Battle Report

Battle preparation. Table scale is exactly 1/300. Big struggle to decide whether buildings and terrain should be in 1/300 or 15mm, as the figures.
Game is played using Pike and Shotte, organization at the bottom of this page.

Longhorn is my nickname…

The French King on the left, and Seigneur de La Palisse.
Second grade referee on the right, we had three during the game.

The french right wing commander, and the game organiser

The “Doge”, the Venetian commander, as called by his soldiers, at work.

Venetian troops defending the ditch and bank.

Seigneur De La Palisse left Wing arrive on the battlefield.

The venetians decide ot to move and to stick to the bank.

The Venetian right wing is defended by Italian men-at-arms.

The Venetian Army on the battlefield, as seen from their left rear.

The French battle in the centre arrives in order of march.

Close-up of the gendarmes and the Swiss. They are not the usual high grade infantrymen. Recruitment was not done using the standard channels.

The venetian right wing rests on high ground. Not really a hill, since the countryside is flat and covered with water channels.

The French right starts to deploy in battle line, under artillery fire. The swiss start to take casualties.

La Palisse troops manoeuvre is very close to the Venetian host.

The rest of the venetian army arrives on table. Only the fourth Colonnella is now missing.

The swiss assault. The ditch is defended by arqurbusiers.

The melee is rather bloody.

The French cavalry on the right of the melee advances unhindered.

The venetian men-at-arms deploy to counter the Gendarmes.

Meanwhile La Palisse is still in order of march!

The venetian cavalry charges the french columns. A bloodshed of french nobles!

But some of the Gendarmes are not willing to yield, one of the groups manages to repulse the attack (great luck!).

The swiss troops are not high quality and suffered casualties by fire. The first block is repulsed!

An overview of the north side of the battle, with the venetians acting very aggressively.

Dust is raised by some French gendarmes fleeing, but the winners are cut fom the rest of the army. They will end the battle dronking wine in the Hamlet!

The French attack on the right develops.

The french left battle.

The french gendarmes melee with the italian pole arms, poor infantry!

The second swiss pike block ready to charge.

La Palisse is very happy with the order shown by his infantry.

The venetian pole arms flee and the French Gendarmes attack the Venetian Cavalieri.

The stradiots on the right retire in front of overwhelming french cavalry.

The French Gendarmes sweep the venetian rear!

Battle is declared lost for the venetians. They probably failed because they did not move the main infantry force in the centre, which was never frontally attacked.

Enjoyable multiplayer game. Bravi Marco and Maurizio!

The Historical Battle

Battle game from the famous episode of 1509. Played using the Pike and Shotte Rules.

We will use a scenario taken directly from sources.

Troop scale: One regular size unit is 200-300 cavalrymen, 700-900 infantry, small units, diveide by 2, large units, 400-600 cavalrymen, 1300-1500 men. All units in the game are regular size

Armies

French

• AVANGUARDIA (Charles d’Amboise Seigneur de Chamont)

  ·
  200
  uomini d’arme milanesi (Trivulzio)

  ·
  300
  uomini d’arme francesi (Charles d’Amboise)

  ·
  2.500
  picche svizzere [1]

  ·
  3.000
  guasconi (archibugeri per lo più)

  ·
  Artiglieria

  GROSSO
  (Louis XII, re di Francia)

  ·
  500
  uomini d’arme francesi (Baiardo)

  ·
  2.500
  svizzeri [1]

  ·
  1.600
  cavali leggeri (balestrieri e simili)

  ·
  4.000
  fanti guasconi (tiratori e picche)

  ·
  artiglieria

  RETROGUARDIA (Louis de la Trémoille detto La Trimouille)

  ·
  1.300
  uomini d’arme (La Palisse)

  ·
  1.400
  cavalli leggeri

  ·
  8.000
  fanti

  ·
  artiglieria

   

  [1] Di cattiva qualità in quanto avendo gli Svizzeri dichiarata la propria neutralità non
  potevano essere effettuati i regolari arruolamenti

 

Venetians

• 1°
  COLONNELLA (Bartolomeo d’Alviano)

  ·
  400
  uomini d’arme italiani

  ·
  200
  cavalli leggeri[1]

  ·
  1.500
  cernite[2] di
  Padova

  ·
  1.500
  cernite friulane

  ·
  1.900
  provisionati [3]
  (Pietro dal Monte)[4]

  ·
  500
  provisionati scelti (Saccoccio da Spoleto)

  ·
  artiglieria
  (5 pezzi)

  2°
  COLONNELLA (Antonio dei Pio da Carpi)

  ·
  360
  uomini d’arme (Giacomo Secco)

  ·
  200
  cavalli leggeri

  ·
  2.500
  cernite di Treviso

  ·
  800
  provisionati scelti (Citolo da Perugia)

  ·
  2.100
  provisionati

  ·
  artiglieria

  3°
  COLONNELLA (Bernardino Fortebraccio da Montone)

  4°
  COLONNELLA (Nicolò Orsini Conte di Pitigliano)

  le due unità in totale comprendevano:

  ·
  840
  uomini d’arme

  ·
  1.200
  cavalli leggeri[5]

  ·
  9.000
  fanti

  ·
  artiglieria

   

  [1] Stradiotti e
  cavalleria dalmata

  [2] Cernite sono
  milizie contadine di fresco arruolamento e poco addestrate

  [3] Provisionati
  sono le fanterie regolari

  [4] Umbri, toscani,
  romagnoli. Non ricomprendono, contrariamente alle leggende correnti, le famose
  picche romagnole di Val di Lamone (o di
  Brisighella) che si trovavano con il Pitigliano

  [5] una parte
  consistente era incolonnata tra la 2° e 3° Colonnella insieme al grosso
  dell’artiglieria che si trovava sotto Vincenzo Valier

   

Battle Map

Agnadello.pdf

Markers

Cotton puff: Disorder (unit cannot be given an order)
Yellow Die: new hits
Green Die : old hits
Red die: hits above stamina
White pebble: received casualty from artillery.
Black pebble: Shaken