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.