Monday 27 January 2014

Impetus rules

We are off to the Vapnartak show next weekend and the Lance and Longbow stand will be featuring the Cravant game which Simon Chick took to the Salute show last April.  Will featured it on his blog at the time and looking at the photos, Simon has produced an excellent game.  His Harness and Array blog also features the game at Salute.  Steve and I are not familiar with the Impetus rules and so we decided to download the basic rules (link).  We used a selection of Steve's Italian Wars figures for an imaginary Franco-Spanish encounter.

This shows the terrain we set up, in retrospect it may be a bit too cluttered as manoeuvring the pike blocks and gendarmes slowed things down.  I commanded the French and massed my Swiss pikes and French Gendarmes on my right (area nearest the camera), with the aim of defeating Steve's left and then attacking his centre in the flank.  The remainder of my troops were to to defend and then (if possible) assist the final attack on the Spanish centre.  Steve massed his landscknechts on his right, planning his own 'right hook'.  His forces were stronger in pikes and arquebusiers, whilst mine had more gendarmes.

Spanish centre


French gendarmes driving off enemy cavalry

The solid mass of landsknechts
The landsknechts drive off the French pikes
During the day we felt our way with the rules.  They are easy to pick up (at least in the basic form) and once the turn sequence is mastered , ( initiative is decided each game turn and the winner then does all their actions, movement, firing and melee, before their opponent does the same), they flow quite well.  Once or twice we managed to forget if it was the end of a game turn (ie we had both moved since the last initiative roll), but that may be down to advancing years.  

The army lists (also available as downloads) seem to make the gendarmes very powerful.  During the game my six units of gendarmes were all involved in melees and yet at the end none had suffered any casualties.  They had attacked units of pikes and although losing their impetus bonus they nevertheless seemed to prevail with little difficulty.  Even if the pikes had a supporting unit of pikes they only rolled the same number of dice as the gendarmes.  The main difference was that the morale value of the gendarmes was 7 or 8, whilst the pikes were 4 or 5.  Any casualties were deducted from this morale value and then one had to roll equal or lower to pass the test.  (a 6 is always a fail).  So, if both sides had 2 casualties in the melee the gendarmes would pass on anything but a '6', but, the infantry would need, at best a 3 or less, a 50% chance of failure.

Also, in the morale roll the difference between the number rolled and number required become causalities.  Therefore, if a three or less is required and a '6' is rolled then 3 casualties are suffered.  So a few bad die rolls (in this case high is 'bad') can be disastrous.

On balance, I think that a few more trials will be necessary before a decision can be made on whether we take up the rules as our default set for the ancient/medieval/renaissance periods.

Sunday 19 January 2014

Merxem, 13th January 1814

Our battle this week comes from 1814.  The actions on the northern front attract little attention, indeed most of the troops initially stationed there were soon moved to take part either in the battles on the approach to Paris, or, in the case of the British, the campaign in America.

The action at Merxem, near Antwerp is listed by Digby Smth ( Greenhill Napoleonic Wars data book) as a 'clash' rather than a full blown battle, but the forces involved (c10,000) per side provide sufficient units for an evening's game. For the French, commanded by General Maison, the objective is to keep the Allies away from Antwerp for as long as possible.  The Allies, (particularly Britain), would like to secure Antwerp and the river estuary as a supply base. There is a book on this campaign, but I don't have a copy.  I also came across a book by Michael Leggiere through google books. For the detail on the British forces involved the Napoleon Series provides plenty of information.  "The Memoirs of Thomas Morris" (ed Selby) also provide some information.  The terrain for the battle is not based on any actual maps, but scraps of detail gleaned from the sources I found, so my apologies to those who feel that the result is a travesty of the facts.



General Maison has 10 battalions of infantry organised into two divisions; that of General Gilly has four battalions of regulars, veterans from Spain, but all the battalions are under-strength.  General Ambert has six battalions of raw conscripts, stiffened by a battery of artillery.  General Castex commands the cavalry (Smith says it was not engaged, but I included it), which comprises two under-strength light cavalry regiments.  General Gilly's division holds a chateau and orchard across the road which is the Allied line of advance.  General Ambert is held in reserve at Merxem.  Behind the village is Castex.

The Allied forces under Bulow are  in two brigades.  Gibbs brigade of British line has three battalions (not having any British troops in my Napoleonic collection I used Prussians).  Thumen's brigade has 8 battalions of infantry, 2 of regulars and 6 of landwehr and reserve infantry.  Thumen also has an artillery battery.  The Allied light cavalry under Oppen comprises a regular Hussar regiment and two landwehr units.

The action took place in winter and contemporary accounts stress the very cold conditions, therefore the ditches are deemed to be frozen.  However, in an earlier action a French unit when forced to retreat found that the ice broke beneath their weight.  We therefore included a die roll when a unit crossed one of the ditches, a 5 or 6 meant that the unit became disordered.  This seemed to work well, causing some disruption to the Prussian attack, but not enough to unbalance the game.



Steve took the part of Bulow and decided to use Gibbs' brigade in a flanking manoeuvre whilst attacking the chateau and orchard with the Prussians.  He advanced on a broad front, taking the chance that the ice would hold and in the majority of cases it did. The skirmishers from Gibbs and Gilly's formations were soon in action, but the French were unable to old back the formed British(ie Prussians from the 1st Pomeranian regiment) battalions.  Gilly ordered the 2nd battalion of the 54th line to advance and support the skirmishers.  Doing this they found themselves faced by the Fusilier battalion of the 1st Pomeranian regiment.  After firing a volley, the 54th charged and bundled the fusiliers back over the ditch.  However, their success almost proved their undoing.  The 1st battalion of the Pomeranian regiment was now to the rear of the French.  Not pausing to fire a volley, the Prussians charged hoping to catch the Frenchmen unprepared .  Fortunately they must have spotted the Prussians because, against the odds, they won the ensuing melee and drove off their assailants. Perhaps overconfident, the Frenchmen now charged a militia battalion, only to be stopped in their tracks by a volley.  As they tried to recover, the Prussian jaeger moved round their flank and  began to snipe at the officers .  Although reduced in numbers, the major of the 54th led his men forward again, but the militia stood firm and inflicted such heavy losses that the battalion took no further part in the battle.



Thumen had deployed his artillery to fire on the chateau complex in support of an infantry attack.  However, the guns had no discernible effect on the defenders.  On the road, the 2nd Pomeranian militia regiment attacked the barricade held by 2nd battalion of the 8th Legere.  The melee was short but bloody; the French veterans, although outnumbered, drove off the Prussians with heavy losses and the militia were finished as a fighting force.  Thumen now organised a co-ordinated attack with his two regular Brandenburg battalions attacking the barricade, whilst three landwehr and reserve battalions attacked the 1st battalion of the 8th legere which was defending the orchard.  The French in the orchard fired with a will and their volleys managed to stop each of the attacking battalions before they reached the hedge bordering the orchard.  At the barricade, the French found the Brandenburgers stiffer opposition than the militia.  Ignoring the mayhem to their left, the Prussians closed up to the barricade and by sheer weight of numbers forced the French to relinquish control of the obstacle.  One backward step became two and as the Prussians broke through the barricade, those few Frenchmen who had survived ran back towards Merxem.



Seeing the pressure Gilly was under, Maison ordered Castex to advance with his cavalry and threaten the Prussian flank.  As he advanced, Castex became aware of Oppen's cavalry, which had previously been screened by the Prussian infantry.  He decided to attack before the Prussians could deploy their superior numbers. The French 2nd Hussars clashed with the Prussian Hussars and came off worst. Perhaps they had too many raw recruits in their ranks, perhaps they could not match the elan of their opponents, or perhaps Maison's die roll could have been higher?  In the end, the French hussars were driven from the field.  Their less flashy comrades, the 4 th Chassuers quickly overcame their landwehr opponents, but did not rein in to recover their order (unlike the Prussian Hussars) and instead charged a supporting landwehr cavalry unit.  The melee was much more even, but eventually, the French had to retire to reform and give time for their blown mounts to recover. 



With no active cavalry remaining to threaten his attack, Thumen ordered a second advance on the orchard.  Maison,for his part, ordered Ambert to support Gilly.  Ambert sent two battalions of the 2nd Line forward on his right and two of the 23rd Line on his left, retaining the two battalions of the 3rd (Irish) Etranger in Merxem.  The second assault on the orchard was no more successful than the first, the volleys from the 1st battalion 8th legere again stopping all three Prussian battalions.  An attack on the chateau also failed to gain any ground.  With time passing, Thumen organised a third attack on the orchard.  This time it was led by the 2nd battalion of the Brandenburg Infantry regiment.  These more experienced troops ignored the losses from the defenders' volleys and charged home.  Driven back by the impetus of the Prussian charge, the French infantry relinquished the line of the hedge and this allowed more Prussians into the orchard.    Heavily outnumbered, the French broke and the survivors ran towards Merxem.

Gilly's sole remaining battalion, the 1st 54th Line was in danger of being surrounded and reluctantly abandoned the chateau and fell back toward Merxem.  This sudden collapse of the forward position caught Ambert's advancing battalions in 'no mans land'.  As the fugitives from the chateau and orchard headed for Merxem, the battalions of the 2nd line formed square, wary of the advancing Prussian cavalry.  On the left the 23rd formed line supporting the artillery and facing Gibbs Pomeranian infantry.
Ambert recognised he needed all the troops he could muster to hold Merxem against the advancing Allies.  He therefore ordered the battalions of the 2nd and 23rd to fall back.  The 23rd managed to do this, but the 4th battalion of the 2nd line was too close to the enemy cavalry and had to stay in square. the 3rd battalion was able to obey their orders and left their comrades to their fate.



  

Pinned in square by the Prussian cavalry and with their own cavalry too weak to intervene the conscripts awaited the Prussian infantry.  Thumen deployed two battalions of the 4th Reserve Infantry and they poured volleys into the huddled French conscripts.  As the square dwindled the commander of the 3rd battalion of the 2nd Line felt he had to do something and ordered his men to advance to the aid of their comrades. Before the furious Ambert could send a counter order the advance began.  Their prayers answered, the waiting landwehr cavalry swept down on the hapless French.   The French officers desperately shouted for their men to form square.  Before that could be achieved, the Prussians were on them, their lances doing deadly work.  The battalion disintegrated and its eagle was carried back in triumph by the jubilant Prussians.  All this had been in vain, as, whilst the 3rd battalion was being butchered, the remains of the 4th battalion were overrun by the Prussian infantry.



On the left, the 23rd was holding the line and even counter attacked.  Driving off the 1st battalion of the Pomeranian infantry.  This stalled Gibbs whole brigade and they had to fall back to reform.  However, this French success was short lived.  Thumen's advancing battalions raked the conscripts with volleys and then charged.  The French left disintegrated, fleeing for Antwerp.

Led again by the Brandenburg infantry, the Prussians closed on Merxem.  The Irish, who formed the garrison saw the mayhem around them and decided that they too would head for Antwerp.  All Maison could do was request that Castex use his remaining cavalry to cover the rout.  Merxem had fallen, but too little daylight remained for an Allied advance on Antwerp.

The battle followed historical events.  The Allied attack was successful, but, fire from the guns of Antwerp disuaded the Allies from any further advance.  Over night Bulow pulled Thumen's men back, anxious that his lines of supply were threatened by MacDonalds forces.  Merxem was therefore abandoned and had to be attacked again a few weeks later. 

Friday 10 January 2014

Ceresole 1544

A belated Happy New Year to you all. Many thanks for your continuing interest in my posts on our battles.
Our first battle of the year comes from the late Italian Wars.  Ceresole was fought between the French, under the Count of Enghein and a combined Spanish and Holy Roman Empire force commanded by Alfonso d'Avalos.  More detail of the forces can be found on this Wikipedia page .  The terrain for the battle is very simple, the French occupy a ridge (a gentle slope not impeding movement) and the Imperial forces line up opposite them.  The small village of Ceresole was represented by a couple of buildings.

Here is a rather blurred photo of the table, the French forces on the left. The forces were deployed historically, with light cavalry on the wings, infantry blocks and gendarmes in the centre. Each side had a reasonable number of guns, although they began the battle out of range of their opponents.  We used Steve's 'in-house' rules which are a modification of the DBx type. The crucial difference being that elements of each unit can be 'pushed back' by adverse reaction to missile fire and melee.  These elements then cost 'pips' to move back to the parent body; giving the commander the dilemma whether to push on with attacks or regroup first.

I took the part of  Alfonso and began a steady advance towards the French.  The intention was to drive off the opposing light missile cavalry, threaten the flanks and then drive forward with the landsknechts and gendarmes.  All went well until the Florentine cavalry on my left charged into their opponents.  In the ensuing melee they lost half their numbers and inflicted no damage to the French.

This of course meant that my flank was now under threat and the Salerno arquebusiers had to move away from supporting the landsknechts against the opposing French and Swiss infantry to covering the army's flank.  On the opposite flank, the Neapolitan cavalry charged Dampierre's light cavalry and achieved exactly the same result, ie they lost half their number in the melee.  Fortunately, some Spanish arquebusiers were in close attendance and their fire disrupted the French formation, giving the Neapolitans time to recover.  I was also helped by Steve's 'pip' dice which meant that the Italian infantry supporting Dampierre were only moving forward very slowly.



Leaving the Neapolitan cavalry and Spanish arquebusiers to contain the French left wing attack, my Spanish and German pikes moved to the left of Ceresola towards the Gruyere infantry and French Gendarmes.  The French had a superiority in heavy cavalry and had detached a second unit under Boutieres to support Des Thermes on their right.  Des Thermes had continued to push forward against the depleted ranks of the Florentine cavalry and although some of the Imperial artillery was firing at them it was having little effect.  In a last desperate attempt to wrest the initiative, Baglioni, the commander of the Florentine cavalry ordered his men to charge the French.  This they did, but bravery can only do so much and outnumbered three to one the cause was all but hopeless.  Following the melee the few surviving Florentine cavalry were driven from the field.

By now I had ordered the Salerno infantry to reform and resume their support for the advancing landsknechts.  As the arquebusiers moved forward the Boutiere's gendarmes arrived, with perfect timing, on their flank. Caught at such a disadvantage, the arquebusiers lost half their number before the rampaging cavalry were at last stopped by a determined stand by the veterans surrrounding the unit flag. The cavalry pulled back and then had to fall back further before the advancing pikes wielded by a unit of landsknechts.



Whilst all this activity had been going on on the flanks the two centres had been advancing towards each other.  As the distance closed the French arquebusiers began to fire at the advancing landsknechts. The ranks of the imperial troops began to thin under this sustained fire.  However, the Swiss suffered no comparable loss because most of the Imperial arquebusiers had been pulled away to take on the light cavalry on the flanks.

With the push of pike imminent, Enghein ordered forward is gendarmes.  They outnumbered Gonzaga's gendarmes by two to one and anticipated an easy victory.  It was not to be.  The Imperial heavy cavalry moved forward and won the initial contact.  As the melee continued a body of landsknechts moved towards the French gendarmes.  Before that hedge of pike points the cavalry had to give way.



To the left of the cavalry battle the pike blocks came together. Although weakened, the landsknechts gained the upper hand and began to push the Swiss back.  Near Ceresole the Spanish and German pikes were in melee with Gruyere and were also gaining the upper hand.  Beyond Ceresole, the Italian infantry had charged the Spanish arquebusiers and had been driven off.  The reformed Neapolitan cavalry had succeeded in neutralising Dampierre's light cavalry and even a desperate charge by Dampierre himself was not able to disorder the Spanish infantry.

It seemed as if the Imperialists may gain the victory, but Des Thermes light cavalry saved the day for the French.  After defeating the Florentine cavalry they then overran some Imperial artillery and were poised to attack the rear of the landsknechts.  The Imperialists had no reserves to meet this threat and although they had almost broken the French centre, they would be hard pressed to effect an orderly retreat.

A good evenings battle with fortunes swinging back and forth.  This period has a good range of troop types and also no 'super' troops.  Given the right conditions, arquebusiers can defeat pikes and although they may think otherwise, the gendarmes cannot charge around trampling everybody else underfoot.