'Lucky' George

 I was going to keep this back and add on the upcoming game battle of Olustee (ACW) on Sunday but I have an odd hour so why not. I have not only played Italian Wars this week, I let the Dark Side take over on Tuesday and played a game of Blood Bowl with 'Lucky Jim' Clarkson, I will not bore you with the details but suffice to say Jimi's reputation remains intact.

Yesterday, after missing last month due to being a very busy man Julian came along to join myself, Dan and Stewart to fight a game loosely based on the battle of Ravenna 1512AD, the original scenario was drawn up by James Leach at Olicanalad Blog and my version was based on Blunders on the Danube's version of that, so thanks to those guys.

I as CinC commanded the French left while Dan took the right, my plan was to bombard and shoot at the Spaniards behind their defences and soften them up before we attacked, we also had a good opportunity to use our firepower to weaken the Spanish cavalry wings giving us even more advantage. The pre-battle roll delivered an 'Act of God' which would strike at some point in the game.

As the battle started my whole left flank was almost reluctant to advance or shoot at the enemy except my Gendarmes who rode off heading for the Spanish works in glorious isolation. Dan moved up his skirmish units and fired off his guns, the Landsknechts waited patiently. Sure enough the Spanish cavalry started to advance, on my flank without hinderance and cautiously on Dan's. My artillery remained eerily silent while half of my cavalry remained rooted to the spot.

 

The battlefield.

Spanish positions.

A lacklustre fight ensued on our left and I lost several units being unable to coordinate an effective counter to the enemy cavalry advance. I saw the danger and turned my pike blocks towards my left but it was slow going. The Gendarmes smashed into the breastworks and almost, in my mind, broke through but it was not to be and they were hurled back, the second unit when it hit again tantalyzingly came close but it too was sent packing, I moved up a pike block in the hope they would be more succesful, but as they were already outclassed by their opponents this really was wishful thinking. On Dan's front the cavalry fight went too and fro and the Landsknechts reached and climbed the defences, sadly the huge pike block had been disordered and it was thrown back to recover but it would take time.

 

The battle opens.

Gendarmes charge.

Gendarmes pushed back.

Looking at ruin on my flank Julian attacked my one remaining cavalry unit with his German men-at-arms, in a total suprise to everyone the Stradiots met the attack and destroyed the Germans, maybe our luck had turned, there was sighs of disbelief from the Spanish lines. On the enemy side a unit of Jinettes had been forced to hurl themselves onto some Italian pikes, again it was an upset as the horsemen cut down the Italians, our bad luck was back.

Spanish lines.

Overview.

Landsknechts reorganise.

We had been fighting since about 10am with a break for lunch, provided by our master chef Julian, and it was now approaching 4pm. It had become obvious we were not going to breach the Spanish defences and didn't have time to throw in another assault by the Landsknechts, which I am sure would have been succesful this time, and I will hold that thought. My left flank might have held off the remainder of the enemy light cavalry but not the infantry which were now free to advance on me, Dan had held his own and reinforcements had at last turned up but then the Italians promptly refused to move and blocked the bridge and anyone else from turning up.

The end is nigh.

 What about the 'Act of God' I hear you cry, well it was 'Grim Reaper' and it hit me and caused me to lose a cavalry unit, we had a couple of Hazards, one would have been disaster had one of the armies had Swiss and the other caused one of my skirmish cavalry units to change sides. All this had a dire effect on my plans married to the moan below.

I had a dig at 'Lucky Jim' above but my own die luck was abysmal and Dan's I think was not much better, my gun which was to enfilade the enemy cavalry fired on the last turn of the game and.... missed!

It was good to have more players and the 'new' guys brought up a couple of points in the rules which had been missed by Julian and I, a case of more cooks didn't spoil the broth. I think that the size of the game was about as much as Furioso could handle if everyone knows the rules, they would struggle with anything larger, having said that my table probably would not handle anything larger comfortably. I also do not think it would work well with more than four players, it could possibly be done if one side moved all its sixes first then the other etc. But we are nowhere near that stage yet.

A good day helped by the company, Julian's posh soup, Stewart's lager, Dan's forebearance and my wifes patience.