We played this game just before the holidays but didn't get around to putting all the pics up until just now.
The Veronese army is pursuing the Paduans, who have recently given up laying siege to Verona, turned tail and are now in the midst of trying to get back home before they are caught by their more numerous Veronese pursuers.
On their way to the large town of Castelbaldo, the Paduan commander -- the notorious Englishman John Hawkwood -- decided to stop and stand his ground just outside the small town of Castagnaro, in an area filled with dykes, irrigation ditches and impassable marsh on the bank of the Adige River.
The terrain provided Hawkwood with the makings of a Crecy or Poitiers like victory -- with the river, dykes, ditches and marsh narrowing his front and channeling the approach of his enemies much the way heavy woods on their flanks had channelled the approach of the French knights against the English in those battles.
In our refight the Vernoese tried hard to "overthrow history" -- and in fact came close to carrying the day, having "Broken" several Paduan units, including Hawkwood's own English Longbows, who had somewhat inexplicably chosen to advance down the front slope of the dyke they and the rest of the Paduan army were defending and into the irrigation ditch -- where they were just able to plant stakes in time to prevent being dispersed by the attacking heavy infantry of Verona.
After that the longbows stood and fought bravely but against the Veronese dismounted knights they could not hold out for long and were "Broken" after another 2 turns of melee.
The crossbow-armed skirmishers on both sides shot away at each other, the Paduans being able to alternate with shooting at the approaching heavy infantry, while the Veronese were prevented from doing the same by the Paduans cowardly but smart tactic of holding their heavy troops back on the reverse slope of the dyke until the moment for close combat came.
The Veronese crossbowmen actually charged up the dyke and engaged their Paduan opposite numbers in a brutal SKIRMISHER MELEE which the Veronese attackers in fact won -- but there were so few of them left standing afterwards that there wasn't much left for them to do except get off their last volley of crossbow bolts before being dispersed by the Paduan heavy infantry atop the dyke.
It was a see-saw fight, with 2 units of Paduan heavy cavalry and one unit of heavy infantry coming down off the dyke on the Paduan left flank (to the right of an impassable MARSH abutting that table edge) to engage the Veronese right, which happened to include the only pike unit on either side.
The Paduans suffered, with their infantry unit being broken and one of the cavalry units being hit in the flank and broken as well, even as their other cavalry unit threatened to ride down Verona's Carrocio -- the Medieval Italian city's mobile command center/holy relic repository. If either side's carroccio was defeated in this battle it would count as the loss of one "Key Unit."
But then the Veronese main battle line (consisting of 2 out of their 3 "Battles") closed with the Paduan heavy infantry defending the dyke lined with the irrigation ditch.
It all came down to the unit-by-unit "disorder" rolls as the one unit of Veronese heavy cavalry and all the units of Veronese heavy infantry clambered across the ditch and up the dyke to close with their enemies…
Needless to say, the entire Veronese front, which consisted of excellent or at worst, average quality, troops, failed their rolls and became DISORDERED on their way into melee, cutting their number of "kill dice" in half.
After that it was all over but the dying.
The see-saw had landed -- right on the communal head of Verona.
The Vernoese were able to hang on for a turn or two but that was it.
History repeated itself, with the 28mm John Hawkwood and his 25mm-28mm Paduan army succeeding in using the defense-friendly terrain on the outskirts of the town of Castagnaro to break the back of their slightly more numerous Veronese pursuers and inflict horrendous casualties upon them, just as his real world predecessor did on March 11, 1387.
I wish we had a few more close-up shots of the two CARROCCIOS which were scratch-built for this battle. They were very nice indeed and will no doubt take the field again for more late 14th Century Condottiere combat.
Here's the link to the pics:
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