Maximilian!

[Cover]

Maximilian! Fast Play Rules and Army Lists for the High Renaissance (1450-1550).

by D.C. Johnson, Gladiator games, £5, 1995

Reviewed by David Heading

This is a nice little set of rules for a specific period, basically that from the Wars of the Roses in England, through the Burgundian wars and Italian Wars. They owe a heavy debt, in my opinion, to DBA although the rule mechanics are different as are the army sizes. What Mr Johnson has done, I think, is taken a good command idea, and specialised it to a specific area and time. it works quite nicely.

So what do you have? The troop definitions proceed pretty well as you'd expect, Genadarmes, cavalry, light cavalry, infantry of various sorts and artillery. Some troops are rated better as verterans, elite raw or mercenaries - the latter giving lower 'retreat values' to an army if they are in the majority. Aside from that, there are not the troop class complications of DBR or DBM. Armies are given in the lists as 24 elements except for the French and Holy Roman Empire, who are permitted to be larger. There is not reason why the armies could not be expanded if you want a bigger game, so far as I can see.

The game proceeds pretty well as you'd expect for a 'command points' based system - rolling 1D6 for each command and moving that number of groups of bases. It is interesting that movement is much more restrictive than in the DB* system, with groups being defined as having an unbroken frontage and single elements only being permitted to wheel or incline. Combat, recoil, routing and following up follow pretty well the pattern you would expect. It is worth noting that flank attacks are totally devastating in this rule set - the flankee cannot turn to defend and gets no support. I lost a Swiss pike block to the Burgundians in my play test due to this.

The army lists seem to do a reasonable job. Instead of a points system (hooray!) you get a simple choice of upper limits of different troop types for each army, of which you have to select your 24 elements. Some notes and comments on the different armies are included, but not many. When are we going to get a rule set which actually explains how the army lists are arrived at, and what sources were used?

Be that as it may, Maximilian! is a fine example of how to take a good idea like DBA and refine it down to a specific period to get lots of flavour. Recommended.

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