New Battle of Pavia 1525 scenario
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 1:42 pm
My Battle of Pavia scenario is now ready for download from the game.
Here are the design notes;
"I used the Osprey campaign Series book, Pavia 1525, by Angus Konstam as the basis for this scenario.
His account differs considerably from the traditional version of the battle that is given in Oman's "A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century", and which seems to be the basis for the Slitherine scenario in the Italian Wars campaign.
I have no idea which version is correct, but present this scenario as an alternative to the official Slitherine scenario.
1) Most of the Spanish/Imperial troops have been given higher than normal Morale ratings to reflect their performance in this battle. Similarly some of the French troops have been given lower ratings, especially the Swiss.
2) The reduced visibility script from the vanilla Lutzen scenario has been used to simulate the misty conditions (and the later inevitable gunsmoke). There is also a script to stop the French moving on the first turn.
3) The park wall has been represented by the Heavy Wall object type. This matches the pictures of the wall in Konstam's book, and it seems to have been a quite high and crennalated wall. The Imperialist troops had a difficult job in creating the breach, so it was obviously more than the normal park wall. It may not have been quite as "heavy" as a city wall, but it's defensive properties are unlikely to come into play during the scenario.
4) I changed my mind several times on how to represent the French and Imperialist Heavy Cavalry "Lances". For a time I had the Ordonnace Archers (and the equivalent Imperialist troops) represented seperately. First as the light horse lancer units that are present in the Pike and Shot army lists, and then as light lance armed heavy cavalry, which seemed more realistic to me. Eventually I decided to represent them all as Gendarmes, as this seems to be the standard solution in Pike and Shot scenarios, except when small numbers of Archers or Celadas are operating in a seperate advance guard role.
5) The French forces in the North West of the park are facing the park wall, to delay them getting into action immediately. This simulates them preparing for action after the alarm has been raised.
6) The scenario has been converted to use Adebar's Winter (No snow) terrain set.
7) Sideicons are as follows;
French; Francis I, King of France, commanded the army at Pavia. He was captured at the battle.
Spanish-Imperial; Charles de Lannoy, commander in chief of the Imperial forces in Italy, he commanded the army at the battle of Pavia."
As it says in the design notes, this scenario is very different from the official Pike and Shot version that you have probably played in the Italian Wars scenarios. In this one you start with your forces widely spread out in camps and in the siege lines around Pavia, and you are presented with the threat of attack in at least two directions. Visibility is bad, due to the mist, and you must therefore use your light cavalry to do some reconnaissance.
This is another of my old scenarios that I designed last year, but never released. Recently I have reworked it considerably, many thanks to Adebar for his wonderful Winter (no snow) terrain, which is just right for this battle.
I hope you like it.
Paul
Here are the design notes;
"I used the Osprey campaign Series book, Pavia 1525, by Angus Konstam as the basis for this scenario.
His account differs considerably from the traditional version of the battle that is given in Oman's "A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century", and which seems to be the basis for the Slitherine scenario in the Italian Wars campaign.
I have no idea which version is correct, but present this scenario as an alternative to the official Slitherine scenario.
1) Most of the Spanish/Imperial troops have been given higher than normal Morale ratings to reflect their performance in this battle. Similarly some of the French troops have been given lower ratings, especially the Swiss.
2) The reduced visibility script from the vanilla Lutzen scenario has been used to simulate the misty conditions (and the later inevitable gunsmoke). There is also a script to stop the French moving on the first turn.
3) The park wall has been represented by the Heavy Wall object type. This matches the pictures of the wall in Konstam's book, and it seems to have been a quite high and crennalated wall. The Imperialist troops had a difficult job in creating the breach, so it was obviously more than the normal park wall. It may not have been quite as "heavy" as a city wall, but it's defensive properties are unlikely to come into play during the scenario.
4) I changed my mind several times on how to represent the French and Imperialist Heavy Cavalry "Lances". For a time I had the Ordonnace Archers (and the equivalent Imperialist troops) represented seperately. First as the light horse lancer units that are present in the Pike and Shot army lists, and then as light lance armed heavy cavalry, which seemed more realistic to me. Eventually I decided to represent them all as Gendarmes, as this seems to be the standard solution in Pike and Shot scenarios, except when small numbers of Archers or Celadas are operating in a seperate advance guard role.
5) The French forces in the North West of the park are facing the park wall, to delay them getting into action immediately. This simulates them preparing for action after the alarm has been raised.
6) The scenario has been converted to use Adebar's Winter (No snow) terrain set.
7) Sideicons are as follows;
French; Francis I, King of France, commanded the army at Pavia. He was captured at the battle.
Spanish-Imperial; Charles de Lannoy, commander in chief of the Imperial forces in Italy, he commanded the army at the battle of Pavia."
As it says in the design notes, this scenario is very different from the official Pike and Shot version that you have probably played in the Italian Wars scenarios. In this one you start with your forces widely spread out in camps and in the siege lines around Pavia, and you are presented with the threat of attack in at least two directions. Visibility is bad, due to the mist, and you must therefore use your light cavalry to do some reconnaissance.
This is another of my old scenarios that I designed last year, but never released. Recently I have reworked it considerably, many thanks to Adebar for his wonderful Winter (no snow) terrain, which is just right for this battle.
I hope you like it.
Paul
