Painting Challenge Italian Wars Terrain

Another post from the Painting Challenge as I stop off at Cook's Crevasse where posts have to have a geological theme to them.

I'm a little nervous about this as I've taken a geology course before and I know that Dr. Cook is pretty hard-a**ed (From DaveD - yes but weirdly he seems to allergic to sand - some geologist!- don’t ask ). I have two pieces of terrain made from stone for my Italian Wars project.  These are 28mm and made by TTCombat.

First up is a house.  Wikipedia tells me that period buildings in Tuscany use a mix of sandstone and limestone, which in this case have been covered over with some stucco work.  I like the details that TTC puts into its products, the curved porch, louvered windows and the tiled roofing.  One of the louvers fell out of one window set during construction.  I could have ruled it back but left the window blank to give the impression of a Medici, Borgia or Sforza plotting in the shadows out of sight.  

Next we have a stepped bridge.  I like that the steps have been left wide enough to hold stands of figures and once again the detailing is nice.  I tried to give the compass rose in the middle span the impression of inlaid marbles in white, black and blue/grey.  On table we'll have to figure out how vehicles and gun crews navigate the steps.  

As with my first TTC house, I used a basic wash technique mostly using raw sienna, raw umber and burnt umber, all of which are based on the earth pigments used in Renaissance Italy for a further geological link.

There's also an economics lesson in this post.  I picked all three of the TTC pieces in Meeplemart in Toronto along with some stuff for Curt.  My three buildings came to less than the two sets of GW dice that Curt asked me to pick up.  I like to tease Curt that I don't require that my dice pass though the intestines of a civet cat.

These two pieces pretty much fill a 6" cubic unit so that's 20 points for the models and 30 for Cook's Crevasse, assuming Dr Cook gives me passing grade.  My progress across Challenge Island is plotted on the map below.  Next up I'll likely be taking a balloon ride across to the western coast.

Also when Curt first posted about the Island, I commented that the stops looks like merit badges from my boy scout days.  I've decided that I'll note my progress in terms of badges earned too.

Me circa 1976.  My gaming activities included first edition D&D, Avalon Hill board games and badly painted Airfix Nappys in Humbrol enamels. 

TTCombat Italian House

The annual madness that is the Painting Challenge is up and running.  First post for me is a BUA for my Italian Wars project in 28mm.  This piece is from TTCombat and I picked it up at Meeplemart during a trip to Toronto the Centre of the Universe last fall.  

This was my first kit from TTC and I was quite pleased with it.  TTC uses a heavy pdf than Sarissa or Warbases and it required a bit of work with the Xacto to trim the pieces from the frame and to make sure than Tab A fit in Slot B securely.  As such there are some gaps on this first effort that hopefully will be rectified on further efforts.  Paint work is very basic, I left the pdf and greyboard unprimed and used washes in various earth tones.

As can be seen TTC provide some interior details but I chose not to paint the interiors.  I glued the two floors together but left the roof as lift off, but the upper story could be left in lift off state as well.  This would be useful in skirmish gaming.

This kit (plus two other on the workbench) come from TTC' Streets of Venice range which is worth checking out.  The structures would be useful for many historical periods plus fantasy gaming.  Although labelled for Venice I think it will do for any Italian locale.  I was quite pleased when I showed this to my wife (who unlike me has been to Tuscany) who said it looked like Sienna.  

Points wise the building is 6" tall, 6"long and 3" wide.  That's a perfect demi-cube and an easy to calculate 10 points. 

Pooltime Ponderings on Recent Italian Wars Game

It being summer I get my my regular exercise swimming laps in my local outdoor public pool.  I show up when it opens at 8am with a bunch of older and grumpier old farts and then head off to what ever office I'm haunting for the rest of the day.  This morning while getting my cardio in under clear blue Prairie skies I did some pondering about the recent game that I GM'd.  There were two problems encountered - slow deployment times and too much disruption - under the Pike and Shotte/Black Powder/Hail Caesar system.  Here's what my oxygen starved brain came up with.

Slow Deployment From Column of March
The issue here is that for the scenario I wanted to have the attacked deal with the issue of entering on in column of match and deploying on the go.  But with basic P&S movement rates this becomes a slow process, especially when the columns have to deploy. 

In this particular scenario had I let the attackers come on deployed they likely would have rolled over the defenders.  I also have issues with too perfect deployments when historically sub commands showed up early, late or in the wrong place on occasion. So incorporating some ideas filched from Sam Mustafa's Blucher rules, here's how I would approach this scenario next time under P&S/BP/HC.

I'll use this map as a reference.

1. The attacker puts his units into divisions and gives an order of march for  the units within divisions and for the divisions themselves.
2.  The defender plots his deployment up to line X on the map, keeping units in cover or dead ground (including everything behind line Z)  off board.
3. The attacker then gives orders to each of his divisions subject to the restrictions of his deployment move below.  So given Curt's order of march we might have something like.  "The cavalry division advances and deploys on the front slope of the hill facing X on the map.  The main body deploys and advances to a position just north of the woods in the pass.  The rear division advances onto the northern hill and then deploys."
4. The attacker then moves his divisions on one by one according to his order of march.  They get a special deployment move equal to X plus the number of moves indicated by a command roll.  So for this action I might make X=2 and then each division would have between 2-5 moves to make based on their command roll.  To avoid getting too cheesy I'd restrict these so that they couldn't close to withing musket range (16") of the enemy, so that the defender has a bit of a chance to react as they come on.
5. Each deployment move would be a regular infantry move (8" for our P&S games).  Each column would enter in column of march and need to deploy, this taking one move to deploy a whole division.  Cavalry would be moving at a walk, but an all cavalry division could make a free deployment.
6. The orders should note when deployment takes place.  Given the sample orders above a bad roll (i.e. 2 moves) would see the centre division deploy then move 8" on table.  On the same result the rear division would move two moves (16") without deploying.
7. Blunders on a deployment could see a division be delayed, too far left or right or too far ahead depending on the result.
8. The defender gets to go next and for each division can elect to either have one move without a command roll, or take their chances on a command roll.  This allows them to reposition as the enemy advances and possibly get some shooting in.

The same thing could be used with reinforcements arriving from off table, where the entry point is some distance away from the enemy.-

Too Many Disorders
Under the P&S/BP/HC any natural 6s on shooting cause a disorder, preventing the target unit from doing anything in their next move.  This seems to cause the attacker's a undue hardship in the recent game - Stacey rolled many 6s leaving the attackers effectively pinned in a fire zone at times.  I am thinking of letting the target unit taking an immediate save roll against disorder once all the shooting on the unit is completed.  This lets better troops more likely to shrug off disorder while inferior troops will be more likely to be disordered.  I think that there may be two exceptions when no save roll is permitted.  First, any units charging into contact are auto-disorder by fire.  Second, any unit taking two or more disorder results in shooting are also auto disordered.

Any that's what my brain came up to this morning, we'll see what a night's sleep does with these ideas.

Pike and Shotte Game - Pass Clearance

This Friday I GM'd an Italian Wars game at Curt's using Pike and Shotte.  Curt's Imperialists were tasked with clearing a pass defended by my Italian forces.  The Scenario was "Pass Clearance" from CS Grant's "Programmed War-games Scenarios".  Followers of Curt's AHPC blog will recognize many of the units from the past 3 challenges.  Curt and Jeremy took the attackers and Stacy the defenders, although he offered me the command of his reserve which I gladly took.

The defender's map - 16th century mapping skills being what they were, the actually terrain was somewhat different.  The attackers enter on the left, the defenders deploy on the centre and right sections.  The right hand section is dead ground until the attackers enter the middle section.

In the end the game was a bit of a disappointment, due to a combination of bad dice rolling and poor GMing on my part.   However it made good eye candy.

Defenders in the middle of the pass.  We used all of Curt's hills but could have used more. 

Defenders from the other flank.  The units placed in front of the village are occupying the buildings.

Curt's lead battalia of Cavalry enters.

Close up of Curt's superbly painted and based Gendarmes complete with mutts!

Stradiots make a charge of Italian men at arms.

And get repulsed.  Worth a gamble as it would have saved time.

The man in deep thought.  Cavalry splitting off to the flanks while the first pike block enters.

The hosts move forward.  Curt's pike block's are particularly impressive.  The red exclamation marks disorder caused by shooting, more on this later!

I'll own up to the first game issue.  I like the Table Top Teaser games especially when they include pre contact manoeuvre and wanted to get this on table so had the attackers enter in column of units from the board edge.  With the P&S command rolls movement is variable.  Curt and Jeremy managed a lot of "one move only rolls" which meant the pike columns plodded forward 6" per turn making for a loooong approach march.  Given the inflexible nature of these armies it would have been better to let them deploy on table or at least enter deployed.  But a couple of good rolls would have had the pike behemoths on top of the defenders and a very quick attacker victory.  In the end I'll chalk this up to a mix of rules quirks, bad dice and GM incompetence.

The lead Swiss pike block approaches the Italian MAAs, while the Italian reserve hustles up from the rear (I did get a 3 move roll!).  Note the blood chits marking shooting casualties which mounted quickly.

Shooting and especially disorder caused by shooting was another source of table top friction.  My Italian army is very shot heavy and their close fighting infantry is easy pickings for Swiss pikes.  Stacey had very,very good dice rolls consistently getting one or more hits plus disorder on two dice (in P&S 4+ causes a hit, 6 causes disorder).  With the slow approach slog and good shooting rolls, the casualties mounted quickly.  Worse still the disorder results stopped units in their tracks and prevent movement for a whole turn making the approach march even slower and giving the defenders more shots!  This was particularly a problem when the head of the column took the disorder.

It's finally coming up to a decision point.  The Swiss are about to steamroller the MAA while the other pikes deploy.  Note the disorder on the Gendarmes in front - this was rallied off at the end of every attacker turn only to come back when the defender's shot again!

Game end.  The Swiss vaporized the pole armed MAAs but took enough casualties to become shaken and then were charged by pikes.  The Swiss broke and Curt declared the game over!

Once the Swiss were gone, Curt had enough and called it a night.   It had been frustrating for him given the slow approach and the shooting results, but I think he quit too early.  He had several large pike blocks in excellent shape and the defenders were looking thin on the ground,  Their pole arms were gone, their pikes were worn down and they had nothing to stand up to Swiss and Lanschenkt pike blocks.

Scenario design wise there is an imbalance between our two armies that I'm struggling with.  Curt's is very strong in melee infantry - as it should be.  Mine is weak in melee infantry and strong in missile troops - as it should be.  When we fight a set piece, Curt rolls over my infantry line PDQ.  When we fight a manoeuvre battle, the shooting does Curt in before he gets to grips with my army.

For this scenario I should have let Curt deploy his first battalia on table and have the remaining battalias deployed behind them.   And if he ever let's me run a smilier Grant scenario again that's what I'll do.   Otherwise we'll do a set piece battle next time.  He'll steamroller me in 3 turns and then we can hit the Chianti big time!  It'll be great.

Boxing Day Game 2017

On boxing day, Curt hosted a game in honour of visit from his friend John Bertolli.  John had asked for an Italian Wars game, so I put together a scenario and off we went.  I used an old chestnut from C S Grant's Programmed War-game Scenarios, the Weak Flank.  

I am sure that this is based on the Battle of Flodden (1513) where an English Army pulled off a daring flank march and cut down the both the Scottish King and the flower of Scottish Chivalry.  

Basically, the defender sets up on a long ridge expecting a frontal assault, but leaving a small flank guard on his right.  The attacker then deploys his whole army on the right flank, having stolen a march overnight- however due to challenge of a night march divisions have the chance of delay or wandering off course.  For our game we had Curt's pike heavy Germans and Swiss on the ridge commanded by Curt and my daughter Katie (her first miniatures game), while John B and Stacy attacked with my Italian army which was short on pike but heavy on cavalry and missile troops.

After initial deployment.  Curt's flank guard is beyond the stream.  The attacker's right flank is delayed and has drifter to the right.

Poor picture, but the formidable array of pikes from the expected line of advance.

The key right flank.

Curt's centre

Curt's left flank.

The assault on the flank guard.  Things looked grim for the defenders at this point, but that was the point.

The assault bogged down as the flank guard held its ground.

Another poor shot, but it shows the defenders redeploying,  The fellow in the background is Curt's brother in law- who was an interested spectator.

Curt directs Katie's next move!

Katie and Curt discuss tactics

The defenders redeploy!

It seemed to take for ever to get one division over the stream.  Katie's Gendarmes (near the tape measure on the left) and about to go through John's troops at the stream edge.

Those big pike blocks take a while to redeploy - especially when your command dice are poor.

Mean while, the party in the rear goes on uninterrupted,

Gendarmes going through missile troops like a hot knife through butter.  However, fire from crossbows and a light gun caused disorder the next turn.

Situation at the end.  The defenders have redeployed but taken enough missile casualties to cause them to cede the field of battle.  On the right here, Stacy's Italian heavy cavalry halted a pike block but kept getting disordered by artillery fire.

It was an interesting game that was far more Shotte than Pike, unlike our other games.  Essentially the stream, poor command roles slowed the Italian advance.  There were times when they could have pushed the issue more but didn't want to advance an isolated division and get it caught out by Curt's huge pike blocks.  But good shooting and frequent disorder results meant that the defenders couldn't close either.  In the end, the Italians had more missile troops and their fire caused several of the defender's units to rout.  One of these was from a small division, meaning that the whole division was shot and at this point Curt conceded the field.

As always, actions lead to learning opportunities and I'll try and note my observations in a post later this week.  I had fund GMing it and I hope that the players enjoyed it too.  I've played the scenario several times in several periods and it tends to give a good challenging game for both sides.

Italian Wars Game

Curt had Byron in town from Winterpeg and we put all of our Italian Wars kit on the table for an all in tag team wrestling match.  In the end Curt's (mostly Swiss and Imperial) troops won out commanded by Stacey, Jay and Byron defeating my (mostly Italian) side with Sylvain and Jeremy on board.

We didn't use points, but the two sides were mostly even.  They had better close fighting foot (more pikes and more Swiss), we had the edge on cavalry and shooting.  In the end Stacey showed much more discipline and kept his battle line together while we opted for opportunistic charges by individual units.  So we end up fighting multiple enemy units with every one of ours.  Sigh, there are no mistakes just lessons.  However, some lessons need to be retaken several times.

Our battle line after set up.  The light gun was a star on our side.

The opponents side of the table.

Initial moves underway

Closing on the enemy.  Curt has his units on big sculptured bases, which don't always work well with hills - hence the big blue die to prop up his pikes.

The view on our right flank

I choose to lead our Swiss in an opportunistic charge on a unit caught out of position.  The red exclamation mark shows that the pikes were disordered by fire.

Sylvain brings his heavy cavalry up and gets counter charged - the opposing cavalry are here in the middle of our battle line.  The melee went very much our way - Sylvain swept away the Gendarmes and then carried on to rout the Genitors behind.

Here's the follow on charge - go Sylvain!

Melee from the other side.  We could have really used the second lot of Gendarmes but Sylvain had them position to prevent the house threatening our flank!

This melee took a few rounds, but didn't go our way in the end.

Things are swinging back against us now.

The Gendarmes routed off following shooting hits.

Two enemy foot charge our Italian sword and buckler men - not a good match!

The sad end of our charge by the pikemen.