The Battle of Fornovo, 1495.
Charlie very kindly invited Ian and myself over to his house for our Christmas game aimed at using his new and wonderful Italian Wars collection for the first time. Fortified by soup and mince pies at lunch time we fought our way through the Battle of Fornovo of 1495 and used Warlords Pike and Shotte rules. As neither Ian or I know much about the Italian Wars Charlie took the role of the French under King Charles VIII trying to escape off the far end of the board. That left Ian and myself in charge of the League of Venice. Our aim was to ford the river and try to attack the French, preventing their escape. The river was a wide obstacle reducing all movement to half also with rolls for disorder as a unit went down the river bank, across the middle and up the far river bank. This made it very difficult to cross, especially when the French were also shooting at you.
The French Army marching down the road.
The League of Venice deploy. The units under the table edge were to come on soon. The first cavalry unit under the board advanced on two moves them promptly blundered and ran back under the table edge. One of about 6 blunders during the game.
Lots of colourful flags on display.
The Count of Caiazzo leads his troops into battle.
The Italian Wars is certainly a colourful period.
More League of Venice troops ready to advance.
The view from behind the French column. Look how wide that river is.
(Ignore the random elephant that has wandered down from the alps).
The League of Venice troops line the river, ready to cross.
Charlie (King Charles today!) on the left commands the French with Ian on the right, my co-commander of the League of Venice.
Ian managed to get great scores to move his light cavalry that had deployed on the same side as the French, just ahead of them. He was straight in and amongst the French guns destroying them all in 2 turns of mayhem.
Elsewhere Ian's troops were slow to move. In the distance you can see my tropos bravely trying to cross the river whilst being hit with crossbow and arquebus fire. The keen eyed amongst you may also spot the many red disorder markers I am collecting on my way across the river.
In response to Ian's marauding light cavalry Charlie formed 3x Swiss mercenary pike units into a Kiel - that is a lot of pike, Ian started to soften it up with our artillery.
The League of Venice force had more units and their superior numbers were beginning to gain an advantage and a slight foothold on the French side of the river but the French still had plenty of units left including the massive kiel. With the outcome of the game finely balanced we sadly ran out of time so a most enjoyable draw was declared.
Our thanks to Charlie for organising the game and hosting us today.
Looks a good game you guys had, plenty of flags.
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