French vs Spanish 1511
Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 9:45 am
First outing for a classic French vs Spanish bash around 1511. Haven’t quite finished the French lansquenets “Black band” yet so no going beyond 1512. 1000 pointer and apologies for the dodgy photography.
The French won the initiative and elected for Agricultural aiming for space for the Gendarmes which they mostly got excepting the Spanish right which was a patchwork of enclosed fields. The French deployed a gentle hill which luckily landed in the Spanish centre and having invested in six fortifications the Spanish put them down to form a little defence to the left of the hill.
The Spanish put light cavalry on both flanks and light foot in the centre to advance quickly and slow up any Swiss or gendarmes. Two batteries of medium guns were placed on the hill with two superior colunellas behind the hill in support, a third superior colunella occupying the field fortifications. To the right of the hill an average landsknecht pike block flanked by the fourth superior colunella and then Spanish MF arquebusiers poised to occupy the enclosed field to their front. The Spanish and Italian heavy cavalry were in reserve.
The French deloyed both their light cavalry on their right supported by Italian MF arquebusier. Their centre was relatively hollow with three units of Swiss and French LF plus a unit of heavy artillery with a large gendarme unit(6Els) and a Superior Swiss Kiel in support.
The French left was where they seemed to be stacking up for an offensive with two units of Aventuriers, a small but Elite Swiss Kiel, another large Gendarme unit plus a small unit of Ordonnance Archers.
The Spanish kicked off by sending the lights forward to slow the French advance and then fall back slowly. There was no intention by the Spanish to leave a fairly strong position at this stage. The Spanish artillery targeted their French counterparts initially but to no effect so switched to the enemy skirmishers. The French artillery first bombarded the landsknects then a colunella but to no lasting effect.
The first actions occurred in the centre where the Spanish LF were outnumbered by the Swiss and French but they did have artillery support and arquebus so the French LF crossbows were the first to break and chased off by the landsknect arquebusiers.
This left the Spanish LF to face off the more numerous Swiss but again artillery support proved useful in destroying the smaller Swiss unit and routing the other.
Curiously the large Swiss Kiel in the centre was hardly moving at all at this point even though the French left was pushing steadily forward driving off the Spanish LH with massed crossbow fire. Seeing the Spanish reserve heavy cavalry move left the central French gendarmes finally moved at triple quick time, galvanised by an officer, toward their right. The Spanish MF arquebusiers and the Italian Gendarmes both decided to retire as well to put some distance between them selves and the enclosed field the French were about to occupy.
On the Spanish left the cavalry had fallen back also to avoid the large unit of Italian arquebusiers supporting their own light horse. However, the French argoulets were diverted toward the centre as their light infantry crumbled and the Spanish came forward again as the Italian arquebus moved left to make room for the Gendarmes now arriving.
The Stradiots strayed into range of the colunella and with support from the Spanish mounted arquebusier they fragmented but retired and quickly recovered. The French recovered all their light cavalry from fragmentation numerous times throughout the game. The argoulets were forced to retire by a combination of Jinetes and the now unopposed Spanish LF.
On their right the Spanish arquebusiers were sheltering from an ineffectual hail of long range crossbow fire but were unable to shoot back because of the range. With the crossbows attention focused to their front the Spanish mounted arquebusier darted forward again and managed to pick off one of the Ordonnance Archers but had to give ground as they advanced. Running out of space their supporting Jinetes crossed the field and headed for the Spanish centre.
At this point the Elite Swiss Kiel turned into the first field to make its way toward the centre and support its Superior brethren advancing now up the middle.
Trying to gain some advantage from the retirement of the Argoulets the Jinetes on the Spanish left took on the Stradiots and despite support from LF, a general and better armour were quickly routed. However in pursuit the Stradiots came under the guns on the hill and lost their second base and broke.
The Spanish mounted arquebusiers decided discretion was the better part of valour and retired from the gendarmes and into the defences. In the open French centre the landsknecht LF arquebusier avoided the fire coming their way and captured the enemy artillery but then had to leave it to fend off the argoulets with support from artillery. What was left of the LF aventuriers then snuck back and recaptured it before they took another artillery hit and broke.
By this time the French were ready to put some real pressure on the Spanish right. The aventurier crossbow men stepped forward into short range, for them, and poured a heavy fire into the Spanish MF arquebusier who broke having taken no casualties or fired their weapons!
This left the mounted arquebus a bit isolated but taking a risk they pressed forward and shot up and fragmented the Ordonnance Archers then charged and routed them taking them away from the crossbowmen to their flank.
Trying to relieve some pressure and cover the advance of the Landsknect Keil a Colunella charged the Elite Keil and simultaneously hit the flank of the other aventurier unit. Not much chance against the keil but some damage could be done to the crossbow? No chance; the colunella was destroyed in quick order whilst not inflicting damage to either unit.
With the Kiels bearing down the Spanish decided to attack on their left sending a colunella down from the hill to confront gendarmes whilst another colunella pushed toward the Italian arquebus supported by the Spanish heavy cavalry. The mounted arquebusier on this flank also left the hill to chase off the argoulets once again whilst the Jinetes headed for the recaptured artillery and the landsknect LF for the French camp. Unfortunately for the Spanish the gendarmes made short work of the colunella for no loss, excepting a base shot off by the Spanish LF hanging around on the flanks, and then pursued into and captured one of the Spanish batteries.
The Spanish commander could see them now rolling up the flank but luckily the gendarmes turned and charged the Spanish heavy cavalry who were just holding them when the battle was resolved elsewhere.
On the Spanish right the Swiss superior keil charged another colunella and the landsknect keil but lost not only the impact but the melee as well falling to fragmented. Scenting victory two of the Spanish commanders threw themselves into the front ranks and the Swiss broke!!
Following up the landsknechts ploughed into the elite Swiss kiel and disrupted it whilst the Italian gendarmes held the French gendarme charge and inflicted losses to boot.
The game now ended as the landsknect LF reached the French camp and the Jinetes captured the French battery again for a 15-10 Spanish win.
Lots of lessons from that but no true purely colonella vs kiel fight. The colunellas did very little shooting as both gendarmes and Swiss can close the distance before you get a shot off and one thing I won’t do again is send a colunella into the open against gendarmes!! The Spanish lights did good work making a nuisance of themselves and taking the camp and artillery but the French were very good at rallying fragmented units whereas once mine started going down they kept going down.
Massed crossbow was very useful this time proving you don’t need to cause casualties to rout a unit.
Artillery was mixed. The French picked off one colunella element but that was it whereas the Spanish guns really helped break the French LF and were crucial in driving off the French LH at various points especially when the argoulets were teeing up for an attack on the landsknect LF.
First time my opponent used the French and he realises he should have come forward with both kiels quicker as well as using the gendarmes more aggressively. Last learning point was not sending the Italian arquebus out onto the flank. As the colunella was closing with them their shooting was awful and they had failed to stop the charge about to go in.
The French won the initiative and elected for Agricultural aiming for space for the Gendarmes which they mostly got excepting the Spanish right which was a patchwork of enclosed fields. The French deployed a gentle hill which luckily landed in the Spanish centre and having invested in six fortifications the Spanish put them down to form a little defence to the left of the hill.
The Spanish put light cavalry on both flanks and light foot in the centre to advance quickly and slow up any Swiss or gendarmes. Two batteries of medium guns were placed on the hill with two superior colunellas behind the hill in support, a third superior colunella occupying the field fortifications. To the right of the hill an average landsknecht pike block flanked by the fourth superior colunella and then Spanish MF arquebusiers poised to occupy the enclosed field to their front. The Spanish and Italian heavy cavalry were in reserve.
The French deloyed both their light cavalry on their right supported by Italian MF arquebusier. Their centre was relatively hollow with three units of Swiss and French LF plus a unit of heavy artillery with a large gendarme unit(6Els) and a Superior Swiss Kiel in support.
The French left was where they seemed to be stacking up for an offensive with two units of Aventuriers, a small but Elite Swiss Kiel, another large Gendarme unit plus a small unit of Ordonnance Archers.
The Spanish kicked off by sending the lights forward to slow the French advance and then fall back slowly. There was no intention by the Spanish to leave a fairly strong position at this stage. The Spanish artillery targeted their French counterparts initially but to no effect so switched to the enemy skirmishers. The French artillery first bombarded the landsknects then a colunella but to no lasting effect.
The first actions occurred in the centre where the Spanish LF were outnumbered by the Swiss and French but they did have artillery support and arquebus so the French LF crossbows were the first to break and chased off by the landsknect arquebusiers.
This left the Spanish LF to face off the more numerous Swiss but again artillery support proved useful in destroying the smaller Swiss unit and routing the other.
Curiously the large Swiss Kiel in the centre was hardly moving at all at this point even though the French left was pushing steadily forward driving off the Spanish LH with massed crossbow fire. Seeing the Spanish reserve heavy cavalry move left the central French gendarmes finally moved at triple quick time, galvanised by an officer, toward their right. The Spanish MF arquebusiers and the Italian Gendarmes both decided to retire as well to put some distance between them selves and the enclosed field the French were about to occupy.
On the Spanish left the cavalry had fallen back also to avoid the large unit of Italian arquebusiers supporting their own light horse. However, the French argoulets were diverted toward the centre as their light infantry crumbled and the Spanish came forward again as the Italian arquebus moved left to make room for the Gendarmes now arriving.
The Stradiots strayed into range of the colunella and with support from the Spanish mounted arquebusier they fragmented but retired and quickly recovered. The French recovered all their light cavalry from fragmentation numerous times throughout the game. The argoulets were forced to retire by a combination of Jinetes and the now unopposed Spanish LF.
On their right the Spanish arquebusiers were sheltering from an ineffectual hail of long range crossbow fire but were unable to shoot back because of the range. With the crossbows attention focused to their front the Spanish mounted arquebusier darted forward again and managed to pick off one of the Ordonnance Archers but had to give ground as they advanced. Running out of space their supporting Jinetes crossed the field and headed for the Spanish centre.
At this point the Elite Swiss Kiel turned into the first field to make its way toward the centre and support its Superior brethren advancing now up the middle.
Trying to gain some advantage from the retirement of the Argoulets the Jinetes on the Spanish left took on the Stradiots and despite support from LF, a general and better armour were quickly routed. However in pursuit the Stradiots came under the guns on the hill and lost their second base and broke.
The Spanish mounted arquebusiers decided discretion was the better part of valour and retired from the gendarmes and into the defences. In the open French centre the landsknecht LF arquebusier avoided the fire coming their way and captured the enemy artillery but then had to leave it to fend off the argoulets with support from artillery. What was left of the LF aventuriers then snuck back and recaptured it before they took another artillery hit and broke.
By this time the French were ready to put some real pressure on the Spanish right. The aventurier crossbow men stepped forward into short range, for them, and poured a heavy fire into the Spanish MF arquebusier who broke having taken no casualties or fired their weapons!
This left the mounted arquebus a bit isolated but taking a risk they pressed forward and shot up and fragmented the Ordonnance Archers then charged and routed them taking them away from the crossbowmen to their flank.
Trying to relieve some pressure and cover the advance of the Landsknect Keil a Colunella charged the Elite Keil and simultaneously hit the flank of the other aventurier unit. Not much chance against the keil but some damage could be done to the crossbow? No chance; the colunella was destroyed in quick order whilst not inflicting damage to either unit.
With the Kiels bearing down the Spanish decided to attack on their left sending a colunella down from the hill to confront gendarmes whilst another colunella pushed toward the Italian arquebus supported by the Spanish heavy cavalry. The mounted arquebusier on this flank also left the hill to chase off the argoulets once again whilst the Jinetes headed for the recaptured artillery and the landsknect LF for the French camp. Unfortunately for the Spanish the gendarmes made short work of the colunella for no loss, excepting a base shot off by the Spanish LF hanging around on the flanks, and then pursued into and captured one of the Spanish batteries.
The Spanish commander could see them now rolling up the flank but luckily the gendarmes turned and charged the Spanish heavy cavalry who were just holding them when the battle was resolved elsewhere.
On the Spanish right the Swiss superior keil charged another colunella and the landsknect keil but lost not only the impact but the melee as well falling to fragmented. Scenting victory two of the Spanish commanders threw themselves into the front ranks and the Swiss broke!!
Following up the landsknechts ploughed into the elite Swiss kiel and disrupted it whilst the Italian gendarmes held the French gendarme charge and inflicted losses to boot.
The game now ended as the landsknect LF reached the French camp and the Jinetes captured the French battery again for a 15-10 Spanish win.
Lots of lessons from that but no true purely colonella vs kiel fight. The colunellas did very little shooting as both gendarmes and Swiss can close the distance before you get a shot off and one thing I won’t do again is send a colunella into the open against gendarmes!! The Spanish lights did good work making a nuisance of themselves and taking the camp and artillery but the French were very good at rallying fragmented units whereas once mine started going down they kept going down.
Massed crossbow was very useful this time proving you don’t need to cause casualties to rout a unit.
Artillery was mixed. The French picked off one colunella element but that was it whereas the Spanish guns really helped break the French LF and were crucial in driving off the French LH at various points especially when the argoulets were teeing up for an attack on the landsknect LF.
First time my opponent used the French and he realises he should have come forward with both kiels quicker as well as using the gendarmes more aggressively. Last learning point was not sending the Italian arquebus out onto the flank. As the colunella was closing with them their shooting was awful and they had failed to stop the charge about to go in.