Coming right off the heels of playing my first game of Blood and Roses I arranged to play fellow member of Team Crossboys Russ Wetli in a game of Arquebus that same day. I had a hurried skim of the rulebook to try and pull-out what elements were different from previous Men of Iron titles, which was thankfully a relatively painless process even without the volume specific rules highlights I was accustomed to from the Tri-Pack. There’s a lot to be said for playing games in a system. It makes it much easier to pick up the next game in the series since you already know about 80% of the rules, but on the other hand it also becomes increasingly easy to mess up that last 20% the more games you learn! This was Russ’s first experience playing Men of Iron and I wanted to be sure I got as much right as possible, and for the most part I think I succeeded. We picked the Battle of Cerignola to play because it was by far the shortest and simplest scenario in the box and neither of us was up for an epic multi-hour clash that evening. I also ensured that he had the full Men of Iron experience by having him play the side that lost the battle historically. Nobody ever promised that Men of Iron would be fair.
Opening deployment - the Imperial forces are behind both a ditch and a rampart. Special rules limit the ability of the French to attack over this barrier until they succeed in breaching it by crossing the barricade.
The battles in Arquebus are all drawn from the Italian Wars, a series of conflicts in mostly Northern Italy between various Kings of France and the Holy Roman Empire. This is a topic I knew nothing about just 4 years ago but I’ve recently become increasingly interested in. I have since learned a lot about the logistics of the period and how armies were formed but I’m honestly a little hazy on some of the specifics of the main battles. I have a few books on my shelf that should help with that but it’s been difficult to make time to read them when there are so many other books vying for my attention. This is something I’m hoping to rectify later this year, but I also feel like I say that about all sorts of topics!
One interesting aspect of the conflict and something I really felt while playing Cerignola was how it pulled from all over Europe. My army was composed of Spaniards and German Landsknechts and against me were French soldiers alongside Swiss Mercenaries – the latter of which were more than happy to abandon the cause if they found that they had not been paid in a timely manner, which was a great bit of chrome that conjured up the period and the nature of Swiss mercenaries in particular. In reality the use of mercenaries was widespread and payment often shortcoming, but the Swiss reputation for being expensive and willing to leave a fight if they were not adequately compensated stood above all others.
The initial French advance into Imperial arquebus fire, plush a push across the ditch at the bottom of the map. They succeed in vacating the corner at the top of the ditch, leaving open the potential for an initial breach of the line. (I also forgot to clear the movement lines, apologies in advance as it gets messy later)
Arquebus clearly shares a lot of its DNA with Blood and Roses but where that game was just introducing gunpowder Arquebus has fully embraced it. It also includes several new additions to the rules that were first introduced in Blood and Roses. The one I’m most interested in trying is the Army Activation where you can move your whole army as long as they are near your Overall Commander, but you can’t attack or even move too close to the enemy during that activation. A method for tactically repositioning your whole force seems like an excellent addition to the rules set, particularly given my previous complaints about how some Battles felt like they got left behind in a given scenario. Unfortunately, in the First Battle of St Albans the forces were so small there was no point in trying out this new rule while Cerignola was basically a knife fight in a phone booth so there was no time to be shifting lines around - we both had to attack as much as possible. However, I’m looking forward to trying it in a future, larger, battle. My fear with Army Activation is that while it could fix one of my problems with Men of Iron as a system it could also dramatically slow play, particularly in the larger scenarios. Given that I mostly play solitaire, though, this may be less of an issue!
The initial French attack is repulsed under fire from the arquebuses. However, efforts to seal the breaches at the top of the line doesn’t go as well as one would have hoped. Also the gunpowder supply detonates at the bottom of the line, Disordering four units.
When I said Cerignola was the shortest scenario available, but it was probably still about a 90 minute game. Most Men of Iron games only have one or at most two scenarios that are 3+ hours. In Arquebus only Cerignola seems to be shorter than that! I’m honestly pretty excited to try some of these epic battles and I think the role artillery and shorter range gunpowder play in the game has the potential to make them very exciting, but I would also probably warn off most people from starting with Arquebus unless they’re already seasoned hands at hex and counter. This game is definitely bigger and more complicated than the games in the Tri-Pack and I was glad I already had that familiarity from the previous games in the system. That said, this was Russ’s entry into the series so I don’t think it’s impossible to start here. Russ is really interested in the Italian Wars and the golden rule of wargaming still holds true: enthusiasm for the subject will carry you far and overcome most forms of complexity.
The French close to melee, crossing the barrier at the top which allows them to now attack over the ditch more easily. Unfortunately, one of the Swiss units hasn’t been paid and decides to pack up and go home.
The increased role of missile weapons was probably the most striking thing about playing Arquebus. This is the beginning of the Pike and Shot era of European warfare and many units have both the capacity to shoot and to engage in melee combat. This seemingly minor difference does a lot to change how the game plays. Being able to shoot and shock in one activation is very powerful. At the same time, the melee units with ranged capacity are pretty poor at shooting and only very effective at point blank range. You won’t be sniping enemy units from a distance with your pikemen. More traditional ranged troops are better at longer range but are very vulnerable in melee, to a much greater degree than in previous titles. One of Russ’s sword and buckler units attacking my dismounted crossbowmen had +7 to his roll! This creates an interesting dynamic around balancing how you use your vulnerable longer ranged troops with your more versatile close ranged melee units.
Aftermath of the French attack, both lines are full of holes and feeling the pressure of the battle. The French have suffered more casualties but the number of Retired Imperial forces is mounting.
There wasn’t very much artillery at Cerignola and they only entered the game very late in our play but I could see how they can radically change your experience of the game. Unlike in Blood and Roses artillery now comes in many different types and nearly all of them have very long ranges. At those long ranges they suffer significant penalties to their attacks so it is not like they will be routinely obliterating units from five hexes away but given the relatively short movement ranges available to most melee units in this game they could have multiple chances to disrupt or even kill opposing soldiers before being threatened in melee. Of course, they also run the risk of exploding and should enemy units manage to close the distance artillery is very susceptible to being eliminated in close quarters. They’re a very interesting addition to the system that doesn’t introduce too much in the ways of new rules or complexity.
The Imperial artillery comes forward and some infantry cross the line - pushing the French back. Casualties are mounting for both sides!
There is also a significant reduction in the variety of melee troop types in Arquebus, which makes sense as we are beginning to reach the point when firearms will dominate European warfare. You can see this very easily on the combat tables where there are far more rows of units that might be attacked in melee than there are columns of unit types that might be doing the attacking. These melee units are still central to the fighting, though, and this is made readily apparent in the flight points used in Arquebus. Losing a unit of pikemen in Arquebus is the same number of Flight Points as losing a king was in original Men of Iron. This really forces you to think about when you are going to push your attack and march into melee because things can turn against you very quickly if pikemen start getting isolated and killed. Arquebus also makes missile weapons far less effective beyond point blank range so you will still need to close at some point once your enemy is disrupted - if you can turn a flank or make a hole in their lines the melee troops can clean up pretty quickly. Soften your opponent up at range and then close for the kill!
The French counterattack comes - both sides are looking a bit bedraggled and by this stage we were both within 8 of our Flight Point, which meant it was feasible for both of us to lose the scenario at this stage. We both survived to fight another day.
Not that we did that in our game. Russ and I were content to smash our lines together and see what happens, which is probably the purest Men of Iron experience. This was only my second time playing Men of Iron against a human opponent (you can actually watch my first time on the Homo Ludens YouTube channel by clicking here). In a previous blog post I mentioned that I wasn’t sure if I would be interested in playing Men of Iron two player rather than solitaire but after my two games I have to revise that stance. There are definitely battles, especially in the original Men of Iron, that I don’t think I would enjoy playing multiplayer but overall, I really enjoyed playing against human opponents. Unexpectedly, it actually diminished my frustration with the dice. I think it’s because when I’m playing solitaire every bad roll is a bad roll for me as I’m both sides. In a two player game the bad results are distributed between two players and when my opponent rolls badly it’s like the best thing that’s ever happened to me. The solitaire experience is all bummers when bad results happen, but with two player it’s a mix of joy and sorrow, which I think I prefer. I also didn’t feel like there was too much downtime and both of the scenarios I played (Poitiers and Cerignola) felt like they had something to offer both players. Now, Russ may disagree since he had the losing side of Cerignola and may have felt like he had little hope of victory. Certainly if I were to play Cerignola again I would try some of the variants that make it a little more balanced.
I activated my standard to Rally my large number of Retired units and that ended up being the final straw - Russ rolled a 7 for his Flight check and that was exactly enough to put him over the line. The French fled the field but it was a hard fought battle!
I’m really looking forward to playing more Arquebus but after the Mad Month of Men of Iron I’ve just had I think I’m going to pack my counters back up for a little while and play some other things. I’ll definitely be cracking the box open sooner than I did last time (and I have the C3i with the Battle of Wakefield coming in the post…) but I also have other games that demand my attention! I’m also about to move house and should soon have access to a much larger gaming space, which will finally make the huge battles in Infidel and Arquebus feasible to play. I’m very excited for that!
I just want to give a short shout out to reader Hamilburg who gave a really generous donation to my Ko-Fi and commented on how much he liked my Men of Iron posts. This encouraged me to bite the bullet and actually buy a copy of Arquebus which lead to me writing this post you were reading now.* If you too would like to sway my game purchasing decisions buying me a coffee and telling me you like it when I write about X is super effective. If that sounds like something that would interest you, you can find my Ko-Fi at https://ko-fi.com/stuartellisgorman
*I know technically I played this game on Vassal, but the module doesn’t have the combat tables, so I did play use the physical rules I bought!