We were delighted at Alternative Armies to be involved with supporting a new book on the Italian Wars (1494-1559), which would involve the Furioso wargame rules by Steve Danes and the 15mm scale large range of miniatures we make for the period. The author, Rodolpho Verginella, gifted us a review copy of the book as printed by Amazon, and this is our look at the book and how it links into Furioso on the table.
You can find War Game Scenarios: The Italian Wars on Amazon.
You can find Furioso and Furioso: The Italian Wars in print and digital on our website.
The book itself is a well-produced, 98-page, perfect-bound, full-color title. It contains an introduction, how to read game scales, orders of battle, rulesets to use, links, and bibliography, which are all well presented. The meat of the book are the 20 full scenarios of historical battles, beginning with Seminara 1495 through Ravenna 1512 up to Scannagalio in 1554. Each scenario is either small or large, based on history, and features information on who and what happened and their forces, as well as map and guide to armies for three different rule systems. These are Impetus, Pike and Shotte, and Furioso. For Furioso, you are told units and their sizes, plus special notes. This gets you to the table, and then the game rules take over.
This title is an impressive piece of historical research by a fluent Italian speaker, and is very easy to follow. It has garnered excellent feedback from wargamers on those groups which deal with the Italian Wars. Many of these members are customers of ours and players of Furioso. Our own copy is now dog-eared from use and will be referred to again and again. It is well worth purchasing if you play this period, as specialized resources such as this can be thin on the ground. There are some spelling errors, and a slight reorganization of sections (attaching captain's value to scenarios) would be helpful, but these are very minor detractors.
Our 16th Century Renaissance range in 15mm scale features in Rodolpho's book, and while you can play Furioso in any scale from 28mm to 6mm, it is our chosen scale to use. Over 150 poses as singles, plus horses, buildings, ruins, encampments, tents, walls and historical characters such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Cesare Borgia. We also have packs of bases for Furioso, and army packs which come with free bases and all you need to field a sizable force. One of the largest selections of 15mm Landsknechts on foot, mounted and artillery anywhere to be found.