Playing With The Whole Toy Box

Hi all,

 

Well, having managed to finally get over 2200 28mm Italian Wars figures out onto my shelves over the last week, I had to think about how to go about gaming with them.

 

 

Now, whilst I can leave a game set up for as long as I wish, my friends are all over the place (the inconsiderate swine) so we have to cram as much into a day of play as possible. 

You need a system which is fast, bloody, and which still gets a period feel. The problem is that most 'large scale' rules,  are simply not capable of handling thousands of models. 

I recalled how the old Wargames Holiday Centre rules for Marlburian games did a nice job in this regard, I set about mulling over a similar approach.

If you want micromanagement then read no further, but, if you want to sling around a few thousand models in your scale of choice, in the company of friends or at a show, then these may just do the job. 

And so, without further ado, I present...

BANG! - Thou Art Slain!

FAST PLAY RULES FOR LARGE EARLY RENAISSANCE BATTLES

 You will need a load of traditional six-sided dice, and a tape measure in your chosen measurement system.

All units are made up of a number of bases representing historical formations.

Units have a single number allocated to them, representing training & morale. This number is represented by adding up the total bases in the unit. As bases are removed, the number is reduced accordingly.


TURN SEQUENCE

Active player moves
Active player shoots
Both sides fight melees
Move routed troops and rally previously routed troops if possible




MOVEMENT

Infantry 2D6
Cavalry 3D6
Artillery may not be moved once placed, with the exception of light artillery which may pivot by 45 degrees.

Light Infantry and Light Cavalry may re-roll the lowest die

Heavy infantry and heavy cavalry must re-roll the highest die

Linear obstacles take a full turn to cross. A unit must stop when it contacts a linear obstacle, and will take the next full movement face to cross and reform on the other side. Fordable rivers are treated as linear obstacles.

Woods may only be entered by light infantry and cavalry and movement is 1D less with no re-rolls.

Pike blocks may ‘drift’ left or right by up by 2 per move phase. They are large and cumbersome, being essentially ‘point and fire’ units/

Non-pike armed units may wheel up to 45 degrees before moving.

Light infantry cavalry may wheel up to 90 degrees at any point during their move



SHOOTING

Bow armed troops may move and fire , crossbows and firearms may not fire if they have moved this turn.

The active player may fire with any missile troops by rolling a number of D6 equal to the rating of the unit,modified as follows:

Long range -2D
Target in light cover -1D
Target in hard cover -2D
Target is 3 or more bases deep +1D
Firer moved -1D
Light artillery 3D per model
Medium artillery 4D per model
Heavy Artillery 6D per model
Firers using crossbows +1D

Pavise armed troops count as in light cover in the open  and as heavy armoured for the purposes of hit allocation.

A hit is scored for every result of 5 or 6, unless the target is heavily armoured in which case only rolls of 6 are counted.

Every hit removes a base from the target Unit

Any unit armed with gunpowder weapons, including artillery which fails to score any hits is deemed to be out of powder and ammunition, and may no longer fire.

Any artillery piece which rolls all ‘1s’ has had a major mishap and is removed from play

Ranges

Light artillery: S 0-12    L 13-24
Medium artillery: S 0-18    L 17-36
Heavy artillery: S 0-24     L 25-48
Bows: S 0-18    L 17 - 36
Crossbows: S 0-16     L 17-32
Firearms: S 0-16     L 17-32



MELEE

Melee is initiated when a unit moves into base to base contact with an enemy unit. Both sides fight during the melee phase.

Roll a number D6 equal to the rating of the unit, modified as follows:

Attacker is pike armed +1D per full rank of pike after the first
Attacker is in close order +1D
Attacker is swordsmen Versus pike +2D
Attacker is swordsmen versus other pole arms -1D
Fighting over linear obstacle - 1D
Attacker is lance armed cavalry in first turn of combat +3D
Attacker has bill or similar +1D
Attacker is in skirmish formation -1D
Target is in skirmish formation -1D
Targets are carrying shields -1D
Target is in close order +1D


Pavise armed troops count as being behind a linear obstacle in the open  and as heavy armoured for the purposes of hit allocation.

A hit is scored for every result of 5 or 6, unless the target is heavily armoured in which case only rolls of 6 are counted.

Every hit removes a base from the target unit.

Swiss may re-roll any misses against all opponents once per melee round.

Landsknechts may re- roll any rolls of 1 or 2 unless fighting Swiss or other Landsknechts whereby all misses are re-rolled once per melee round.

Gendarmes may re-roll any rolls of 1 or 2 once per melee round.

Italian militia or native French infantry must re-roll any rolls of 5 once per melee round.

Artillery contacted in melee, is considered to have been overrun and abandoned and plays no further pat in the game. Simply turn the models around.



ROUTS & RALLIES

If a Unit suffers loses more bases than an opponent it routs. A routing unit moves directly away from it’s opponent re-rolling the lowest movement dice.

Swiss and Landsknechts do not rout as such. Instead they still retire the normal movement distance, removing one base per turn, but face their opponents, being able to fight back if contacted again. If they win a round of combat whilst retiring, they are considered to have rallied and may then advance as normal.

Gendarmes rout for one turn, re-rolling their lowest die. They then halt, remove a base of figures and may move as normal in the next active player phase.

Other unit types may only rally if a staff officer comes into base to base contact. In this case, the unit removes a base a base of figures and reforms. It is able to move as normal in the next active player phase.




Copyright: Mark Hides 2022