The Battle of Ceresole, 1544 - AAR

The Rejects were due to meet in Postie's shed for our first live encounter on Sunday.  Alas, Stuart has been poorly since the start of the year, and feeling worse last week had to cancel.  At this point, I offered a consolation remote game instead.

I wanted to use my Italian Wars rules again following on from my solo game (Battle of Seminara).  So, I chose to do the Battle of Ceresole, 1544. However, I am a little short of arquebusiers. So, I have co-opted some crossbowmen to fill the gaps. Hopefully, this doesn't distract too much.

Enghien at the end of the battle of Cérisoles fought between a French army and a Spanish Imperial army in 1544. Painted by Victor Schnetz between 1836 and 1837 image in the public domain.

Background

Seeing that Emperor Charles V was embroiled in a war with the Turks, Francis I of France
sought to take advantage and solve the question of control of Milan in his favour. Francis
launched an offensive in Piedmont under the command of d’Enghien, who laid siege to the
Imperial fortress of Carignano. The commander of the Imperialist forces, the Marquis del
Vasto, decided to force the issue by offering battle in an attempt to relieve the fortress. The
two armies met about 30 miles southeast of Turin.

Victory Conditions
To force the opponent’s army to break and abandon the field. Thus, deciding the fate of the
fortress at Carignano.

The Armies

Imperialists (Ray and Lee)
5 units of arquebusiers
4 pike blocks (2 German, 1 Spanish and 1 Italian)
3 units of mounted Men at Arms
1 unit of light cavalry
1 artillery battery

French (Steve)
3 units of arquebusiers
4 pike blocks (3 French and 1 Swiss)
4 units of mounted gendarmes
1 unit of light cavalry
1 artillery battery

Deployment

The following deployment was founded on combining the information from Oman and the scenarios from Sides and Warlord Games' Death and the Landsknecht.

The Battle

Both sides started advancing cautiously towards each other as their gunners took ranging shots at each other.

The French commander exercised better command and control and brought his battle line up in a cohesive manner.  The Imperialists found themselves struggling to advance the whole line but did make progress on the flanks, especially with their arquebusiers towards the French right, where they began to open up the shooting.

The French line advancing.

Slightly more hesitantly, the Imperialists begin to close the space.

The French kept their army on the move.  On both their left and right flanks, d'Enghien's arquebusiers exchanged fire with the Del Vasto's men.  Both sides' light cavalry moved into charge range on the right.

Both Imperialist and French light cavalry charged opponents' arquebusiers.  Del Vasto's men rode down a French unit as they got carried carried away in their pursuit.  D'Enghien's mounted men proved victorious in their melee and maintained control in what was a closer struggle.

With both battle lines drawn into closer proximity the air was hot with small arms fire.  Along the line gendarmes and infantry were positioning themselves for combat.

Arquebusiers exchanging fire on the French right.

While on the left gendarmes and pike approached each other.

D'Enghien and Del Vasto let loose the armoured cavalry on the left.

The clash of the seasoned warriors was hard fought.  Yet the French prevailed.  As the Imperialist men at arms morale faltered they withdrew in some disarray.  The gendarmes saw the opportunity to pursue and destroy.

However, despite their enthusiasm the horses refused to close the distance!

Meanwhile, on the right flank the French light cavalry fell on the rear of the running arquebusiers.
Now you see them...

... now you don't!
However, the riders scenting the prospect of plunder continued on out of control.

Seizing an opportunity in the centre, Del Vasto launched a landsknecht unit against one of D'Enghien's pike blocks.

The struggle was titanic, yet the landsknecht were unable to make their momentum pay.  In defeat, their spirits failed them.  With their morale undermined, they turned tail and ran.

D'Enghien quickly exploited the situation in the centre to hurl his gendarmes into the fray.  The Spanish men at arms countercharged! 

Luck and determination seemed to be with the French.  After what was a closely fought melee, the Spaniards retreated in search of respite.  Respite that the gendarmes were not willing to allow them as they pursued and fell upon the Spanish rear.

After taking another beating the men at arms fled beyond the main army.  With the fleeing landsknecht now before them, the gendarmes kept their cohesion enough to turn towards the enemy flank.

After a disastrous series of melees on the flanks and in the centre, Del Vasto decided to withdraw his front line.  However, his troops took the matter into their own hands.  With the landsknecht and most of the men at arms in flight, the Imperialist troops turned to save themselves and abandon the field of battle.

Position of the forces at the point of Imperialist collapse.

A French victory was thus declared. 

Truth be known, the Imperialist commander had already made the decision to leave the field.

Afterthoughts

I did wonder if the Imperialists had more fight in them.  However, with such high value troops in flight and the flanks beginning to look exposed, perhaps discretion was the better part of valour.

The result reflected the historical result.  Better still, the result and how it was achieved was plausible.  That latter point being particular gratifying as the rules that were used were ones I wrote.

The encounter was close.  It was unfortunate from the Imperialist point of view that the four melee defeats came in such quick succession.  This pushed their army points quickly down to zero.

An enjoyable game that advanced smoothly from a mechanism point of view and from a play point of view.

I had fun and enjoyed the players' making their decisions.

Italian Wars Men at Arms

When I started my Italian Wars project I knew that, with my pitifully slow painting speed and output, it would take me a decade or two to get anything meaningfully completed.  Therefore, I commenced with the full realisation what I would be dipping into the secondhand figures market.

What I found was that I actually quite liked bringing very jaded and basically painted miniatures back to life.  In many cases, it actually meant that I was paying less for painted figures than the bare metal and that I was getting even the most intensely renovated units finished faster than painting from bare metal/plastic.

I recognise that this is not everyone's cup of tea.  However, it has meant that I can get a reasonable sized collection ready and on the table for games before I die! ... I jest, I intend to live forever!

Recently, I bought twelve mounted men at arms.  Apart from the complete absence of lances and standards, having a number of chips and wear on the paintwork, and the need to rebase, I was delighted with them.

What follows are those men at arms finished and ready to play with.

I have given these Papal standards.  I'm not sure whose figure ranges these are from.

These bad boys have standards from Florence.  I believe the yellow and blue one is Montefeltro, a condottiere.  The knight on the far left looks a like a Wargames Foundry figure; the one on the far right has the look of an Essex miniature.  Not sure about the middle two.

These gentlemen have Milanese standards relating to the Sforza family.  Again, I'm uncertain about the manufacturers but the one second from the left appears to be from Wargames Foundry.

The flags are all from Pete's Flag except the Montefeltro one, which is from Battle Flag.

Next in the painting queue are Renaissance command stands.  I will be painting these from scratch.

Thank you for indulging me.

Italian Wars Swiss Pike

Quite a while ago, I bought thirty two secondhand 28mm Swiss Pike.  I think that they might be Old Glory miniatures.

They were in pretty good condition but did need some TLC, a few new pikes and general reinvigorating.  Plus, they all wore yellow and black or yellow and blue livery which I did not want.  So, out came the pliers, wire and paint.

Here's the result.

First up are the figures from above freshened up in the blue and white for the canton of Zurich.

The second have been redone in a mix of green and black for Schaffhausen and the white and black for Appenzell.

All flags, except the Swiss Confederation flag, are from Pete's Flags.

I'm currently re-lancing, flagging and rebasing some secondhand men at arms. Then, onto painting some command stands that have been a long time in the queue.

Battle of Montebello, 9 June 1800 - AAR

Jonathan (Palouse Wargaming Journal) set up the Battle of Montebello from the War of the 2nd Coalition.  So, how could I be anything but delighted to accept the invitation to join him online for this clash.

The field of battle at the start of play.  Austrian divisions are at Rivalta (O'Reilly) and arriving from the west of Casteggio (Vogelsang).  The French will arrive along the road from the east.

I elected to command the French, whilst Jonathan led the Austrians.

The victory conditions for the French (me) were to either break the Austrian army by breaking two of its three brigades, or by capturing Cascina il Giardino and Casteggio without any unbroken Austrian brigades east of the river.  I reflected on the size of the French force and made the pre-match decision that the only way to gain a victory was to break the opponent.

Watrin's brigade of legere and line arrived on the battlefield from the east as Vogelsang's brigade started crossing the river in the west.

Knowing that a speedy advance was necessary to inhibit the Austrians from deploying effectively, Watrin quickly launched his troops against the village of Rivalta.  Its swift capture would open up transit down the road.
Despite massing two battalions for the assault, the Austrian defenders threw back the attackers.

With Vogelsang beginning to deploy, the resistance at Rivalta was proving to be a major hindrance.  Nonetheless, Watrin's infantry successfully saw off a cavalry charge and caused casualties to other units.

With all of his brigade in position, Watrin ordered an all out assault on O'Reilly's defenders.

The success was remarkable with three Austrian units either annihilated or dispersed.  However, Rivalta repulsed a second attack.  Thus remaining an annoyance.

An Austrian counter-attack was ordered.  With cavalry crashing into the unsuspecting French, they over ran the unit but lost one themselves.  O'Reilly's brigade was now broken, but it had delayed the French advance and given time for Vogelsang to deploy. 

To the east, Hussars under the command of Lannes arrived and immediately moved of towards the south.  Meanwhile, Austrians still held Rivalta!

With his brigade broken and facing further losses, O'Reilly pulled his cavalry back and abandoned Rivalta to the French.  Watrin immediately pounced on the retreating prey to deal out further death and destruction.  Meanwhile, Lannes' Hussars saw that Vogelsang's southern flank was based at Cascina il Giardino and decided to implement a movement around the town.

Further Austrian reinforcements began to arrive through Casteggio.  Schellenburg's brigade have arrived.  The French had to move quickly to deliver a win.  Lannes' Hussars speedily continued their southern hook.  If nothing else, this should induce some nervous tension in the Austrians.

As Schellenburg's infantry continued to cross the river, Lannes swept round Cascina il Giardino with his Hussars and positioned his infantry before the town to rain down lead onto the defenders.

The Hussars over ran an infantry unit and a battery.  However, the exertion had taken its toll in casualties and most significantly in the death of Lannes himself!

To the north and with O'Reilly's brigade neutralised, Watrin's infantry fell on the northern flank of Vogelsang's line.

However, the Austrian defence proved to be resolute and threw back the attackers.

But in the south, Schellenburg gave his cavalry the command and they hurled themselves into the French Hussars.  Austrian impetus and weight proved to be too much and the brave French horse was wiped out.
This success let Vogelsang move his infantry forward.  Big mistake...

The remaining unit of Hussars charged off the hill to fall on the exposed infantry flank and completely over ran them.
As the hussars dealt out death, Lannes infantry bounded forward into Cascina il Giardino and ejected the defenders.
As the French captured the town, the spirited Hussars continued forward in a death and glory charge into the flanks of two further Austrian units.  With the odds against the French troopers, they nonetheless wiped out and dispersed the infantrymen in a swirl of sabres.

Vogelsang's brigade was now broken!
What was worse for the Austrians, was that Chamberlhac's brigade was now arriving from the east!
The Austrians decided that the battle was lost and retired as swiftly as possible.

With two of the three Austrian brigades broken, the victor's laurels went to the French.

Afterthoughts

Wow! That was one hell of a game.  It was action from the word go.  It was the most tremendous fun.

As the French, I did not think that I would win this contest.  This feeling was compounded by the Austrians delaying me at Rivalta.  But once that blockage was cleared, the French infantry advantage in movement allowed for swift action.  I could see that attacking the centre head on would be fruitless.  Hence I sent Watrin north and Lannes south, hoping that the Austrians wouldn't push through the centre and pick me off.

In the end, it was desperate charges against infantry not in square that paid off.  Once defeated by cavalry they were destroyed... Phew!

There was a lot of drama in this game.  Not least at the end when the hussars over ran the Austrian infantry.  Neither Jonathan nor I could believe the unfolding events as the French quite literally snatched an unlikely victory.

An amazing experience.  Well done Jonathan and thank you.