The Lawnmower of Pavia

 

 

This is the first of many "catch-up" posts I need to make, and it will focus on Milton's Battle of Pavia game that I played last December. My memory is a bit hazy, but I will do my best to recall as many details as I can.

 

The Battle of Pavia, fought on February 24, 1525, was a significant conflict during the Italian Wars  between the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire..

The French army, commanded by King Francis I, suffered a devastating defeat, leading to heavy casualties and the capture of Francis himself. This defeat marked a turning point in the struggle for dominance in Italy, significantly diminishing French influence and solidifying Habsburg power in the region.

The system used was "To the Strongest," an interesting game that employs card draws instead of dice for all resolutions.

I took the side of the French. In the image above, I am deployed in the upper right corner, while the HRE (Holy Roman Empire) army is positioned in the bottom left corner, with French forces deployed to their north and east. It appeared that the HRE's goal was to target the French-allied Swiss mercenaries to their north and quickly swing east to assist their forces assigned to protect the eastern flank. Although formidable, the Swiss mercenaries were outnumbered by the opposing army, so the French aimed to swiftly eliminate the eastern HRE forces and strike the main HRE force on the flank before the Swiss were overwhelmed.

For simplicity, I will refer to the forces engaged in the east as the Eastern French and Eastern HRE, and those engaged on the west of the table as the Western HRE and the Swiss for the remainder of the battle report.

 

The HRE had superior cavalry on the eastern flank, but we had a cannon and more infantry, which would prove critical later on. We moved our pike blocks into contact with the enemy, while I deployed my crossbowmen into the town of Pavia to strike the Eastern HRE in their flank and harass any approaching Western HRE reinforcements.

Our knights met theirs on the Eastern flank and we were eventually defeated. 

 

 

 

We now had a huge problem, our cavalry support was gone and we would need to defeat the HRE pike blocks quickly before the enemy cavalry could hit our flanks.

 

 

Fortunately for us, the Eastern HRE commander made a critical error. With his infantry outnumbered by our own, he could not secure his flanks, allowing me to swing one of my pike blocks around and catch his pikemen in the side while they were still engaged in front. This maneuver enabled me to cut through his entire line like a lawnmower.

The tide of battle on the eastern front shifted. With the pike blocks protecting their flank now defeated, the Eastern HRE commander had to move his cavalry out of the way before we could engage them.

 In his attempt to evade our infantry, the Eastern HRE commander inadvertently ran right into our cannons! A fortunate card draw resulted in most of the enemy knights being blown away, while the remainder were chased off by our infantry.

In retrospect, it seems the Eastern HRE commander made a poor choice by opting for an aggressive approach. His infantry was outnumbered, and his cavalry was concentrated on one flank rather than being evenly distributed. These factors combined made it easy for us to trap the Eastern HRE in a "hammer and anvil" maneuver. Had he chosen to fight defensively, anchoring his left flank around the town of Pavia instead of moving out into the open, he could have delayed us long enough for the Western HRE to defeat the Swiss and come to his aid.

I'm not entirely certain what was happening on the west side of the battle since they were seated so far away from us, but from what I gathered, our teammate was performing miracles with his card draws. The Swiss force was smaller and should have been easy for the French to deal with, yet they managed to pin the Western HRE in place for the entire game. The image above illustrates the extraordinary luck our Swiss teammate experienced; in one turn of combat, he was able to draw SEVEN armor saves in a row.

With the Swiss forces holding the line and the Eastern French marching toward the west unopposed, we decided to call the game a French victory. Vive la France!

And here are the other games that were ran that month.

Nick's Rourke's Drift game

 And an unknown WW2 naval wargame.

 

 Okay, thats the first of many "catch up" posts done. I'll try to get the next one in ASAP. Until next time, folks!