French v Imperialists...Italian wars

                                            Somewhere near Naples 1525.....

At the weekend we ran a Italian wars game using Pike and Shot. I played the Imperialists and my army was made up of 2 Spanish Colunelas 1 Landsknecht battalia led by George Von Frudsberg giving them the steady rule. My cavalry was in the form of a Burgundian/Allied command and a Spanish cavalry command. My dads French army was led by Francis I which made all his cavalry Rash. There was 1 Swiss Battalia, 1 French/Italian battalia and a Landsknecht Battalia and also 2 French Cavalry commands.

 

The Battlefield from The Imperialists side. 

My Spanish cavalry in full splendid colour in support of the Spanish Infantry.

Francis leads his French Knights towards the Bulgarian cavalry but somewhat ponders his next move with a couple of failed command rolls. The Imperialist light cavalry use this to their advantage and harass the knights with small arms fire and then evading away. 

In the centre the Imperialist Landsknecht troops form a solid battle line ready to charge as arquebus fire is exchanged disrupting the battle lines

The Imperialists finally charge home and break the Swiss troops in the centre although They suffer heavy casualties and in the following turn find themselves broken from shooting,the final hit I failed to save!. The remaining Swiss troops start to withdraw. Units of Spanish pike appear to give support to the Imperialists centre as the the French command moves down from the hill to replace the Broken Swiss Battalia.

The Spanish infantry on my left flank are charged by the Blackband, my Spanish arquebus's repel a Blackband pike block with some quite spectacular saving, and the remaining French cavalry appear from behind the hill to charge my Spanish cavalry who were in a position to flank the Blackband infantry.

After losing another arquebus unit in the fire fight across he Churchyard my Spanish command is broken and start to retreat just as they were looking like they might break the Landsknecht Battalia 

The game ending charge saw my final unit of Burgundian cavalry run down by the now  rampant French knights personally led by Francis who had broken the rest of my cavalry. (When he finally decided to pass a command roll that is)

With my army now losing three of my 5 commands my army starts to withdraw and we call an end to the game.

A hard fought game which just slipped away from me towards the latter stages. A few better morale saves here and there could have prevented me from losing my Landsknecht command to allow me to start to rally some morale points off them and my Spanish on my left flank were very close to breaking the Blackband but just ran out of steam. My Burgundian cavalry were well beaten by Francis's cavalry  on my right flank which proved to be my final undoing.

A quick update with a picture of another completed  Light Infantry/Chausseurs, unit for my Napolionic army and a couple of new buildings for use in this period.