Volko’s replay of Levy & Campaign Volume III gets underway. All art shown is merely for playtest, not final. …

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We return to 1259 Tuscany—riven Guelph against Ghibelline. The first Levy of a scenario in Inferno, just as in earlier Levy & Campaign designs, grants each side a Capability card, representing military specialists or other capacities that happen already to have mustered in earlier weeks. (All later turns instead draw more ephemeral Events.)

The Guelph side, currently represented only by the communal army of Arezzo, draws the two cards shown at bottom here. The symbols at the left of each Arts of War card shows which Lords can use it. Fortunatelly for the Guelphs, both Guastatori (sappers) and Balestrieri (crossbowmen) match Arezzo. These specialists will be helpful in a Storm of the Rebel Cortona that could be a focus of this scenario.

This image also shows that Arezzo’s Podestà used his 2 Lordship to call upon Firenze (Florence) to Muster, which it did on a roll less than or equal to its Fidelity rating of 5, and to add Vassal forces, the four units of Bishop Donatello Tarlati (units slide aside to show the purple Vassal marker).

Fans of NEVSKY will note that INFERNO offers some new unit types. Cavalieri are slightly less capable Knights, distinguishing Italian knights from their tougher German counterparts, Ritter in the game. Armigeri represent reasonably well-off urban commoners, more potent than Militia and able to field the famous crossbow-and-shieldmen teams (palvesari).

The Ghibellines similarly draw two “This Lord” Capabilities that Siena can use and, in response to the Guelph Levy at Firenze, call upon their Capitaneus Muster. Provenzano Salvani’s mat enters play. Here, I have pushed aside the bits to show how the mat tells you what to add to it whenever this Lord Musters.

In addition, Siena would like to add to the number of its elite Balestrieri crossbowmen that it happened to draw by Mustering more Armigeri. That means mobilizing its urban comune populace, represented in Inferno by special Vassals called, in Siena’s case, Sestieri. Borders and an extra coat-of-arms symbol on the Vassal markers show this special status. (You can see Firenze’s special urban troops similarly awaiting muster in the image above, the purple markers at bottom center of Firenze’s mat.) An effect is that these more independent urban folk are a bit like lords in their own right rather than true vassals, so they require a die roll to Muster rather than showing up automatically.

In this case, both Sestieri roll well enough to respond to the call.

On the map, Firenze’s Commander has Mustered at the City Seat of Firenze itself. The Guelphs might have preferred to Muster closer to the action at Firenze’s Poggio Bonizio Seat, but that Town’s Rebel status prevents that.

Provenzano meanwhile Musters at Siena, where Siena’s Commander (shown by a ring on the Siena cylinder) will be able to take him along on any March.

On the Calendar, Firenze and Provenzano each add their Service limit marker, the number of boxes ahead of the current turn equal to their Service rating.

There is no Call to Arms Levy step in this introductory scenario, to the turn marker flips to “Campaign”. Time for each side to form its Campaign Plan!

To be continued.

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Previous Article in This Series:

Cavallata per Cortona – INFERNO Scenario Replay, Part 1

Later Articles in This Series: 

Cavallata per Cortona – INFERNO Scenario Replay, Part 3

Cavallata per Cortona – INFERNO Scenario Replay, Part 4

Cavallata per Cortona – INFERNO Scenario Replay, Part 5

Cavallata per Cortona – INFERNO Scenario Replay, Part 6