Slitherine

12 jan 2015

A complete make-over to incorporate the new design language and give the 'battle of giants' an adequate treatment. The scenario condenses the two day battle, with the Swiss attack on the French left and the arrival of the Venetian vanguard on the second day being modelled, in addition to the titanic struggle in the centre. Again this will show the superiority of the FoG engine over Pike and Shot for the early 16th century.

Note: for the Swiss to win, they need to gain the additional victory points on the French left but detaching the right number of troops for the task will be a big decision, as the main thrust on the french artillery position against a wall of artillery fire, landsknechte and gendarmes will need every last available unit.

99 mobile units
18 turns

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OLD
In 1513 the Swiss involved themselves in the dynastic struggle over the control of Milan by siding against the current holder, Louis XII of France. At Novarra they smashed the French garrison and became de facto rulers of Milan. Two years later the new French king, Francois I, a dashing 19 years-old led over the Alps a large army to reclaim his title. To take on the seemingly invincible Swiss, the French had arrayed a powerful combined arms army composed of the excellent gendarmerie, the most feared artillery park in Europe, and over 10,000 Landsknechte. Francois entrenched some distance from Milan, awaited his Venetian allies and tried to buy off the Swiss. Some cantons accepted his offers and marched home but most, excited by Cardinal Schiner, clamored for a fight. On the afternoon of 13 September 1515, they poured out of Milan, hoping to surprise their enemy. What followed would be remembered as the 'Battle of Giants'. Over 10,000 Swiss would lie dead, the highest toll ever recorded for a Swiss battle, and the Swiss confederation would never again field a 'national' army abroad, declaring neutrality shortly afterward.

Fogman

Thank you fogman! We're getting great Renaissance scenarios aplenty nowadays. To make up for lost time we're getting two versions of quite a few battles by now. This is great, keep it up fellows! Let's use the differences and discrepancies in the historical sources to the FoG gamers' advantage. We'll never lack for scenarios this way!

ZeaBed wrote:Thank you fogman! We're getting great Renaissance scenarios aplenty nowadays. To make up for lost time we're getting two versions of quite a few battles by now. This is great, keep it up fellows! Let's use the differences and discrepancies in the historical sources to the FoG gamers' advantage. We'll never lack for scenarios this way!

Yes, the Italian Wars period is a great source for Renaissance battles - and I think we can cover the French "Wars of Religion" too quite well. Once muskets start being deployed in significant numbers on the battlefield then I think we are a bit stumped as we cannot model the increased firepower so well. I might try one such scenario to see if my "LF impact foot" idea is any good. I found this useful article on the Swiss in my "researches" on the internet (Oman) . . .

http://www.cristoraul.com/ENGLISH/readi ... GES/5.html

Do youhave plans to cover the second day of the battle, fogman? Apparently, the Venetians turn up in large numbers to help the French.

The other thing that I noticed that might help us to do these battles more accurately is a little thread called "Legionary Roman mod" or somesuch, where a simple mod allows you to change the colours of the units. I think out of all the pikemen images that we have the Swiss are the best ones. They look the most modern to me. A lot of the others have a small buckler shield (or targe) strapped to their left arms, but I think these were mostly discarded by the 16thC as firepower became more lethal. If we could ask Slitherine to add the range of colours available to the Swiss pikemen units at some stage, then we could better represent landsknechts and Spanish soldiers in our scenarios. I will find the link for that modding thread . . .

http://www.slitherine.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 84&t=14889

THANK YOU FOR THE GOOD WORK.

there's no plan for the 2nd day right now. there's no data on the numbers and dispositions. as for the venetians, they didn't seem to have done any fighting. the mere sighting on them convinced the swiss to withdraw. it wasn't a 'the prussians are coming' situation. marignano is a great pike on pike battle with gendarmes charges to spice things up; i just finished a hot-seat game and it was close. the swiss squeaked out a victory (35/43 vs 62/62, but the body count was about equal) but the french counter attacked too far up and the swiss never came within range of the grand battery. A house rule I wanted to add was the french second line cannot move until the swiss cross the stream and taken the light batteries but that's hard to implement.

I have a lot of plans in the work, to the point where i barely play anymore!, or i'm rushing games. i may have to take a break from gaming after finishing 'lords of italy' to do what i want to do in my limited spare time. i find most of the stock scenarios insufficiently researched. some are just wildly a-historical (compare Strasbourg and Argentoratum for example).

That would be great fogman, as you will not only be providing scenarios but also helping other designers in exploring all the possibilities, present and future, of FoG digital. Worth taking some time from gaming to do that, imo too.

re-designed. first post.