Marignano 1515, September the 13th - The Duel of the Giants

28mm, Pike and Shotte, Great Italian Wars it was again and nothing less than the slaughter at Marignano. Bart played the underdog cavalry of Maximilian Sforza, while Daniel played the rearguard of the Swiss and Mike the CinC (and the Gewalthaufen/ main guard) and the vanguard of the Reislaeufers. The rather over-eloquent French were Peter as CinC, Mike (MDF) as the Duke of Bourbon and Alisdair as the Cavalry (D‘Alencon, de la Marck AND Bayard!!! all in one!).

Both had an extra command (Bayard and Cardinal Schiner) that could enhance a command permanently OR function as a extra commander. The Swiss were immune to blunder from turn 1-4, had an extra 6 plus points they could spent on command rolls AND two "engineers" that could turn French lost (medium or heavy) guns.

I told the crew/audience/punters that this would be a hard and bloody fight - after turn 6, night would creep in and command, visibility, fire and melee would get increasingly more difficult. I shalt not worry!

The Swiss won the initiative and pressed forward the maximum just right after timetable. The Italians blundered and didn't move. Then the French began to fire and one of their medium guns blew off.
On the right flank Mike let the Vanguard do a hedgehog and bottlenecked the French cavalry effectively as Peter was busy to maneouvre around them for the rest of the game.

On the other flank it didn't look better for the French. Even though Alisdair was the only one who used the add. command correctly, he also had massive manouverability issues and nothing much going apart from one Italian horse unit - Well done! But Bart had also successfully bottlenecked/blocked the French right flank. It looked quite good for the Swiss at that point ...

But in the centre Mike and Daniel progressed quite quickly but not quick enough. They also lost their screen cover of their pike block and could not get in to the French camp quick enough. The French lost an additional Siege gun (got shot away by Daniel - thats the way to do that!!) - BUT in the end  the crossbows and arquebusiers of the King did it - The  big main guard Swiss pike block and then the vanguard fell (short sharp shots, 1 over stamina break test mandatory and both rolled low!!) - game over in turn 4!!! (the French turns were exceptionally painfully slow due to overthinking (or beer?) So that broke the Swiss morale 2 thrids of their plocks were gone, the Italians wanted to go home as well, and the next day there would be the Venetians anyhow ... a well earned French victory.

The Swiss still had some command points left and didn't used the extra command as they might should have, but to be fair Mike was a bit under the weather.

Point wise: 17 points for the French vs 4 points for The Swiss. (the Venetians would not be needed at all!)

I thought a poster would be nice ... for the non-gaming audience ... 

The time/turn table ... I shouldn‘t be too worried with my folks though ...

The French centre with camp and small walls ... and a tiny rivulet/stream ...

The Swiss vanguard or Captn Steiner

Francis I left flank

The vanguard and the mainguard are well off into the field ...

But the Francis‘s cavalry tries to circumvent these reislaeufer!

The gendarmes d‘ordonnance

Then a French gun blew off (double 1 !!!)

still the French artillery crew gave them hell

the fatal 4th turn

Monsieur d‘Alencon still just about on the board

The Sforza still didn't move or flinch

The main attack of the centre

a French gun got shot down! 

The Pikes got the full heat of the French

D‘Alencon still no move at all -  too noble 

one second the main Swiss are there ....

the next its just Uli and his gun engineer ... ouch! 

The French pike was just decor, the gun was broken but the Arquebusiers killed the rear guard of the Swiss

Only one Swiss pike block left in hedgehog formation  .... hmmmm 

the minute the rearguard got shot to pieces ...

The battle map

the few extra useful/scenario rules

the Swiss and Italian stats 

The Swiss stats  rest

The French stats

King Francis I stats

Sticky Miranda at Ebro 1814

This weeks game was 28mm, Black Powder 2, Bart had prepared a Napoleonic alternative history scenario in the middle of Spain (Alas I have no clues about the historical references or what was left of them in this alternative out set). French and British would arrive at the same time on a road fork, the British trying to escape over the bridge (getting points for each unit) while the French were trying to prevent that. Me and Alisdair played the Wellington schnitzels while Bart and Peter were fighting for a French empire or a free Poland or both.

The start was better than anticipated, even though we weren't getting as far as we should. I had devised a plan again to sacrifice the normal line brigade and while the cavalry held the road open as long as possible our elites would march into town (and over the bridge ultimately). The cavalry just marched on into the village not reaching their defensive positions. Next the French-Polish cavalry charged in - Ouch! Squares were formed, but the enemy artillery was already in spectacular (as in view) positions ... Then I hit the blunder button, my elite brigade scrambled everything up, ready to be scooped up by French horse or guns or attack column. From then it just went downhill really, so that we just decided to reach the town and stay for bit of a fight ... that was when the time was running out.

It was a magnificent game witch spectacular miniature collections (Barts French-Polish and Peters Brits) a real big Napoleonic bash, what could one ask for more? Next time though I should stay with Herr v. Clausewitz and stop making plans, they don't survive the first minutes of battle (even the table top ones) anyway! :)

The French competition

The British lot

Look how far we‘ve got 

... and the enemy!

The British cavalry really wants to go home!

We might just sneak by ...

pretending they not there ... 

our sacrificial line with the gun adjactent ...

Boom! What was that? ... a blunder ...

the last strugglers  will defend the village

The horse gun keeping the entry to the village open by sheer mind force!

again the "Sacrificial lamb brigade" firing at the incoming punters 

end of game no ones leaving this town soon! More tapas then, hey!

The Austrians are coming - The Deutschmeister Regiment

Its been a looong time since  I posted newly painted regiments. Mainly amongst other reasons I was painting SYW Russians whos uniforms look all the same anyhow... but now as I succumb to the Habsburg bug yet again (Yep, I count the Great Italian Wars Landsknechts under Maximilian/ Charles V to the Habsburgs as well!), I paint the Seven Years War Austrians.

My first regiment were the IR 1 the "Kaiser" Regiment which were quite  generic in their uniform a bit red the rest white, white and more white ...

Therefore the second had to be somewhat different! I choose the Deutschmeister, IR 4 (I know the numbering came later, but its useful). The Name stuck after their first colonel Franz Ludwig, Duke of Bavaria, who was actually a Hochmeister Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order, the "Deutsch-ritterorden", hence the name. From their regimental history it becomes quite clear that they quickly became distiguished, a Leib-regiment, they fought the Turks and along with Prinz Eugene from Savoy, they pop up all the way through the main theatres from 1700 onwards.

So I made the decision to paint them a bit differently. The Austrians regulated and re-organised their appearance of their army at the end of the war (1762), basically to make them more"uniform", but also to save money - Maria Theresia was (or still was) like most of her allies and opponents more or less broke. So all the colourful trousers and  coats insides dissapear and all we have left is (coloured) cuffs and lapels only with some pompoms on the hat to distinguish. What I realised then was that most of the suppliers sell the later variant (with the pompoms) which is funny as it just covers the last two years. So out with the dremel and and in dark blue they got drenched, my Deutschmeister would wear the "old" unifrom!

The regiment distinguished themselves at the Battle of Kolin 1757 for repulsing the Prussian Line. Also Major Count Johan Soro with a battalion of grenadiers repeatedly attacked, despite having received a shot in the leg, he remained at the head until he fainted. The brought him back to the field lazarett were he again clear returned back to the regiment, where he finally lost his leg through a cannonball! - So I decided to let him be the leader of that regiment and "dremeled" his right leg to a "wooden" one. I somewhat know that I need such dedication in my new Austrian army, haha!

Also as my regiments need 24 minis and  I wanted to field them in Austrian Succession style AND Seven Years (after Lobositz) style I added a 4x4 of Grenadiers. (It also Gives ma a good excuse to raise 5 regiments to have a single Grenadier one ... I know ...)

the whole lot

The command base with Count Soro in the front, in the back a generic command base

The Grenadiers upfront

The Grenadiers back

Austrian war of Successions modus of deployment

Seven Years war modus of deplyment

The Battle of Soggy Bottom somewhere in England shortly before they killed a King

This week it was 28mm, For King & Parliament, Peter and Campbell, and somesort of a warm up for the upcoming big sunday game a la Edgehill. So Campbell, Mike and Alisdair and Mike were defending the rights of parliament while Bart, me and Peter managed the Kings expectations cavalier like. Bart had the left Horse wing while Peter the right Horse, I was managing the centre and came up with a plan (how German I know ...): an inverted Cannae -  I would march forward and attack while the two flanks stay behind just to wait for the enemy to attack my flanks that they in turn could attack theirs. ... plans...

Bart waited assiduously, while Peter pressed forward nevertheless. I did my part of the plan, made some more or less successful attacks, but then Campbell cavalry saw the gap and charged my veterans in the flank. Bart was too far away to react, maybe he waited on a written invitation, but nevertheless in these rules a flank attack is always fatal. And so the veterans perished, and so the next unit, and the next as well ... a sweeping disaster. 3 out of 5 blocks were gone.

Then I advanced with me untested and greenies and shot Campbells Horse to mud! At least I revenged the loss of my line. But I shalt not fear as for the rest of the game they hold the line vs Mikes six blocks and a gun on a hill. Barts cavalry manoeuvres were a mystical mistery and probably made sense only to himself but he managed to wound Cromwell and exchanged his flank against Campbells.

So it was just down to Peter vs Alisdair and MDF Michael ... well It didn‘t went too well and at the end of the night my greenies still held the line, but lost via points/coins and had more losses than the roundheads so we lost. Even though the simplest of plans are obviously impossible in these club games, I still had a tremendously fun evening!

Guten Abend!

The initial set up

Barts guns towards the Roundheads

My Royal Veterans

My whole brigade

Ammunition ready

Marching forward

still marching forward

the first time we ever did a volley & charge attack of the veterans ...

...it didn't changed much

Then Campbell's Horse swiped the veterans and two other cleanly from the plate

... and another

until my greenies were all that was left