Early Renaissance in Usk 2014
Italian Wars French vs Scots
Game 1 Italian Wars French vs Ming Chinese
Game 2 Italian Wars French vs Scots
Game 3 Italian Wars French vs Caroline Imperialist
Game 4 Italian Wars French vs Ottoman Turks
Game 2 saw the French fight their erstwhile allies, the Jocks. Here again almost all of the (Hilly) terrain fell in the Scottish half of the table, potentially leaving the Scots with few options of where to deploy their unwieldy Kiels, although their position was considerably strengthened by the final piece - a very watery-looking marsh which landed sweetly in front of their central zone, providing a fantastic covering element to protect part of their substantive artillery park
The lists for the Italian Wars French and Scots from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Usk can be seen here in the FoGR Wiki.
The French tactics were similar to the previous game with most of the strike troops massed on the right for a swift attack to charge down the Scottish artillery before any one of the French units took too much fire.
The Scottish Kiels were more intimidating to look at than the Chinese, but lacking armour and being Average would still be substantially disadvantaged against the Swiss and Landsnechts, so the plan was essentially unchanged.
The left was also essentially the same, as the now much more self confident Reiters, supported by LF and Carbine armed LH looked to put pressure on a weak Scottish flank lightly held by some skirmishing border horsemen. The game was unlikely to be decided here…
What's Going on Here Then?
The French have deployed badly, crushing all of their units into a small gap between terrain on the right. This is sllowing their advance, and in the process allowing the massive Scottish artillery park to get in a lot of shots against the French Kiels and mounted units. The Scots meanwhile are quite happy to see this happen, as they gently reshuffle their units behind their gun line
As the French struggled to fit all of their units past the village, the Scots sought to delay them with a skirmish screen of LH and LF - buying more time for their artillery to do their deadly work - even at this early stage the Landschnechts have suffered a cohesion drop from enemy gunnery
In the middle the French arquebusiers suspect they may actually have found themselves a viable battlefield role, as they advance towards the marsh to threaten the Scottish artillery. That's what they had been told anyway, when in reality the French generals were merely hoping that they could absorb a few shots from the Scottish gunnes, on the basis that a dead arquebusier or two far better than a dead armoured pikeman..
The Reiters advanced as the Scots retreated - thinning out into a single deep line was their way of showing their contempt for the Highland horsemen
The French, still in somewhat of a traffic jam sent the order to their Gendarmes to chase off the Scottish skirmishers - and they did better than asked, catching the evading LF !
Re-enactors
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The Gendarmes turned on the hapless Galwegian crossbowmen and ride them down. Slowly..
On the left, as the French mounted pushed forward to join the arquebusiers in threatening the Scottish gunnes behind the march, an entirely predictable ambush appeared out of a deep dark wood, and then realised that as a unit of medium foote they would be quickly ridden down by Gendarms were they to dare to emerge from it… so they stayed at the edge shouting scottish obscenities at the bemused Gauls in the open.
Pushing back the French skirmishers had bought some space for the Landsnechts to advance, but the rest of the French army was still struggling to get itself into any sort of good order as the Scottish gunnes continued to bark out. And the Gendarmes were making exceedingly hard work of polishing off the LH… It was a right petit dejuner du chien out there alright.
The left continued to be puzzling - the Scottish horse staying just tantalizingly out of reach of the French forces, with both sides tying each other up in knots but gaining little advantage either way as they sparred.
Finally the crossbowmen broke, and the French army pursued them, hoping to treat them as some sort of ablative shield behind which they might be able to advance on the Scottish pike Kiels without taking too much damage from the gunnes.
The arquebusiers dipped their toes in the marsh, finally drawing the attention of the artillery park who had now to decide if they really cared about the potential yet unlikely risks they now faced.
Face-off!
By now the French Gendarmes were still pursuing the resilient (even when broken) crossbowmen, but a swift redeployment saw their path to victory suddenly blocked, as the Scots called up their own French allies, in the shape of another full-fat Gendarme unit who appeared behind the left hand edge of the imposing wall of Scottish pikemen. The French had by now committed both of their Kiels to attacking the Scottish gun line, reasoning that beating the Kiels defending the guns (and hence capturing the gunnes too) would net them more APs more quickly than beating the other Kiels piecemeal. That sort of confidence only comes to Swiss Pikemen…
Amazingly, something appeared to be happening on the far left, as the Reiters got into shooting range of the Scottish LH and blasted their cohesion with a volley of pistollism!
Wet feet all round as the arquebusiers waded through the marsh. The Scottish artillery was coming under pressure across the whole front of their army, and soon the guns would have to fall silent as close quarters hand to hand combat too centre stage, pushing the era of artillery and gunpowder aside in favour of stout hearts and long pointy sticks.
Suddenly, the Scots astounded the French by stepping through their own gunnes! In practical terms it meant little, as the gunnes would be captured whether the Scots died in front of them or behind, but as a tactical manoeuvre it was something of a game-changer, as the Scots suddenly advanced something like 14 cms in one turn instead of their more normal 7.6cms, closing the distance between them and the still-faffing-about French army at a stroke. The French would now have to fight where they currently stood - which was not exactly where they hoped to be!
What's Going on Here Then?
The Scots have pulled off a cute maneuver, buy stepping through their own gun line and at a stroke reducing the room for maneuver of the already log-jammed French army on the right. The French will have to begin the fight in a poor lineup, with far less time to dedeploy than they originally expected to have. The French still have better quality troops, but they will now be attacking in a piecemeal fashion against far greater numbers of Scots
The wall of Scottish pikeness was no doubt impressive in the extreme - and they definitely had weight of numbers…but it was of poorer quality than the Swiss, and was less well armoured than both the Swiss and the Landsnechts. But more concerning for the French was the presence of the enemy French Gendarmes. More numerous, and due to the sudden advance of the Scottish Kiels through their won gunnes, the second string Reiters were dangerously out of position too. In theory the Reiters might be a useful second line to shore up the gendarmes 3 base to 4 disadvantage against the Scots mercenaries, but if they lost at impact against full-fat Gendarmes they would find themselves 2 POAs down - and of no use to man nor beast, never mind their Gendarmes. Oops!
On the left the Scots had clearly read the battle reports from the first game, and spotted that the best escape route for their LH was back through the woods - where they would quickly and safely outdistance the French Reiters, With the Scots safe in the woods and the French ill equipped to extract them this part of the table seemed destined for a stalemate
The arquebusiers were now absorbing artillery fire very effectively, saving the Landsnechts from further punishment and were now sufficiently close to the artillery that they could even harbour ambitions of causing some cohesion tests in return. The Kiel was unable this time to move through the gunnes, as there was no room for them to do so.
The Scottish French Gendarmes charged, with the French French's only tactic being to try and limit the number of bases In contact in a vain attempt to delay the weight of numbers of the enemy from counting for as long as possible... hopefully buying time for the Reiters to get out of trouble behind them.
The clever plan of the arquebusiers in the marsh suddenly unravelled in three rounds of effective shooting that saw the unit drop to autobreak and be removed! Oops!
At least the Landsnechts were now in, so their armour could start to take effect. How long could the Average Scottish unit survive in repeated rounds of melee where they were down a POA at all times?
Well, clearly a lot longer than the French French Gendarmes, who were evaporated in the first phase of melee - the Reiters quavered in fear as a wall of allied French nobility licked it's lips (probably… those helmets do a pretty good job of hiding the facial features of the wearer generally, however its probably a fair guess) and prepared to charge home
What's Going on Here Then?
The French shambolic deployment and disorganised advance is starting to cost them dearly - having lost the Gendarmes they now also face losing their Reiters. The odds are swinging towards the Scots, but the two powerful and high quality French Kiels still represent a huge amount of army points, and they are still good enough to stand up against the Scots
The Reiters lost at impact and lost cohesion. They were now doubln-down in melee against Superior General-led enemies. Not a good look.
As the Swiss closed in the Reiters morale crumbled in the face of the Gendarmes superior swordsmanship
The inevitable happened very quickly, and the reiters broke, fleeing of course back towards the French gunnes who by now expected to be captured by enemy Gendarmes in short order
To add insult to injury, the Reiters routed through the gunnes, giving them a premature DISR result…
But elsewhere things surely were on the brink of looking up? With both the Swiss and the Landsnechts now in combat against the unarmoured average Scotsmen, a "hoots mon, where's me troosers?" moment must only be an unlucky cohesion test roll away for the Hiberians?
The Gunners were putting in a workmanlike shift as they repeatedly fired and reloaded at the by-now close range enemy Gendarmerie. But the mercenary Frenchmen's armour was proving good enough to deflect the most well-aimed cannonball, as the Gendarmes shrugged off the incoming fire with nonchalance and aplomb!
Soon the range was reduced not only to "whites of their eyes" but more like "whiff of their unwashed undergarments" distances as the Gendarmes spied the prize…
The protracted melee between the two walls of pike was not really going to plan, as the cunning Scots tactics of "don't lose the melee" and "have more units than the enemy" combined to intriguing effect, allowing their spare kiel to wheel round and hit the Swiss firmly in the"sort of a flank but because they are a Kiel, its not really" area.
This of course merely served to give the Swiss more units to fight, which suited them right down to the ground…
What's Going on Here Then?
The Kile on Kiel combat has somehwhat bogged down - which is bad news for the French, as they are expecting their better quality units to achieve a breakthrough, and then mop up the line of Scottish guns behind. The other flank is entirely inconsequential, and the Scots have so many uints unengaged and safe from attack that they are now probably safe from defeat, and most likely to win on the balance of losses, even if the French do break through their line of Kiels
On the skirmishing flank, proper Gendarmes were working in concert with French Reiters to keep the enemy firmly bottled up in the terrain.. although with how things were going elsewhere on the table it might not really be that relevant to be honest…
The battle ground on inexorably, and with the time taken in having to roll almost 200 dice per combat proving decisive - with all the Kiels intact, the game ended with a Scots victory, by dint of the 4 units they had taken down to pretty much nil.
The Result is a bit of a loss for the French
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition, or read on for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal
Post Match Summary from the Italian Wars French Commander
Sacre Bleu! Coup de Glace! Les Ecossians have really shown me the quality of the dirks they keep in their sporrans today, and I think we must be grateful to have gotten away with a draw of sorts in this tough, hard fought encounter in which the timing clock played a role as great as that of my own men
Perhaps I was somewhat overconfident after the game at Roll Call against such an army, and indeed maybe in retrospect I can realise that it wasn't actually me who was in command that day, and indeed nor was the victorious army French - although of course many if not all of the figures involved may appear to a casual observer to be suspiciously similar to thse involved here today.
I was pleased by the pressing game my men executed (guillotined perhaps?) on the left, and it was only the cowardice of the vastly inferior Scottish forces who retreated into the woods that prevented half of my army's mounted wing devastating the handful of Scots peasants who otherwise declined to oppose me.
Perhaps I must also give credit to the terrain, for without that final piece, the ignominious marsh which dropped so kindly ahead of the centre of the Scottish army, without this there would have been more targets for our army to smite, and more chances for victory along the way. However, we stay in the hunt, so bring on le petit dejuner of Dimanche is what I say, bring it on...
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
It is difficult to believe the analysis of such a buffoon - when he opens his mouth, it seems only to change whichever foot was previously in there, and in this game both feet were firmly planted at the base of his own throat - shame no-one thought to put a booted heel on it as well.
This was a game lost pure and simple by the ham-fisted dithering and poor tactical movement of the troops on the right. How can you deploy in such a way as to render your own troops the biggest obstacles impeding your own advance? What an disorganised yet also painstakingly slow attack resulted in this foolishness - it was as if you were afflicted by both the wisdom of youth, and the energy of old age!
Admittedly the terrain in your own deployment area was unfortunate, but someone put it down didn't they? And some of it was yours. here you had an opponent who would have little or no mounted, and who's troops could only stand up to yours when forming a solid block against a limited axis of attack - so why put any terrain at all? Your artillery park was never strong enough to make this plan work here today...
A one-celled organisms would out score you in an IQ test based on this performance, so swiftly I pray thee to take us from this page and onto the next game
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
You can also comment, "like" or give feedback on these reports on either the Madaxeman.com Facebook Page or the Madaxeman.com Blogger Site.
Game 1 Italian Wars French vs Ming Chinese
Game 2 Italian Wars French vs Scots
Game 3 Italian Wars French vs Caroline Imperialist
Game 4 Italian Wars French vs Ottoman Turks
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