Sorry, the picture is not much.
The Circus Maximus in the 15th Century - now mainly farmland and hovels. Later to be a market area.
For now, wront terrain, wrong figures - Perry miniatures are on the way! Need some appropriate terrain and a Cardinal.
Vikings and Saxons standing in for kights!
I like to tinker with rules to give the feeling that I want. This might not appeal to others.
Tinkering with Sellswords and Spellslingers I made some alterations to play a purely historical game set in 15th Century Italy.
I wanted armour to be effective for both characters and the non-player enemy. But I also wanted sudden death to be a risk for all characters and enemy leaders, not just the grunts. It is hard to balance armour with also achieving an outcome in battle in a reasonable amount of time. I figured taking hits on armour would cause fatigue at least. I have used a fatigue mechanism rather than hit points. The fatigue can be rallied but too much will cause a character to go Out of Action. Fatigue reduces combat effectiveness.
The warbands were based somewhat on the Christian Cameron books about Tom Swan.
On the player side:
Tom Swan and his friend Alessandro are the heroes.
Giannis a man-at-arms. Caesare, a notary but sometimes combatant – he was not in his usual full harness and only lightly armoured. Peter, Tom’s “servant” and archer from the Low Countries. Stephanos, a Greek archer.
The non-player enemy’s side
Cosimo di Lupo – a knight in the employ of the Orsini family. Francois d’Aramis, a French mercenary lead the enemy. Also in full harness are a couple of men-at-arms backed by a couple of thugs and three archers.
The scenario takes place near the old Circus Maximus, now an area of broken farmland and hovels. Cosimo has orders to track down and kill Cardinal Matteo Barolo.
The Orsini forces approach over a wide area keeping a wide net to run down and kill the Cardinal.
Tom starts well and reaches the Cardinal but the long move in armour leaves him fatigued. Toms friends have varying success with their activations and leaves them somewhat scattered. The Orsini fail to capitalise on this. Meanwhile, the Cardinal hitches up his robes and flees for sanctuary of a nearby church.
The Orsini finally manage to close in. They also receive reinforcements in four more thugs and another man-at-arms. Peter and Stephanos pepper the enemy with arrows with most shots glancing off armour, although Stephanos does manage to kill an archer. The enemy close in on Stephanos and he is cut down. Two armoured men begin to catch up to Cardinal Matteo. One is cut down by Alessandro.
Meanwhile Tom goes toe to toe with Cosimo while Francois also closes in – things are not looking good. Tom takes some hits but is largely protected by his armour. Francois charges Peter after his guard takes a wound from an arrow. Peter deftly drops his bow and draws his sword. Against the odds he hold off the vastly superior fighter.
Matteo is almost caught by a man-at-arms but is saved by Alessandro, his sword penetrating under the arm.
Tom finally finds his rhythm, first hitting Cosimo with his pommel then, gripping his sword with his left hand down the blade drives the point of his blade through the eye slit.
Morale collapses. The archers who were largely ineffective due to terrain run, as do the thugs. Francois decides he isn’t paid enough to hang around and tries to disengage. Peter’s free hack wounds Francois. The French knight’s guard bravely charges to protect his master. Tom easily despatches him and Peter hits Francois with an arrow to the chest, dropping him to the ground.
Although there were a few tense moments, the collapse in morale following the death of Cosimo settled matters.
Stephanos is found to have survived but has a serious wound which will see him out of action for some time. Cosimo is definitely dead – no ransom there. Francois is more stunned than wounded – what to do with him? Four other Orsini are dead, the reast sporting various wounds. Our heroes don’t have the heart to slay the wounded enemy and the fight has also attracted a crowd. They depart carrying Stephanos, escorting Matteo to more civilised parts of the city.
My rule alterations need some more fiddling and I forgot a couple of things, but they seemed to do what I wanted and captured some of the feeling of the books.
Welcome, Guest. Please 
April 24, 2024, 08:37:00 PM
October 20, 2012, 11:49:09 AM
