No mercy for the Swiss (Pike & Shotte)

Grützi all mitternand! We are the Swiss, we advance, we attack, we – autsch!

Bart was playing the French and Swiss, while me and Paul (the Greek) played the German-Spanish imperialists (as we were testing my tuned Pike& Shotte rules). The deployment was straight and comfortable, some heavy guns, four pike blocks each and six horse units and some small units – with all I could possible carry, miniature wise. 

Test Question: How is it, with more blocks on the table?

Guns were placed behind some gabbions in the centre on each side, Cavalry on the flanks, the rest march on! First Bart didn't get to move a lot, both sides came closer, Paul was following his cunning plan with his Gendarmes on the German right flank to get famous. 

My Arquebusiers were getting punished and had to retreat, Bart started picking up my guns with his heavy guns, we had to act swiftly!

Then I rolled 4 or 5 successful orders and had my left flank re-grouped and advanced right in front of the Swiss in one turn, haha, that's tactical superior manoeuvrability for you philistines!

But then Bart's Swiss attacked – my Spanish swordsmen, which were trained in the pit fights of the streets of Granada, only for this purpose! I rolled good enough to sent them home, back to Bern!

And then just like in some eastern nuclear reactor, the two critical masses (Swiss and Landsknechte) were to close for comfort and clashed. What a Bad War! And no quarters were given! I have to apologize, it was getting that thrilling, that I forgot to take pictures. The Spanish swords were worth they weight in gold and also IF the Swiss and the Landsknechte do clash, the Swiss do have not automatically the upperhand. I can‘t blame my dice rolls, but we managed to clash back with both sides shaken. 

If we would have had more time, all our mercenary troops would need to be rallied and possibly faced the danger of going home. Even I killed one unit of French Gendarmes and a Swiss pike block against against one destroyed German Gendarme unit, so we called it a draw.

To answer the initial test question: Awsome! Truly Awsome!

The more units, the more complicated it gets to prevent to the battle sliding into a chain-reaction of clashes. And we also had a glimpse into the typical Renaissance, papers, scissors rock tactics.

Awsome! ...

The Landsknechte are gathering

The Stradioti before the Gendarme d'Ordonnance

The imperial left flank

The French Gendarme d'Ordonnance on the other flank

The French nobility advances

The Swiss centre

The German advance into the centre

The inevitable clash of the gendarmes

followed by an Swiss pike attack on the Spanish Swordsmen hmm..

... and loosing the fight

The shaken and disorientated French gendarmes get blasted by the Spanish small gun

in the centre bad war errupts between six blocks