Stripped Down for Parts: Arquebus: Men of Iron Volume IV

 

 

A couple of months ago (to the delight of many), the fourth volume of the Men of Iron series, Arquebus: The Battles for Northern Italy, 1495-1544 (GMT Games, 2017), was put up for a proposed reprint on GMT Games’ P500 list. For those new to this, new games and some reprint go on a pre-order list, where Regular Joes can commit to buying a copy or two of the proposed game at a reduced price (around 30% off, so nothing to sneeze at), when the game is released. Once the pre-orders reach the 500 mark, the game will be moved to the Made the Cut, and it will be given a place in the production queue. After a time – subject to a number of variables but usually somewhere between eighteen months and several years – the product is printed and shipped to GMT’s warehouse (and only then are the Regular Joes asked to part with their hard-earned cash).

Arquebus has been out of print for a number of years, before the release of the Men of Iron Tri-Pack (2020), a re-release of the first three games in the series. With the announcement of a fifth volume in the series, Norman Conquests: Conflicts of the Normans and their successors in the 9th-11th centuries (GMT Games, 2023), it had to only be a matter of time before Arquebus got its own reprint.

A year-and-a-half ago I managed to pick up the last copy of Arquebus hiding on a back shelf of my FLGS (next state over, along with 1960: Making of the President (GMT Games, 2007) and combined free shipping – how could I say no?). I already had the MoI Tri-Pack and had pre-ordered Norman Conquests, the fifth volume in the series as well (unfortunately the budget wouldn’t stretch to cover it when it arrived from the printer, so I had to cancel my preorder; maybe one for the Summer Sale). 

When it arrived, I ripped off the shrink, admired the components, read throguh the rules and glanced at the scenarios, then placed it on the shelf it shares with other games I haven't gto to the table yet. The Arquebus product page tells us that the new printing will be straight reprint; no re-jigging except for fixing any known errata. So, as a community service, I’d like to present my unboxing of Arquebus: Men of Iron, Volume IV, so you can get an idea of what you can look forward to, when the Second Printing is, well, in print.

The box art is in keeping with style of the earlier games in the series, with a cover illustration capturing a snapshot of martial action at the foot of a bridge, a mass of straining bodies of men and horses, sweeping swords, raised maces, broken lances and everywhere the dying and the dead. It’s an intimate scene of desperate, harrowing massed combat. The Credits for the game list Rodger B. MacGowan as the Art Director for Arquebus, and also attributes him with the Package Art and Design. Mr MacGowan is particularly well known in wargaming circles for his use of period photography in the graphic work on game covers (like Paths of Glory (GMT Games, 1999), and one of my personal favourites, the Avalon Hill edition of The Russian Campaign (Avalon Hill, 1976), recently reprised in GMT's Fifth Edition release (GMT Games, 2023). It's a fact sometimes overlooked that Mr MacGowan is also an accomplished artist who contributed this original, evocative work for the cover of Arquebus.

The box-back informs us that Arquebus is a game that can be played in one to five hours by one to two players, that it's roughly four out of nine on the complexity scale and scores seven out of nine for solitaire-play suitability (I'm inclined to agree on both counts; the MoI game-system introduces some novel mechanics, but it's by no means difficult to grasp, and while there are no inherent solitaire rules, the system is well suited to two-handed solo play). Here we also learn that the units represent roughly 500-1,000 soldiers or 150-200 Men at Arms, and four to six field pieces. The map scale is 125 metres (about 135 yards) to a hex. 

The previous entries into the series consider battles that are somewhat geographically localised and represent a period of evolution in warfighting, such as the preeminence of cavalry and the armoured knight in the early Crusades (Infidel) or the reemergence of infantry and the growing understanding of the potential of combined arms tactics in the early fourteenth century (Men of Iron). Arquebus focuses on the Italian Wars of the Late fifteenth to early sixteenth centuries. Firearms began to appear to the field of battle, supporting bristling blocks of Swiss Pike alongside more traditional crossbowmen, but by the middle of the 1500s, guns had been steadily replacing the bow in mass combat. At the same time, the Swiss pike formations had been overhauled by the German Landsknects as the mercenary band of choice. Taken together, the battles represented offer an interesting historical snapshot of the evolving battlefield.

Arquebus Rule Book and Battle Book (scenarios and Example of Play).

Any game in the Men of Iron series is quite playable. The rulebook runs to just twenty pages; eighteen actually, when you discount the cover page (which incorporates the Table of Contents), and the back cover, which includes a pretty thorough index (by section rather than page number), the production credits, and a short bibliography for folks like me who like to read more about the history they’re playing (this could probably be said of most historical wargamers).

The rulebook and Battle book are both printed on glossy, reasonably heavy-weight paper stock (though this may change with the new printing, given the reprint games in the Tri-Pack have all shifted to matt paper of slightly lighter gauge, which I actually prefer for readability). Both are set out in the two-column format in common with most GMT publications. The layout is sensible, the writing clear, and the examples and illustrations elucidating. Scattered throughout the rules are little box-text design and play notes that further clarify how something works or why it works that way in the first place.

The Rules have probably benefited from being in their fourth release. While these are series rules, each iteration is tailored to the historical situation being portrayed in that game-set. In Arquebus, only the units appearing across the scenarios are included, and these are used in the illustrated examples of play throughout the rulebook.

Rule Book (sample page).

Anyone who has played another Men of Iron game will be able to pick up a copy of Arquebus and run with it. Seventeen and a half pages of the rules will be familiar to the practiced player; a mere column is given over to the three Special Rules unique to the situation and era, including Gun Wagons (fortified carriages, like placeable pillboxes) and the Swiss mercenaries’ reluctance to fight if they haven’t been paid.

I also wanted to point out, the rules are permeated with the wit and irreverence that designer Richard Berg brought to all of his games. Everyone who knew or had dealings with Mr Berg has a story or several about the man who arguably has had a broader and more far-reaching impact on wargaming than anyone. The rest of us feel like we’ve got to know him a little through the glimpses of his personality and humour expressed in his rules.

Battle Book (sample page: Ravenna scenario).

The Battle Book will also be familiar to anyone with experience with the Men of Iron series. This runs to forty pages, with the first two pages given over the cover/Table of Contents, and a prefacing historical note and a couple of paragraphs onset-up and selecting units. Then it’s into the battles. Each scenario gets a column or two of historical context, clear instructions on the initial set-up of the counters (with a reproduction of the game-map indicating the positions or placement area of the various “battles”*). The Battle book also offers a detailed, five-page example of play, followed by one-page example of combat. The back cover has a very helpful Extended Sequence of Play. I’d recommend photocopying this and laminating a couple of copies to have to hand. I’d wager you’ll find the answer to around 80% of at-table queries on this page alone.

A note on game balance

Before we go any further into Arquebus, please note that the scenarios on offer here will play out to their historical conclusions a lot of the time. Historically, battles were rarely even matches, and any tactician worth his salt would avoid a fight if he could unless he could press some advantage. Richard Berg created scenarios that reflected the historical reality of the situation (based on the best information available to him). In all of the scenarios in Arquebus except Pavia, Mr Berg spent time and column inches addressing the Game Balance in terms of the historical situation portrayed, and in Cerignola, Agnadello, and Marignano he presented some options for addressing the lack of balance in those battles. 

Three counter sheets

Arquebus boasts three counter sheets, covering the French, Spanish, and Venetian forces and the Swiss mercenaries. Like other Men of Iron titles, the counters and markers are a uniform ½”. As someone who needs to reach for his reading-glasses more often than I like to admit, I’m less of a fan of small counters in games, but with the sheer numbers of pieces on the board in some scenarios (and the sheer number of scenarios in the box) makes ½” counters a sensible choice, though I’m glad I finally invested in some 3mm Perspex sheets and a pair of tweezers.

Sample counters (underlit; the photo doesn't do justice to the colours of the counters).

Even for their diminutive size, the unit and leader pieces are still clearly readable on the board (let me just grab my reading glasses), and all the pertinent information is available in each. The thing that suffers most from the size of the counters is the artwork; each unit is illustrated with an individual figure – standing or mounted, as per its type and disposition – and the little illustrations are quite remarkable in their detail, some of which is lost or obscured at that scale. For Twentieth-century conflicts I prefer NATO symbology, but the illustrated counters on Ancient and Medieval/Early Modern games add to the verisimilitude of the play experience, in ways I don’t think I’ve credited enough in the past.

Player Aid Cards, front and back (or, outside and inside).

The game comes with two duplicate Player Aid Cards. These are three-panel (tri-fold) PACs covering the necessary charts for resolving ranged and close combat and shock effects on units, including Swiss Shock Reluctance (as mentioned in the special rules). The nifty thing about the tri-panel PAC is that the centre panel is just a little wider than the two outer panels, so you can have it folded down to a roughly 11” by 8 ½” package with the melee (charge and shock) charts on one side and either the Weapons System Matrix or the Range Combat charts showing on the other. It took le a little while to cotton on to this, but I’ve come around to it.

The reverse (interior) of the PAC presents a suit of Terrain Effects Charts, six in all (for the battles of Agnadello, Ravenna, Marignano, Bicocca, Pavia and Ceresole; the Cerignola and Fornovo TECs are printed right on the map – efficient use of space all round).

Track card.

Arquebus also features an 11” by 8 ½” combined Flight Point Track and General Track. For the uninitiated, the Flight Point track is where each side tracks their accumulated Flight Points. This number grows with each unit or leader lost in battle. At the end of every free activation, each player rolls a die and adds the result to their current Flight Point quotient. If the total exceeds the Flight point threshold for that side and scenario (these thresholds are all helpfully pre-printed on the track, though I personally found the small, brown font on the beige background a little difficult to read), that player loses the game.

Battle of Pavia map (the largest scenario in the pack).

Anyone familiar with the Men of Iron series will feel right at home with these maps. The game comes with two double-sided map-sheets. The maps are relatively simple and clean looking. the battle-spaces are relatively free of terrain obstacles or cover (compared to, say, a WWII western front  game set at a company or battalion scale), but this reflects the orthodoxy and practical considerations of mass-warfare at the time. Well into the late Middle Ages, the choice locations for battle would offer broad, clear spaces uninterrupted by obstacles to allow flexibility of manoeuvre.

Battle maps for the battles of Agnadello (left) and Fornovo.

Only one of the battles of the battles – Pavia is played out on a full map. Three – Agnadello, Ceresole, and Marignano – are given full 17” by 22” half-maps; Ravenna and Fornovo play out on maps 22x25 hexes (a slightly reduced half-sheet), while Bicocca and Cerignola are won or lost on maps of 25x14 and 14x12 hexes respectively. (In his scenario notes, Mr Berg mentions that Cerignola is a perfect scenario with which to learn the MoI system, and good for solitaire play,)

Battle maps for the battles of Ceresol (left), Bicocca upper right), and Cerignola.

The way the maps are presented, it’s possible to leave the map-sheet closed at the centre fold for most of the smaller battles without having to back-fold the crease, saving room at the table (playing Ravenna or Marignano, you can still have half of the unused map tucked in under itself).

Good, readable dice and a roll of baggies (#simple_pleasures).

I was a little surprised that Arquebus didn’t come with a travel riser (the cardboard insert many games come with to prevent the materials inside the box for shifting and getting corner bruising during transit. I’ve noticed this is more common in games with mounted boards or lots of material generally (like the glut of maps, counter sheets, PACs and booklets in the MoI Tri-Pack box) It may be that this is less of an issue with paper map-games. My copy of Arquebus would have been five or six years old before I received it, and there’s no telling what kind of handling it may have received getting from Hanford, California to Melbourne, Victoria, but it was a little shy of pristine when I received it. I don’t think it’s an absolute necessity, but I wouldn’t like to speculate whether you’ll see an insert in the second printing copy or not.

What you will see is a couple of quite nice ten-sided dice and a little roll of baggies, enough to accommodate all the counters and markers from the game in some semblance of order. If you are counter-tray inclined, fear not: the two-inch box will comfortably hold two trays (probably three at a stretch if you’re one of these ungrateful heretics that keep all their dice separate from their original games), and still fit the booklets, maps and PACs.

So that's what you can expect to find in the Men of Iron, Volume IV: Arquebus reprint. I really hope his has piqued your interest. It warrants noting that the Men of Iron Tri-Pack us also being offered on GMT's P500 page for a second printing. This set contains all three earlier volumes of the Men of Iron series - Men of Iron (GMT Games, 2005), Infidel (GMT, 2011), and Blood & Roses (GMT, 2014), as well as the stand-alone Agincourt scenario that originally appeared in C3i magazine. At the pre-order price of US$59.00, the Tri-Pack is a real bargain. It's currently about half-way to making the cut, and could benefit some love.

I'll get to reviewing Arquebus closer to printing (as well as the MoI Tri-Pack). In the meantime, click on the title links; these will take you to each game's BGG page, where you'll be able to see some better component shots than I can currently offer. As always, if you've read this far, thanks for sticking around, and please feel free to comment with suggestions, accusations, or hints on lighting. 

* Battle in this sense is used to indicate all the forces under the command of and loyal to an individual leader. It’s an unusual word in that from its earliest recorded usage, it had multiple meanings, operating as both a noun and a verb, with the meaning implied by context in which it was used. From Middle-English, it could be used to describe a fortified tower, a contingent of troops under a leader (such as Offa’s battle), military exercises (training at arms), a contest of arms (the action of martial pursuit, at either the personal level, like a duel or single combat, or troop level, the activity of doing battle), or even to describe a fight between animals (such as cock- or dog-fighting).