Henry the VIII and Francis I (fictional) clash - The BIG SUNDAY GAME (28mm, Pike & Shotte)
It was time again to let the Renaissance minis out as John's Henry VIII army is nearly finished and needed to be tested! I offered my French part of my collection as a sparring partner, what could possibly go wrong. We built up a nice terrain on a 8x6 table and I let John built up a camp first - right in the middle, not knowing where the French and Swiss would come charging at him. He would deploy first with the English, then me with the French within 12" of any English unit and then he would have the first turn. The one with the less casualties wins ...
My Swiss were poised to the south to crash like a thunder into the gap in the wall of the English camp. BUT they didn't move! NOT for three turns, sacre bleu! Thus giving away my only hope to win and to break into the formidable fortress of Bouloge-Sur-Bierre. Piecemeal attack at best, my light guns were ineffective and thus easily picked off by the English. One gun even exploded!
The French cavalry attack though was the opposite, short sharp and successful. But it left them dispersed over the hills, I had difficulties to get them into the fight.
The Landsknechts of both sides of the Imperial borders gave a bad war... but just took it to a draw.
Which was to be the conclusion of the main battle at large. The first separate attacks were too exhaustive and piecemeal and the following fights mostly were draws that could have gone either way. My cavalry superiority failed to hit home as they were enjoying the country side of Flanders apparently - so we ended the battle with a cordial draw.
John defended the camp stoic with his newly recruited (painted) troops, who could not capitalise on a victory, but weren't defeated either!!
We all had a lot of fun and I am looking forward to see more of this Henry VIII on the table...
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| Initial set up - the Swiss come from the south |
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| The French King with the Bande Neri from the east |
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| Boulogne-Sur-Bierre with the English King |
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| The first attack of the Swiss ... or not |
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| Something must have gone wrong with the payment! |
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| ... as they failed to move ... |
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| ... for the first three turns ... |
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| Henry's border reivers were surrounded quickly by the French Gendarmes |
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| Only the Landsknechts (Black Bands vs Bavarians) seemed eager for a fight ... |
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| A pensive John thinking about his cavalry predicament ... |
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| Still no real advance of the Swiss ... |
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| Then the first Swiss attack reaches the palisades! |
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| The Swiss hesitate ... mon dieu! |
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| The bad war of the landsknechts is inconclusive ... |
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| A Mexican stand-off with large pikes! |
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| The Swiss wave slowly coming in ... |
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| The a French gun explodes! |
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| And the second wave of Swiss is in the camp!! Victory!! |
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| Surely the English will concede defeat after this ... |
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| The shooting is fierce... |
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| The English horse is melting away ... |
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| but the landsknechts are so weaken by the bad war ... |
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| ... that every thing comes to a stand still ... |
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| The French Horse is victorious ... but dispersed ... |
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| Only the Schwyzer are in the camp ... |
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| But Black Adder turns against them with fresh troops ... |
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| Everybody is shaken and clinging on ... |
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| Bouloge-Sur-Bierre is still in English hands ... |
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| The Swiss and Black Adder clash ... |
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| The first Swiss wave ... the Berner waivering ... |
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| No impetus left for the final push ... |
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| Boulogne-Sur-Bierre stays if fiercely contested in English hands. |
Great looking game Michael, the 1540s are a real gold mine of scenarios for the wargames table!
ReplyDeleteThank you Oli! Next year the SESWC want me to do a demo game on some Scottish conventions ... I'm torn between 7YW, Italian Wars and German Peasant War ... hmm, decisions...
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