Italians Wars - rules update/clarification

Following last weeks game with the Spanish army it made me think about how this should be used in the context of the campaign.

Not our scale but the guy who painted these (Olicinalad) was the chap Russ and I spoke with at Derby.  He uses enamels and no varnish and can paint a 150 of these 28mm figs a week!  He deservedly won best of show for his battle of Marignano.

The Spanish have the option of arriving on the battlefield with attack orders but still adopting hold orders for their army and allowing them to build defences for all their foot units as long as they lose a men at arms unit.  This reflects their army doctrine, the fact they have an engineer and because the army list says they can - it's their special trait.  It means that if the French or any other army has attack orders and moves into a territory with the Spanish they will start the game with all their commands on attack orders whilst the Spanish wait for them behind their defences.  You will then have to change orders and risk going in piece meal or just go for it - all very historical!

In addition, the Swiss do not like fannying about.  Any Swiss mercenaries will insist on attacking.

This could also be the situation with any other army you may command that is on hold orders and is faced by an enemy with attack orders.

At this point the attacker may have succeeded in placing all his commands on hold and is reluctant to either attack or retreat.  The attacker may use his artillery to pound away for the rest of the battle or send skirmishes forward to take an important piece of terrain, or some other stratagem that would lead him to think that a second day of battle may be worth fighting.  We are now in the area of grand tactics and I have to write up another level of rules

Italian light cavalry.  Reasonably well armed and armoured they were often the same type as courours, costiliers, archers, retainers etc, but were often employed for skirmishing on campaigns; not as noble as your gensdarmes , men at arms and condotieri.  The stradiots and jinetes were much more specific in their training and role.  Phil, I could really do with a version of the above Venetian flags for the Venetian CinC and army markers if you can help!

The side with the greater number of light cavalry units will impose attrition on the other army, which will roll a D4 for all units in the army.  In reality this simulates several days or weeks but gives us the results of two armies jostling for supplies in a restricted area.  It also means we have another realistic use for all those light cavalry options, and makes sense of the Spanish army doctrine.  If both armies have the same amount of light cavalry then both roll for attrition which may force one to retire, which may be very important if the holding army is conducting a siege.  The attrition roll may also reduce one sides light cavalry simulating that one side has gained the upper hand.  All this means that the battlefield may not always be the place where a result is gained, but any battle we fight will now have a context.