1505 - the (fictionale) Battle at the Road to the Villa at the Little Pond of Como.

28mm, Early Renaissance, Pike & Shotte V1, my and Bart collection, with me as the French and Tim and Bart as the German Imperials.

It was this time of the year again, when we all agreed we needed a long and large Renaissance table to bash some beautiful metal.

The Imperials had built up  a camp at a strategic important road, when the King of France decided to take it on and beat the Imperials to later become Imperator himself... so basically a story of envy between the two houses of Habsburg and Valois - Jeez!

The Imperials won the initiative but let the French go first. Thats when the rot began: my Swiss didn't move the usual fast. The Italian left flank didn't move at all. And the overwhelmingly good French gendarmes d'Ordonnance, only one unit charged and was repulsed - Ouch! From thereon my dice rolling was getting worse and Tims and Barts were getting better.

The large Landsknechts block blocked my Italian left flank, while they decided not to push too fast and trundle around. The Swiss finally got stuck in but it was piecemeal attack and the superior Imperial big guns blow them to cinders.

On the right flank my French Gendarmes were setting a new high record for cataclysmic bad performance! If they would not have had the d3 combat resolution, they would have been destroyed after the second turn. Tim really worked the German Horse to his advantage. Even as he failed one counterattack and I gained somewhat lost territory back ... it was too little too late.

The French were comprehensively beaten, unit wise 4 vs 7, the camp wasn't even scratched, let alone somebody was in there as even all the defender decided to come out and join the hacking and slaying!

A well deserved victory for the Germans - an abysmal shame for the French King - no Imperial crown for you in the next forseeable time...

The German gendarmes on the hill before the woods

The French counter part

The initial set up - French left vs German right

The Centre of the imperials

The imperial camp

And the left large Landsknecht pike block

The French advance ... or some don't ...

The Germans stay put.

The French reach the road - high tide ...

The Schwyzer -don't move...

The Bande Neri holds ...

The first French Gendarmes get repulsed ??? ...

Mexican stand of in Metal on horses ...

The French pike block is getting charged

The Berner (Swiss) decide to charge!

The French cavalry ... gets it ...

it doesn't look too good ...

Well the road is now contested ...

The Berner getting it as well the Schwyzer are joining too late ...

And the Italians ... where is my left flank?

Each brigade fights on its own ...

The road isn't French anymore ...

Yeah the Italians ... didn't move ...

Just their horses ...

The swiss centre is faltering ...

The gendarmes are struggling ...

There is a hole now in my centre ...

THE counterattack of my gendarmes ...

I massacred one German Gendarmes unit!

The road is still not French ...

Horses seem to stand off ...

The last Swiss charge ...

Ah, yes and the Italians didn't move ...

The Fugger stopp the Swiss ...

my Gascoignes getting deleted ...

The end of the last turn ... as if nothing has happened ... why bother?

1813 - The long Bridge - Fictional Napoleonic battle - Austrians vs Franco-Poles

 It was time for a 28mm, Napoleonic Black Powder 2 game!

Bart and Alistair and Campbell were fighting with Barts collection for that Bonaparte, while me and Tim and Bart (the younger but also Polish) were fighting for the true Emperor Franz with my 28mm Austrians.

We both had around 800pts agreed beforehand: I had a grenadier brigade a veteran Hungarian brigade and a Grenzer brigade, plus a light cavalry and a heavy cavalry brigade, each commander was topped up to command 8 - in return my brigades were just 3 units big... including the guns - very brittle.

The field was a little river and a bridge with two BUAs next to it on each side - box standard - basically who had the bridge wins ...

First the Frenchies rushed forward to the river and shot at us ... then we moved and hrrm more or less successful forward. Then Alisdairs Guns blundered and rushed over the river limbered... ouch! Tim and Bart the younger charged forward. Then in our centre, my guards and Grenadiers moved forward - both armies were basically lining up next to the river...

Then Bart the older charged my village (BUA) and failed and broke and ripped a big hole into his line - Huzzah! Tim was even charging Alisdairs square and nearly broke it! Campbell charged and failed to break Bart the younger. For the record, Bart the older "considered" retreat!!! it looked abysmal for the Poles. We should have then stayed and shot the F... out of them, but ...

But then Tim charged with the Hungarian out of the Woods and failed a break test that followed - then Bart counter-attacked my brittle Grenadiers and wiped them out ... we basically missed a complete centre - a victory ripped out of our hands that can only happen to Austrians ... a very long and eventful battle that could have gone either way - but ended Austrian- style ...

We will do it again, same style and win the war anyway, hehe.

Joke aside, the Austrian cavalry and the shooting was not to be trifled with, but then we lost again by attacking, hahaha! Bring the Austrians to attack and you win...

Initial set up

Barts Polish Uhlans

The French centre

My Austrian Chevauxlegers ...

The grenadiers and the Hungarian veterans

Our centre advanced!

Tims heavy cuirassiers take a bite off Alisdairs  guns ...

Bart the younger is making problems for Campbell

The gap where ones Poles were after they attacked my house ...

Barts counterattack after already Tim lost his Hungarian brigade ...

... we stopped it there. :)

1941 - End of September - a clear sky, robust machines and no clue what to do with them ...

It was Blood Red Skies time again ... and I wanted to out my freshly painted Heinkels and Junkers on the table, PLUS it was also the first time for my FokkeWulf 190... against Tims and Barts Hurricanes, Spitfires and Mosquitos - what could go possibly go wrong?

On the wrong side of history was me and Alisdair, while Tim and Bart fought for a free Britain. We ze germans had to cross a long side of 8x6 AND Bomb two targets ( I wanna see Tim doing that... ;) ) while the British just had to shoot down bombers (haha! which they did, but just one and only because Tim did all the preparation for Bart ...)

We, errm had no plan, which isn't unusual, but explains a lot. We just advanced until we clashed. Then my fighter Ace Pip Priller, or something, shot a Mosquito down! Huzzah! But on the other side Alisdairs 4 plane FW190 squadron was taken out by Tim and Bart... he didn't had a chance, mainly because wasn't an expert in the rules... and off you go, one flanking guard gone.

Out of time reasons we had to close. everybody was moaning about the size of the table was preventing us from the real dogfight, but I would argue a bit more preparation and less squadrons would handle that quite well. I guess more than two squadrons are difficult to handle, so extra points to Alisdair for managing that!!!

A well earned British victory in the end, and next time we will try to incorporate the doctrine cards/ and or theatre cards. Maybe we do a night fighter scenario with my Ju88s, stay tuned!

The Luftwaffe at the start

The RAF at the start

The Polish Hurricanes

The bombers are coming!

The FW190s

Against the Mosquitos

And in the background the rest vs Alisdair

The "Bomber salad" in the centre

which had difficulties separating

And the battle of the unknown island

Short before the clash

Alisdairs FW squadron goes down ...

Prepping my Mosquito target

they are VERY robust ...

Clashes in the middle

And then I had my shot!!!

The mosquito went up in flames ...