Another War of the Polish Succession game (or is it?) with Honours of War

 I’m facilitating another 18th century game set in northern Italy in 1732 on Saturday. Here’s the background to the engagement and some photos showing the starting positions of the armies. The battle follows on from the previous game. Click here 

The next phase of 1st Ristorante War is about to begin. Following the drawn battle of Castello Monazana the Spanish and French armies pulled back and regrouped while the Waldo-Austrian army retired through Waldensia, retiring some ten leagues from the road across the mountains where they received reinforcements. The Waldensian army had been shattered and the Duke withdrew them from the war. Two weeks later and despite the lateness of the season, the now slightly stronger and better led French and Spanish army was able to move through the pass and encamped at its eastern side. 

The Austrians were well aware of the presence of their enemy, yet had been caught on the back foot (Der Rückfuß) by the withdrawal of the Waldensian force. The Franco-Spanish  commanders hope to take advantage of this and have come up with a plan to fall upon the Austrian rear while ‘demonstrating’ against their front. This involves a lengthy march around the flank of the Austrians  under cover of early morning darkness and the ‘hilly’ terrain that would initially hide them from view of the Austrians. 

Sadly for the Franco-Spanish army, the Austrians were aware of their movements and as dawn broke on 5 November 1732 they could see the long columns of the French and Spanish troops some distance away, marching around their left flank.  FML Mercy ordered the bulk of the Austrian infantry to march towards the flank of the enemy columns while the cavalry marched faster to be in position to attack the head of the column. He left his most battered line battalions and most of the Austrian light troops to watch the French encampment.

The Austrian cavalry facing the head of the Franco-Spanish column.

The Franco-Spanish cavalry

Four brigades of French and Spanish infantry

The view from the hill where the Prussian artillery and infantry are deployed.

This scenario isn't all it seems of course........

Northern Italy, 1732

 If you remember the scene setting in the previous post here the combined French and Spanish armies were attempting to defeat the Austrians and their (fictional) Waldensian allies in order to use the pass at the eastern end of the table to invade the County of Waldensia. The year is 1732 so by some happy coincidence the armies of the major powers are actually at war fighting over the Polish succession. I used my existing 18thC armies for this game, as I have sizeable French, Spanish and Austrian forces in my collection. For the fictional Waldensians I used my WAS/SYW Duchy of Modena army. They've never been in action before, and I mean, does anyone else own a Modena army of this era? The game was also the inaugural outing for my French and Spanish, so great things were expected of them. Or not.

Conrad and John were the two commanders in chief, and I'd sent them their OoB and photos of the tabletop a couple of days before the game so they could advise me as to their troop deployment.  Both commanders effectively refused their left flanks. Conrad and Shaun were the Austrians,with Neil as the Waldensian commander, while Paul, John and Mark were the Franco-Spanish forces. We used Honours of War for almost the first time in several years instead of Black Powder, which as it turned out was a good move as it produced a much tighter and more nuanced and intuitive game than BP would have. 

As is now ‘normal’ the game was played remotely, with three cameras live streaming the table from different angles while Skype was used for the audio. The players could each chose the camera view best for them. All I had to do was move the figures as directed and resolve combat and morale. 

The battlefield as seen from the western end, with the Spanish and French on the left.

The large French brigade in the centre began their advance towards the enemy. 

The Austrian left edged forward, four battalions of infantry (one in the village) with six regiments of cuirassiers and dragoons in their rear.

The Spanish advanced, but more slowly than the French as Paul failed to get them moving at the beginning of the game. With the exception of the Irish and Swiss battalions they were classed as inferior.

The Austrians had a regiment of hussars and another of Grenzer facing the Spanish. These fell back in the face of the Spanish advance. 

Neil's Waldensians, all classed as inferior troops, but led by a 'dashing' general!

A view of the French infantry and cavalry as they began their attack. The cavalry were under fire from Austrian cannon at the bridge but stood taking a slowly rising number of casualties.

The front line of the Waldensian brigade were to start loosing heavily to French artillery.

The Austrians ready to withstand the French and Spanish attack.

To the East of the village the French (Irish) and Austrian grenadiers  were pouring volleys into each other. A battalion of Bulkley's regiment had already been forced to retreat.

Paul kept the Spanish moving slowly forwards in the face of massed Austrian cavalry. 

The Austrians began to move their cavalry through the Grenzers.

A wider angle shot of the previous photo.

Shaun put five of his regiments into line with one in support. I think we all know what's coming next.....

I seem to have missed a photo opportunity as prior to the action shown in the above picture, the Austrians had successfully beaten off an attack by a battalion of French Guard.  Shaun then charged the French line, weaker now the the Guard were out of the way. Another regiment of Austrian cuirassiers also charged the Spanish Irish (Ultona I think) battalion. Both units survived the closing fire and charged home but both lost heavily in the melee that followed and routed. The French battalion also routed. Pretty conclusive outcome I reckon.

Alt-Modena Cuirassiers in flight.

More Austrian cuirassiers routing after their failed attempt to break the Spanish line.

The routing German regiment put another hit on the Royal Italians as they broke through them but thankfully dispersed before they could do the same to the French Guard who can be seen rallying at the rear.

The Waldensian brigade wheeled round to face the French attacking in the centre, fully expecting the enemy  cavalry to come thundering towards them. They were to be disappointed as the French horse held back for a more opportune moment.

The table seen from the eastern end.

Neil’s Waldensian commander was classed as ‘dashing’ so when he threw a six to activate the brigade they got two moves. As they were close enough (or too close) they were forced to charge Rooth’s Irish regiment. Conrad also ordered his grenadiers to attack. In the ensuing melee the Waldensian battalion was broken while Rooth was forced to retreat.

Mark then ordered his French horse to attack the Waldensian line. They survived some desultory closing fire but were hit in the flank by the single regiment of Waldensian horse and forced to retreat. 

 

The Austrian batteries guarding the bridge and pass.

The French horse hit in the flank by the Waldensian horse.

Back on the other flank, Shaun launched another attack with his cavalry. The targets were the Swiss Dunant regiment in Spanish service and the Spanish artillery. Losses due to closing fire were heavy but both units were swept away. 

The Austrians Dragoons swept on into fresh Spanish horse and were thrown back.

That pretty much concluded the game. The Waldensians were beginning to crumble and the Austrian infantry were all recovering with heavy losses. Only the Austrian grenadiers, their artillery by the bridge  and what remained of their cavalry were in a condition to continue to battle. On the other side the Spanish infantry were in danger of being ridden down by the remaining Austrian cavalry and the French infantry, although bruised, was still in the battle, just. The French cavalry were battered but there were still four regiments in play, as were both Spanish regiments. As were approaching 4pm in the UK and 2.45 am in Adelaide I called it a day, and declared the result to be a somewhat bloody draw.

It was great to get my 18thC stuff on the table again, and I hope to run another 18thC game next week, again using Honours of War. Everyone enjoyed the game so mission accomplished. The technology also worked very well with no streaming issues from my end. However, next time I shall have to rope in a volunteer to help move the figures etc as hobbling backwards and forwards around the table dealing with alternate brigades has really buggered up my back. This wasn't an issue using BP or P&S or even GdA as each side is dealt with in turn. As we are in total lockdown again wef Wednesday I have already enlisted the help of my wife or daughter to help.          

The Waldensians weren't simply plucked from my imagination, although they never did rise to statehood in northern Italy. They were and are a real religious group, more of which can be read here.

Until next time.

The wargaming part of the day concluded with another meeting of the Virtual Wargames Group, which as always was a relaxing way to wind down after a physically and mentally exhausting but much enjoyed and needed day of wargaming.

18th Century Game tomorrow

 

The road to the pass. The French and Spanish can deploy up to half way along the left (northern) long table edge

THE 1ST RISTORANTE WAR 1732-34

The Battle of Castello Melanzana

The 1st Ristorante War came about as a result of French and Austrian rivalry in Northern Italy during the second quarter of the 18th century. Following the War of the Waldensian Succession between 1669 and 1671 (see my blog) and the War of the Spanish Succession the Austrians began to re-exert their influence over Northern Italy, in particular the young and Protestant County of Waldensia which had wrestled a form of independence from Piedmont following the latter’s defeat at the hands of the French in 1671. The County occupies territory that controls several of the major mountain passes from France into Northern Italy holds a key strategic value to all the major powers. The Waldensians have actively courted support from the Austrians in their desire to remain independent in the face of a resurgent Piedmont and the French, who were now allied with the Piedmontese.  Spain, had long (since being on the winning side in the war of 1669-71) been covetous of the territory of Waldensia and was also keen to  extend their influence northwards from Naples.  The French were happy to have the Spanish at their side again, knowing that any territorial ambitions of the Spanish would be short lived due to widespread ineptitude, a lack of money and poor communications. 

Initially it was the Spanish who began, covertly, to establish a wide network of spies based on a growing number of Tapas restaurants throughout the County.  Not to be outdone the French ran their intelligence network through several haute cuisine restaurants, patisseries and chocolatiers. The Austrians were caught on the back foot as Hapsberg cuisine was no match for the best the French and Spanish could throw at them. They  did attempt to launch a chain of Wurst und Schnitzel outlets (mit cafe und kuchen) but demand was low.  The Waldensians were not in favour of so many French and Spanish eateries popping up across their territory as they were driving the local gelato and Tagliatelli dealers out of business, and there was growing civil unrest, culminating in the now famous ‘Food Riots of Waldens’ in early 1732. This episode might have simply fizzled out were it not for the fact that the three great powers were already on the verge of hostilities as a result of the disputed Polish crown in what was to be known as the War of Polish Succession (and which was mostly played out in Northern Italy). The Lotti di Bun incidents soon turned from a food fight to all out war as Spanish, French and Austrian eateries were ransacked, looted or burnt down by each other’s supporters  or simply consumed by the populace,  and opposing armies manoeuvred around the borders of the strategically important Waldens valley. So began the conflict which history was to call the 1st Ristorante War.

The objectives are straightforward. The Franco-Spanish army needs to gain and hold the Waldens valley, the key to which is the Castello Melanzana. The area is held by a combined Austro-Waldensian army.  Therefore, Franco/Spanish objectives are to destroy the enemy force in order to gain control of the only viable pass through the mountains into the County of Walden proper. Without the destruction of the enemy field army invading through the pass is impossible. This is also the only avenue of retreat for the Austrians.

Italian Renaissance civilians

 Here are the rest of my Eureka Italian Renaissance civilians ready to populate my city or even the odd tabletop battlefield.

The lovers meet.

Some ruffians and thieves

The duelists. The gentlemen and ladies look on.

More hired thugs and thieves.

The figures are all from Eureka and come as a full set or as smaller themed groups. They're mostly done with contrast paints to start, but I like to mix and match as the mood takes me and add a bit of highlighting. Given that I always put a thin wash over them anyway before highlighting and so                    forth and hitting the varnish it is probably a waste of time but sometimes it adds something to the odd figures. I've put them on clear bases but probably should have clipped off all the cast on figure base before sticking them down. I decided against this as I didn't want to risk wrecking any figures or especially their feet.

Doomed love in my Italian city

 

After almost three years I’ve finished my Italian Renaissance civilian figures I bought from Eureka Miniatures. As my Italian city grows close to completion I just had to use two of the Eureka figures to recreate a certain icon scene and tale of doomed love in Renaissance Italy.

The other twenty or so figures from this set,  will appear in a post later this week.

Wings over the Hindu Kush book review.

The nice people at Helion kindly sent me a copy of this book to review. Their ‘Asia at War’ series is turning into a repository of an increasing number of really good books on some niche and rarely written about subjects. ‘Wings over the Hindu Kush’ by Lucas Muller is a case in point as the book focuses entirely on the Afghan Airforce in all its various incarnations from under the Communist government’s fight against the Mujahideen, through to the ascendancy and then fall of the Taliban regime during the period 1989 - 2001.  This makes a great change to reading about Soviet and NATO airforces deployed to Afghanistan. 

After the introduction and a comprehensive scene setting, we are given an account of the aerial conflict in Afghanistan from the point of view of the various factions, broken down into the Najibullah Government v the Mujihadeen 1989-92, the vicious civil war between 1992-96, the conquest of the north by the Taliban 1996-98 and the further gains then sudden fall of the Taliban between 1999 and 2001. Included in the appendices are unit strengths, equipment and losses. The book is laced with lots of black and white photographs and some handy maps which help put points raised in the narrative in perspective. As expected, there are sixteen pages of colour illustrations, mostly of the various aircraft operated by government and Taliban forces (it never occurred to me that the Taliban operated an airforce, even a small and ill-equipped one). There’s also a few colour illustrations of surface to air missile systems and a large colour map of the area of operations.

So, great photographs and colour plates, a compact, comprehensive and from my perspective highly informative (It isn’t a subject I knew a great deal about and the necessarily brief chapter on the geo-political issues was especially enlightening) account of the air war over Afghanistan during those troubles years. Yet another great book from Helion to add to their catalogue.

City building project continues

 

Well, I have gone totally over the top! The past couple of weeks have seen me plough through a pile of MDF buildings and plastic city walls to the point where I think I was ready to take a hammer to the lot of them! Well, maybe not that drastic but I was beginning to fell that I was actually creating something that’d never see the light of day other than as a scenic prop at the edge of my table. As I said in an earlier post, the plan was to build the city to run down the edge of my display game at the now cancelled Battleground 2020 show in Stockton, which should have been held next month. That’s not going to happen now but maybe in 2021...or 2022? Who knows.

Anyway, most of these buildings have now been constructed and painted. I managed to knock them off over four or five afternoons. I textured and then painted them and gave them ‘proper’ terracotta roofs. I just wanted to present a sea of rooftops and towers over the city wall and as I doubt I’ll stage any games needing street fighting it doesn’t matter that they look a bit scruffy. Almost all of the buildings are from TTCombat’s Streets of Venice range. They are quite big but given their planned use I don’t think that matters. I’m quite happy with progress so far and by the end of the week they should be finished, well maybe most of them..... but where will I keep them! The walls and the taller towers are Renendra, and I have another two towers and two wall sections to finish. Then, even though I’ve just said I have no plans to fight any games inside the city but I need to complete my Renaissance civilians, football teams and city officials to populate the streets. and speaking of streets, I need some more cobblestone sheets or similar. Oh yes, and some statues for the plinths and columns.

Ps the fortress on the grey hill has nothing to do with this city. I need to tart it up and make it a bit lighter, plus some grass, tufts, etc for the mountain.