Charles the Bold on the table

Wargaming Charles the Bold, 1474–77

Three years. Three lost battles. Grandson, Murten, Nancy. Charles the Bold tried to join his Netherlands to Burgundy through Lorraine and the Rhine, and the Swiss broke him.

That stretch from 1474 to 1477 is a good war to game. One side likes an arranged fight: guns behind works, infantry dressed on the gun line, gendarmes held for the moment. The other side comes on in deep pike blocks, tightens up, and hits before you are ready. The interesting part is not “Swiss always win.” It is whether the Burgundian line is dressed, whether the guns have an arc, and whether the keil arrives in one piece.
Two pages on the site are for that table.
The first is a rules-agnostic guide. Why the war started. How a Burgundian ordonnance actually sorted itself on the field — men-at-arms, coustilliers, pike, longbow, crossbow, handgun — instead of standing as one mixed lance on one base. How a Swiss banner on the road becomes three wards in the fight. Where the guns sat. Who stood where. Typical deployments. Which published systems will carry 1474–77 without being rebuilt from scratch, and which need a house rule so a keil stays one deep body and a gun line is not a toy.
https://www.manxgamingsolutions.com/wargaming-the-burgundian-swiss-1474----77-wars.html
The second page is a scenario generator. You press the button. It gives both sides commands, detachments, men, horses, guns and wagons, a short brief each, and a tendency for how they might arrive — a guide, not an order. You still deploy. You can print Burgundy, print Swiss, print an umpire sheet, or download the lot. Year presets lock the campaign season. Winter cuts the field. It will not play the game for you.
https://www.manxgamingsolutions.com/burgundian-wars-scenario-generator.html
Read the guide first if you have not put this war on the table before. Use the generator when you want a game tonight and you are tired of refighting the same three named battles in the same way.
Take either page to the club. The figures you already own for late medieval will do. The rules you already use will do, with a little honesty about blocks, guns and arrival.
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Posted by Keith | Manx Gaming Solutions

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