Four Player Fistful of Lead: Renaissance Skirmish. Landsknechts vs Spanish.

 

Our Playtest game of the Fistful of Lead Renaissance era armies went down well a few weeks ago, and that game was in preparation for the bigger, multiplayer session planned for today. 

Landsknechts (herby referred to as Germans) vs. the Spanish. The scenario rules were similar to our last game. 

We had four players, with some players unable to attend...this meant that we had six units to track.  

A little too much for my puny brain to track, but not beyond the bounds of possibility. Being a Fistful of Lead game, there was a lot of swash-buckling - and a lot of grinding & mashing of combat dice - to be had, and with so much going on...I was happy to say I only managed to lose track of one of my individual troops once during the game.

We had myself, C_, S_ and T. Four likely lads here to celebrate C_s birthday gaming bash.

When I arrived at C_s place, he had laid out his amazing and beautiful table, full of wonderful details, and all so expertly painted. 

Troops were laid out in preparation. 

I'm sure it's been said a million times before, but we as gamers should really acknowledge the effort that game hosts put on. A tonne of work & forethought goes into hosting a game, and considering it was C_'s birthday, I'm feeling a bit guilty that he did all of it.

It looked amazing and was such a pleasure to see and be a part of.

I only only brought along some snacks, tokens but was hoping to add to the event with all my dodgy tactical prowess. 

I won't go into super detail with the force composition of the two sides. Both were fairly evenly matched with a mix of fodder, specialists and 'tanks'. 

The Germans had a slight advantage in that they already held one of the two pieces of the promissory note.  This meant that the Spanish - myself & T - had to scour the town in search of the other half, while simultaneously attempting to wrest control of the other half of the note by smashing the Germans.

The Germans could stymie our search if they wished, or pepper us with fire & combat, wait for us to find the note, then go in for the kill...or with luck, they themselves could find the letter and scarper to victory.

It was going to be an uphill slog for the Spanish.

The bankers were waiting at the Eastern edge of the town to pay the German mercenaries for their services, but could only do so if the Germans had both notes.

The Western edge of the town. The German entrance.

The unsuspecting Villagers would be caught up in the tussle. Some of them died...

View of the main axis of advance to the bankers.

The Germans entered on the Western Edge.

As the Germans entered the town, I tried the find a good advantage for my Crossbowmen. The town didn't provide a good field of fire for my only ranged troops, so my reasoning was to flank and try to pepper the Germans and whittle them down before the inevitable confrontation over the note.

Meanwhile T's Spanish would enter from he Northern end of the crossroads into town. He had a lot of Germans scattered about blocking the entrances and positioned by C_ to good advantage. 

T_ moved his Halberdiers and Arquebusiers onto the Northern road and soon found himself entangled with Germans. His Spearmen sallied forth to engage some German Arquebusiers but were soon wiped out.

In the meantime, I had brought my band of swordsmen - some pikemen fodder and specialists - into the southern edge of the town and began to search for the letter.

My Swordsmen unit soon met with one of the designated characters in the game - but when the 'Lady' was apprehended she managed (with the joker event card in play) to slink away, and I lost a few turns tracking her down again for questioning.

In the end she didn't have it. Neither did the Old Major...positioned near T's troops to the North. T had made a good effort to get to the Major (pictured below, with his pet monkey), having slogged and fought his way through a few Germans. By this stage, C_ had moved his Germans into the Town's only pub, searched the drunkards...but still, no letter for anyone thus far.

At this stage of the game, my side of the table was being swamped by a deluge of German pikemen and swordsmen. My Crossbowmen had ineffectually shot of a few piddly bolts to no effect and were soon surrounded. There was a brief clash..but nothing to write home about.

My last Crossbowmen tried to burst way and get a shot off against S-'s Large Hookgun that had been prowling away at the rear of the carnage. All to no effect. He was soon dead anyway.

At D8 for ranged & close combat, it's fair to say, the Crossbowmen were pretty rubbish.

All I could hope for was that my other troops - my lowly rated swordsmen & pikemen and a few other specialist sword guys...could hold the attacking wave, find the letter, wait for T to arrive, and the possibly counter-attack with enough strength to take the other half of the letter.

That letter was tightly held by S's leader.

T_was having his own problems. His Spanish swordsmen and Halberdiers had entered the town, and were busy whittling away and being whittled away by C-s Germans on that flank. 

S- had also brought his main Hookgun up to main road, and with one shot...had wiped out three of T's troops. It was just carnage...

In return fire, T managed to wound one of the German gunners. A small consolation for losing three players in one shot.

By this stage, the game was pretty much a forgone conclusion. 

T's supporting troops weren't going to arrive in great numbers. I was going to have to try to take the letter with my depleted troops, and that was something on paper just couldn't be done unless there were a lot of strong attacking rolls, with poor defence and armour saves from the Germans.

I did have the second part of the letter (the 'mistress' character was hiding it), and didn't have much option but to stride out and attempt to take the other letter from S's leader. You know those moments in a game, when you kind of have to watch things play out exactly the way you know it's going to...and the only hope you've got is for some kind of dice rolling miracle or special event. 

The Spanish were having that moment. I was going to have to smash my troops up against the German rocks.

So the game on the southside of the town turned into a grind-house of close combat for a few turns. There wasn't really much for me to do but roll saves. 

Curiously my lowly rated swordsmen held out for turn after turn in the pigpen...pretty much the only notable thing I did in the entire game was to roll saves for three or four combat rounds...much to the brief frustration of S.

My heroes went in along with the pikemen to try to get the letter...but were faced by three armoured swordsmen with greatswords. 

My guys were all mopped up pretty quickly. I was never going to get to the letter, so getting a little bit tired of the grind, I moved my last hero - Alatriste - into the centre of the town to help T_ kill the bishop with a three to one attack.

I just wanted to do something cool rather than stand still and slowly get hacked into a paste!

This too ground out, as the encounter took a bunch of separate combat rolls. The Bishop was pretty strong but was satisfyingly dead by the end of it. He was a big, corrupt, lying, back-stabbing bastard.

A small consolation for the Spanish. 

Huzzah!

The Germans found my last remaining Pikeman clutching the letter and dispatched him easily, ending the game.

So that's that. A bit of a frustrating game for the Spaniards but you get that on the big jobs.

All in all, it was great to get together and have FFoL multiplayer game. The game rolled on at leisurely pace and lasted for roughly 3 & 1/2 hours. There were the highs and lows, the agonies and the ecstasy - all  a big part of Fistful of Lead.  

All of the Terrain and figures were painted by my mate & regular playing pal C.

If you look around this blog all of the exception work is C-s. It's amazing work!

So thank you again C and Happy Birthday!