Does anyone else have the "Flos Duellatorum" (Flower of Battle) in game?

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Yes I know the work was actually created in 1409. While not the oldest surviving work of its kind (Royal Armouries Ms. I.33 "Walpurgis Manuscript" was created around 1300), it is the oldest surviving European work of its kind in which there is a single known author and multiple copies. While the time period does not match, we have used it as the basis for a work in our saga such that it appears about 100 years early (we are in the year 1321).

Our version was created using a modified version of the rules for Florilegia (Covenants, p. 90) and is also treated as Pictorial Works (Covenants, p. 91) if used for research. We gave the author, Fiore dei Liberi, Com +1 and Good Teacher.

The work contains 9 sections, covering the AM abilities Brawl, Single Weapon, Great Weapon, and Riding. Here they are broken down by appropriate Ability

  • Brawl: Wrestling, Dagger Play
  • Single Weapon: Sword in One Hand
  • Great Weapon: Spear & Staff, Sword in Two Hands, Sword in Armour (since it is mostly half swording), Poleaxe
  • Riding: Mounted Combat (focused on using all the other techniques from horseback)
  • Mixed: Sword vs Dagger (mostly Brawl, though some Single Weapon and Great Weapon)

Depending on which copy of the text you are looking at, he is described as having 40+ or 50+ years of experience. Thus we calculated he could have several of the Abilities at 8+ without Affinities/Puissant and even higher with them. While he could most likely have some Affinities/Puissant, we went with the cap of 9 at character creation. From the focus of the sections, we determined his highest/primary was Great Weapon (9), though he would have a good score (6) in the other areas and Teaching.

Our version of the work contains 8 tractatus, broken down with names and ability as above. We classified the Sword vs Dagger section as well as the varies smaller mentions (The Baton, Staff & Dagger, Pairs of Clubs, Spear against Horseback) as the writing which makes it a Florilegia and thus not individually study-able.

While a Florilegia normally only covers one ability or Art, since the work is effectively his combined combat system we allowed the bonus to be applied to all of the individual parts.

The final work has a Quality 11 and contains 2x Brawl, 1x Single Weapon, 4x Great Weapon, and 1x Riding tractatus. It contains the maximum amount of sections on Great Weapon he could combine, along with supporting works on the rest of his combat system. It is also a Pictorial Work in each of those abilities.

BP cost is rather high at 128 points with full illustrations and 88 without. Copying the work takes two years without the full illustrations and six years with the full illustrations. The full illustrations really only add to the works usefulness for research

5 Likes
2

Lovely job. I studied swordplay (and some nasty close-in unarmed techniques) from Fiore dei Liberi's manuscripts, and would argue that the illustrations are very important. Even if the perspective used in those times looks odd to us, it's still critical to understanding footwork and guards.

3

Even the version without "Full Illustrations" is illustrated. The problem arises that under the rules, a Pictorial Work takes a year to make (per skill, though we discounted Riding) while providing no benefit outside of research. If your group is not using the Research Rules, then it provides no benefit at all.

So we look at it as the degree of artistic effort employed. What I call "Full Illustrations" are the ones with layers of fancy metal leaf, a focus on beautiful details, and overall making the text a work of art. Without them the work still has all the illustrations required to be used but they are more utilitarian.

Part of the problem is that there are no rules for copying a Pictorial Work. If it is a Tractus then does a copy receive the benefit with only a season of work?

EDIT: We did not discount Riding, we discounted the additional books past the first.

4

I'd argue the work should count as summa rather than tractatus.
You can study it and train based on it for quite a long time before learning everything there is to learn from the text, but you will not become a master swordsman just from reading it - many important details are simply not in the text, since it (like most early fighting manuals) was meant to be used in addition to studying with a teacher, not instead of.

5

Sure you could use summa for it and that is something we considered. It would have to be four summa since it covers four abilities. While you could include all of them into a single Codex (Covenants, p.86 "Several books may also share a single codex, bound together like the many books of the Bible."), they would not gain the benefit of being a Florilegia.

I would argue that summa are more useful for abilities in which you do not have access to a teacher. However if you want them to be Summa than the Great Weapon would be Q4 L10 and the other three would be Q3 L10. The BP cost and copy times would increase.