Game of the Week July 15 - 21

A new week brings us a new title in our Game of the Week promotion. This round we stay in Europe but go back in time about 400 years with Renaissance from the Musket & Pike series. This title is on sale for 25% off now through Sunday, July 21st. 

Before getting into the details of todays title, I want to make a comment on the scope of this series, as it often comes up. Musket & Pike is designed to cover topics ranging from the advent of gunpowder up to the beginning of the 19th century - and everything in between. The content could have pikes, muskets or both! Each title will have specific features that are geared towards the time period being covered, but the underlying engine is very versatile with many options offered up in both the OOB and PDT files. This series also supports two different scales with the same engine - 100 meter hexes with 15 minute turns and 40 meter hexes with 5 minute turns.

Renaissance covers a fascinating century of warfare, from the close of the Medieval era to the eve of the Thirty Years War. The period starts with the French invasion of Italy in 1494 and the armies are still largely Medieval in weaponry and organization.

While firearms and artillery are present on the battlefield they have yet to secure a dominant tactical role. However, by the close of the sixteenth century, traditional missile weapons such as the longbow and crossbow had been supplanted by arquebuses, muskets and pistols, while the proportion of firearms to pike had greatly increased since 1500.

The pike, once the primary infantry weapon for many armies - and often a decisive battle-winner in the hands of professional Swiss and Landsknecht mercenaries - was, by the close of the period, retained primarily as a protection against cavalry, a role it continued to perform for another century until the invention of the bayonet made it redundant.

With Renaissance, you can refight the Italian Wars between France and Spain as well as the various Anglo-Scottish battles of the 16th century, or lead Ottoman armies against Persians, Mamelukes and Western Christendom. Experience the pike & shot warfare of the French Wars of Religion and the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule. These conflicts involve a wide range of different troop types and weaponry, providing a diverse and rewarding gaming experience. 

You can read the full 24 page Design Notes document here, including historical background on the various conflicts covered, weapon modeling details, tactical guide and more.

Additionally there is an Operations document listing all of the scenarios, their sizes and descriptions of each. ~90% of the stand alone scenarios for this title have scripting done for the AI opponent. 

And while this game was originally released way back in 2008, it has not been neglected at all. To give you an idea of what has changed over the years you can see this 12 page Changelog, with the vast majority of the changes taking place since WDS took over. And there's more work under way for future enhancements as well.

This title features 43 unique engagements in 121 stand alone scenarios with the following battles included, among others:

• Seminara
• Fornovo
• Ravenna
• Flodden
• Mohacs
• Ancrum
• Moncontour
• Ivry
• Pavia
• Boulogne

Additionally, 5 different campaigns are included yielding an additional 115 scenarios. 

This game, like all of the pre-twentieth century games offers 3 different 2D views and two different 3D views to enjoy the game. 

In addition to the main game module and the campaign function the game also includes  a Scenario Editor, Campaign Editor and Sub Map Editor. The Scenario Editor manual also gives file format details on OOB and PDT files so they can be edited or created using a plain text editor.

Renaissance provides multiple play options including play against the computer AI, Play by E-mail (PBEM), LAN & Internet "live" play as well as two player hot seat.

Moving on to books, we'll start with an interesting title covering one of the leading dynasties of the time. This book gives you background leading up to, during and after the Renaissance period, as the Habsburgs were central to European political & religious developments for hundreds of years.

You'll note that many of the entries in the Bibliography are in French or Italian. All works linked here will be in English.