On May the 14th near Agnadello shortly after 1509

This time the league of Whisky was refighting the Venetian‘s Waterloo at Agnadello at 1509.

We played Pike& Shotte with some changes and upgrades. Me and Bart and Donald fought for the French King while Jack and Campbell and Michael (jumping in for Bill) for Serenissima, and of course Angus as the Lagoon CinC! It was a jolly good show and had the same outcome of the historical original.

I switched the overall command to Alviano and gave Pitigliano a miserable 7 as staff rating, to simulate his indecisiveness. Other than that  I gave them more Stradioti than were in the whole Balkan. Then the French advanced, Donald was the King and CinC and Bart had all the cavalry he could wish for! I led my Landsknechts into the middle and sunk them there as a hedgehog with some crossbows drawing all Venetian fire at me - but to no avail. Because if you want to break a block you have to have something to sweep it away, but the Italians thought they could defend the hills and that would be it. Far from it!

The Stradioti who could have hunted down our artillery "caracoled" my landsknechts more or less in vain. The Italian Pike was 90% of the game static on the hill, as and when they came down, their Horse were already run into the mud. The French just fought with their Heavy horse together with the shotte! Crossbow bolts from the Gascogne disrupted the Romagnol Pike block that sent the Venetian flank into the Adria, from then on it was almost historical!

(Our) Renaissance battles can unravel very quickly and if one leaves one combat arm standing around it will come back at you hauntingly. Its almost too difficult to work them together, but it pays off when they do!!!

But the best thing is when you are winning by doing nothing!

Hardware:
Minis painted and provided by me, Angus Jack and Donald (but moulded and sold by Perrys, Foundry and Old Glory), hills and terrain by me and the club, flags by Flags of War, Pete‘s Flags and myself, Pavises decorations by myself, courtesy of Jack and Angus finishing.

View from the Black bunch, mercenaries of the French King

And their Venetian opponents, Romagnols Pikers and the crossbows behind Pavises 

The Balkan Stradioti and Italian Militia Pikes

The Italian Horse moves, Pitigliano marches! 

The initial deployment, pretty much, with the golden Markus lion in the back

The wild Albanians attacking!

The Kings Landsknechts and the Gascoigne Crossbow form a Hedgehog 

Serenissimas allerlei is rumbling forward

While the Italian centre stays on the hill and fires on 

The Stradioti part the French right in the centre

The Albanians surround the Landsknechte

The Lanza Spezi are forming 

The Gendarmes d‘Ordonnance and the Archers are gaining momentum 

French and Italian Gendarmes for the King!

Meanwhile in the centre The Gascongnacs are shooting their bolts

And are disordering the Romagnol Pike block right in front of the Kings Archers 

The Gendarmes of both sides clash!

French Nobility against Venetians 

French Archers crashing merciless into and disordered pike block ... 

On the French left similar the Gendarmes sweeping up the Italian Horse

Mid-battle with all the clashes

The Romagnol Pike is destroyed, vade Serenissima!

Slowly the Venetians are pushed back ... 

The Stradioti disorder the landsknechts but leave them to be ... 

On the left flank the same, the stradioti pepper but they do not attack 

The Venetian right flank is falling!

The last fight with some French Archers 

The Centre does not move! And faces all shots ... 

Point of view from the Italian hills ... let the Pike march! 

Maybe with a little help of the Fugger ... 

the Light guns of Lorraine aim at the last Venetian positions 

Still the Stradioti ... in vain ...

At the end the King is still standing

The original deployment

The incursion of the Norman-Viking hordes into Wild Eastphalia shortly after 893

The Lord was not with us that day! Firstly, he turned my black magic box made by nikon blind (batteries were empty, so forgive me, as I have to rely on images shot by opponents and by-standers) and then we were overrun by Bart‘s bearded masses!!

Bart and myself, we had a little bashing with our Viking-Norman-East-Franconian-Ottonian hordes, and I use hordes here only to describe Barts army of Vikings and Normans ... my Ottonians still lack men power! We had a re-run of the Hail Caesar rules ... still learning ... still learning ...

So in a few words:

I crushed his medium cavalry and slew the rest of his riders and exhausted my knights on his Viking elite. Barts‘s counter attack of his last riders ended badly and killed his main man. Then I tried to stem the viking foot wave with and all out attack ... but it was not to be ... at least not my heavy foot knights. None of my feudal retinue were following, so the last ditch-before-10-O‘clock-attack bounced off the Viking wall like a ping pong ball thrown by an asthmatic hamster. The inevitable was here.

Even the prayers of my dirty priest-monk were in vain! Bei Belphegor, I should throw the HRE into paganism again!!! ... but then what would be the world of wargaming without proper curses ...

Bart‘s review:
http://asienieboje.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/hail-caesar-dark-age-again.html

Disclaimer: No god(s) or other other-worldy entities or creator(s) of all masterplans or universes were hurt or dispelled during or in the process of this review of the former events.

The clash of the Dark Age lords ...

Action on the bridge, behind the flag the monk is hiding ...

Attack and counter attack clash!

In the meantime on the other side of the river ...

The Ottonian Cavalry is charging ...

The situation befor the last all out attack ...

The knights of Swabia and Mainz 

... and their last charge against the Viking elite 

The situation at the beginning ...

Work in progress

You know those times when they just seem to play the games you never really fully fancied at your club, and the fact that some old grumpits are moaning about finishing figures ... and the weather and politics are not getting any better either ... this is time to indulge in some painting, a cup of tea, some electronically distorted guitar music, a daylight lamp, brushes, a razor blade and acryllic paint pots ... hmmm!

So here we are ... some more 10mm Prussians I did more Infantry just to get into the groove. The research for the flags though is a pain in the posterior, to be honest. Looking fwd for the older regiments as they just had the bare poles ...  The corps leader v. Alvensleben get two ACs, the division leaders just one.

Then I just bought some figures from Drabant minis, and I must say, what beauties they are nicely sculpted ... they are obviously a bit bigger than the Perry‘s, but hey to throw some variety into the mix. Then I upgraded my Ottonian mob with some milites from Perry and Gripping Beast. And indulged myself with some early old fashioned self painted heraldry.

At last the naval race is at its end! On the 1/6000 for the Guns of August game I finished the Royal Navy and the Highsea Fleet. Obviously such numbers, in the game a squadron a piece, will only achieved, if both governments have the luxury to spent their entire budget on naval expansion ...

Baron von Buddenbrock, Generalleutnant von Stülpnagel and Generalleutnant Constantin von Alvensleben

8th Brandenburg Infantry regiment, No. 64 minus a stand 

Some more Artillery ...

The corps general and the 5th Cav. Div. with the black skull Hussars in the back 

Drabant miniatures, Norman archers and crossbow men

The Drabant giants next to a Perry priest

Some generic Ottonian milites

The ancestors of the Saxon, Henry the Lion

The lower Swabian / Palatine  milites

Some more...

The duke of Westphalia and the banner of the city of Mainz

The German High sea Fleet Pre-dreadnaughts

The Royal Navy and the German HSF 

Some action at Calais ...

Hunting the huns ...