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