Yesterday at our local club’s game day, I was able to get out my Italian Wars troops for a refight of the 1513 Battle of Novara (Ariotta). John and Lou took the Swiss troops while Pete and Dave took the French.
The initial set up was broadly in line with the recent blog post on the Battle of Ariotta. I did make a few changes:
- The Swiss Pike block C on their left flank I increased from 24 to 36 figures to give them a fighting chance.
- I added two “small” artillery pieces to the forces on the Swiss left flank. These turned out to be reasonably ineffectual, so did not make much difference to the game.
- The Swiss reserves were increased from one pike block of 36 figures to two pike blocks of 36 figures. These were never intended to be deployed as they arrived too late for the battle. However, the French player did not know this information, so it kept them honest as in the real battle there was always the threat that they could arrive.
Here are a few photos of the initial deployments:
The Swiss “Enfant Perdue” in skirmish order emerged from the woods near the village of Ariotta to start the game. Their job was charge at the French cannons to try and capture them. In the actual battle this attack failed, but in our game, due to some fantastic command rolling on the dice (snake eyes), Lou manage to assault the guns on the first turn. The guns were initially disordered due to the Swiss surprise attack so this reduced the effectiveness of the fire. The three French guns quickly fell to the Swiss, who then decided that they didn’t want to man the captured guns, but instead decided to assault the Landsknecht arquebusiers coming up in support.
The main French force was deployed the other side of the Marsh. This consisted on the French infantry and a mass of Gendarmes. They were facing Novara, expecting the Swiss attack to come from the front. The Swiss had other ideas.
Here is a view of the entire table of the Battle of Novara (Ariotta).
The Swiss on the left flank were off the table to start the game. The picture below shows the Swiss pike block C, the two small canons and the Milanese knights. Also shown are the two reserve Swiss pike blocks which never actually deployed on table.
After the initial success of the Enfant Perdue, the two main Swiss Pike blocks emerged from the woods, one to the front of the Landsknechts and one to their flank. The unit on the flank then immediately moved to engage, while the one to the front decided to move towards the French infantry (as actually happened at the real battle).
The French decided to completely ignore the plight of their German mercenaries and proceeded to send all of their cavalry and half of their infantry towards the Swiss left. The half of the French infantry that was meant to move towards the marsh and the Swiss right, failed several command rolls and refused to go the aid of the Germans.
Pete, who was commanding the Landsknechts was therefore left to fend for himself, which is exactly what occurred at the real battle. There was a bloody clash with the Swiss Pike block which had emerged on their flank. This clash went back and forward over about four or five turns with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Eventually the Landsknechts, with no support arriving were completely wiped out, again, as happened at the actual battle.
This defeat left the two massive Swiss pike blocks to march on the flank of the French main forces. Some great command rolling again by Lou enable them both to fly down the table.
The Swiss once they appeared on the French flank quickly routed the French infantry that was meant to go to the aid of the Germans, leaving them to march unopposed into the French camp.
On the French right the gendarmerie commanded by Dave had pinned down the small Swiss force and had quickly routed the Milanese knights and overrun the Swiss artillery. They then surrounded the lone Swiss pike block on that flank. John, who was commanding this small Swiss flank force was coming under great pressure.
The pike block quickly became surrounded by the Gendarmerie. but valiantly fought off several rounds of attack. A unit of Gendarmes and a unit of archers became shaken and retreated, it was 2 : 0 to the Swiss. A third wave of attacks came in with units attacking both the flank and the front. With all of the damaged that they had suffered, this was too much for the Swiss, who routed off the table.
But John and his small band of Swiss had done their job. They had drawn the attention of the entire French Gendarmerie away from the main Swiss assault on the other flank. This had enable the Swiss commanded by Lou to rout the Landsknechts and half of the French infantry and then march into the French camp.
As in the real Battle of Novara (Ariotta), the French cavalry then decided that enough was enough. With no desire to engage the two massive Swiss Pike blocks without infantry or artillery support, they decided to leave the table in good order in the direction of Milano, bragging about how they had routed a Swiss pike block.
Overall I was really pleased with how closely our game simulated the real Battle of Novara (Ariotta). This result was achieved without the players knowing much about the battle in advance of the game. There were a few minor differences:
- The enfant perdue managed to over run the French guns in our game due to some incredible die rolling.
- Robert III de la Marck, did not manage to take any gendarmes over to support the Landsknechts and rescue his son.
- The small Swiss force on their left flank saw far more action in our game than in the real battle and they were destroyed in our game.
It would be interesting to see how the Battle of Novara (Ariotta) would play out if the French commander chose to ignore the small Swiss force on their right and send the majority of their infantry and cavalry in support of the Landsknechts. If the cavalry could fix the Swiss pike, their artillery and crossbows could rain down fire into the immobile pike blocks. But that is a game for another day.
