Last Thursday we decided to play 28mm, Pike&Shotte, French and Italian Wars, I said we but old Angus lazily didn‘t read my e-mail and forced after, a miserable whinging tantrum, half of my miniatures off the table (unforgivable for any red blooded wargamer!). For "more room to maneouvre", which in the end we didn‘t, as you do not get the Napoleonics out of this lot.
So Angus and Bart (who claimed Verona, he wore a Verona T-shirt, as Pro-Venice ???) were on the side of Venice and on the other side, me, Mike and Alisdair were fighting for good old Maximillian, to restore a German North Italian Kingdom.
This battle proved to be the firsts in many things, firstly Angus actually did move with his Venetians (and that also successfully) and secondly Barts cavalry superiority was broken by Mikes gallantly charge of the Imperial Horse.
So the Cavalry formations duly advanced to the middle ground and first fights started to erupt. In the centre it was just the usual shooting and standing and waiting until something happened.
I charged Angus cavalry and lost and he charged back and I lost more and from there it pretty much unravelled and went downhill, as I couldn‘t let go to charge still - stupid, but fun. In the end my complete flank (including the officer) was eliminated and left Alisdair is a somewhat pickeled situation - sorry, Alisdair, it wasn‘t your fault!
On the other side we had seismic event as well, as Bart‘s usual cavalry charge did not plan out as he probably hoped for. Mike beat him, but could not capitalise on his success for the sake of the whole battle. In the end as the opposing forced encircled the doomsday awaiting Landsknechts in the middle, I supposed a daring "follow me" charge including the Emperor! I know you shouldn‘t involve royals in combat, but it was at the end of our time that night so ... well another devastating miserable dice rolling ended the life of Maximillian and his dreams of a northern Kingdom of Italy. We got utterly beaten to the last man. Congratulations to the Venetians!
Scenario and Venetian forces by Alsheimer Angus, except some few arquebusiers from Bart, which made their first appearance and promptly killed the Kaiser!
Imperial forces by me.
... maybe I need a weekend game of Italian Wars next time ...
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| The Venetian Carroccio |
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| Bart‘s Veronese Flank |
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| My Imperial right flank |
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| Mike‘s Imperial left flank |
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| Alisdair‘s Imperial centre |
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| My German Gendarmes d‘Ordonnance |
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| The imperial guns with a view to Venice |
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| Angus Stradioti and some |
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| The start of the collapse of my flank |
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| The Spezis form the lagoon surrounding the rest of my Horse |
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| The Venetian centre behind Pavises of my own design ... |
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| Mike‘s Pike and Doppelsöldner |
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| Alisdairs Pike and gun |
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| The hand of God (and the devil, uncertain in the background) |
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| Mike‘s Imperial Gendarmes d‘Ordonnance take on the Men-at-arms of Venice |
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| ... which were led by Bart ... but to no avail ... |
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| Alisdairs Pike in Hedgehog already and still the dices are rolling ... |
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| Angus Horse surrounding the centre due to the non-existence of my flank |
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| is a hedgehog on its own really safe? |
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| ... not in front of so much guns and crossbows ... |
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| Even Mike's success vs Bart's Cavalry (!!!) didn‘t elevate the situation |
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| The last all out charge with the Emperor ... went wrong – finis! |
Once again, most impressive units, so beautiful and so colorful! Great report with a bloody end!
ReplyDeleteThank you for that compliment, Phil! Yet, I have the totally irrational and unfounded intuition that I need more landsknechts ... or better ... gendarmes ... maybe ... steel fists miniatures ... I‘ll have to talk to my Santa Claus ...
DeleteI agree about the fate of my cavalry, however at the end I pushed back Mike's cavalry and happily everything finished well (but was close, very close to some kind of disaster). It was second time on the table for my arquebusiers. Finally Verona been always ally to the Venetia! (very nice city by the way).
ReplyDeleteHm, Verona, don‘t know about that, mate ..." ...From 1490 to 1516, the city was in the power of the Emperor Maximilian I, who aimed to make it the capital of the renewed German kingdom in northern Italy. ... With the treaty of Brussels (December 1516), Maximilian gave the city to his grandson Charles V of Spain, who in turn ceded it to France ..." ;)
DeleteFor a shotlrt period of time (1509 -16) was under occupation of Max. It even suffered the plague during that period. In 1517 it returned to the Venetia. Anyway it is Venetian Lion in the city centre not imperial eagle. ;)
DeleteGreat lookinhg game Michael. Are the chickens and the pig counters for something?
ReplyDeleteThanks Oli! Well, the chickens were part of Angus‘ sort of pseudo-objective, or table embellishment rebellion or maybe an old medieval taunt, who knows, or maybe he was just hungry ... ;)
DeleteHaha! A great renaissance addition whatever role they are playing!
DeleteLovely looking game, the Venetians have to win occasionally! Great figures, criminal to remove figures before a game! I know what you mean I've just primed up about 100 landsknechts that I don't really need and some steel fist gendarmes,ditto,but what can I say I'm weak and they were relatively cheap from colonel bills!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain! Exactly my point, the more the merrier especially in this era! aaach, the Steel Fist Gendarmes ... I don‘t need them either ... I already have more than historically acceptable ... in a small game ... but maybe ... one day ... there might be a large game ... then they might come in handy ...
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