After spending a year painting 28mm figures and constructing terrain and buildings, it was time to roll out the Italian Wars project at our local club. I had 773 figures with 87 flags, more than enough for a play test. I decided to base the game on the Battle of Garigliano in 1503, as the battle was early in the Italian wars and was a decisive encounter.
In this post I will detail the initial set up and order of battle. It a later posts I will detail some of the unit characteristics and rule modifications that I used under the Pike and Shot rules and give an after action report, as well as learnings from the play test. We will run the game again at a local club event near Philadelphia in the next few months.
Short historical background.
In July 1503, the French crossed the Alps into Italy with 20,000 men to do battle with the smaller Spanish Army with around 10,000 men and then march on to Naples. The mighty French Gendarmes were supported by the fearsome Swiss Pike. At the start of November, the two armies found themselves facing each other across the rain swollen River Garigliano, about 50 miles north of Naples.
The French managed to secure a bridge-head across the river under the cover of gunboats brought up the river from the coast. The French had launched several unsuccessful attacks to break out from the bridge-head and the Spanish had tried unsuccessfully to destroy the bridge.
In mid November the rain and snow had got worse and there was deadlock for the next six weeks. Both sides fortified their positions and the ground between them was a muddy mess. A truce was negotiated for the 25th and 26th December. On the morning of the 29th December, the Spanish completed a pontoon bridge that they had been secretly assembling upstream at the town of Sujo. They suddenly appeared on the left flank of the French who were caught totally by surprise. It is at this point our game started.
The Spanish deployments.
On the Spanish Left we can see the Spanish field defenses in the foreground with the French bridge head opposite. The defenses were constructed with a water filled ditch in front of them to represent the flooded ground. Behind the defenses are:
Two large Landschnekt pike blocks each of 36 figures (Foundry figures)
Two Landschnekt small mixed shot units of each of 8 figures (SteelFist figures)
One Italian sword unit of 16 figures (The Assault Group figures)
One Jinete unit of 8 figures (The Assault Group figures)
On the Spanish right we see the town of Sujo, represented by the bell tower and the building in the foreground. Further back we see the town of CastleForte, represented by the castle type building. In the far background you can see the River Garigliano with the Spanish field defenses on the other side of the river.
In the foreground you can see:
Four units of Gendarmes each of 4 figures (SteelFist figures)
These units are painted as Papal States cavalry, which weren’t actually present at Garigliano. I was trying to give a representation of Garigliano with the units that I have, without worrying too much about matching units exactly. The game was more about getting all of my figures onto the table for an initial run out.
Behind the heavy cavalry are:
Two units of large Italian pike each of 36 figures (The Assault Group figures)
Two units of Italian small mixed shot each of 8 figures (The Assault Group figures)
Behind the Italian pike are:
Two units of Spanish Pike each of 24 figures (The Assault Group figures)
Four units of Spanish small arquebusiers each of 8 figures (The Assault Group figures)
Behind the Spanish infantry are:
Two units of Spanish Knights each of 8 figures (one unit of Eureka and one TAG figures)
Two units of Spanish Jinetes each of 8 figures (The Assault Group figures)
This photo shows the Spanish right after the first turn. In the foreground are the unit casualty markers and other game counters (Shaken, Disordered, Winning etc.).
The French deployments
Behind the French field defenses at the bridge-head were some units of the French infantry group. The rest of this group were sleeping in the French camp the the game started.
Two units of French pike each of 24 figures (The Assault Group figures) – one of these units is at the bridge-head and the other is in camp.
Three units of French crossbow each of 16 figures (The Assault Group figures) — two of these units are at the bridge-head and the other is in camp.
On the French side of the Garigliano, in the rear of the photo, are the bulk of the French Gendarmerie.
One unit of French artillery represented by 3 guns (Foundry figures)
One unit of French household Gendarmes of 8 figures (SteelFist figures)
Three units of French Gendarmes each of 8 figures (SteelFist figures)
Four units of French mounted Archers each of 8 figures (SteelFist figures)
On these pictures I put up the back drop to take some photos. Close to the French camp are:
Two units of Albanian Stradiots each of 8 figures (The Assualt Group figures)
The French left had two battalia, the first was:
Three Swiss Pike blocks each with 36 figures (Foundry figures).
These units were near Castleforte in the centre.
The second was:
Two Black Band Landschnekt Pike blocks each with 36 figures (SteelFist figures)
Two Black Band small mixed shot units each with 8 figures (SteelFist figures)
The black band was in the French camp.
There was also a unit of scouts near Sujo represented by a unit of 16 Italian Swordsmen.
This last photo shows a view of the entire table for perspective. In the foreground is the field defenses of both sides and the river Garigliano. In the middle left is the French camp. In the table centre is Castleforte and in the distance is the town of Sujo. The entire table was 5′ x 14′ and was covered by two 5′ x 7′ game mats produced by Killing Fields Terrain. I cut the roads into the terrain mats.
Thanks go to Lou for opening his basement for the play test, as well as to Pat, Bob and Dave for play testing the scenario. With the initial play test in the bag, we plan to run the game again at our local club game day. We have a number of modifications to make to the scenario as a result of the play test. I will discuss the after action report and the modifications in a future blog post. I hope to get to this blog post in the next few weeks.