Swiss!

 Helion Wargames and other stuff editor Charles Singleton was in the hood so we decided to have a game with his newly painted Italian Wars army, and a beautiful thing it is too. I let Charles choose a scenario from the new 'Wargaming the Italian Wars' book and he chose Marignano 1515AD, mainly I think to get his Swiss on the table. 

The battle was a two day affair, on the first there was ferocious fighting as the Swiss tried to breach the French defences and silence their artillery, it was only the onset of darkness which called a halt. The next day the Swiss again assaulted the French line to no avail as the artillery and massed arquebusier fire scythed their ranks, charges by the French cavalry also pinned them and with the arrival of the Venetians even the vaunted Swiss had had enough.

I set the game up as per the new book using Furioso rules, immediately I had my doubts just how effective the cavalry would be, the Gendarmes like the real battle could only throw themselves at the pike blocks to wear them down, they probably could not actually stop them. This meant that for most of the action I simply repositioned the heavy cavalry to attack any pike block which made it across the bulwark, the light cavalry to my front I hoped would annoy the Swiss and cause some casualties and weaken them before they came to push of pike. In the end they too were pulled off to the flanks to give my guns a clear line of fire.

A view from the French position.

The French camp.

The French.

As the Swiss advanced they too had a problem getting the best use out of their artillery and the Milanese cavalry as the battlefield funneled troops between the road and the dry ditch. My artillery at first was desultory to say the least and even with the addition of my missile troops the Swiss easily shrugged off the odd casualty. I decided to let my men at the breastworks take the brunt of the enemy attack then hopefully when they were disordered and struggling send in my Landsknechts to finish them off. A heavy fusilade forced back the first block that tried to force the works but it came back again and managed to maintain its order as it cut down some crossbowmen along with a smaller French pike block. I had moved two Landsknecht blocks up for just this occurance as a large hole appeared in my line, one failed to contact while the other charged in but was pushed back by the victorious Swiss. 

The Swiss left.

Milanese and artillery.

The Swiss advance.

 A second and then a third enemy kiel smashed into my entrenchments, I lost an artillery piece but the defenders held helped by the fact that both of the new combatants had become disordered by the terrain. The main Swiss block on my right was now beginning to suffer as casualties mounted and a second Landsknecht block hit them. I rained down curses on the Germans as even with a wounded Swiss kiel to their front they were pushed back, my cavalry, now set up to hit the enemy in the flank looked on waiting their moment. The Landsknechts took the hint and reversed their backward slide and dealt out enough hurt to disorder their opponents.

Nearly there.

The French in disarry.

A fight between mortal enemies.

 

 

 With all three Swiss blocks held and disordered and with fresh mercenaries ready to enter the fray supported by Gendarmes on the wings we called a halt. Despite the fact that my cavalry had not made one charge due to the outstanding performance of my infantry they would no doubt have mopped up any Swiss survivors who cleared the breastworks. The battle is a huge ask for the Swiss commander but once we got to grips it kept us amused for several hours of fighting back and forth along the defences. I would be tempted to fight it again despite the long odds.

The rest of the Swiss hit the breastwork.

The end.

Charles kindly left me with a copy of the Helion book and if I say so myself it is an excellent wargame guide for the period which covers every aspect from the history to flags and scenarios.

I was in Darlington over Easter for my granddaughters sixteenth birthday and on the Monday we had a walk in a local park and I came upon a Russian cannon from the Crimean War, two had been requested but a political battle ensued between the Quakers, who did not want it, and the locals who did. One was eventually awarded and after a long history ended up in its present position in South Park.

Another unit has now joined the army of Maximinus Thrax, Lanciarii skirmishers. I have decided with almost half the army complete I now need to work on my officers and Thrax himself so commanders are up next. 

Snake Eyes Sunday

 James, Matt and Fran arrived Sunday morning for the third battle in our fictional ACW campaign set in the Shenandoah Valley. Various movements had resulted in James's division being reinforced by forces from Fran's division, on the opposite side Gary's Federal division had similarly had reinforcments from Matt's division, both sides were looking for a result.

Both sides had been surprised by the arrival of new troops the prevous evening, however the Union generals (I substituted for Gary) were still determined to attack as they had the edge in numbers, but only just. The Rebs as far as I could make out were happy for James's depleted division to defend the right flank while Fran on the left, who expected to be the target of the main attack, held the left and no doubt would await events. On the Federal side it was decided Matt would make main effort against James and not Fran while I would hold the right and also await developments.

Troops hidden from view.

Union forces.

Confederate forces.

Bartlett's Creek.

As the battle opened and the blue tide surged forward on my left I decided to push my strongest brigade and a cavalry regiment across the creek and pressure the Rebs who had a battery of guns there which could very quickly become a nuisance for me. This was to become my main effort for most of the battle, I did peel off two regiments to help support Matt near the stone bridge in the centre but this turned out to be a bad idea as I just got in the way and in the end simply denuded my line of two good regiments. The action on my right started badly as the cavalry skirmishers broke and ran for the rear after being canistered, I then sent an infantry regiment across with two more supporting them from my bank of the creek. Again the skirmishers were canistered and at the same time charged by Reb infantry, against all the odds and to my annoyance the skirmishers held and the Rebs retreated! If they had fled the enemy would have been sitting at the bottom of the creek and a perfect target for my supports, I gnashed my teeth.

Union left flank.

Union (me) right flank.

 

Looking over at Matt I noticed he now had a gap in his line as he concentrated on the far right of the Confederate line and the small wood beside the stone bridge, but there was still a flurry of Stars and Stripes approaching the enemy. Back on my flank I charged across the creek and sent the Reb gunners fleeing, I also pushed back their infantry support, things looked good but more Rebs were approaching, I needed to consolidate not keep attacking. Having decided to hold I tried to push more of my troops toward the right while moving artillery closer and recalling those two errant regiments, but it was not to be, every time I thought I had done it I failed morale tests and my troops fled, I eventually had five regiments behind my line either rallying or fleeing. I just could not build a line as Fran moved ever more troops forward, I did manage to knock back an attempt near my centre but it was a half hearted affair simply hoping that maybe I would lose further morale checks or just testing my resolve to hold the creek line.

Matt's main attack.

I probe the Reb left.

The volume of fire now rose from Matt's position and charges were thrown at James's defenders and sadly bounced back, there was now a log jam of Union troops trying to get to the front, at some point however Matt had captured two regiments, one infantry and one cavalry. 

I pulled Matt to the side and intimated we were getting nowhere and would simply continue to lose men to no avail if we kept attacking, the losses on both sides had not been great up to this point and the battle had been far less bloody than Thompson's Farm. My flank could not be trusted to stand and reorganise before Fran hit it possibly causing a collapse. Matt agreed and we withdrew leaving the field to the Rebs.

Matt tries to outflank the Reb defences.

The log jam on Matt's right.

An exciting game and one with some high drama as regiment after regiment on my side fled or ran out of ammo, I did rally some only for others to run leaving me without a prepared battle line, and it had looked so good at the start. Gary himself was shot from his horse at Thompson's Farm and his replacement Col. Schulz had his head taken off by a shell in this battle, BG Sinclair now leads the Third Division, a dangerous job it would seem.

Club night and although Rob had offered Muskets and Tomahawks I felt like something different so offered Chain of Command or Italian Wars, we ended up with four players so Italian Wars it was. I settled on the battle of Scannagallo again, but a mash up of the scenario from Helion's book 'All is Lost' and Rodolfo Verginella's scenario, the only terrain I put down was the dry river bed.

The battle opened and Matt and I suffered from troop delays so almost half of our troops were not on the front line, no big deal as I had decided on a slow start, Matt on the left was happy to advance, especially his cavalry. Thankfully for me Stewart opposite was not keen to push his unenthusiastic infantry forward and for a time I held off his Gendarmes. As the flanks were now engaged the pike blocks slowly advanced under cannon and arquebus fire. This is where I lost my bearings as several melees were happening along the line of the river bed, most troops managed to cross the obstacle without becoming disordered however there were groans from several of the players, me included as 'sure things' turned out to not be the case. I used the sword and buckler rule for the first time and it had a chance of being stunningly successful, or it would have been if Stewart had not saved every casualty it inflicted.

French cavalry threaten my flank.

Landsknechts at push of pike.

French-Seinese in the background, Spanish-Florentines in the foreground.

As the clock ticked down I think we had won on our left and the French had won on their left, the large combat in the centre if I remember correctly was turning out slightly in favour of the French but I could be wrong, it certainly was not in favour of the Spanish at the point we packed up.

I have added yet another unit to the 3rdC Romans, Sagittarii this time, I have still to track down a name for them. Next up is a javelin armed skirmish unit, I am giving these troops the same shield pattern as my close order Lanciarii, as I see them in their other role as skirmishers, even though they did so with armour these boys will not have armour as there is no such figure available. A compromise but I'm happy and the figures do look nice.

I have sadly had to put James Holland's latest book on Italy, dealing with Cassino, back on the shelf, it is boring. Now I have read some very good books by Holland and I enjoy listening to him on podcasts or YouTube but I have been struggling with these on the Italian campaign. It seems to be all over the place, one minute Allied HQ, then a civilian family having a hard time, then soldiers on leave, prostitution and then half way through the book Cassino looms. Author Douglas Murray has saved me as I pre-ordered his latest book and from the first sentence I knew I was on to a winner albeit it a dark subject. So I will have to look and see what tickles my fancy on the reading front military wise.

 

 Mapping is also going forward, I am working on a book covering 1813 and the battles of Lutzen and Bautzen, I have done these before, once to update a military history and the second as part of the Helion Wargames stable. The maps this time are almost direct copies of Russian maps and a couple are intense.

Bautzen is twice as complicated as this.

 If all goes to plan I may have an Italian Wars game on next week with Charles Singleton editor at Helion against his recently completed French army, something to look forward to.

Back Again

 It's been a while which is unusual for me, I am just about back down to earth after my two days of War and Conquest with Rob Broom so nothing else seemed relevant.

I have played some games although I did miss one night at the club, after the WAC extravaganza Jimi and I played a Bolt Action 3 game straight from the book, a mistake as these scenarios are just bland. Jimi brought his Gebirgsjager and I had the Russians, I managed to bring my SU-85 which saw action for the first time ever. We should just have went to the pub as we chatted and laughed about all sorts of things and only managed four turns of the game, neither of us were particularly invested in it, I certainly wasn't as my SU-85 was turned to scrap by a StuG.

Deleted battle photos, but here is the offending article.

I have yet to actually pick up the book and give it another thorough read through, there are errata out and I haven't even looked at them yet. Matt Crump uses Bolt Action (V1) and we have cracking games in the Dungeon but V3 just leaves me cold. My main sticking point is the new shooting rules which 'simplified' the procedure by introducing saving rolls, I am certainly not thick but why introduce another step in shooting and calling it simpler. The fact that a tank now has a saving roll just doesn't register in my brain, no matter how they explain it. I get a whiff of change for changes sake, or rather why you should pay £30 for a new version.

I know I should take Matt's route and set up proper scenarios on the table top but that is far easier to do here in the Bunker than at the club and I simply don't play a lot of Bolt Action at home. Maybe I should just go back to V2, we will see. I am hoping that Chain of Command 2 will be a success when it eventually turns up.

I also managed to get to the club last night, Jimi asked for a game of Dead Man's Hand so he could bring along his son, it's school holidays, and we ended up with five of us as Simon and his lad joined in. Basically we had five gangs all trying to either kill or save a prisoner from a hanging. Once again no one took it serious and we had a lot of fun although it looked like most of us had forgotten to load bullets until the closing stages of the game, Jimi's luck had rubbed off on all of us. With a hail of lead sweeping Main Street needless to say no one managed the objective but I think Jimi got the points for dropping the most bad/good guys. My Mexicans as usual did not live up to their reputation.

I continue building up the new Roman army, I am managing almost a unit every two and a half weeks, much faster than I expected, I am about half way through them. I am actually now working on the army list, most of it is straight forward but I have to make a couple of decisions on troop types, the main problem is Lanciarii, these were seen as light troops although they did wear armour, they were also practised in moving quickly and holding ground. I have decided therefore to have two units which will fit these rolls, one close ordered but light and another based as skirmishers. As for the others I am finding that this army will have far more cavalry than any of my other armies with probably six cavalry units rather than four in order to cover the types of horsemen available to the Romans in this period. Cataphracts, lancers, archers, light and heavy cavalry will be covered. War and Conquest has always really been an infantry battle but Rob's new rule giving cavalry two lives rather than one along with the choice of breaking off from combat has been a bit of a game changer.

II Treverorum.

On parade.

The club continues to recruit Dark Age and Ancient armies for Hail Caesar, the former especially being a joy to see on the table, Midgard also continues driven by Stuart who is a convert, I remain in the wilderness atop the hill, dark clouds rolling in as the light fades, still holding up my tattered flag for War and Conquest surrounded by my dead and dying hearthguard.

On the horizon we have our third ACW campaign game on the 13th, I have no plans for anything after that at the moment. The Helion book on wargaming the Italian Wars is being released at Salute, I have seen the proofs and it is a lovely work, maps by you know who of course, I fully expect there to be an upsurge in interest in the period and I look forward to getting my hands on a copy.

Big Battles

Grab a cuppa and settle down. Sunday night and Rob Broom arrives for a couple of days of War and Conquest, one of my two favourite games. 

The first action involves my Seleucids against Spartans, Rob is a big fan of Greek warfare and I knew this would be a tough fight, I have fought Greeks/Carthaginians before and they are tough opponents, too tough in my book up against phalangites but that is another story, I just had to get it in. My army had three pike units and two mercenary hoplites with an elephant for support as a core, the supporting troops were horse archers, archers and cataphracts, I was relying quite a bit on the armoured horse to help me win. First up the terrain did not favour me and I felt crushed into the centre, this became quite a problem for me as events unfolded, I also found my right flank looked decidedly weak and I could only spare one of the hoplite units to protect it with a load of skirmishers, Rob likes skirmishers as I would find out. The Spartans had a couple of elite units backed up with allied hoplites (not sure about all the enemy units), covered by a horde of skirmishers and some small cavalry units. 

Massed pikes.

Seleucids.

Spartans

The battlefield.

I thought I could run the cataphracts up and threaten the Spartan right while my infantry ran forward to engage the Greek main line. At first I did well on my right and and there was a lot of confused fighting around a wood on that flank, Rob decided to send an elite Spartan unit to this flank while another sat behind the front line, I was happy that the perceived threat had been blunted. The left flank also seemed to be going to plan despite all my units being in a log jam around the villa and the annoying house on the hill, sadly for me my cataphracts were held up by some Greek cavalry which they should have rode down and were prevented from turning in to help my phalangites as the lines clashed.

That damn terrain.

Come on boys.

More blood spilled on my left.

And now came the down side, I found it incredibly difficult to actually kill the Greeks despite doing a good number of hits due to their armour save (kevlar became the word of the day, Rob liked that). I lost a phalanx very quickly and the victors smashed into my hoplites, things were not looking good. The fighting on my right became ever more confused as I now had to pull the cataphracts away to pursue the routing Greek cavalry, the only good point was that Rob had two units which could not make it into the fight while I mopped up the right flank but to my chagrin a small unit of Greek cavalry had escaped, surely they would be no problem. I lost another phalanx and now had only one left, my hoplites in the centre were fighting like Trojans but just missing out on success. It was now that I managed in the ruin of my plans to bring the elephant into action and get revenge on one of the enemy hoplite units.

Crises for the Seleucids.

Nellie puts a smile on my face.

More confusion, my useless cataphracts failed a morale test as my last phalanx bit the dust and failed to hit some Spartans in the rear, but just as I was about to look for a white towel Nellie and my hoplites won through and routed their oppressors. Could I hold out, no I couldn't, those pesky light cavalry hit my hoplites on the right in the flank and the cowards ran (this was their first taste of battle), my cataphracts did come back but were beaten in the end, I think the elephant was my only survivor I could not continue.

A very hard and intense battle which lasted around six hours, several times I wailed and gnashed my teeth at Robs luck while ignoring my own, I did make a meal of the cataphracts not helped by the bravery of the Greek lights standing against them. And don't mention those damn hoplites running from villagers on mules! 

We cleared away and set up the next game, my boys were up, Legio XII Fulminata against Rob's beautiful Masai army, he was playing it as Celts, lots of huge warbands with again a horde of skirmishing units. The Legion had a core of heavy legionary infantry in the centre with auxilieries on the flanks, arcehrs and light troops on the left and cavalry on the right, I had very few skirmishers. I basically had to hold the barbarians for the first clash when they had everything going for them and then grind them down, steady boys.

Thunderbolts ready!

The battlefield.

The Masai (Celts).

My Lanciarii on the left swept forward and saw off a couple of the small skirmish units there and then began to threaten a large fanatic warband, which was drawn off to deal with the elusive skirmishers for the rest of the game taking them out of the battle. I had drawn off one cohort to move to my right while my cavalry sorted out the enemy there, things were looking good. The legion heavy infantry had now all advanced as far as I could as a large, difficult hill was making life difficult for Plan A. On the left my massed archers and the javelins of Aux. Co. I goaded a warband into attacking, the auxiliaries held and I then positioned two legionary cohorts and the archers to take advantage of the enemy when they broke through, to my amazement and Rob's disgust these guys held on turn after turn and I used the time wisely. I had now completed routing all the enemy on my right and began to move against the remaining enemy troops in the centre.

The armies advance.

My cavalry swing wide.

Rob's rally point.

Rob was not the only general to be disappointed, my Contari swept through my horse archers in pursuit of a warband only for the archers to fail a morale check as they tried to get out of the way and they routed off the table. Despite this annoying set back the Thunderbolts were ready for the onslaught, in came the first large warband and was duly held by a cohort of recruits, Cohors I now came in on the enemy flank and put paid to their fight. The second huge warband hit Cohors II and III and again were held, Aux. Co. II now came in on their flank, my archers then smashed into the flank of the victorious warband who had been held back most of the battle by Aux. Co. I enabling the Twelfth to prepare for the assault.

Flank attack one.

Flank attack two.

The price of taking on the Thunderbolts.

Needless to say I was overjoyed at the Thunderbolts performance, Rob had some bad luck and his attack had been slowed by one warband refusing to charge during one turn, again giving the Romans time to prepare. With their flanks gone the Masai were left with no option but to try a furious charge, which thankfully failed. Aux. Co. I although eventually ground down and routed were undoubtedly the men of the match.

Tuesday morning and the final battle, Rob chose the Saxons and I took the Romano-British, we used my armies. Strangely enough Rob went cavalry heavy and put them all on his right flank he then put four infantry units in the line with some Gedriht in reserve with the King. I took two bodyguard units backed up by some Milites, I put a cavalry unit on both flanks, once I saw the deployment I decided to quickly advance my bodyguards to hit the Saxons opposite before their Hearthguard could enter the line, my left was to act cautiously.

Saxons.

Romano-British.

The battlefield.

As the battle opened I saw an opportunity to throw caution to the wind and attacked the nearest enemy cavalry with mine while also sending skirmishers in support, this proved to be spectacularly successful, one cavalry unit was routed and the other two suffered casualties as their skirmish supports ran for the rear. Rob tried to get a cheeky flank charge with one of the units but I moved against them and forced them to run. Meanwhile my infantry had hit the enemy line and pushed their opponents back while his King manouvered to come into line. On the right I routed the enemy skirmishers and began to annoy the one Saxon unit there with my cavalry while threatening it with my Pedyts.

Fighting breaks out along the line.

All is going well.

Now we approach the Saxon left.

The whole Saxon right began to run as I brought my victorious cavalry back into action, one infantry unit ran and one was dispersed. Although the Saxon cavalry managed to rally and attempted to get back in the fight numbers and circumstances were against them and they were again forced to rout. By now Rob only had his Ceorls and his Gedriht left on the field, the former were losing their fight and my cavalry had now formed up and were ready to deliver a flank attack to ensure victory. The Gedriht stood surrounded on a hill while the army fled, Rob handed over his sword.

Rob did not have much luck in this game and failed most of his morale checks which ensured his cavalry took no real part in the action, his infantry were outclassed by the British Comitatus and although putting up a fight eventually fled.

The Ceorls in trouble.

The last of the Saxon cavalry also in trouble.

Three terrific games and I learned a couple of things about the rules which I had not understood, I do have a couple of reservations, no rule system is perfect, but for me War and Conquest almost hits that target and that's what matters. Rob was a worthy opponent and a fine bloke to play against having made the journey all the way from Bristol on our faltering road system. Till the next time, I have a Triumph to prepare for, now where did I put that red paint ..........