Friday 29 March 2013

Novara 1513 deployments

We have been slaughtering the Swiss in our Cerignola 1503 game for months. That just isn't fair. So for this week's game I have set up what might be described as the last great victory of the Swiss - Novara 1513.

The battle, simply described, is a surprise attack by the Swiss, at dawn, on an unfortified, and unsuspecting, enemy (French) camp. This is typically Swiss, but the numbers of Swiss in each of their three manoeuvre groups was at variance with their usual tactics: instead of three equal squares they used one of 1000, one of 2000, and one of 7000.

I have used Oman as my primary source and I have deployed the Swiss, on table, in their positions just after the clash of the Swiss diversionary frontal attack on the village of Trecate between Swiss 'enfants perdus' and French pickets. The French C-in-C, partly dressed and armed, has narrowly escaped capture by leaving his billet through the back door. The alarm has been sounded!

Because the Swiss attacked in their traditional formation of three pike squares in echelon, this has put the leading square, along with the Duke of Milan's cavalry, well behind the flank of the French encampment. This is the only position that makes sense. Oman says that they passed by Trecate in the dark, using local guides, and attacked the baggage park that lay beyond. The space this deployment requires is the reason why the on-table deployments have not been laid 'square'.
With a big scoop of fudge, figure scale is about 1:50. Here are some closer shots of the different parts of the action.





















We will fight this action on Wednesday night. It is not a big battle, and the nature of terrain (lack of it, for the most part) should make it a pacey affair.

4 comments:

Victor said...

As always your games look great and you have given me an idea for a battle I need to run in May at our local convention.

Gonsalvo said...

And I am planning on running Novara myself at Historicon in July for the 500th anniversary, so I will interested to see how your version plays out!

Peter

fireymonkeyboy said...

Your games always look hot. Going to keep an eye on this one.

Dalauppror said...

Stunning game !!!

best regards Michael