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Author Topic: Renaissance Period  (Read 3066 times)

bob48

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on: August 28, 2023, 06:13:16 AM
Historians seem to generally agree (?) that this is a period covering the 15th and 16th centuries, although it does seem that there is some dissension and some overlap. Whatever, its a period of almost constant warfare in Europe, including as it does, the so-called 'Italian Wars' and the continued obsession of French monarch to own bits of the Italian peninsular. This period also saw the Habsburgs dealing with strife amongst its many subject states and the continued threat from the Ottoman Turks. There was also a period of around 60 years during which the were fought what has become known as the French Wars of Religion.

Having done a fair bit of reading on this period recently, the obvious next step was to see what games are available. the obvious place (to me) was too look on the Second Chance Games website, since they keep more wargames than anyone else in the UK and also act as sole distributer for quite a few publishers. the site has quite a good system of filters, and one of them, fortunately, is for the 'Renaissance' period.

I ignored the DVG card games, since they are no interest to me at all, which leaves, after discounting games that should be in other period and pre-orders, about 30 games. Quite a few of those are magazine games and in many cases, quite old and are also of no real interest to me.

Several titles are well known such as 'Fornovo 1495' by Compass and WDG's 'Pavia 1525'. Of the rest, a couple stand out as being of particular interest, these being the 'With Infinite Regret' games by Vae Victis, of which there are 3, cunningly titled I, II and III. However, it would seem that only III is still in print.
Each of these cover (I think) 3 battles from the French Wars of religion, and the system is a derivative of GMT's popular 'Musket & Pike' series. As usual with Vae Victis, the map and counters are very well done, and are quite striking, especially the counter art.

From the same period of French Religious ware we have 2 games from Hexasim which use the same system, these being 'By Shot, Shock and Faith' (currently OOP), and 'Fate of Reiters', both games cover 5 battles from this period.

I have played the first game and its a very nice system. As usual with Hexasim, the artwork is excellent, the unit counters in particular being very evocative of the period. No real issues with the rules, or at least, no more than any other game, and the the designer does seem to be quite active on BGG, so queries do tend to ne answered.

Some of the games I've glossed over may, obviously, be quite good and there are possibly be others that I'm not aware of, since what I've seen is based purely on the games that SCG have in stock or on pre-order, so I'd be interested if anyone can point me to other contenders.

As ever, of course, we'd be happy to get any thoughts on games from this period that folk may have played.

“O Lord God, let me not be disgraced in my old days.”

'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'


JudgeDredd

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Reply #1 on: August 28, 2023, 07:37:51 AM
My stash, for what it is, has none of this era...a fact which I'm somewhat happy about...it's not an era I'm particularly interested in

neach-gleidhidh na h-Alba


besilarius

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Reply #2 on: August 28, 2023, 09:53:17 AM
Bawb, it's very old but SPI's A Mighty Fortress was a pretty good game.  It is not solitaire, but if you can play a multi faction game, that is primarily political, it might be up your lane.

"These things must be done delicately-- or you hurt the spell."  - The Wicked Witch of the West.
"We've got the torpedo damage temporarily shored up, the fires out and soon will have the ship back on an even keel. But I would suggest, sir, that if you have to take any more torpedoes, you take 'em on the starboard side."   Pops Healy, DCA USS Lexington.


bob48

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Reply #3 on: August 28, 2023, 10:05:50 AM
Yes indeed, I remember it.

“O Lord God, let me not be disgraced in my old days.”

'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'


Undercovergeek

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Reply #4 on: August 28, 2023, 10:08:17 AM
If I was going to play grown up board games this would be my era of choice



bob48

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Reply #5 on: August 28, 2023, 10:50:52 AM
 :bigthumb:

“O Lord God, let me not be disgraced in my old days.”

'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'