Novara 1513

Last Saturday evening we played a scenario I set-up for the battle of Novara (1513) fought between a French army under the general Louis II de la Trémoille (who was present at Fornovo(!) and Agnadello(!!), and later killed at Pavia in 1525) and an army of Swiss mercenaries under the Duke of Milan Maximilian Sforza (based again on a scenario presented in Peter Sides' Renaissance Battles 1494-1700 Vol. 1).  The historical context is that in December of 1512, the French were successfully dislodged from Milan, and Swiss mercenaries installed Sforza as Duke thereof.  The following spring the French returned to re-take Milan.  The Swiss executed a forced march overnight and surprised the French encamped at Trecate, a village 2 miles east from the town of Novara, 31 miles west of Milan. The Swiss pikes scattered the French stradiot light cavalry and disorganized Gascon and Navarre crossbow troops, and handily defeated the landsknecht pikes.  Trémoille's gendarmes spent the battle fruitlessly pursuing Swiss skirmishers.  I recall reading somewhere that a contemporary called it the "perfect Swiss victory."

The set-up is therefore the village of Trecate in the center with several French gendarme units within.  The French left consists of stradiots.  To the French center, to the right of the village, are two units of crossbowmen.  The French line is then divided by woods.  On the far right are landsknecht pikes and medium guns. Opposite the landsknechts and crossbows are the largest concentration of Swiss pikes, halberds, and light guns.  Opposite the village are several units of Swiss skirmishers, and opposite the stradiots are two units of Milanese mounted men at arms and a single block of Swiss pike.

(Above: starting positions - French on left, Swiss on right)

(Above: Landsknechts in French service)

(Above: The main Swiss pike block on the Milanese left)

(Above: Milanese men-at-arms)

This was the first game using a lot of additional new rules and unit profiles sent to me by Stuart at Army Royal.  Stuart's very informative research (as well as his friend Oli's research as Camisado) were very helpful when I was painting my armies earlier this year. I am happy to say their research has produced some excellent rule modifications that I felt really captured the feel of Italian Wars battles.  Of particular interest to me was the simple change of having all infantry move 8" instead of mostly moving 6".  This change has the effect of bringing the foot into melee range much faster than before, especially the pikes which had a tendency in my previous games to lag behind and not really be involved in the game at all.  The real big change, however, was the unit profile for Swiss pikes!

(Above: Swiss pikemen advance towards French gendarmes)

 (Above: French gendarmes sortie against the Swiss center)

 Stuart and Oli have added a simple 'Ferocious Charge' rule to Swiss pikemen and halberdiers which allows them to re-roll missed attack rolls when they are the attacking or counter-charging unit (the counter-charge applies only to the halberds).  This led to Pete dubbing the Swiss pikes "murder blocks".  What's great about this rule is it imbues the Swiss units with the highly aggressive attitude which I have read about, tried to re-create, but never seen on a tabletop.  As the player, it was clearly to my advantage to get the Swiss infantry up and into melee as quickly as possible, even if not in close order!

 (Above: the main body of the Swiss close in on the landsknechts)

Conversely, the French, in order to counter the Swiss offensive punch, played historically accurate as well, leaning heavy on their artillery and heavy cavalry (gendarmes) as a counter to the Swiss superiority in infantry.  Pete stayed in line and hammered away with his cannon, arquebuses, and crossbows, and stradiot light cavalry, whittling the Swiss down casualty by casualty.  In a key phase, several Swiss pike units where at last in striking range of the French infantry, but I then managed to fail the command throw for all of the relevant officers, and the closing charges simply did not happen.  Pete's officers then made their activations and laid out another dose of close-range fire (the modified rules have a bonus to black-powder weapons at 6" or less), and the Swiss either took heavy casualties or fell back in confusion.

(Above: the situation after the Swiss advance stalled - casualty markers everywhere) 

In just one turn the game turned from the striking of a mighty punch by the Swiss to a line of heavily damaged units teetering on the edge of defeat!

So, alas, no "perfect Swiss victory" this time.

Agnadello 1509

Last Saturday evening we played a scenario I set-up for the battle of Agnadello (1509) fought between a French army under king Louis XII and a Venetian one under Niccolo di Pitigliano (based on a scenario presented in Peter Sides' Renaissance Battles 1494-1700 Vol. 1).  The historical context was that the Venetians had positioned themselves defensively on a hill.  Louis XII was unwilling to attack them so began advancing towards the unguarded town of Rivolta, and the Venetians left their hill in pursuit.  The French then turned to face the Venetians and the battle ensued.  The set-up is therefore that the French right and Venetian left are facing each other, but the French left and Venetian right are still in marching formations parallel to each other and not deployed in anyway.  This game was set-up for four to six players but it ended up just being me and Pete (no objections here, I like being greedy sometimes and playing with as many of my little soldiers at once as possible!).  Each side didn't really have a "center", so basically each flank had three officers commanding some assortment of units. 

(Above: French left)

The French left consisted of four units of elite pike plus two light guns, and a lone gendarme unit. 

(Above: Venetian right)

Opposite them were three units landsknecht pike, three arquebusier units (bidowers), and three Italian mounted men-at-arms units. 

(Above: French right)

The French right consisted of two more gendarme units, two mounted French "Archer" cavalry units, six (!) arquebusier units (again, bidowers), and two medium guns.  The Venetians opposite them were two landsknecht pike units, two "militia" units (raw pike), two medium guns, and a single unit of mounted men at arms. The Venetians also had two units of stradiots roughly between their two flanks. 

(Above: starting positions, French at bottom, Venetians at top)

With the exception of the far right flank, the entire Venetian army was on one side of a dry riverbed (rough ground).  My plan at the beginning of the game was for the stradiots come down off the hill, cross the river bed, and beginning harassing either French flank from the center.  Meanwhile, the heavy cavalry on the right flank would also try to move to the center and then attack the French right.  The French right would be kept busy by the two Landsknecht pike units aggressively advancing forward.  The landsknecht on the left would do their best to keep the Swiss occupied.

(Above: game underway!)

Of course, what actually happened is the heavy cavalry just sat dead still for three turns or so.  Likewise the stradiots were very slow to move. We were using several rules adjustments from a recent issue of Wargames Illustrated ("Renaissance Rampant"), namely more incremental range options on artillery (which had a nice effect) and increased movement rates for pikes (8" instead of 6", which I also liked).   The increased movement rates meant that the Swiss and landsknecht pikes on one side quickly came to striking distance and there was some very aggressive combat on that flank.  On the Venetian left, the two two Landsknecht pike units (Victor's pike!) did indeed push forward aggressively into a field of arquebusier fire, and although both were broken before reaching any enemy units, they did ALMOST close the gap.

(Above: landsknechts on Venetian left begin their advance across dry riverbed with artillery support)

(Above: French archer cavalry crossing dry riverbed)

Meanwhile, French gendarmes made quick work of my Stradiots, and the next thing I knew the game was almost over!  Instead of tracking points lost, for this game I just totaled the number of units and said we would stop the game when one side reached 50% casualties and then evaluate the board.  The French were able to knock my medium guns and that pushed them over the finish line.  Looking over the board, only a lone Italian men at arms unit was on the French half of the field, and the Italian left was non-existant with several French units in that quarter of the board – so the field clearly belonged to the French!

(Above: things turning into a right hot mess! In center left of photo, Stradiots have finally crossed  the riverbed but are confronted by French Gendarmes. Pike blocks approach and clash with each other beyond)

(Above: action in the center)

(Above: looking down the line from the French left)




(Above: I thought I had the French Gendarmes dead to rights what with a point-blank cannon shot but I bungled the dice roll!)

(Above: Louis XII)

(Above: the last Venetian men at arms unit)

(Above: landsknecht pike (repeatedly) attacking Swiss pike)

There followed some post-game discussion.  It was agreed that the bidowers-as-arquebusiers stat block is a little unbalancing, simply because they are able to potentially Evade (and usually do) any attacked and get a shot off in the other players turn, which makes them very difficult to chase down by superior melee units such as pikes and even heavy cavalry.  The "Renaissance Rampant" article suggests an arquebusier profile very similar to bidowers but with the Evade rule removed (they can still Skirmish), which seems like a nice minor tweak to make.  The other tweak would be that artillery not count towards the 50% casualties, since they are too much the low-lying fruit in that instance.  I really like the artillery rules, which made artillery potentially powerful, but not guaranteed as such. 

Overall it was a game which was just a wonderful mess of melees that was fun to play as well as to witness.

Reinforcements!

A few weeks ago fellow Portland war gamer and all around great person Victor (of Operation Wargaming) emailed me to ask for my mailing address, as he had "something to send me."  My best guess as what he was sending me was some unpainted ECW or Italian Wars figures he was looking to unload, or even maybe a unit of say, 12 painted figures for one of those periods. 

What I instead received was TWENTY-FOUR landsknecht pike men along with four command figures (Vic detailed their painting here)!  They were not based and did not include a flag.  Last night finished basing them, and attached the hand-painted the flag you see below, and present them below...

I am somewhat constantly amazed at the generosity and authenticity of the miniature wargaming hobby - Victor's unbelievably kind gift only underlines that wonderfulness.

Thanks, Vic!

(ahem)

If you, too, would like to be cool like Victor and send me painted units of English Civil War or Renaissance 28mm miniatures, please email me and I would be happy to provide you with a mailing address!!

Calvern 1499

The battle of Calvern is part of the Swabian War (fought between the Swabian League of southern German cities led by Emperor Maximillian I against the Swiss Confederation), a conflict I had seen mentioned here and there, but always mistakenly thought it involved the Schmalkaldic League (a later military alliance of Protestant German princes).  

The background is that an Imperialist/Swabian army under Maximillian I has advanced into the Umbrail Pass to assert Habsburg rights (and to secure a route for dropping future Imperial armies into Italy!), and, knowing that a Swiss army (the most vaunted infantry in Europe at the time) was en route, the Imperialists constructed a letzi, a type of earthwork particularly well suited to defending mountain passes (and which would not quite look like mine).  The Imperialists assumed that when the Swiss arrived a drawn-out siege-type affair would follow, so the letzi was "thinly defended", with reserve of infantry in the rear, and the Imperial gendarme heavy cavalry even further in the back.    However, Benedict Fontana, the Swiss commander, decided to immediately storm the letzi instead.

 (Above: starting positions. At the top you can see the Swiss, then the letzi defended mostly by Imperial arquebusiers, then the Imperial infantry reserves, and at the bottom the Imperial Gendarmes in far reserve)

The Swiss have 12 units and the Imperialists 16, although both math out to 56 points of Lion Rampant forces.  The letzi is defended by two pike units and seven arquebusiers (bidowers in LR).  The Imperial infantry reserve is two units of doppelsoldners (fierce foot) and another pike block.  The second reserve line is four Gendarme units (mounted men at arms).  The Swiss have four units of elite pikes (defend on 2+ in close order!), two units of halberdiers (fierce foot), four units of elite arquebusiers (bidowers who do not skirmish with the -1 to shoot), and two light cannon.


 (Above: Imperialists defending the letzi)

 (Above: the Swiss)

 (Above: the Swiss advance, while some Imperial arquebusiers take heavy casualties form Swiss fire)

The Swiss went first and instead of a straight on assault decided to focus on the left end of the letzi. The two pike units and one halberd unit from the Swiss right thus formed a sort of second wave behind the Swiss left.  The arquebusier units from the Swiss right piled into a wooded area and the mountain slopes to create diversionary fire - however a very good opening round of shooting by the Imperials beat these Swiss up as early as turn 2.  The Imperial reserve infantry  shifted to its right to meet the oncoming massed Swiss assault [retrospectively, the Imperial reserves should not have been allowed to try ordered activations for the first three turns to represent the element of surprise gained by the Swiss].  Shooting on the Imperial right was ineffective and the first unit of halberdiers came on fast, and stormed the letzi, dislodging a unit of arquebusiers.  They were counter-attacked by doppelsoldners and destroyed. 

 (Above: Swiss halberdiers successfully breach the Letzi)

(Above: the Swiss halberdiers have been destroyed but a second halberd unit attacks the Imperial pikes while the Swiss pikes close in)

However, the turn after that the Swiss pikes assaulted and dispatched the weakened doppelsoldners and entered the earthworks, followed quickly by a second pike unit – at this point the Imperial arquebusiers were falling back to make way for counterattacks by the reserves, and the Imperial Gendarmes had maneuvered up into striking distance of the earthwork as well. 

(Above: Swiss pikes enter the earthwork)

The Swiss formed up in close order and there were some interesting pike vs. cavalry fights that usually saw the Gendarmes take the worse of it, but by this time, given the expensive nature of their pikes & arquebus units, the Swiss were on the verge of complete army collapse – the Imperials by comparison had a lot of damaged units but most had drawn back from where the combat was.  In the end, an unfortunate roll on a Swiss pike block morale check threw the game to the Imperials ("O Fortuna!").

(Above: Imperial reserves closing in)

I'm making the game sound a little one sided but the Swiss were definitely on a roll early on, and if I ran it again, I would not allow the Imperial reserves to start activations until round 3, as noted above.  The earthworks were not a "game killer" for the Swiss (i.e. impossible to assault), partially because the halberdiers were great at punching an opening in them for the pikes to follow up into, and partially because I set the scenario to  have the earthwork mostly defended by weak IMperial arquebusier units initially.  The game had some nice dramatic "movie-feeling" moments to it as well, what with the Swiss breaking through the earthworks only to be faced by the approaching Imperial reserves.

Trying out Napoleonic Lion Rampant

Pete really wanted to try and adapt Lion Rampant to the Napoleonic setting.  I am particularly fond of his great collection of Napoleonic French and British armies so when he offered to bring those over on a Sunday afternoon, I was all for it!  Pete drafted up some rules/notes, sent them over to me, and I did the same.  We did our best to synthesize the results and then tried them out on the table. 

In the first game I played the British.  The rules were seemed okay at first, but infantry tended to hang back and slug away with musketry and never attempt to close. This was probably because we had all shooting actions as automatic successes, supposedly offset by units in column getting automatic movement activations. 

We also tried a "supporting unit" role wherein all units within 6" of unit taking a morale test received +1 per supporting unit.  This led to the somewhat silly endgame where the British had five units still on the table but all of them had taken around 50% or more casualties yet were still unwavering! 
 

(Above: towards the end of the first game - the British are carrying a lot of casualties but are not wavering at all due to over-effectiveness of the Supports For Morale rule)

We reviewed the notes again and ditched the support rule and the automatic shooting rule.  Being in column however was still an automatic move. We also switched sides and added a few more units to the mix.  The opening rounds of the second battle clipped along nicely with some surprises and even a little tactical back and forth.  However, again, once the infantry lines closed to about 12", both lines came to a complete halt and a musketry duel ensued (which the French ultimately lost). 

 (Above: photos (with different focus points) of my French attack column. I had drafted what I thought were pretty nifty rules for French attack columns - basically two units could combine and move automatically, and their stamina was upped to 4 [from a base of 2] and movement upped to 9".  The idea was the column could relentless move forward and soak a lot of damage from closing fire. It... sort of worked.  In both games the attack column got close then ended up settling for musketry instead.)

In the post-game discussion the verdict was that to adapt the Lion Rampant system to the Napoleonic period, you had to add on so many rules that you might as well just play Black Powder!