The Battle of Pavia, 1525 - Pike & Shot AAR

This past weekend was Historicon! After several years of not attending, I dropped by last year to check out the Lancaster Convention Center and decided that I'd try to attend the next year's convention.

After renting a place a few blocks away I drove up from Maryland, having signed up for four games and ready to play. 

The first game of the convention was Martyn Kelly's refight of the Battle of Pavia. You can read more about the project over on his College of Kings blog.

As you can see, Martyn put in an incredible amount of work, with thousands of miniatures and two play areas. After hearing about the project when Martyn was a guest on the Yarkshire Gamer Podcast, I knew it was going to be the first game I would up for. 

I really can't express how awesome it was to see multiple 144-strong pike blocks. 

Those are metal pikes too, so these units are literal hazards for the unwary gamer!

The main battle was between French and Imperial forces north of what I believe is the Castle Mirabello. 

In addition to French and landsknecht pikemen, harquebusiers, and crossbowmen, the French (led by King Francis I) had plenty of cavalry. 

The Imperial forces in the north end of the park also consisted of pike blocks, cavalry wedges, and ranged units. 

In a quick diversion, Martyn had some wonderful additional details in his parkscape, like these geese enjoying a cold bath. 

As well as these dedicated beekeepers tending to their hives. 

French cavalry lead the charge against the opposing Imperial forces. 

On the other side of the park, another battle broke out between the French and Imperial troops. 

The third battle took place in the southern area of the park, just outside the city walls. Landsknecht pike blocks clashed with Spanish swordsmen. 

With the French cavalry avoiding the woods at the park's edges, the fighting at the north end of the park was funneled into the area between the woods and castle. 

My own command - the French and landsknecht infantry - watched as other French infantry infiltrated behind the council. The groups of harquebusiers marched through the freezing muck of the castle's moat. 

As the French cavalry charged over the Imperial skirmishers, the ground was being churned up by the hooves of their mounts. This resulted in mud markers, which reduced the morale saves of any nearby units; absolutely deadly to the cavalry!

While the other French commanders were fighting, I was wandering around the table trying to keep abreast of the overall situation. It seemed like the French were doing a decent job of dividing the Imperial forces into two smaller groups. 

My troops were rather content to sit back and watch the cavalry go at it. Just think of all of mud and horse bits that they'd have to step in just to get into the fight...

Alerted to the French's underhanded tactics of going around the castle, the Imperials rerouted some of their own ranged units to halt the sneak attack. 

However, disaster struck when the Imperial troops routed their French opponents by the city's walls. Freed from combat, the Imperial commander double-timed his troops to attack the French rear lines. Multiple cannons were captured before the French could react. 

From what I could tell (again, doing circuits around the tables), the Imperial forces had pulled backed behind reinforcements that made their way through a breach in the park walls. 

The French forces on that side of the table were now the ones on the receiving end of a flank attack!

At Martyn's urging, James (an Imperial commander) and I maneuvered our landsknecht pike blocks into combat.

German peasants on both sides stabbed at each other, the units forced into a push of pike. 

Such a titanic clash couldn't last for long! With the amount of dice these units threw down (and some very nasty modifiers, like re-rolls for failed attacks and lowered morale saves from all the mud and bloody bits of horse and French nobility), both units quickly accrued a deadly amount of hits. 

Unfortunately, it was my unit that broke first! 

As the game hit its time limit I wasn't able to get a full tally of the end results, as I had to immediately head to my next game. I'm fairly certain the French got the worst end of the stick, having lost an entire command and been flanked on the other side of the battlefield. Still, what a game! 

This would be a fantastic all-day event, and I'm impressed that Martyn could not only get results in the four hours the game was scheduled for, but managed to do so five times over the courts of three days.

I also appreciated chatting with him during and after the game. From his recommendations, I've got some books to pick up to learn more about the battle. 

Martyn deservedly won the Historicon Best of Show award. While I'm still dazzled by the setup through the pictures I took, it was still something you had to see in person; a real triumph of the Big Miniatures Battle in a market flooded with skirmish games. 

Tewkesbury Drift - Pike & Shotte AAR

When HMGS canceled Cold Wars 2024, HAWKS stepped up to the plate and offered Cold Barrage as a replacement event; a single day convention held at the Havre de Grace Community Center much like Barrage usually is. 

I attended the event and it was fantastic. Attendance was high (reportedly at 90% of Barrage's average amount, and again that's a two-day event), the food truck in attendance was great, and I really enjoyed myself. Not only did I manage to play in two games, but I also had a flea market booth that did really well.

The morning game I played in was a refight of Tewkesbury, 1471, using Pike & Shotte and run by Roxanne. 

Will (from my old New Jersey group) and I played as the Yorkists, while James and Judson (if I remember correctly) played the Lancastrians. 

Both sides were largely the same when it came to army composition: a front line of bombards and longbowmen, backed up by billmen. The Yorkists did have an ace up their sleeves with a "plump" of spear-armed cavalry waiting somewhere over off on their left flank. The "plump's" entry into the battle would be randomized, so we didn't know when they would be joining the fight. 

Historically, the Yorkists made use of their higher number of bombards to hammer the Lancastrians and force them into melee. For our game, Will decided to take the initiative and began moving forward on the Yorkist left flank. My own poor rolling kept the Yorkist right sat exactly where it was for several turns.

Roxanne's twist on the battle was the inclusion of a small ditch between the two armies (included after conducting historical research), which forced both sides to drift at an angle while moving through it. The Yorkist line quickly became spread out as the longbowmen and billmen moved forward. 

Volleys of bombard stones and arrows flew back and forth between the two sides, and units began to rack up disordered and casualty markers. 

The Lancastrian army drifted to its right to keep the Yorkist line from encircling their flank.

Thanks to some lucky rolling, the "plump of spears entered the battle!

And then thanks to some unlucky rolling, the cavalry pretty much refused to do much else than vaguely wave their spears in the direction of the fighting.

The first unit to rout was a group of Lancastrian bowmen. 

The Yorkists were having trouble bringing up additional bowmen thanks to the drifting effects of the ditch.

My own unit of bowmen posted to the top of the hill also routed.

Both sides were taking hits, but neither side was willing to get stuck in. Will's battle on the left flank was the first to become "broken", with one unit routed and another shaken.

James decided to force the issue, sending his billmen and supporting archers in against Will's own battered unit of billmen. 

The cavalry sent their encouragement from on top the nearby rise.

Judson meant to move the Yorkist left flank forward into combat, but rolled boxcars and ended up with a "blunder". In a moment of peak wargaming, he then rolled a six for a massive charge; exactly what he wanted!

After a couple round of combat, my bowmen and billmen were forced back. Will did better and fought off the Lancastrian attack.

However, thanks to the casualties accumulated during combat, the Lancastrians lost both of their billmen units!

With the accrued casualties, that left two of the three Lancastrian commands broken. Which gave the Yorkists the victory, coming back to the historical result in a roundabout fashion.

Roxanne ran a very fun game, and it was a good demonstration that Pike & Shotte (and its sibling rules Hail Caesar and Black Powder) can be fun with smaller battles. The inclusion of the drift was a great complication that easily added an extra layer to the fight.