1506 - The Battle of Blunders at Peroni - Great Italian Wars

In this fictional big Sunday game, me and Bart had in total three 6x4 tables to spread out our complete collections of Italian War miniatures to fight for the supremacy of a single village we dubbed after his favourite drink. We used 28mm, predominantly Foundry and Perry miniatures, and Pike&Shotte rules (with some useful rules modified). Otherwise we changes our traditional roles and he played the German Empire while I had the joy to step into the shoes of the King of France. The set up was traditional, the horses at the flanks and the blocks in the middle.

I had the 1st turn and managed to advance somewhat oblique, but my Swiss were rather foot lame as they did not  matched their reputation. Then my Italian (allied) led French horse blundered off the table. In Barts turn though, his blocks did the same. That was the time when we knew we had to count the blunders to come ... and there were many, it is almost by accident the troops were able to fight each other.

My Swiss blitz advance was rather piecemeal and I became to regret  this later. Bart could not bring his artillery into action, most of the time his troops were in front of them. And I had to learn how to fight with the best cavalry of the time on both flanks. I charged most of the time ... AFTER I shot at his cavalry and successfully disordered them!

In the end I managed to destroy his right flank and drive his left one away, but he annihilated my centre, full stop. I started the game with 4 pike blocks against 3, two of them were Swiss, and they weren‘t worth their money! To be fair Bart did a text book assault on his right centre first with Shotte and Doppelsöldner to soften up my Swiss and then went in with his remaining pike.  Irresistibly short and sharp and brutal!!

So tactical I won the flanks, but to no use as my centre was being wiped from the board. 10 units I lost vs Barts 8 - so clearly a Imperialistic victory! Congratulations, Bart! We counted 6 regular Blunders (double 6), but at least me and Bart were also blundering in some tactical sense on our own. He send a pike block in front of my heavy gun, while I pushed a pike block needlessly around in the back instead of charging in his miles wide gap which was there for an entire eternity.

Summa summarum, its was a lot of fun to dabble again after some time into the chaotic Renaissance again - and we will do it again! The big table was also a joy, the Gendarmes had now really had a field day and could actually move and charge over three moves - heaven!

The German Imperials

The Franco-Swiss army

The initial set up

The both armies collide

The italian led cavalry blundered off table

The German guns pepper the Swiss advance

The rest of the Swiss are ... further behind

The Gascoigne Crossbows aime to fire!

The Roman Swordsmen attack (further behind) ...

The French Gendarmes  prepare

The battle is in full swing ...

The German light horse charge .. ouch!

The German Gendarmes prepare to charge

The French arrive back on the field

The other German Gendarmes try to do the same ...

while the German pikes push forward

after the shot the light guns!

The Bande Neri that just shuffled around most of the time ..

The German gendarmes got peppered

But the Doppelsöldner hack the Swiss apart

While the other stand their ground

The French horse ...

... and the German horse on the hill

slaughter in the centre

The moment my light gun destroys the Nürnberger rotte

Time and again my Luzerner shotte would hit the German Gendarmes

Only to be followed up by a French gendarme charge!

But the LARGE Landsknecht block overruns the Swiss from Schwyz

The field empties itself slowy ...

The last moments of the German noblesse

There is a gap in my centre ...

The Baseler Rotte gets it!

The German right flank is no more ..

same for the left ...

But the casualties tell a different story (German to the left, French to the right)

My middle field just evaporated

And yes we counted 6 rolled blunders!

1918 - Two peaks and Lotti on fire

Two men down to the plague ... which meant that the British just had to defend with one platoon. And a tank (Mark V) and a HMG, oh good Lord! We will never win, lets give them two FTs (Renaults) additionally... Ach, those pre-battle moaners ...

Yes, you guessed correctly, it was time again for a WW1, 28mm, Through the Mud and the Blood/ Chain of Command (or short Muddy CoC). Me and Mike set up two platoons of Germans with a 77 Gun, a HMG and a A7V, named Lotti. I thought Mike was a Chain of Command veteran so I gave him the stormtrooper platoon ... hmm tactical error  ... 

Bart took his two french tanks and the Mark V and was the tank platoon, while Peter hid his infantry platoon of Tommies in the trenches trembling in fear for the huns to come.

First we just got a bit of a gun fight literally, but then Mikes stormtrooper and the HMG (?) advanced forward in the only connection trench we had to the second line of defense of the British positions.

But Bart and Peter stopped that quite early with withering machine gun fire. Peter chose the Hermaphrodite version (yes, I got the Trenchworx resin version with magnets so they could choose which armament they liked best), which turned out to be a wise decision. Two of Mikes stormtrooper teams werenæt even on the field! And then he settled his HMG in front of the British HMG and got shot down. minutes later A7V/Lotti got a hit on the main gun, trondled a bit further got more hits and the crew left for Karlsruhe, never to be seen again.

Meanwhile I was advancing, hopping from trench crater to crater ... got a little hit but not too much. My 77 took out the Mark V and one FT ... but at the end of the night we never reached the trenches. The Stormtrooper platoon was on the brink of desertion anyhow ... so a glorious British victory! Huzzah, they stopped the Michael offensive!

Next time, as a special scenario, we will give the Germans the 18 extra troopers in the A7V as extra platoon, that can exit and can move as a small half-platoon on its own - if its not getting nuked/burned or crushed beforehand ...

The field of carnage at the beginning

The Beutepanzer, just a broken down lump of metal in the landscape

My gun crew on overwatch

The Stormtrooper trench

Lotti, the A7V in action

My men, just regulars, - out of the trench and forward!

Waiting for the right timing

The grand attack

The big push stuttered, Lotti skittered off ...

I hit the Mark V - boom!

But Lotti got hit as well...

casualties and shock are mounting

... a little nearer to the second trench

My LMG crew is nearly flanking Peters Brits!

but the rest is stuck in the mud

The tommies fire back ... ouch!

Two men over the half line!!!