New Scenario--The Italian Wars

[Exile]

The Sforza Duke of Milan, attempting to secure his place in Italian power politics, persuaded Charles VIII, King of France, to march into Italy, onto Naples, and claim the angevin inheritance. Over the next 50 years, 3 French kings, Charles, Louis XII, and Francis I, would lead armies into Italy. In response, the regional powers of Italy, Venice, Milan, Florence, the Papacy, and Spanish Naples, would create a shifting balance of power through a series of short, violent wars. The French launched the campaign with history's first artillery train. During the next 5 decades, infantry would reclaim the battlefields of Europe. The Swiss mastered the pike phalanx and became the best mercenary troops of the period. The Spanish equipped their tercios with large contingents of arquebusiers, later reintroducing light cavalry and sword and buckler soldiers. The heathen Turks remained an ever-present threat in the east, and the berber pirates still harried the sea lanes. The early 16th century battlefields would boom and roar as had no others. Smoke from the cannons and guns would now obscure battlefields. The length of Italy would see blood and death, war and strife, and new means and new ways to make war.

The factions are;

Milan (called Italians in the scen)
Venice
Papacy
France
Spanish Naples
Florence (called Tuscans in the scen)
Hungarians

All I'm waiting for are a new set of Fairline unit graphix. It'll be available at the Spanish Civ2 site, as usual.

[Exile]

The Map

A screenie of the map.

[Exile]

Another screenie

[fairline]

Are you rolling the HRE into the Spanish Habsburg civ?

[Arthedain]

Mmm more scens. Sounds interesting, considering I don't know much about Italy during this timeline.

[Exile]

Yes, Gareth, more or less. The scen runs from 1494 to 1544, with turns being 3 month seasons. 200 turns is about enough, though I toyed with the idea of making it monthly turns, which would have changed it into a 600 turn game. It might be more "accurate" to have done so, but there were things that convinced me to go with the seasonal rather than monthly turns.

The first was tech. There aren't many in this one, though they ARE important. In a 600 turn scen, a tech tree has to be very long or the multiplier has to be very, very high to keep technology in the game. With a 200 turn scen, things can get lively, and I've included elements in the game that can make it so. The multiplier is very, very high, BUT there are lots of spies and tech trading, and the tree itself is very brief. In short, playability took precedence over "accuracy."

The second was geography. The exclusion of the HRE was an integral part of the scen. When I loaded the map and looked at it, inspiration struck, and it was because most of the rest of Europe was so neatly lopped off. Italy, in this map, was very much the center of any activity.

I'll offer this too; in a strange, probably unconcious way, this scenario is my attempt to create what I tried to create with Modern Age, but failed. This time, it'll be done right. The very interesting thing about this period and these wars is that they were the very first in which firearms became the predominant weapon system. These battles were a total mishmash in terms of troop types employed. Troops armed with swords and shields standing next to arquebusiers and cannons. No one knew how to use any of these weapons tactically. In fact, tactically, it was like the wild west, each commander ad hoc-ing his way through battles, shooting from the hip.

[fairline]

Originally posted by Arthedain
Mmm more scens. Sounds interesting, considering I don't know much about Italy during this timeline.

It's a fantastic period of history. On the one hand there was great rivalry between the Sforza family who ruled Milan and the Medici who ruled Florence. Throw into the mix a corrupt and militaristic Papacy and a handful of other warring Italian states and you have the recipe for a series of Wars between various Leagues of Italian States.

The bigger picture however was the clash between two Renaissance superpowers: the Habsburgs, who were Holy Roman Emperors and hereditary rulers of Austria and many Eastern European states, and later Spain from whom they inherited their part in the Italian Wars, and the Angevin and later Valois Kings of France. A modern parallel would perhaps be the post-War conflicts-by-proxy fought between the US and USSR.

[Cyrion]

Swiss mercenaries, at last!

You'd better make them über-units, Exile!

BTW, you seem to have been awfully busy designing of late...

That's great!

PS: my little home town might well be on your map...

[Harry Tuttle]

Woah, another one! Can't wait for this one either.

[Exile]

The splash page

again, voila'

[Von Bert]

And dont forget to put TURIN . TORINO on the map...
my town..
despite that time was not so powerful.. it was the beginning the rise of Savoia family..
Also SALUZZO (also piedmont region ), little now, was a powerful Marquis that time if im not wrong..
U can use them as barbarian ( sigh.. ) if they dont fit in well with other civs..

[fairline]

Phenix, I'm going to go with the Pavia 1525 look rather than Fornova 1495

Just a taster: Landsknecht, Spanish and Cyrion's Swiss pikemen, Landsknecht and Spanish arquebusier, Italian and Janissaries.

[Exile]

Excellent, as usual.

The kilt on the Janizzary is a nice touch. Few realize that kilts were a military fashion of this period. Even mounted, armored knights wore 'em.

So does this mean that you scots types are out of fashion?

By only about 400 years.

humorous smiley here

[curtsibling]

I'm wearing my kilt right now!
(actually, everyone in Scotland wears combats or jeans)

Anyhoo, I have people/icons/terrain material which Exile may find interesting for this epic, if he wishes it!

[fairline]

The more pertinent question to a Scot is what are you wearing under your kilt? Ahem. Best not ask that.

I must improve my drawing style BTW - the janissary has one robe with another over it. The Janissaries hitched the outer robe out of the way and tucked it into their belts, exposing the lower one. You're right about the early renaissance fashion for kilt-like skirts worn over armour though.

I'm away for the weekend btw P. Expect more next week.

@Curt: we'd all love to see the poeple, icons and terrain