I promised you Swiss so, ...
This time it was Pavia, or a smaller version of it. So we scrapped the whole park and exchanged the castle Mirabello for a Landsknecht camp protected by gabbions. The French Cavalieri on the left of the light woods (pike blocks could pass them), the Bande Neri coming up from "south" and the Berner and Schwyzer from the left. The Imperials are just through the breached wall and the fog has lifted. Donald played the French (because he was late and deserved it) and me and Angus played the Imperials.
The first two turns were rather shameful for both commanders, as a lot of failures and blunders kept the armies mere stumbling fowards. Some Argulets bashed heads with Stradioti rather uneventful. The Imperials finally pushed out of their bottle neck and attacked the Swiss - and were hacked to death. The French King had to rather a troublesome time to get his Knights on the table again after blunder and blunder again.
Suddenly the French Halberdiers entered the camp and claimed it - where as the Spanish Swordsmen jumped over the fence (sorry gabbions) and eradicated the French and claimed the camp for the Kaiser Karl V, hurrah!
Meanwhile the second gigantic Landsknecht block managed to charge the menacing Swiss with their Spanish allies. An very Bad War (hack and slay!) ensued and the Swiss were splattered round the field.
The Black Bande entered the camp and the badly wounded Spanish could only retreat - little "Mirabello" was again in French hands! At this point the French cavalry with the guns made a rather unwelcome appearance at the "southern" table edge - the French were back! The guns in front of the Imperial Men-at-arms! Attack, Freunde der Nachtmusik! But they stopped just within grapeshot range ... hm.
... and at this point Donald had to pull the plug and we hide the surely ensuing massacre, turning the German noblesse into an heap of "Blech"(tin) and blood, behind a noble curtain of gentleness.
The French lost more men, but got kept the objective (the camp - our 3rd rate "Castle Mirabello") so even if Angus claimed the morale victory over the Swiss, we surly can say it was a well deserved French victory.
A wonderful "Gemetzel" a la carte.
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| The initial set up, French to the left, down and right. |
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| View from the Black Band |
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| View from north of the French Cavalry line |
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| The imperial bottle neck left of the woods |
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| The Spanish are supporting the Imperial advance |
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| A half pint of IPA featuring as Torre del Gallo |
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| The French are coming!!! |
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| The initial clash of the pikes |
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| First skirmishers in the camp |
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| The Imperial push forward and enter the camp and slaughter the "Halberdiers" (played here by Doppelsöldner) |
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| The initial Imperials attack against the ever victorious Swiss! |
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| Mayhem in the camp |
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| But the Swiss sent one large pike block of Landsknechte into the ground - dead. |
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| Th Black Band enters the camp |
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| The French "Scharfmetzen" make piece meal out of the Imperial Light Cavalry |
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| The united Imperials charge the Swiss! |
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| The Landsknechte suffer a Bad War indeed! |
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| ... But sent the Swiss home or better into the mud! The battlefield is ours |
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| but the "Bande Neri" has got the camp. |
A lot of actions and a great looking game as always...gorgeous!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, indeed! Yep, I overheard some discussions of others to built up other Great Italian War armies that night ... there is hope, there is always hope. :)
DeleteReally great game, and funny that the French won rather than the Imperialists - It obviously wasn't a case of "All is lost save honour" for Francis this time!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yep, to make matters worse (for the Imperials) the French had a bad starting position and blundered two times ...
ReplyDelete