The Battle of Novara - Tripping Back to the Italian Wars

John was over for a small game last Friday afternoon. My interest in the Italian Wars has been boosted recently so I decided to stage a refight of the battle of Novara. Swiss in the service of the Milanese against the French. We used Pike and Shot with a number of amendments to the rules and troop statistics. 

French (John) on the left, Swiss (Me) on the right.

Landsknechts in the service of France on their right wing.

Obligatory cat photo - Katrina Spawstza

Two huge units of Swiss pike.

The Landsknechts seen from the front with their supporting artillery.

The French centre, crossbows to the left of the village, three units of gendarmes behind and the right .

A future masterpiece in the making…..? Perhaps not.

The French commander and his choirboys…..

French Gendarmes 

Stradiots and French light cavalry 

The French camp.

A

The two huge pike blocks on the Swiss left.  They failed to move for three turns in a row!

More Gendarmes 

One of the French Landsknecht blocks.

The other one…..

French light cavalry bothering (not very much) the Milanese men at arms. 

The first unit of gendarmes into the saddle.

 My Swiss actually charged this unit of gendarmes and forced them to retire.

The Swiss

French gendarmes move round the village and drive off some Swiss crossbowmen, before charging into the flank of the central Swiss pike block. The pikes turned to face and the gendarmes bounced, but another unit then hit the Swiss, who were shaken.

 

Plucky French crossbowmen.

The Landsknechts and Swiss are getting closer to each other.

The aforementioned Swiss who had turned to face the charge from the gendarmes.

The Swiss and Landsknechts crunch together on the left wing. Both Swiss units had been battered by enemy cannon and arquebusiers so were carrying casualties before they even cross pikes with the Landsknechts. Despite this we’re managed two rounds of melee before there was a decisive outcome; one Swiss unit was broken and the other shaken, and in return one of the enemy units was also broken and the other shaken. 

The broken Swiss.

It was an unmitigated disaster for the Swiss, but a fun one. Novara is a hard one for the Swiss and this is the third time they’ve failed to win. It is possible I am sure…….

The French were supposed to be caught by surprise and began the game disordered and dismounted in the case of the gendarmes, with poor but increasingly better command levels. This should have given the Swiss time to close in on them and catch them with their hose down. Well, it would if I hadn’t rolled a whole series of rubbish command scores so the army either failed to move or ambled forwards slowly enough to allow the enemy to arm themselves, mount up, get into formation and counter attack.

I have a house rule where the Swiss ignore break results unless the whole of the battalia is shaken. That provided a period of grace for my huge pike blocks but not a long enough one. 

It was enjoyable getting these armies on the table after a long break. I shall be running a few more Italian Wars games between now and the end of the year.

The Swabian War of 1499 - a review of a super book

Helion’s latest in their growing from Retinue to Regiment 1453-1618 series is The Swabian War of 1499 by Albert Winkler. The war was the first occasion where the feared Swiss faced the Landsknechts raised and indeed trained and equipped in their image by Maximilian von Habsburg the future Holy Roman Emperor. It was a relatively short war, yet costly in lives and destruction to land and property. Not a great deal has been published in English about this war, so this is bound to be an attraction to anyone interested in later Middle Ages and early Renaissance warfare and the rise of the Swiss’ and Landsknechts’ reputations as formidable soldiers.

The author first of all takes us through a brief description of the weapons and armour used by the Swiss, together with their dress, discipline (or lack of it), aggression on the battlefield, organisation and tactics. This sets the scene nicely for an introduction to the complex background and causes of the war.

The war itself is of course covered in detail, with opening moves and the plans of the opposing armies described clearly. While not wholly unified, the Swiss Confederation and the Grey Leagues proved superior in their strategy while the Empire was riven with petty squabbling, in-fighting and the scarcity of funds, which made things difficult to say the least. The major engagements of the war, at Schwaderloh, Frastanz, Calvert and Dornoch are covered in great detail, with excellent full page colour maps for each of them. Other operations surrounding these actions are also covered putting the whole campaign into context. It was indeed a very costly war in terms of the lives of soldiers and civilians, the land was laid waste, and ultimately neither side could see much point in continuing with the war, which came to an end in September 1499. The author’s analysis of the war and its impact on the participating countries is sobering - militarily and geopolitically it was senseless; nothing changed, no land was won or given up, and the relationship between the Swiss and the Empire remained essentially as it was before hostilities broke out. He does note however that in the rise of the Swabian Landsknechts the Swiss met a worthy and bitter foe.

There is the now expected and much anticipated central spread of eight pages of colour illustrations. For me the best of these are those original images depicting the appearance of the common soldiers on both sides. There is also a splendid, vibrant and very ‘busy’ reproduction of a near contemporary woodcut of the battle of Dornoch. We also get full page colour maps of three of the key battles of the war thus enabling the reader to follow the narrative on the maps, together with a wide selection of black and white images. Some of these are photos of surviving weapons and armour, while the rest, near contemporary and more than likely as close as you will ever get, are woodcuts, and are illustrative in their depiction of soldiers or scenes representative of the appearance of the men and the armies they served in.

The book is aimed at a broad target audience, from wargamers, military history enthusiasts and researchers to more serious historians, a job the author has done well, and will be of interest and perhaps even inspiration to them all. It certainly ticked all my boxes and I found the entire book well written and an incredibly informative and engaging read. An excellent addition to the series.

ISBN 978-1-804515-54-9 Soft covers 115 pages

Waging War in America - Review

 

This book takes a look at the operational challenges facing the British, French, Spanish, German states’ and Continental armies during the American Revolutionary War of 1775 to 1783.

Author Don Hagist has put together a fascinating collection of essays from a number of extremely accomplished authors and military historians from the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, each focussing on one of the armies or one of the particular challenges facing the commanders, officers and men and indeed the wider civilian population. Putting this combination of expertise together within the pages of one book is an accomplishment in its own right, one which the author and Helion should be congratulated for, and allows readers to absorb the materiel presented and then, armed with this knowledge pursue their own particular lines of interest or research.

The stand-alone essays are clearly written, well researched and pose some challenges to popular thinking, and are particularly diverse in their subject matter. As an example, we have chapters covering the British army training objectives and their suitability for operations in North America, the tactics of the ‘Hessians’, the Loyalist militias of New York, the French and Spanish expeditions, problems facing the Continental Army and the impact of massacres on the frontier. There are a number of black and white illustrations, several useful maps and the authors make good use of original correspondence and documents to add to the narrative.

For those with an interest in the armies of the American Revolution this is a book you will find both enjoyable and enlightening.


From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815, No. 120
ISBN 978-1-804513-46-0 soft covers, 212 pages

 

1st Afghan War Picture Shah Sujah’s Horse Artillery

 

I was sent this print by the artist David Rowlands last year after I’d reviewed the book on whose cover it features. Only now have I had the chance to get it framed, in Bangalore. It will take pride of place on the living room wall of our apartment here. An excellent job and great value for money at about £30 which is fraction of what I’d have paid back in UK; it is quite a big picture. 

Here’s the book it features on. My review is here https://www.carryingsonupthedale.com/2021/11/dust-of-glory-review.html?m=1

Some more holiday reading; an eclectic selection continues……

The downside of spending chunks of time away from home is less opportunities for wargaming (that is pretty much none apart from a bit of painting and Zoom chats) but the flip side of that is that there is plenty of time away from distractions allowing me to catch up on my reading, and I have a lot of catching up to do.

This is the remarkable tale of one William Roworth of HM 44th Foot between 1786 and 1797. ‘Not So Easy, Lads.Wearing the Red Coat 1786-1797’ is the account of the service seen by this single English infantry regiment through the eyes of one of its other ranks in his letters home. Roworth rose to the rank of Serjeant Major by the time he left the army, after serving in the disastrous Flanders campaign before embarking for the West Indies, facing the horrors of a transatlantic crossing and the disease-ridden islands so vital for Britain’s economy. 

The author has used these personal letters together with a wide range of other original sources including official correspondence, private letters, army records and news archives to weave together a fascinating story of ordinary men on campaign. Roworth was a volunteer, as were many of his contemporaries, and served his regiment proudly despite the constant hardships and danger both on and especially off the battlefield. What lifts this book up above others covering the same campaigns is that we read here the perspective of ordinary soldiers, such as their fears, for themselves and their families, duty, ambition, and the sheer distance they were away from home. The author traces our subject’s service from his enlistment, home service, Flanders and the retreat through Germany, the horrors of the Atlantic crossing and the campaigns in the West Indies, ending with a look forward to the lives of those who survived. 

The book contains a great many black and white illustrations together with eight pages of colour plates, most of which are photographs of the islands where the battalion served as they are today, together with uniform plates and contemporary or near contemporary paintings. 

One of the most sobering things I took away from the book, despite knowing full well the effects of service in the West Indies, was that a muster return for troops on St. Lucia in November 1796 shows that well over half of the officers and men were sick in barracks or in hospital. Another return shows that between April and October 1796 almost 3,000 officers and men died of disease while as many as 4,000 to 5,000 were sick and unfit for duty at any one time. Sickness was no respecter of rank, and officers suffered the same as the men, as the data shows. Both Sir John Moore and Sir Ralph Abercrombie were struck down by fever but survived to take their places in history at a later date.

This is tremendous, candid and at times troubling account (from a 20th century perspective at least) and is a story of service and resilience that has been thoroughly researched and told well and should be read by anyone with an interest in the period, militarily as well as from a social point of view.  A really enjoyable experience; the book, not service in the West Indies in the late 18th century!

From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815.

ISBN: 978-1-915113-86-3 soft covers 285 pages

 

Some quite appropriate holiday reading…….

Quintin Barry’s Suffren versus Hughes: The War in the Indian Ocean 1781-1783 covers a little known campaign which took place as an extension of the American Revolution. Britain and France fought for control the Indian Ocean, their respective squadrons fighting five major actions during the course of a two year period.

I cannot say, before reading the book, that I had much knowledge of this campaign so I was keen to add to my knowledge. Waging a naval war many thousands of miles away from home was a major achievement for both the British and the French commanders. This aside they faced different problems in their attempts to achieve the elusive decisive blow but were still able to maintain an effective presence in the waters of Indian Ocean, to the frustration of their opponents.

The author examines the background and characters of Suffren and Hughes, and offers a description of India in 1780, in particular the role of the Honourable East India Company in extending its sphere of influence over the Indian subcontinent. He also examines the far from perfect relationship between the French and Hyder Ali of Mysore and the latter’s campaign against the British. The strategic importance of the HEICs operations in India are always to the forefront, and the shadow of their influence over Hughes is never far away.

The naval actions involving these fleets are described in detail, and I was able to obtain a good understanding of how each battle developed and how final victory remained so elusive for either side. Orders of battle and some useful tactical maps, together with an abundance of contemporary references and quotations help with understanding the issues facing both commanders at each encounter. For me the most remarkable thing is that they were able sustain and maintain their respective fleets over the course of the campaign.

I really enjoyed this book, and learnt from it considerably. It is like all of Mr Barry’s books, well written, meticulously researched and I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815 No.125

ISBN 978-1-804513-39-2 soft back 221 pages

Ignore my cat - Mirrored Backdrop.

 

I think it was at a Partizan show a couple of years ago when I saw a game with a mirror at one end. I thought it was quite effective. Armed with a piece of wood and some mirrored sticky back plastic (but no used washing up liquid bottle) I have made my own, which now sits at the kitchen end of my table. I hope you can see it in these photos. 

I think it is quite effective if somewhat unnerving if you catch movement on the mirror out of the corner of your eye.  I can of course put other temporary backdrops against the mirrored board as and when needed. Tabitha is unimpressed of course.