The Battle of Ravenna

 Back at the club again, Bolt Action against 'Lucky' Jimi. I took the British and Jimi brought his winter Jerries, I debated whether to penalise his movement due to ski's but thought better of it, it was a friendly game after all. I stole Matt Crump's scenario from a couple of weeks ago, we both had a senior officer stranded with his vehicle and we had to protect him while capturing the enemy one.

I took four infantry squads a MMG, Cromwell tank, Humber armoured car and a truck, Jimi had four squads a truck, halftrack, MMG, panzerschreck and a StuG III. I have not played Bolt Action for a long time and cannot muster the enthusiasm to read through Version 3, you almost need scaffolding to hold it up due to the amount of guff in it, so we went with version 2 and some common sense.

I decided to put a squad and the armoured car on defender duty while I attempted to take the rest to capture the Party bigwig on my right. There was a tank duel at first and I lost the Cromwell but still decided to push my infantry forward, I had also managed to get the Humber into a position where it could fire on the flank of the StuG, I needed a lot of luck to penetrate but I could deal out pins, there was so much going on around the StuG that Jimi forgot to move it. The British get a free (no idea why) artillery observer, losing my tank forced me to use him and my artillery barrage caused a lot of disarray in the German defenders, no more mister nice guy.

Fat Hermann, party big wig.

 

Major Bracegirdle.

 

That changed things.

Slowly but surely I closed in on the Party faithful while Jimi lost several morale throws and failed to move, this happened to me as well but only once, in keeping with his usual bad fortune Jimi also got two FUBAR's and several units fled for the rear. This meant he now brought a couple of squads in to attempt to take my Officer, but I was ready and brought in my last unit to ensure he couldn't manage this while I took fat Hermann prisoner, game over.

Welcome support for the Major.

Easy target.

Potential game winner.

The game moved swiftly and was a bit of fun, the artillery bombardment really played havoc with the German morale, I have always been more than dubious of the 'free' units in Bolt Action but with the loss of my only tank and the Jerries having upgraded MG fire I felt it necessary to give me a fighting chance. I still feel guilty, although I have been on the recieving end many times of the 'free' something rule. 

I found myself with a free week and in desperation I decided to go solo in order to get my Italian Wars collection on the table, I looked for inspiration in my three scenario books and settled on the Battle of Ravenna from 'All is Lost Save Honour' published by Helion and Co. and on which I worked along with the authors Colin Ashton and Conrad Cairns, a must for beginners to the period. I use Furioso rules which are well suited to solo play as once the initial deployment is set the Initiative system can take over and the battle runs itself. One good thing about solo is you can use your common sense in all situations despite what the rules say. Not shown on the map are the arquebusiers I allowed to line the ditch.

To the battle, the duel between the artillery of both sides which I allowed for a couple of moves changed little as the French especially could not hit a barn door, which was a shame as they had far more guns. One unit of Gendarmes on the right threw caution to the wind and charged the enemy, they managed to defeat some Papal men-at-arms who had tried to intercept them and then charge the Spanish gun line wiping out a complete crew. They were then in turn charged by some Spanish men-at-arms, beaten and dispersed.

View from the French positions.

The Imperial defence.

The battlefield.

Meanwhile the French and Spanish light cavalry skirmished with each other on the French left while the French infantry slowly, very slowly made their way forward, they immediately began to suffer from the arquebusiers lining the ditch, they needed to get a move on before their casualties increased. It was now apparent that the French wanted to crush the Spanish centre before their flanks were attacked.

The French reach the ditch.

French pikes break the Imperial gun line.

The Landsknechts break through.

Imperial right.

Attacking across ditches or other defences in Furioso is difficult and this was proven as most of the French assaults became disordered, but the opposition were mainly arquebusiers and these were all swept away, although some put up a struggle before running. As the French breasted the ditch the Spanish pike blocks moved forward, several brutal melees ensued, the Italian's on the French side failed miserably and were defeated however the Landsknechts destroyed their enemy and the French pike engaged more of the Spanish in a to and fro melee. On the right the artillery still hammered away at each other while more French pikes drove into the Imperial left, the Imperial cavalry falling back from the pikes or faltering and failing to change direction. The fight here was still anyone's, as both sides now manouvered for an edge.The crises of the battle was fast approaching.

Landsknechts meet more Papal infantry.

Spanish pikes undecided, left or right?

French artillery.

French pikes pushed back.

Renaissance Uber Eats arrives.

Most of the infantry cresting the ditch were held or actually routed apart from the Landsknechts who smashed their way forward, to their right a French pike block which had kept up with them was then pushed back by some incredibly tough Spaniards just as it seemed the whole Imperial centre would break. 

At this point the Imperial army had reached its break point despite from a wargamers standpoint looking like it could overturn the result and maybe, just maybe grab the win as the French also were one point away from breaking. As I pondered this a look at the casualties on the side showed the Imperials, despite outnumbering the French had been roughly handled so I let the rules dictate the winner. I have to say that throughout the French seemed way more keen than the Imperials to get to grips with the enemy, their Initiative dice were generally much higher than the enemy who, as in reality, were far more cautious. The attack on the works was a daring move but paid off just in time. 

I have a lot coming up over the next four weeks, I have mate Billy coming for a couple of days from north of the Wall for some Chain of Command, then my son for the same on the following Sunday, then a week later I will be fighting Rob Broom over a weekend of War and Conquest, and after that a little holiday for a week in darkest Northumberland. I also hope to fit something in with Matt Crump as well.

So, that's it for now, still nothing on the paint tray although spent time doing a few map projects for Helion while waiting for the Atlas author to get back to me, nothing complicated. I almost forgot, Ken Reilly (Yarkshire Gamer) wants to take his outstanding 'Relief of Forli' to Claymore this year and is asking for volunteers, I have put my name down and if available I will be there.

I did start looking into a CoC mini campaign and I have the framework ready along with the German OOB based on 6th Panzer Divisions attempted relief of Stalingrad, but I have put it aside at the moment due to visits from family and the large IW game, but like Macarthur "I shall return" but will keep my feet dry.