lot of their figures but the rules seem a bit too skirmish-focussed for me. The books are lovely and I will probably buy them some day but I always seem to have other things to spend my gaming money on. I was looking at a new set called Tercios at a Warfare in Reading last week. I nearly bought it but picked up Bolt Action instead. Then this week I read a very positive review of Tercios in Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy. Typical! Maybe next Show... I have been adding to the background information on the website about the Russo-Polish 13-year war, specifically the campaign in Ukraine of 1660. The only English language account I have found of this campaign is on Wikipedia, which seems to be a summary version of the Polish original. It is a fascinating campaign with lots of potential for gaming, so I decided to describe it in a bit more detail in English. The campaign produced, in order, a meeting of vanguards; a set-piece field battle (or nearly); a fighting retreat across a river crossing; a siege; several break-out attempts; an assault on a fortified hill; and the surrender into captivity of a whole army. With three field armies and limited geographical objectives, it makes for a manageable but interesting wargames campaign.
I hosted four games last year to refight the main engagements of the campaign,, using Warlord Games' Pike & Shotte rules and my 15mm figure collection. We expanded the P & S army lists to reflect all of the troop types involved but otherwise the rules worked very well. I plan to put the scenarios on the website, in a form that I hope can be adapted to different rules. But as this campaign and indeed this war is so little covered in the English language, I will include more of the background and explain how I put the material together, starting with sources. I will then describe the orders of battle and how these break down into wargame units. (Be warned now that while Polish Hussars do appear on the table, they are a very small part of the army by this stage in the century. Paint up your Pancerni and Tatar horsemen: you'll need lots of both). |
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