Peter Hess writes:

I was asked to evaluate the Renaissance Warfare rules on the REMPAS list. Here's what I wrote:

I've been assisting Jeff Ball & Terry Gore in playtesting Renaissance Warfare for the past several years, having done Convention demos of Pavia, 1525, Dreux,1562 and Cerignola, 1503 using them. At Historicon this past weekend, I played the final (or latest?) version of RenWarfare in a battle pitting the Poles vs. Swedes & Muscovites in 1657 using David Bonk's spectacular Old Glory figures. The rules are very attractive, spiral bound, and come with a handy cheat sheet and army lists for the major Renaissance/Pike & Shot era combatants.

I think that Jeff & Terry have worked very hard to refine the rules and have gotten them just about right. Instead of the DBR pip dice determining moves, one rolls for the # of orders each general may issue each turn, ranging from 1 to 3. One can be hamstrung an entire battle by rolling poorly when rating the generals but in our battle, each side had one exceptional leader (happened to be me), 2 average and 1 poor. I was consistently a step ahead of my Muscovite opposition because of the additional order I could give each turn--rally quicker, charge more frequently, react to events more efficiently, etc. In setting up a battle, the players can set the generals' relative merits in advance and avoid having a single series of die rolls so influence the outcome of the game.

Move distances are rather short, so don't expect to be able to march across the table quickly. Shooting ranges are also short--particularly for effective results--but this seems to be an accurate depiction of Renaissance firepower. The mechanics for shooting and close combat work smoothly, quickly and well. Morale is based upon a 10-sided die roll and factors but the die roll has far more influence on the outcome than do the factors, which I feel is a problem. This also happens in the popular American Civil War rules, "Fire & Fury". The severity of results are based upon how badly a unit fails its morale test.

I am impressed with the improvements that have been made in RenWarfare and the ease of play. It looks like a Renaissance battle in a way that the abstracted DBR does not. Now I'd like to see the US Pike & Shot Federation sponsor a tournament using these rules.