Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Maisnon - Italian Wars BatRep 3

After two Battles of Maisnon using To the Strongest! and one victory apiece for each of the protagonists, the battle was reconvened a few days later for a rematch.  With the rules and scenario still fresh in mind, the forces were redeployed and the game readied.  Jake remained in command of the army of Charles V while I commanded the army of Francois I.

Francois draws first Player and sets to work advancing the French army to engage the army of Charles V.  The French advance begins across the breadth of their battle line.  The Imperials, under the eye of Charles V, push the deeply ranked arquebusiers ahead of their main line.
French army advances in foreground
The three French pike blocks
Arquebus and crossbows from both sides exchange fire in a series of continuing volleys.  At first, few casualties are suffered as successful saving cards seem all too common.  Francois' center pike block pushes forward and soon outpaces its supporting pikes as the distance to its opposition closes.  With each block preceded by light infantry formations, these light infantry must be brushed aside before the main action can commence.
French pikemen
In the opening stages of the battle, the two Imperial guns, so deadly in the first game find pinpointing the range difficult.  The guns' accuracy likely is hindered by the French ability to screen their vulnerable, deep pike blocks.  French crossbowmen and arquebusiers maintain a harassing fire against their opposition.   
Looking down the battle lines.
(French on left, Spanish on right)
Not to be caught flatfooted, Charles orders his army forward to meet the attackers.  Charles does not advance too fast in order to keep his guns firing as long as possible before their targets become obscured.  Francois maintains a brisk pace in crossing the beaten zone of the Imperial guns. 
Imperial pikes advance
Imperial Men-at-Arms advance on the Imperial left
French heavy infantry continues the advance
After watching the infantry advance on the French left, the French cavalry on the right flank finally step off towards the enemy.  The cavalry have much ground to cover.  Bringing the French cavalry into contact against the Imperial cavalry will take time. 
French cavalry on the right advance
With the Imperials pushing forward a unit of Zweihanders in the center, the French Gendarmes are compelled to respond.  The aggressive Zweihanders are inflicting casualties on the French light infantry and must be stopped.  
Gendarmes attack the Zweihanders
As the heavy horsemen barrel into the swordsmen, the Zweihanders fail to make good their escape and are cut down by the elite French Genadarmes.
Zweihanders cut down by Genadarmes
While one unit of Gendarmes is taking care to clear out the Imperial center of light troops, the remainder of the French right wing charges into the waiting Imperial cavalry.
French cavalry charge into the Imperial left
The Spanish jinettes are forced to scatter while the French heavies contact the German MAAs.  In the following clash, the French Gendarmes suffer more than the Germans.  The Gendarmes fall back.
Cavalry clash on the French right
On the French left, two pike blocks crash into one another.  Weakened by arquebus and cannon fire beforehand, the French pikemen are scattered by the Imperial pike block. 
Push of pike
With a flank opened, the French need time to adjust.  A loss of two out of three pike blocks for either side likely spells defeat.  No time for repositioning is forthcoming, though.  The center Imperial pike block crashes into the central French block.  Seeing the tide turning against him, Francois pushes his final pike block into the fray.  While the third French pike engages and ties down the block to its front, it is too late.  A second French pike block is destroyed.  
Battle for control of the center
Two French pike blocks, gone!
Having defeated two French pike blocks and enough light troops to force the French army to its breaking point, Francois abandons the attack.  The French have been defeated and will be unable to send relief to their countrymen, this time.
Charles V victorious
That was a close contest and an enjoyable evening game.  Congratulations to Jake for his determined victory.  

The game lasted longer than the previous two contests due primarily to the length of each of the pike melees.  Each of these pike scrums battled back and forth over several turns with neither player able to exact the deciding blow.  Misses were plenty as were saves.

Witnessing a seemingly, above average number of Aces pulled on initial brigade activations in the previous two games, we implemented Peter's suggestion of redrawing an initial brigade activation failure.  While we had not tallied the number of initial activation Aces drawn in the first two contests, the number seemed large.  In this battle, we counted initial brigade activation failures.  The count was twelve.  Twelve!  Included in that lot were two double Ace draws.  Fortunately, brigade failures seemed to be evenly distributed between the two players.  This change worked well and allowed the game to move along with continuity.  This is a change we will likely keep.  

The Battle of Maisnon will see one more action before the troops retire back to their storage boxes. 

40 comments:

  1. Great looking game - lovely terrain and figures Jonathan. You seem to be enjoying the "To the Strongest" rule set too!

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    1. Thanks, Keith!

      TtS! brings a fast-play game to the table with few headaches caused by complicated processes or computations. The whole process is straightforward and quick to resolve. For completing a game in a couple of hours, TtS! works well.

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  2. A nice-looking AAR, and it seems you have found a much better balance with those activation cards Jonathan.

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    1. Glad you liked the AAR, Lawrence! With the change to replaying initial failed brigade activations, the game had a smoother flow. The herky-jerky nature of prior games was almost eliminated.

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  3. This seemed to flow a bit better, would that be right? Lovely to see the pike blocks close up.

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    1. Norm, this game did have a better flow. Without constant activation interruptions, the game was more enjoyable by providing a more plausible outcome.

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  4. A great looking game and excellent battle report!

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  5. amazing sight of pike blocks the painted miniatures/units look stunning.. I also have a copy "To the Strongest" rule set haven't play tested them yet..after reading reviews online seems To the Strongest rules are quick/with easy to follow sequence of play and battle games usually last 2 or 3 hours?

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    1. Thanks, Phil! You should recognize one or two of the pike blocks.

      Your reviews match my views in that TtS! is fast-play with easy mechanisms that can be fought to conclusion in about two hours.

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  6. Like all of your AARs: very detailed and nicely laid out.

    Thanks!

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  7. Great looking game!The flags really add to the overall effect, It all seemed to work better to?
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you! The flags really make the collection pop on the table and provide a great attraction to the the period.

      The activation change was an improvement in my mind.

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  8. Lovely looking game and models. Those pike blocks look very purposeful!

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    1. Thanks! The pike blocks are purposeful and dangerous to both opponent and player alike. Ouch!

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  9. That sounds like a really close game. I like the back and forth with the Pike Block melees and also the lighter infantry screening the pike blocks to make them harder for the guns to hit

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    1. Hi Oli. The game was very close and could have gone either way. The first player to lose that second pike block would likely be done for.

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  10. It was quite an interesting game, and the changes almost made up for our appalling ability to draw aces. I would be curious to see if we buffed up the pike blocks (need two hits to disorder) if we could get a more decisive outcome. That or perhaps discounting the loss of 'attached' light units (Zweihanders and Arquebus associated with a pike block) when calculating victory totals.

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    1. I am not sure any mechanism can compensate for the rotten luck we tend to display in our games!

      In this scenario, losing two of three pike blocks seemed like defeat to me regardless of the light units lost beforehand. That is an interesting idea to not count a pike block's "attached" light units against Victory Medals. Since the extra deep pike formations are worth four VMs alone, that just might be the ticket. Good idea!

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  11. These really have been lovely looking games.

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  12. Those pike blocks are really something.

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  13. Looks really great, and it seems like you're hitting your stride with TTS! I thought the French were going to win, until they proved unable to make the best of their outstanding gendarmes. Without any of the the awesome Swiss to give their pikes an edge, that usually means defeat for the French. the VM value of the one hit units is low, but not negligible. I'd suggest leaving them at 1 VM as written, but you certainly could experiment with having all 1 hit units costing no VM when "lost" (and also contributing 0 VM to the army total in that case).

    It looks like you made better use of skirmishers to screen your pikes, and pulling back damaged units to Rally where possible.

    Why not replay a scenario similar to this with Impetus before clearing the tabletop?

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    1. Thank you, Peter. Jake and I have discussed just such an Impetvs replay. The limiting factor always seems to be schedule coordination.

      Yes, pulling back damaged units to rally played a factor in this game that was not invoked as often in the prior two. Perhaps, we are developing tactics as we come to grips with TtS?

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  14. One of my favourite conflict. Fantastic battle with beautiful minis and terrain!

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    1. Thanks, Michal! This is becoming one of my favorites too.

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  15. It looks as though the annoyance of drawing aces has surpassed the annoyance of rolling ones! Great AAR and great looking table.

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  16. Awesome! With an incremental interest watching this set of battles. I like Renaissance epoch and you did a great show. Miniatures and terrain look wonderful.
    Did the Zweihanders act apart from pike blocks as a separate unit?

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    1. Very good to see that you are enjoying this series of engagements, Dmitry!

      The Zweihanders did act as a separate unit but maintained contact with their parent pike block.

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  17. Another lovely looking game Jonathan!

    Christopher

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  18. Sounds like fun. Seems like you got a good suggestion for the aces problem. Could just remove a couple from the deck but that might have other effects on hits and saves.
    I agree that all the flags really make the tabletop look great. 😀

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    1. Ignoring the first brigade activation helped the game a lot, I think. We were both satisfied with this change.

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  19. It does look like a lot of fun, Jon. How on earth are you getting so many aces?! You could always just not count an ace as an activation failure. That way every brigade can activate at least once.

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    1. Scott, you should know well my luck. Chock it up to bad luck...

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