Something different, very different in fact

 

This is the another volume from Helion covering Air Power and the Arab World 1909-1955, this time focussing on the operations of not only the British (RFC/RNAS/RAF) but the French, Italians and Spanish air services. Subtitled ‘Arab Side Shows, 1914-1918, book is largely devoted to allied operations during the First World War. However, the final chapter looks at the aerial campaign in Spanish Morocco which ran concurrently with The Great War.

For its size, this book crams in an interesting and enlightening amount of information. Clearly the vast majority of this covers the British (and Anglo-Egyptian ) areas of operations in Egypt, Arabia, Palestine and Iraq, but the chapters on the French, Italian and Spanish, though smaller, still include a mass of useful information. As well as pure air operations we are also treated to accounts of combined operations, and the use of dirigibles and seaplanes.

The book is worth it for the photographs and colour illustrations alone. It is crammed full of superb contemporary photographs of operations, aircraft, personnel and notable individuals. The colour illustrations span eight pages, showing some 20 different aircraft and a superb colour map of the Middle East showing the locations of Ottoman, German, British and French aerodromes throughout the War. 

This is a well written and easy-to-read work, based on a significant volume of research, using English language and Arabic sources in addition to other various European sources. It’s great value for money for anyone with even only a modicum of interest in the subject. It’s not a book I would normally have picked up but I have to say having read it , I am hooked on the subject and I recommend it highly. Well done again Helion for providing an insight into yet another rather niche military subject and bringing it to us in such a readable form. I shall now have to get my hands on the corresponding volume covering the operations of the Ottoman and Central Powers over the same period.

Camping in Lombardy

 I found some resin tents recently so decided to throw together a couple of camps for my Italian Wars armies. The top two photos are of my French camp, while the others are of my Papal camp. All the flags are fixed onto brass tube so can be replaced easily with others if required. Most of the figures are Mirliton or TAG. Flags are Pete’s Flags.

They’ll do, especially if I need anything to be pillaged by roving Stradiots or, well, anyone else really.

Italian City

 I hate making mdf buildings. I hate painting buildings. I loathe making almost any kind of terrain. I can do it, usually to an ok standard, often badly, occasionally very well.  I will leave you to be the judge.

Anyway, I had been planning to run a large Italian Wars game at the now cancelled 2020 Battleground show in Stockton. Pre pandemic I’d started buying suitable buildings to make a city which I though would make a nice end piece for the table. I soon ended up with more houses and stuff than I could shake the proverbial bricklayer’s hod at,  but never mind. Most of the buildings are off a firm called Tabletop Combat (TTC) who do a great ‘Streets of Venice’ range of buildings in 28mm in mdf. Not only is there an extremely wide range of buildings to chose from, but they are relatively easy to put together even for ten-thumbed humans like me, and are much cheaper than other suppliers. I do have a couple of Sarissa, Warbases and Charlie Foxtrot houses as well, together with some plinths and fountains and such like to populate the streets. The Wall and the tall tower are Renendra and the lone shorter tower is an old Ian Weekly model. I replaced all the card roofs with  plastic terracotta tile sheets which look quite effective, from a distance at least. 

As stated earlier I have some more pieces to complete, including some more Renendra walls and towers to make a total of six feet to go down one of the short edges of my table. I also have five or six more TTC buildings, mainly small ones apart from another tower, to start. I built all the buildings shown here in the two weeks of nice weather we had last month, overdosing on PVA and polystyrene cement in the garden. I reckon the leftovers will have to be done indoors judging by the grey gloop outside as I write this. One other thing I could do with is a suitably Mediterranean backdrop to place behind the city.

I don’t have a game this weekend ( I did but events have overtaken me) as I now have back-to-back hospital appointments today and tomorrow for different bits of my once perfectly tuned and now seriously out of kilter body. I do however plan to take part in this weeks VWG on Saturday teatime and I will be hosting a big game in the Burrow on Saturday 17 October, probably Italian Wars so I can play the period to death before moving on to something else, and maybe even something new......? Of course with a week to go I should get another three of four units done by then, should I wish to.

Italian Wars rematch, the second half, played behind closed doors

Yesterday (Friday) was supposed to see us finish this game. Sadly we were having trouble with live-streaming the event due to some internet problems so it had to be cancelled. 

Undeterred I decided to play it to a conclusion solo as I had a very good idea of each side’s plans.

If you remember (if you can’t click here) the French were being hard pressed in the centre and on the left wing but the Swiss on their right were advancing (ok, slowly and very non-Swisslike), cowing the Papal troops facing them into staying on their side of the river with the exception of some skirmishers. We’d left the game at the end of the French movement phase with a couple of charges to work out. The Landsnecht swordsmen had charged the multi-barrelled cannon that’d been shooting at the Landsnecht pike block. The closing fire was ineffective and the guns were overrun. The French gendarmes on the left had charged two units of Spanish Genites. One successfully evaded but the other failed their fire and evade test so were hit by the gendarmes, but got off lightly insofar that they threw high on their break test so only retreated in disorder, and shaken. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Here’s how the game played out.

Closing fire was hopeless and failed to stop the Landsnechts, and no surprise when the guns were overrun.

The French gendarmes on the left had driven off the covering Spanish Jinettes and were putting some pressure on the Florentines. 

In the next League turn the Florentine Condottieri gendarmes charge the French through the vineyards.

Meanwhile in the centre the two left hand Spanish Colonela we’re starting to take casualties off the French crossbowmen and artillery.

Perhaps foolishly the Florentine militia heavy infantry charged the two handed swordsmen. They lost the melee but passed their break test. They didn't in the next round of combat and were broken.

The Florentines are about to find out how good the French gendarmes are.

Back near the Abbey the Spanish gendarmes charged the shaken French pikes but miraculously failed to break them having missed all but three of their hits. The pikes survived the break test but were forced to retreat. The Spanish thought better of following up due to the proximity of more French gendarmes.

The French gendarmes then obligingly wheeled and with three moves charged the Spanish. I also rallied a point of the shaken French pike so that they could count as support for their high class comrades.

The French scored nine hits on the Spanish who only saved two. In return only one Spanish hit wasn’t saved. It therefore came as no big surprise when the Spanish managed a really poor break test, which with a minus four for excess hits put them in the box. Worse still, one of their supporting units tested for seeing the rout and threw a three so they joined their amigos in the box! What a turnaround!

The Florentine gendarmes only just lost the melee to the French but were forced to withdraw. The French performed a sweeping advance and hit the supporting unit of Florentines.

The Victorious French about to break the second Florentine Condottieri company. 

There was now a rather large gap in the League right wing, and one was developing to the right of the Abbey following the exit of two companies of Gendarmes.

On the League left neither their troops nor the Swiss facing them passed their command rolls so neither side made any moves. The Swiss were taking a few hits from the League light cavalry and arquebusiers.

The Spanish again won the melee attempting  to capture the Abbey but the French held on despite being shaken. Another round of melee would certainly see the French driven out. (It did)

The extent of the gap on the shattered League right can be seen here, being nicely filled by the French.

The fight for the Abbey from the French perspective.

The surviving unit of French Crossbowmen was well placed to wreak havoc on one of the Spanish colonella. They didn’t of course. 

I’d only played the end of one French turn then one full turn for each side, and the situation had changed very quickly. The battle was by no means decided yet though so the fighting continued on Saturday afternoon. (I was supposed to be playing in Hail Caesar game hosted by Steve but had a bad night so had taken extra happy juice to get to sleep, so was in no fit state to play. Steve encountered the same problems that we had as it seems that YouTube have changed their streaming platform so it has become impossible, so far as we can ascertain, to livestream with multiple cameras. Why did they do that?).

This afternoon I finished the game off. 

The Swiss finally got more than one move and charged the leftmost Spanish colonela.  Closing fire and the passing fire from the Spanish artillery did little other than to disorder them as they made contact.

                                         

 The Spanish were beaten but passed their test so were hanging on in there.

As an experiment I ordered the French gendarmes to charge the disordered colonela which had been taking fire from the French crossbow unit. I wouldn't have dared do this of they had been formed as the Spanish would have got double the dice! As it was the gendarmes took three hits as a result of closing fire but then smashed into the Spanish, inflicting heavy casualties while saving all the hits they received. The Spanish didn't break but were pushed back, shaken and disordered. 

A general overview from the League left wing.

The Swiss on the extreme right wing then charged the League Landsnechts who were crossing the river. By some fluke of the dice the latter took six hits to one against the Swiss and were broken. Ouch!

                               

The Swiss also charged the Papal pike blocks and after getting three moves managed to cross the stream and hit them. It was a massacre and the Papal troops were broken at once. The supporting block to their right also tested and was forced to withdraw disordered. The Papal gendarmes seen on the bridge kept, rather wisely, failing their command rolls so went nowhere.

This was the dice score that precipitated the Landsnecht rout!

On the other flank the French Landsnechts were faffing about doing nothing as their general failed his command roll.

The French were finally ejected from the abbey so the victorious but exposed French gendarmes pulled back to reform. 

The Papal pikes took nine hits off the Swiss. No wonder they ran away!

The French Landsnechts were still standing idly by while the battle raged on around them.

The routing League Landsnechts. 

The League left is broken.

At this point I decided to call it a day and a significant French victory. The League wings were both caving in and the centre was beginning to crumble under the pressure from the French gendarmes. It was a victory of quality over quantity but only just. Maybe I should have given the League some more troops? Nah! At least there was room to manoeuvre (when the right dice were thrown!). The rules (Pike and Shotte, with sensible amendments) worked fine for a relatively large game. I think I shall definitely consolidate my six figure gendarme units into  12 figure ones. The Spanish colonela worked well as a multi-armed unit except when disordered and faced by gendarmes. Everything else worked well and I was happy with the way the game played out.

I am hoping to run another game next Saturday subject to the broadband issues being resolved and being able to create a fix for the Youtube stuff.

Italian Wars Rematch, half time replacements

I've managed to complete a few items so far this week, and I might just get another two or three done by the end of the weekend. While I know I now have more than enough figures for this collection I seem to have a couple of hundred left to paint. No surprises there then, eh? 

A new commander for my Papal contingent. Both figures are from Mirliton and the officer in particular is rather nice I reckon. Pete's Flags flag.

A rather odd unit of Florentine heavy infantry militia. Heavily armed and armoured they are but I do wonder about the practicalities of carrying a large shield when armed with halyards and poleaxes! These are almost all Perry metals, with a couple of Perry plastic European Infantry box set pikemen and three or four TAG drummers and an officer or two. The flags are from Flags of War.

These French mounted crossbowmen are from Venexia (Lancashire Games). The riders are nice but the horses are a bit spindly. Being French I don't suppose they will linger on the table very long. Pete's Flag flag again.

Thats it for now. I'm playing the second half of the game started last Saturday tomorrow which should be fun. We shall see......

Italian Wars rematch, first half

Saturday was a busy wargaming day. First of all I hosted a virtual Italian Wars game. The new lockdown rules meant that I couldn’t have anybody round to help move the troops (we could’ve all gone round to the pub but I can’t have one person in the house! Bonkers logic Boris! Katherine very kindly offered to help move troops but she actually spent the time monitoring the technology, and enjoying and laughing at the banter and occasional hysteria of the players. Richard, John and Neil were the French and Conrad, Paul and Nigel the allied Spanish, Papal and Florentine army, hereafter referred to as the League. The Venetians from last week would’ve tipped the balance too far against the French so they were deemed to have got peeved over something and taken their ball home.

The table looking along the League line from their left. The river can be crossed at half speed.

And the French line stretches off into the distance, as seen from their right wing.

The aim of the game was for the League to attack and capture the French camp. In doing so they’d release the kidnapped Florentine soccer team ( see here) netted by the French on their way to a tough away fixture in Milan. Obviously the League had to defeat the numerically inferior but (largely) qualitatively superior French. The  League were also induced to attack vigorously as for each BUA they captured they’d receive 1D3 back in lost stamina points to use as they saw fit. (What I didn’t say was that if they then subsequently lost a BUA they’d loose the extra stamina points. Tee hee). The French were disadvantaged by having -2 on their leadership levels in turn one and -1 in turn 2. We were using Pike and Shotte, which are not the best but are the easiest to handle remotely. I have a very few house rules, e.g. I give crossbows closing fire and mounted crossbows and arquebusiers’ range is reduced to 12”.  The troop characteristics are also different to the rule book, and are based on some produced and kindly given to me by James Roach (Olicanalad) with a few changes of my own.

                                

So here we go, with the photos hopefully supporting the narrative. They should be in the correct order but sometimes they rearrange themselves when uploading to the blog.

The League centre. It stayed that side of the river until turn 3 when the Spanish attacked. The Papal troops were facing lots of Swiss so were less keen to advance.

The League left held by a large unit of Lansdneckts.

The French right comprised several units of Swiss pike.

Neil's Swiss advanced quickly towards the Papal troops and were getting very close to the river, driving the League skirmishers back before them.

The four Spanish Colona in the centre failed to pass their command rolls until turn 3. 

On the French left, the two units of Argoulettes were outnumbered by swarms of Spanish Ginettes and some Italian mounted crossbowmen. Behind that lot were some Florentine Condotta cavalry and militia crossbows and heavy infantry.

The Spanish and Neapolitan gendarmes were quick to cross the river.

Papal gendarmes cross the bridge in the face of lots of Swiss.

After a slow start the Spanish in the centre raced across the river and assaulted the church, which was held by a unit of French arquebusiers. The Spanish Colonas finally make it over the river!

The leading Swiss block is huge. 64 figures. Is it really big enough? No.

Three blocks of Papal pike with Spanish artillery that had been taking potshots at the Swiss..

On the French left, a huge block of Lansdnechts advanced against a unit of Italian crossbowmen which evaded and in doing so unmasked two Italian multi-barrelled light guns. Amazingly the guns didn't cause many casualties (just one if I remember correctly) on the pike block, but did disorder them.

Conrad's Spanish gendarmes crossed the river ahead of their infantry and charged a unit of Gascon crossbowmen. Not surprisingly the crossbowmen were broken but they did cause a few hits on the Spanish who withdrew to safety rather than sweep forward.

The Gascon crossbowmen were last seen here.

 

King Charles VIII of France, as he looked (apparently) at the Battle of Fornovo, but not as wet.

Two Colonas assaulted the abbey. Amazingly the garrison was made of some hard nosed French and the Spanish were unable to break in.

Spanish and Neapolitan gendarmes poised for another attack.

The French pike charged the Spanish but failed miserably and were forced to retreat.

Richard’s French pikemen recoiled after loosing to the Spanish and had become shaken and disordered
.

Richard then ordered his other unit of French pike to charge the Spanish on the other side of the Abbey. Again they were defeated by the tough Spanish, and this time they broke and ran. 

On the French left John's gendarmes advanced to clear away the enemy light cavalry. The French light cavalry had been driven back by the Stradiots and weren't in much of a hurry to get stuck in again, contenting themselves with covering the flank of their gendarmes buddies.

The main body of French gendarmes began to advance (or trundle) in the centre.

No, its not Mission Control, quite. After lunch we kept loosing broadband, probably due to everyone in Middlesbrough downloading something to watch on tv later in the evening! My wife kept things going throughout the day leaving me to run the game. Isn't she wonderful! 

The other unit of Gascon Crossbows advance behind the flank of the Swiss.

John's huge Landsnecht block had been holding its ground but while he went off line for five minutes Richard ordered them forward.

The French Landsnechts on their left  facing a load of angry crossbowmen and two cannon.

I love this village I put together from a random selection of 'Hovels' resin buildings. 

Seen from the League perspective the French Landsnechts look pretty menacing.

Neils Swiss on the extreme right failed several command rolls, which when you only need nine or less is pretty bad luck!

Sadly at this point mid afternoon the internet finally won so we agreed to pause the game and restart it on Friday. It's still very much in the balance. The League left was unwilling (probably wisely) to move against the Swiss, but  the Swiss were coming to them instead. In the centre the Spanish were across the river,  and the three large blocks of Papal pikes were rooted to the ground. The abbey was under attack by several Spanish Colonas but the French defenders were holding, although their supporting units had taken a battering, and two had broken. The French gendarmes had begun to trundle forward to plug the gap. On the French left their light cavalry were hanging on providing support for more gendarmes, while the Landsneckts were in danger of being shot to pieces of the Italian crossbow men and artillery could bring all their weapons to bear, and there was also the danger of Spanish and Neapolitan gendarmes at the Landsnecht’s ‘three o’clock’. As we left the game the Landsnecht two-handed swordsmen were about to charge the guns and the French Gendarmes were trying to charge and break through the Genitors to get at the Italian gendarmes.

A good game so far, visually pretty damned good imho, and not too bad from my perspective in moving the troops and offering equal amounts of advice to both sides while my wife manned NORAD to keep things running when t’internet got dodgy. Thanks to all the players and the missus and I’m looking forward to resuming in a few days time with those who are able to join in.

Then at 4.30 uk time I joined the Virtual Wargames Group for a global chat about wargaming in general with some great 'show and tell' photos as well as a presentation from one of the members. A great way to finish the day.

End of part 1.