Two for one II

 Bolt Action last time, Italian Wars this time. On Club night I offered to introduce Simon to the joys of Renaissance warfare albeit being a novice myself having only two games under my belt. No matter I split my French forces into two small armies almost identical apart from Simon having Old Band pike and my lacklustre force being Italian pike.

I kept all my infantry in the centre and put my cavalry on my left, a mix of artillery, shot and light cavalry were on my right, opposite Simon had put two pike blocks on his left and then mixed the rest of his units along the line. I saw that my cavalry wing was more powerful than Simon's so led with them, my Swiss as usual went hell for leather across the table aiming for the Swiss on the opposite side supported by my Landsknechts while the Italians ever so slowly advanced. I kept my right where it was.

Simon left, me right

Italians and Swiss

My infantry advance

My cavalry did OK, the Scots again riding down their opponents and moving towards the enemy rear, my second Gendarme unit was beat and dispersed and the enemy in turn made for my rear area, as the Italians had not moved far I turned them to face this threat. My Swiss meanwhile had met their brethren in the service of the enemy and soundly thrashed them and they fled the field, my Landsknechts were getting ready to square up to the enemy mercenaries but time ran out. Simon's remaining Gendarmes had galloped across the battlefield and hit my right wing heavy cavalry while the bullets and shot from my artillery and arquebusiers failed to make even a dent in their armour, my cavalry however remained standing after the first clash albeit pushed back, a real surprise against such a highly motivated enemy.

The bell rang and Simon professed he liked the rules, I again made notes of several things which came up. On the table the Duke of Albany was behind enemy lines, their Swiss mercenaries had gone and his strong left had still to make contact, there was more fighting to be done but we had to leave it. Another good fight ruined by me leaving my phone at the club and panicking when I got home as well as taking flak from the Memsahib. Friend Matt went back to the club and found it on a chair now that its cloaking device had run out of steam. Oh, and parking was very easy, some kind of football tournament on, hope it lasts.

Swiss clash

My useless gunners

Julian was coming over for another large Italian Wars game and I chose the Battle of Fornovo from the Furioso Supplement, it looked quite interesting and we had, just, enough units to fight it. I was a bit dubious about the outcome as the French army is vastly outnumbered in cavalry and artillery and had to march the length of the table to escape off the far end, also Julian is not as docile as the real Italian commanders, but it looked worth a try.

Fornovo and river Taro

French baggage

The battle opened with the Italian light cavalry on their right fording the river Taro and aiming to cause some trouble for my Vanguard, elsewhere the enemy all moved towards the river. I turned my cavalry towards the enemy along with the Swiss and kept my other pike blocks and baggage train moving towards safety a long way away. the Scots again dashed forward and although they destroyed the Stradiots they could not budge the mounted crossbowmen behind them and this fight dragged on all afternoon and saved the enemy artillery line from a crushing charge from Albany, I was miffed. My Swiss hit the enemy Landsknechts and again this fight went back and forward before the Swiss were victorious but badly blooded, again I had lost precious time, for a moment it looked like I would win here before the Italians organised but a nearby cavalry unit was destroyed and my hopes were dashed.

Run away!

Italian Army

Enemy at the river

First attempts to cross

As the Italian pressure mounted I had to turn my Old Band pikes towards the enemy while the desperately slow baggage train trundled along, I had given up all hope of making it off the battlefield, but if I could yet cause some loss to the enemy I might salvage something. As my Old Band hit the Venetian Militia my high hopes were dashed, Alencon was pushed back. Italian cavalry were now all across the river and moving to flank my pike blocks, cut off the road and grab the baggage train, all was lost. I called a halt to the slaughter.

Old Band vs Venetian Militia

Italian view

Chaos reigns but looks good

The battle the way it is presented in this scenario I would think is nigh on impossible for the French to win unless all they do is storm along the road before the enemy manage to cross the Taro and even then half of the army would have to turn and fight. Nevertheless it looked really good on the table and we had a very enjoyable day fighting it, I do have the Helion book on Fornovo but didn't find the time to do my own research, I will now and see if there is a better way to fight it rather than the objective being to run off the table, perhaps have the French already turned and awaiting the assault. Julian beat me in the dice war and my units surprisingly had a hard time winning and winning quickly despite the odds being in their favour, the Scots are gaining a reputation and that of my Swiss took a bit of a knock, the army seemed to have no heart in this game.

Once again I have arquebusiers ready to join the army, I am done for now painting shot units, I have enough now, I do have a couple more packs but I am arquebust out. I have Gendarmes and heavy cavalry in the pile and not sure I will do those either, I might have a break and catch up on that 250/1 halftrack I did recently and add some baggage to the sides, I also have some scatter bits and pieces given as a gift from mate Matt in darkest Somerset which need work.

I have sent away for my first 3D vehicle, it is one which I cannot get a kit of although Warlord Games does a resin one, but I wanted the one with the machine gun on it, what is it you ask, you will see in the fullness of time.

Right, it has been a full day and I have another training game of Furioso at the club next week with Stewart.