Fornovo 1495

Fornovo 1495 is the first title in the new Order of Arms game system. Order of Arms dynamically portrays battles from the Medieval and Renaissance Periods, from Hastings in 1066 to Pavia in 1525, a period that featured the mounted armored knight. Players assume the role of the army commander of a major armed force of the period, attempting to fulfill varying victory conditions through the use of the arms of the period including men-at-arms, both mounted and dismounted, infantry including archers, and when available, early firearms.

Order of Arms is descended from and related to the 3rd edition of the grand tactical Napoleonic game Eagles of the Empire. Players familiar with that game will recognize many features of that system present here in Order of Arms. However (and this is a BIG however), there are significant differences between Eagles of the Empire and Order of Arms; most notably the scale at which Order of Arms portrays its combat, and the resulting procedures that emphasize unit to unit fighting. Moreover, where the queen of the battlefield in Napoleon's time was the linear Infantry formation, in Order of Arms, the dominant unit up until near the very end of the period covered, was the Mounted Men-at-Arms (MMA); the armored knight; the result of which is that the long playing piece in Order of Arms is the MMA unit.

Order of Arms titles will be published by Compass Games; Fornovo should be out by late 2012.