SPECIAL RULES

“The Art of war is now such that men be fain to learn it anew at every two years end”Antoinne de Granville, 1559.

During the Renaissance, a vast body of military literature emerged. Much of this was produced by a group of armchair generals, these attempted to instruct the captain in the correct manner of mustering his troops and of what formations of pike, swordsman, halbadiers and missile troops to adopt. Some of these systems were more theoretical than anything, but many armies achieved a close coordination of troop types that should be represented on the table-top, which is where the following rules come in.

Unit Sizes (The Ben Rule)

The Maximum size for any unit is 60 models this includes any detachments. No unit may exceed that size.

Formations

To simulate the close co-ordination of troop types, players have the option of combining troops and attaching a skirmisher screen to units of pike. Where players attach a skirmisher screen to a pike unit it must be deployed at the same time as the pike unit. The other option is Rear Support and this is described more fully, below.

Skirmisher Screens

Where the list allows it, a unit of skirmishers may be designated as a skirmisher screen. A skirmisher screen is a detachment and hence subject to the rules for detachments. It is deployed no further than 2” in front of a parent unit. The skirmishers do not count as blocking the parent unit’s line of sight and this allows the parent unit to charge through the screen. When the parent unit charges, the skirmishers remain where they are and are assumed to have moved, they may not shoot or make any further movement that turn.

If charged, the skirmishers are subject to the following rules, which take precedence over the skirmisher rules in Armies of Chivalry:

1) Skirmishers in a skirmish screen must flee, or, fire and flee, if charged.

2) If they flee and roll 2” or less they are assumed to have been dispersed and are removed as casualties, otherwise, the skirmishers are assumed to have taken shelter in the pike block, and are placed directly behind the pike block for the sake of convenience. As the figures are assumed to be inside the pike block, they may not be shot at or charged by enemy troops. Skirmishers, who take shelter in this way, will automatically rally at the start of their next turn, unless the parent unit is fleeing, in which case they must flee as well.

3) If the charging unit has sufficient movement to do so, they may redirect the charge at the parent unit.

4) At the start of its next movement turn, if the pike square, has not declared a charge, is fleeing or engaged in combat, the skirmishers may “leave” the pike square. Simply measure their move form the front of the Pike Square.

Rear Support

The Rear Support is a mechanism intended to reflect the practise of having halbadiers or swordsman within a pike formation and whose purpose was is to protect the flanks of a unit or to surge forward when two pike formations collided.

This is a rather tricky thing to represent, and so players need to suspend their disbelief and bear in mind what is being represented. A Rear Support is represented by allowing a player the option of combining pike armed models with models equipped with either halbards or sword and buckler. In this formation the sword or halbard equipped models are formed up in the last two ranks. The pikemen will still count as a medieval pike phalanx as long as they have a rank bonus of at least +1 and 16 models.

Where the lists permit it, a unit may take a Rear support. A Rear Support is subject to the following rules:

1. A unit with a rear support, that has not been charged in the flank, may, if it wins combat, choose to use the models in the Rear Support to lap the enemy unit with. The lapping occurs using the normal rules for lapping contained in the main rulebook, with the exception that the unit does not need to have expanded to meet the enemy’s frontage.

Dopplesoldner

By the start of the sixteenth century, the Swiss and the Landsknecht pike columns, combined a number of men equipped with double-handed swords, polearms, heavy maces and in the case of the Swiss; the Lucerne hammer; a weapon similar to a halberd but with a hammer instead of a blade. These troops were designed to rush forth from the pike formation as a shock troop. In the case of the landsknect Dopplesoldners, it was reckoned that the sword blade could cleave through the enemy pike shafts , clearing a path for the pikemen to advance. To represent these formations, Swiss and Landsknects may be deployed in a combined formation with dopplesoldner making up the front rank. In this situation, the formation with still constitutes a medieval pike phalanx, assuming of course, that the other Landsnechts are equipped with pikes. The Dopplesoldner is equipped with a two-handed weapon and will strike last, the pike will fight using the normal rules for pike phalanxes in AoC. Dopplesoldner may not be fielded as part of a detachment.

If a formation has Dopplesoldner, the leader, standard and musician are placed in the front rank. If the Dopplesoldner are killed, it is assumed that a pikemen will rescue the standard and so the standard is transferred to the pike. In a likewise manner, treat the musician and the leader.

Infantry Squares

Pike equipped infantry were trained to form into a square, when their flanks were threatened. A medieval pike phalanx, may at the start of its turn, declare that it is choosing to form into a square. The unit remains stationary and may not move. While it is in

square, the phalanx counts as having no flanks or rear and may fight with two ranks to the front, flanks and rear if it is charged. To come out of square, the unit must effect a reform.

However, by forming in depth, the phalanx becomes a larger target for missile fire, it counts as a large target for the purposes of shooting (+1) to hit, if hit by cannon, the phalanx will take 2 hits in addition to those the cannonball inflicts. A unit must remain stationary to receive the bonuses of being in a square.

Mounted Arquebus

In 1490, the Italians began to raise regiments to light cavalry equipped with the arquebus. The difficulty in using the arquebus from a horse has led some to speculate that the mounted arquebus were mounted infantry, who functioned as dragoons.

If you take mounted arquebusiers, you may elect to treat them as mounted infantry as per the rules in Armies of Chivalry, instead of as cavalry.

Field Fortifications

Certain units may select field fortifications to represent entrenchments, ditches, sunken roads and any other fixed defensive obstacle designed to disrupt the cohesion of an enemy.

Where taken, field fortifications should be represented on the tabletop using a suitable piece of scenery, which covers the front of the unit, the terrain piece may be up to 2” wide. The fortifications will cover the front of the unit, and give certain benefits against attacks to the front. These are:

1. Fortifications have the effect of negating all bonuses mounted troops would otherwise receive and the rules for medieval phalanxes. Mounted troops suffer a –1 to hit modifier.

2. Field fortifications are designed to disrupt movement any unit moving through a field fortification must surrender half its movement. Open Order Infantry are unaffected by field fortifications.

The field fortifications are lost if the unit moves

Cantonal Loyalty

“Moreover the number of Swiss in the French army was greater than those within Novara, and they declined fighting against one another.I have seen this happen many times in France, and occasion much mischief”The Chevalier Bayard.

The Swiss were known for their marked reluctance to fight another. To reflect this, if a player wishes to charge a Swiss unit at another Swiss unit, or a combat in which a Swiss unit is engaged, the Swiss unit must take a leadership and fail it. This represents the breakdown of the bonds of loyalty.

Bitter Rivalry

Certain units were known to have exhibited a protracted and bitter rivalry against one another. To reflect this, the following rules are used where a unit is subject to bitter rivalry of another:

1. If the enemy is within the units charge distance at the start of their movement phase, the unit must declare a charge. The controlling player may attempt to restrain the unit by taking a leadership test, if this is passed, the unit is not compelled to charge.

2. All break tests are taken on the units unmodified leadership value.

3. If the enemy breaks from hand to hand combat, the unit MUST pursue.

“The infantry of France is but indifferent. Besides, they are composed altogether of peasants and pitiful mechanics, who, having been long used to live in the most servile and abject subjection to the Noblesse, at last become dispirited and always behave like cowards and poltroons when they come to action”Machiavelli