Scourge of Princes Introductory Scenario

It's been almost a year since I updated this blog, a couple of new sets of rules have given me sufficient enthusiasm to start it again!

First up is 'Scourge of Princes' the new Renaissance rules from Sam Mustafa. I've always found Sam's rules to be interesting and innovative so was keen to give them a try with the introductory scenario 'Encounter at Trovieto' between the French and Imperialists in the Italian wars.  

The initial set up with the French at the top of the table facing the Imperialists below. The French need to achieve victory in eight turns to win:

The French open the battle, deciding where to place the commander is important (he only has a 4 inch command range) and what you can do depends on 'momentum'. Here the French general has rolled poorly (one die per unit, everything but a one gives you a momentum point) achieving only 5 momentum. He uses this to advance his Swiss, French infantry and Gendarmes:

The Imperialists are more active with 7 momentum. They decide to charge their Landsknechts into the French infantry (2 momentum to charge), advance several units and open an ineffective fire upon the French: 

The combat should favour the Imperialists, they are better quality and a bigger unit. Both units are fresh so need 3's to hit and the Landsknechts do three hits on the French to one in return. It takes a while to grind units down so the French don't break immediately: 

Turn two and the French have 6 momentum this turn:

They immediately decide to attack with the Swiss, the Imperialist artillery is well placed to shoot the Swiss down so it is time to charge! Despite having more dice in the combat the Swiss are repulsed:

Next the French commander orders his Gendarmes to ride down the Imperialist foot. This costs three momentum as they are charging out of command distance:

The German foot resist valiantly but still take more losses:

The end of the French turn. Already some units of the French are largely out of the battle so far with no momentum available to move them:

The Imperialists have 5 momentum for their turn:

They start by ordering the second Landsknecht unit to attack the Swiss: 

Before the charge though the Imperial artillery fires and gets a disruption on the Swiss. The combat ends badly though for the Imperialists and they are forced back. Both sides are becoming more disrupted now:

Next the second Landsknecht block charges the French infantry they attacked in the last move. This time the French infantry are 'worn' though from the previous combat:

The Landsknecht's again win the combat:

The French are now exhausted and one more hit will break them:

On the right the Imperialist foot fire on the Gendarmes causing a 'harassment' marker and a hit:

The French have 6 momentum and decide it is time to commit their Gendarmes:

They attack the Imperialist infantry again. As the Imperialists have no pikes they are not so effective against mounted troops. Again the Gendarmes win the combat but fail to get double hits to break the infantry:

The second unit of Gendarmes then charges the Imperialist Horse. It's an evens fight in which the Imperialists come out slightly ahead. The French are struggling so far:

A few ineffective shots from the French end their turn:

The Imperialist general continues his good work with 6 momentum and places himself right in the action:

First he orders the Landsknecht's to charge the exhausted French infantry. The French break, the first unit to do so in the game:

The Imperialist Horse then attack the Gendarmes they fought last time, this round they come off slightly worse:

The end of the turn. There is a big gap where the Landsknecht's have broken through. Several French units are still out of the battle effectively:

A mighty 7 momentum for the French, they need to make it count:

Again the French decide to concentrate on their Gendarmes, charging the German infantry again:

This time the Germans break. However, the Gendarmes are now exhausted and facing some Imperialist Hussars:

Next the French infantry that have been lurking on the left charge the Imperialist Hussars facing them. The combat is inconclusive though and both sides just jeer at each other:

The overall position. Both sides have lost a unit but gaps are starting to appear in the French lines and several units are badly damaged:

The Imperialist General only has 3 momentum this turn so will be limited in what he can do. He decides to concentrate on his mounted units:

He starts by ordering the German Horse to charge the Gendarmes. The attack is overwhelming and breaks the Gendarmes:

With only one momentum left there is little else he can do other than a little shooting:

The French are deep in trouble, gaps in their lines and being slowly overwhelmed. The General rouses himself and manages a very respectable full 6 momentum:

It's time for desperate measures! The Swiss charge before they are blown away by the Imperialist artillery. They win the fight but not by enough to break the Landsknecht's:

Next the exhausted Gendarmes attack the Imperial Hussars. This is a really desperate move as, if they don't win, they will be destroyed and the battle will be lost. It is probably a better option than sitting still to be shot though so off they go! In the event their larger number of dice compensates for them needing higher scores to hit and the Imperialists are dispersed (basically they flee from the field but can come back later):

Again the Imperialist General only manages 3 momentum out of 5 possible. There is much to do: 

He orders his artillery to open up on the Swiss again. It is very effective with two hits. The Swiss are on the brink of breaking:

Next the Landsknecht's attempt to drive off the French cavalry facing them but fail and merely make insulting noises at them:

The end of the turn, almost all over for the French:

The French commander refuses to give up without a fight though and again achieves maximum momentum:

He orders a final charge from the Swiss which inflicts more damage on the Landsknecht's but does not break them:

Apart from some skirmish fire and trying to keep the exhausted Gendarmes out of combat there isn't much else to do so it's over to the Imperialists. Keen to reach a decision the Imperial general has 5 momentum:

With both the Swiss and the Landsknecht's facing them being exhausted the most effective thing to do is fire the artillery at the Swiss! One more hit breaks the Swiss and with them the French army (you lose when you have lost more 'key units' than you have on table, The French had three, two Gendarme's and the Swiss while the Imperialists had two, the Landsknecht's):

So overall good fun and a great introduction to the rules.

Positive thoughts:

• Easy to pick up, having watched the videos on Sam's website the game went quickly.
• As ever with the momentum system, what you use it for is vital as is where you place the general.
• Shooting isn't that effective but then this is a very early period game where there are only skirmishers firing. Artillery is effective (and I think I forgot to fire the French artillery a few times!).

Things to consider (not necessarily negative!):

• It's quite easy for units to be abandoned as all the action concentrates in one place though changing the deployment might have helped with that for the French. I think if you played larger battles this would be an even bigger problem.
• As far as I can tell the only way to win is by destroying 'key units', the rest don't matter at all (other than giving you more MO for more units and losing that MO when they are defeated). I can imagine it might be possible to come up with some 'dodgy' army compositions if you were devious but then Sam's rules tend to assume you won't be!
• Shooting might be more effective when you get to use troops who can volley fire.
• Small units are quite vulnerable and will mostly be cavalry. They will only be useful for a couple of charges.

I know a few people who are keen to try the rules so hopefully I'll get a few more games in. Will be interesting to see how they work with 28mm armies when I get my 28mm ECW/TYW armies out which are based ideally for these rules.