An Italian Wars Renaissance game pitting Imperialists again an Italian state. The rules used was Lion Rampant, which provides a good 'beer and pretzels' game, although we didn't have any beer or pretzels (whatever 'pretzels' are!). Either way, Lion Rampant always seems to provide a good fun encounter, with the initiative switching from side to side several times in a game.
In this interesting scenario, the Douglases and Hamiltons fought the length and breadth of Cowgate in Edinburgh for control of the city, the castle and influence over the 'long minority' of the infant King, James V. A horrifying feature of the battle was the presence of local townspeople, armed with flails, pitchforks and other assorted agricultural implements, to attack shaken units of the paid retinues, from the flank and rear. The Douglases prevailed, driving the Hamiltons back up Cowgate, to carry the day.
The rules used were Lion Rampant, which work quite well, although we are noticing certain quirks with the rules - shooting being too powerful, lack of incentive to attack for quite a number of unit types etc.
The forces were drawn up for a traditional pitched battle in this game, using the Pikeman’s Lament rule set. In reality, pitched battles were not really a feature in this series of wars, save the final, climatic engagement - The Battle of Kinsale in 1601.
In our battle, The English eventually ground their way to a narrow victory. Both sides deployed Kern, which were pretty useless on the more open battlefield. The gentlemen volunteers from the Pale were probably the best performing unit, seeing off two units of Bonnachts. Also the English pike held their ground to the end to enable the English player to claim victory….well, just about.
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| Nine Years War Wargame |
