Enfilade 2019

Last weekend I again attended Enfilade!, the annual NHMGS convention, in Olympia, Washington. Like last year I ran two games in the two sessions on Friday and participated as a player the rest of the weekend.

My first game was the rigorously playtested Isola della Scala (for six players). While the first playtest, while not completed, resulted in a fairly balanced result, and the second result (run at Ambuscade!) saw a Venetian victory due to some spectacular dice-rolling, the Enfilade-version of this scenario saw the French absolutely steamroll the Venetians, destroying many, many Venetian units and burning many, many tents! Fortunately (?), the reason for this was evident to everyone involved (including the Venetian players, who, if they were feeling put out by the table results, did a great job of concealing it): some bad dice rolling (the Venetian center did not wake up quickly enough) and some extraordinarily bad dice rolls on the Venetian right (which needed to make a stout defense of the camp). As such, the game was over in just barely 2 hours. This really put a cloud over the rest of the weekend for me, because when you host a game you want it to be competitive for both sides.

(Above: things underway in the Isola della Scala game)

(Above: things underway in the Isola della Scala game)

(Above: the French close in on the Venetian camp)

(Above: participants participating)

(Above: three tents set afire)

(Above: my, that's a lot of tents on fire!)

(Above: someone else's pod-racer game)

My second game was the Battle of Ravenna (for eight players), which I had only done a playtest-by-proxy for using the Barletta scenario. This game was much more satisfactory, with interesting and compelling actions on the flanks between the French and Spanish cavalry, and an real slugfest between masses of infantry over the Spanish earthworks in the middle. While the Spanish took more casualties, they were also able to secure more victory conditions, including winning the game's one and only duel between officers (each officer killed/destroyed/routed was a +1 bonus point) which was effectively the tie-breaker as the Spanish won the game 11 points to 10!

(Above: Ravenna game underway)

 

(Song of Drums and Tomahawks game) 

(Above: Ravenna game)

(Above: Ravenna game, the first French troops are assaulting the earthwork)

(Above: Dave Sullivan's Irish rebellion game)

Saturday I played in Dean's Black Power 2 game, Sven's Deus Vult game, and Doug's Hussars Rampant game. Hussars Rampant is a variant of the Lion Rampant Doug has cooked up that is for nothing but Napoleonic cavalry, and I found it very enjoyable.

(Above: Dean's Black Power 2 game)

(Above: diorama from Dean's Black Power 2 game)

(Above: diorama from Dean's Black Power 2 game)

(Above: diorama from Dean's Black Power 2 game)

(Above: artillery and crew from Dean's Black Power 2 game)

(Above: these three units of American militia in Pete's Rebels & Patriots game were painted by me!)

(Above: Sven's Deus Vult game)

(Above: Sven's Deus Vult game)

(Above: Doug's Hussars Rampant game)

(Above: Doug's Hussars Rampant game)

(Above: Doug's Hussars Rampant game)

(Above: Doug's Hussars Rampant game)

(Above: Doug's Hussars Rampant game)

Sunday I played in Bill's Men Who Would Be Kings game set during the Boxer Rebellion (sorry, no pics).

I sold some old Dark Ages plastic figures at the Bring & Buy, and managed to pick up these 122 Swiss Renaissance figures at a great price. I don't really need them (wish they would have been at the B&B last year!), but you can never have big enough armies, amiright?

Barletta (1502)

I'm running a game based on the battle of Ravenna at this upcoming Enfilade, for eight players, the set-up for which was, sadly, too large for my own gaming table setup! This also meant it was too large to playest. Since Ravenna heavily featured Spanish infantry defending earthworks from French attackers, and the clashes between the Spanish and French ten years earlier in southern Italy also featured earthworks, I decided I could at least playtest rules for earthworks, Spanish pike and Spanish bucklermen, and certain victory conditions using a smaller engagement. Once again I turned to Peter Sides' Renaissance Battles scenario book, and decided on Barletta (July 1502).*

The French were deployed with Swiss and landsknecht pikes in the center, each flanked by culverins, crossbowmen, and Scottish longbowmen. Behind the French left, three companies of Gendarmes lay in wait. Across from them, the Spanish lurked behind their earthworks, with a concentration of arquebusiers and culverins in the middle with pikes on the flanks. On the Spanish right were three companies of Ginettes and on the left two of Spanish men-at-arms.

(Above: starting positions) 

(Above: Spaniards behind their earthwork) 

(Above: Spaniards behind their earthwork) 

Victory conditions were as follows: if you had more units than your opponent on the "platform" of the earthworks, you scored 3 points (2 earthwork sections, so 6 points maximum); if you drew a line out parallel from the "platform" to the table edge, and another one perpendicular from the outside end of the earthwork, you got a large "flank quarter" on each side, each worth 2 points; the entire area behind both earthworks was worth 2 points; also, for every enemy leader killed or routed, you received 1 point; and finally, the side that destroyed more units received a 3 point bonus. The game would stop when cumulative combined units lost by both sides totaled 10.

 (Above: French Landsknechts move out from behind the Swiss) 

The French decided to ignore history and not charge their Swiss right up the center, instead sending the Swiss, longbows, and Gendarmes left and the landsknechts and crossbows right. The Spanish attempted to run their Ginettes in front of their own earthworks in hoping of slicing up the French center to destroy guns and fall upon helpless archers. Instead they took too long and became pinned against the earthworks by aggressive Swiss pikes, who destroyed two of the three ginettes without much of a fight. The Spanish countered by sliding their mounted men-at-arms from their left to the right.

(Above: Spaniards behind their earthwork) 

(Above: Spanish ginette light cavalry rides out) 

(Above: Swiss pikes in French service advance) 

(Above: Spanish ginette light cavalry about to get pinned by the Swiss) 

(Above: the white skull counters are an experiment with tracking ammunition for the artillery - it had no effect on the game so will probably not try again) 

The fiercest fighting then proceeded to unfold on the Spanish right, with the Swiss pikes getting the better of two Spanish pikes and the Gendarmes getting the best of the Spanish men-at-arms. But eventually the Spanish began to push back or rout some of the Swiss.

(Above: the Swiss push the Spanish back off the earthwork)

(Above: Spanish artillery at work!)

(Above: the Swiss have now been pushed back out of the earthwork by fierce Spanish counter attacks)

In the end the Spanish lost eight units (including one leader) and the French three (including two leaders!), so the French picked up the 3 point bonus for destroying more enemy units.  However, they had only secured one flank and none of the earthwork platforms, so along with the one point for a killed enemy leader, their total score was only 6 points.  The Spanish picked up 10 points (2 leaders destroyed at 1 point each, both earthwork sections at 3 points each, and the rear zone at another 2 points).  The other flank zone had one Spanish and one French unit, so neither side received points for that.

(Above: that's a lot of casualties!)

(Above: end of game)

If this had used less complex victory conditions such as "first to lose half, they be the loser", this would have been a crushing defeat for the Spanish.  Instead, on a points basis, it was a major victory.  Retrospectively, it was decided the French should have concentrated all ranged attacks on a single unit if possible rather than along the Spanish line as a whole, and the Spanish should have utilized their light cavalry better.  The Spanish should probably also have sallied a sword and buckler unit out of the earthworks to fall upon the melee-poor(er) archers and crossbowmen.

Next up: Isola della Scala and Ravenna at Enfilade!


*NOTE: I am slightly doubtful of the historicity of this scenario – there was a rather light siege of Barletta in the summer of 1502, but I can't find anything documenting the "bloody rout" of the Swiss mercenaries in French employ described by Sides. In fact, the Barletta scenario is so similar to the Cerignola (April 1503) scenario (itself a very well documented event) that I think the Barletta one is some sort of misunderstanding of the source material, and that Sides mistakenly inflated the events at Cerignola into two battles.

Ambuscade! And Tekumel!

The third annual Ambuscade historical miniature gaming day was held last weekend at Guardian Games.   Attendance was again strong, with 34-36 people over the course of the day (three sessions).  This is about the same as last year, although many people who attended as year were not here this time, which means we had a lot of substitution with different people or first-timers showing up instead. I sat out the first session because it's hard to participate in a game when you are having to get up and direct people to their tables or collect donations or what have you.

In the second session I ran my Isola della Scala game which I will also run at Enfilade next month. The game was a productive playtest, resulting in me making some more tweaks for the game next month. 

(Above: my Isola della Scala game)

(Above: the French advance on the village of Isola della Scala)

At prior Ambuscades we did not have a third session because it would have to be a shorter session due to store's closing time of 10pm, but people asked about it last year so I added one this year. The only game I played in this year was Hugh's Tekumel game, with his many splendid Aztec, Mayan, and Tekumel miniatures and scenery.

(Above: Hugh's Tekumel game, starting positions)

(Above: Tekumel game in progress)

(Above: Tekumel game in progress)

This was possibly the single most intriguing and innovative game I have ever played – there were five players and each player used a different variation of the FUBAR simple rules, and players also made agreements or negotiated certain elements of the rules to their liking. The result was I was playing the rules in one manner on my left and another on my right (for example: the players on my left were counting all figures from each unit in the melee as engaged and thus generating a dice, while the players on my right were only counting the first rank), and all the while players were citing rules which did not appear on the playsheets of the other players, including morale rules not written anywhere at all! Talk about fog of war!  Regardless to say this generated a very dissociative, surreal experience for all involved – which is very atmospheric and fitting with the Tekumel setting. I understand Hugh is running this at Enfilade and I highly recommend it as it's an experience like no other!

Isola della Scala (1512)

This was a playtest of the French attack at Isola Della Scala game which I am planning to run at this year's Enfilade as well as at Ambuscade. Previously, I was going to simply run a battle of Ravenna twice at Enfilade, but then further research on the subject of Gaston de Foix's 1512 campaign in Italy, of which Ravenna was the culmination, turned up this tantalizing gem:

The French armies in Italy were under the command of Gaston de Foix, nephew of Louis XII and brother-in-law of Ferdinand of Spain – a young nobleman of remarkable talents, whose short and brilliant career astonished Europe and acquired for him the title of the Thunderbolt of Italy. By a swift and determined movement he threw his army in Bologna, which the allies were then besieging. The forces of the Holy League [comprised of the Papal States, Venice, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and England] at once fled; and Gaston de Foix strongly guarded Bologna and then rapidly marched into Lombardy, where he ascertained that two cities had driven their away French garrisons or taken them captive. He defeated the Venetians near Isola della Scala before dawn by the light which the stars reflected from the snow. He took Brescia by storm and gave the city up to plunder and massacre. Bergamo escaped a similar fate by prompt submission and the payment of a ransom.

The King of France [Louis XII] now ordered his victorious commander to fight one decisive battle, and, if victorious, to march upon Rome, depose Pope Julius II, and dictate terms of peace. In executing this plan, Gaston de Foix marched toward Ravenna, driving the allied army before him. The great battle of Ravenna, which was fought April 11, 1512 [Easter Sunday as it so happened], has been described as "one of those tremendous days into which human folly and wickedness compress the whole devastation of a famine or a plague."*

Defeating the Venetians "before dawn" sounds an awful lot like a surprise attack. A few other references seemed to place it as occurring in February 1512. So now I had a potential "winter" battle in Italy (which matched the Enfilade theme of 'winter wars') that was also part of the same campaign as Ravenna (spoiler: the French would win at Ravenna but de Foix would be slain there as well). Information on Isola della Scala was also so thin that I could pretty much build a scenario from scratch. I used the basic set-up from the Novara game I played last year (which involved the French caught off guard by Swiss mercenaries), but used slight variations of the force composition from the battle of Agnadello, and used the pre-dawn/dawn rules, the units-waking-up rules, and the tent/camp burning rules from the 'Beating Up Quarters' scenario in the Pikeman's Lament book.

(Above: the Venetian heavy cavalry asleep in the village)

(Above: the Venetian infantry asleep in their camp)

Almost all of the Venetian army (played by me) woke up on their first turn, and although I thought that might be too easy, we realized that the net effect was that the French (played by Gabe) got two moves before the Venetians started moving, which is about right for the element of surprise. One set-up error was the Venetian stradiots and some arquebusiers who served as "sentries" on the Venetian left (and thus do not start the game "asleep") were too close to the French at the start of the game, and either came under crossbow/bow fire or were attached by Gendarmes on the first turn, cause all three of those Venetian units to be destroyed by about the 2nd turn. In future re-plays these will be spaced better so they are not attacked immediately at the start of the game.

(Above: French gendarmes ride into the village.)

(Above: Venetian men-at-arms face advancing French Landsknechts.)

The rest of game was closely contested, as we put on our best "be ruthless and play to win" thinking caps, since that line of thought can be useful in detecting flaws in the scenario. The downside to this was the game went maybe slower than usual, and we would end up stoping the game at 11pm after 3 hours of play. At that point the French had set fire to one tent and one building, and had units in place to set fire to two more buildings. This would results in 4 points for the French and 6 for Venetians.

(Above: Venetian center.)

(Above: View of the game from the table edge. The French pike unit in the center is about to set fire to the small building.)

However, the Venetians still needed to destroy or rout another four French units to "stop the clock" so there possibly another 30+ minutes of game play left. The French right was in complete control of its side of the table, it center was not great but still had some functional units, and its left was roughed up but had largely pulled back to safety. The Venetian left and right were both in tatters but the center was very strong. Clearly the game would have been decided by the performances of the French right against the Venetian center. Since the Venetian center had already taken some initial casualties and the French right was largely fresh and unharmed, and included 3 Gendarme units with the "Terrible" rule (reroll missed hits) I'm tempted to give the French the advantage.

(Above: End of game. French right can be seen streaming towards the center at the upper left corner of the picture.)

See you at Ambuscade! on April 6!



*John Clifford, The Standard History of the World (1907), p.2560.