Introduction

Let’s talk the GMT game Under the Lily Banners. You really have to raise an eyebrow or two when a counter based wargame series hits its third offering. To be sure there is always the advantage of learning one common set of rules, then using them to fight any number of battles. Many believe that’s what made Richard Berg’s Great Battles of the American Civil War so popular. Simply learn the rules for the battle of 1st Manassas, then purchase and play Antietam with a learning curve next to zilch. This seems fair enough.

But when that series is on as esoteric a period as the English Civil War (ECW) or Thirty Years War (TYW), what many refer to as “pike and shot” warfare, all of a sudden a feeling of something more begins to ooze and take form. I remember the first game on this era produced by GMT, the Great Battles of History game Lion of the North, Berg’s tribute to Sweden’s brilliant King Gustavus Adolphus. Yet while previous iterations of the Great Battles of History found their way into PC games by Iomagic, Lion of the North did not. A breakfast chat with some lads from Iomagic revealed their belief that the Thirty Years War was simply a period so unknown to the American public it was unlikely to sell. Given the relative paucity of boardgames covering pike and shot, their reasoning certainly made sense at the time. Indeed, there was never a second Great Battles of History title on the Thirty Years War forthcoming by GMT.

Yet here Ben Hull sits with Under the Lily Banners, his third game covering this fascinating but underappreciated slice of military history, right behind previous titles This Accursed Civil War and Sweden Fights On. Not only that, but a fourth game is in the works, that being a full conversion of the old Lion of the North game. Now that’s impressive! As an officer (Webflunky General they call me) of Britain’s Pike & Shot Society I was so excited to take a look the plume in my casquet wilted.

A Storie of Great Fyte

Under the Lily Banners is a tactical, battle-level game that covers the third phase of the Thirty Years War, that being France’s intervention into the conflict in 1635. Orchestrated by the conniving but brilliant Armand Jean du Plessis Cardinal et Duc de Richelieu of Three Musketeers fame (1585 -1642, deliciously portrayed on screen by Charlton Heston in all his scheming glory), the war quickly transformed from a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics to one of power politics designed to strengthen the monarchy and give France dominance over the continent. Thus it was that Catholic France sided with Protestant rulers to blunt and degrade the power of the rival Catholic Hapsburg dynasty. It was simple Realpolitik in its purest form, so carefully concocted and implemented that Bismarck himself likely wept in admiration centuries later.

Under the Lily Banners, however, also reminds us this was likewise an era of considerable French military success on the battlefield. Indeed, so regularly did the French military slice and dice its opponents that when Sun King Louis XIV entered the War of Spanish Succession in 1704, he did so based on a foundation of unbroken victory across nearly two generations. A great part of the reason for this success was due the leadership of two of history’s great captains – French Marshal Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne (1611–1675), Vicomte de Turenne and the equally proficient Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Conde (1621-1686). While their names remain virtually unknown outside France, their exploits were the stuff of legend as much as that of Bonaparte decades later. Consider that Conde as army commander both planned and led the decisive attack at Rocroi (19 May 1643), the great battle that broke the power of the Hapsburg’s Spanish army and their dreaded tercio formation. Consider still that he was aged but 22 years at the time and you’ll likely ask why you’ve not heard of the lad before.

Under the Lily Banners corrects that deficiency by offering the gamer the chance to replay five of Turenne and Conde’s greatest battles. The scale is one turn equals 20-30 minutes of time, while each hex represents 100 yards, each artillery unit three to eight guns and one horse or foot strength point weighing in at 80 – 100 men. Non-artillery units are squadrons, regiments or brigades.