Saturday 20 December 2014

Marignano solo - Turn 2

The French activate at the first attempt in the first few cards turned.
The crash of artillery fire at the entrenchments carries to the French mainward. 

The Landsknechts come to order and the Gendarmerie mount their steeds in readiness to confront the spiteful Swiss. 
At the entrenchments things are not going well for the French. All along the line the Swiss begin to break in.
Schinner is lucky to escape with his life - he rolls ones on each command card but lives to tell the tale.
Cardinal Schinner is in the thick of things, rallying the Swiss to even greater efforts.

The Gascons are collapsing without much of a fight.
The die rolls here are very unequal - the French pike will roll two very low rolls in a row and they will be severely punished for it. They will not be worth a 'stubborn morale chip' payment to save at 5 UI lost and vexed.
The Swiss charge Bourbons reserve line of Picard pike men and Gendarmes.

The Landsknechts are the first to move forward in response to the call to arms.
Fighting at the entrenchments is buying time but, is it buying enough.
Resistance at the entrenchments is almost over and the Swiss pike are still in fine fettle.

The second French line of defence is now clearly taking shape. 
Note the Gendarmes under Francis I (mid distance,on the right) making
 their way to a position on the right flank of the Swiss pike squares.
The Picard pike fight poorly and are routed in short order. A clash of greater import is about to occur between two arch enemies: There is going to be a 'bad war'.

The Swiss captain (centre figure on the round base) rolls 'one' on his first
attempt to rally the routers, followed by a second 'one' on his survival die. The
command is now rolling a D6 for motivation - that will slow the Swiss up.
The French are having some success too. Bourbons horse manage to rout a unit of halberdiers and their brave captain (Swiss command group commander) is killed whilst trying to rally them.
The positions at the end of turn two. The Swiss still have 35 morale points left. The French have 41.
I'm really enjoying this. It is a much closer run thing than the last time it was played. 

The killing field is, at the moment, full of living men scrambling grimly towards each other. Things are about to get very bloody. 

At this rate, I'm going to get another solo game in over the holidays! I wonder what period / battle I should do? Any suggestions?

5 comments:

Steve J. said...

Love the pics that really capture the feel of the game and things are shaping up nicely for a big clash in the next turn or two.

Joseph.Cade said...

Excellent battle, I'm hoping for the French.
Oh and since you asked, I'd love to see another Punic War clash.

Joseph.Cade said...

Excellent battle, I'm hoping for the French.

And, since you asked, I'd love to see another Punic War clash.

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

WWII Desert for me...

Gonsalvo said...

Great looking game, and becoming quite tense. I do love your Cardinal figure!

Oh, and to ensure there is no consensus, I vote for Seven Year's War! :-)