Greetings fellow wargamers.
My gaming group is about to embark on a massive 28mm Italian Wars campaign, using FoG Renaissance. While preparing for this, we have felt the urge to run a fast-played skirmish campaign on the side, so as not to get bogged down running nothing but massive scale battles in 6-10h sessions. Ideally, a game should take 3h max.
It would be nice if such a system could add depth to the greater campaign, like skirmishing for positions in the run-up to the battle of Pavia or raids on the French baggage train by Italian light cavalry, but it could also be streetfighting by small groups of Condottieri or Conquistadors with swords, daggers and handguns.
I'm not thinking Mordheim (but the campaign tracking system is nice), and not SAGA (wrong period), but something along those lines...suitable rules to run warbands of 10-50 models, mostly infantry but with some cavalry and possibly light cannons. Maybe with some fantasy twists (I like Orcs) and rules for magic users, but that is a stretch. Suggestions?