Condottieri Game

At Essex Warriors today, we decided to have another go at Frank Chadwick's rules for Renaissance mercenary warfare; Condottieri 

My Landsknecht army went on the offensive and the heavy cavalry placed in the centre  charged straight for the enemy centre

as mounted crossbowmen gained the rise over on our right

Two guns were positioned left of centre and another body of knights advanced to the small hill on the left

Here's the view from Steve Clarke's side at this point - notice 3 units of Landsknecht pike advancing in the centre with the Commander.  Steve has two units of knights on his right as his main mobile strike force.

Rafael took charge of the Landsknecht cavalry and guns on our left.

The Condottieri urges on his pikemen

Here's a gunners eye view of the Landsknecht cavalry attack in the centre

and Steve's crossbowmen are waiting to take on the mounted crossbowmen approaching them

Another shot of the centre attack

Rafael gets his cavalry in first - pretty impetuous considering there are two enemy units of cavalry over there !

The pike blocks approach the enemy crossbow on the hill, after the knights have hit the halberdiers in the centre.

My crossbowmen are faced with two units of pike and the enemy artillery !

My mounted crossbowmen decide to charge the enemy crossbows on my right

Melee continues in the centre

Strength of numbers begin to tell on my mounted crossbowmen as some are dazed or panic.

Meanwhile, Rafael's cavalry are performing rather well, considering

The Landsknecht pikes now hit the crossbowmen on the hill

After a gritty melee, my crossbowmen supported by the remnants of the mounted crossbows manage to defeat and rout the enemy militia pikemen which had been sent against us.

Here's a clash of professional pike units in the centre. This ground itself to a standstill.

Meantime, my pikes in the centre have defeated the enemy crossbowmen to take the centre ground.

But Rafael's cavalry have finally broken from contact having been beaten by the enemy knights who are in hot pursuit

The two victorious Landsknecht pike units reposition themselves for fear of a cavalry attack on their flank

On my right, my knights have rallied after defeating the enemy halberdiers and charge the guns supported by the mounted crossbowmen, who seemed to have careered about the right of the battlefield getting involved in everything !

The gunners are slaughtered and now Steve's crossbow unit on his left are isolated and in danger

At this point, the Landsknechts were declared the winners, despite the cavalry defeat on our left, the enemy had lost too many units and the sensible thing would be for the enemy cavalry to retreat and save themselves for another day.

Verdict ?  Still not convinced about this set of rules.  There are some good ideas in there but to our minds they are not perfect by any means - next, we are going to try "To The Strongest" Ancient/Medieval rules for this period next Friday to compare.