The Italian Wars

[Terry37]

Yesterday David Crenshaw and I met at Wargames in Nashville for some DBA fun and we decided to field our 25 MM Italian Wars armies as we’d not had them out I am thinking since Nashcon 2011. So using DBA-HX it was my Milanese against David’s Venetians.


Early in the action, looking from the Milanese lines, both sides have advanced, and this was going to be an interesting game with all of the terrain being within our lines and none really in the center. However, with the road running down the center I kept thinking of Waterloo and the infamous sunken road!!!


My lines begin to wheel to try and deny David’s Venetians an opportunity to flank my pikes and arquebus. And just for the record, the Milanese standard bearer is a barber on his days off – thus the red and white standard pole!!!


A view of the Milanese far left flank as my Lanza try to sweep around the Venetian right flank to attack the camp, while Milanese blades run interference for the Lanza against the far too numerous and very pesky Venetian crossbows occupying the woods.

But this flanking effort was to no avail as David expertly discouraged the effort, and it was abandoned. It was probably by now that I found myself suddenly down 2 elements to none and feeling less than excited about the possible outcome!


Looking toward the Milanese center and left flank as seen from the Venetian left flank. You have to love that big gun of David’s - and yes, I kept hearing throughout the game that his gun was bigger than mine!!!

But things began to look up for the Milanese as two of the Venetian elements fell making it tied up at 2 to 2. So we were back in the fight!

[Terry37]

Italian Wars Part 2


But then it all boiled down to the infantry battle in the center with the pike blocks butting head to head while the Shot and Crossbows fired away to improve their side’s odds.


Meanwhile some of my Lanza were attempting to get back into the fray and we working their way to wreak some havoc on any opportune Venetians, while his Psiloi skirmishers and a band of Shot worked their way to also join in the fray. But we’re not afraid of no stinking Psiloi and Shot – Pahaa!


Here you can see my Light Horse have ZOC’d his Shot and my artillery is pelting away at the rear rank of his pike block. Worry was not on my mind as I knew it was just a matter of a few die rolls and victory was going to be mine!


Oh NO!!!!! What’s this! With some very cleaver maneuvering David was able to wield his Psiloi upon the flank of my pike block while he hit it from the front with his pikes and …..well, you can see the results! Yep, I lost my pikes and the battle!

It was a really fun game that went a good while with lots of shoving and pushing of pikes and realigning of ranks. It was a well fought and well earned victory by Mr. Crenshaw, but this is not the final word and there will be a day of revenge!

Just as the game was nearing it’s end, Dave Cliffel, another area DBAer, showed up and I bowed out to let him lead the Milanese to bring about the justified revenge. But this was not going to be the case. I sat and watched in amazement as in fairly quick succession I saw Dave loose combat after combat to lose the day again to the Venetians. But the amazing part was that all four loses were 6-1s!

All in all a great day and great company! Thanks to Baxter for accommodating us as always. Be sure to check out our Hot battle under the HotT thread.

[timurilank]

Four 6:1s? Seems like the Milanese had a fashion disorder that needed some attention off the field. Exit stage left.

BTW, are your Italians Minifigs or OG15s?

[Dunctator]

Excellent report, Terry - thanks for posting

A Moste Handsome Looking Battaile!

Dunc

[david Crenshaw]

Terry's Milanese are Minifigs, whereas my Venetians are Ral Partha. Terry was kind enough to give me the Ral Partha figures and in return I painted most of the grunts for his Milanese.

Some pictures of the Milanese stomping 4 6-1's in a row Venetians are on my blog here:

http://miniatureminions.blogspot.com...-dba-army.html

http://miniatureminions.blogspot.com...-culverin.html

http://miniatureminions.blogspot.com...ult-group.html

There are more pictures if you use the "Italians" label on the left, but you have to sort through some stuff first to get there.

I wish Terry could post a good picture of his General's stand, gun, and Blades. He painted those himself and they are Magnificent!

David

[Little Caesar]

Possibly my favorite period in wargaming history! Excellent report Terry, thanks for posting!

Steve

[itchysama]

Nice pics and great report! Thanks for sharing with us!