The Battle of Fornovo took place 30 km (19 miles) southwest of the city of Parma on 6 July 1495. It was fought as King Charles VIII of France left Naples upon hearing the news of the grand coalition assembled against him. Despite the numerical advantage of their opponents, the French won the engagement and Charles was able to march his army out of Italy. It was nonetheless devoid of any strategic result as all of their conquests in the Italian Peninsula were abandoned. Fornovo was the first major pitched battle of the Italian Wars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fornovo
Here you see the simplified battlefield and both armies. Andrea played the Italian forces, me the French invader.
I love to play with Mr.Andreas armies, because they are beautifully painted. I like most his Renaissance Swiss, French and Italian armies. So I am right here for a battle like this.
Here you see Fornovo. The town appeared on the DBA battlefield as an hamlet.
The armies are deployed! The Italian forces have beautiful knights and a terrifying artillery.
The French king has a good looking army as well, My backbone are the swiss pikes.
Andrea was the defender taking first possession of Fornovo.
Then he advanced with his terrifing knights.
And he shooted with his artillery. I had nothing to offer than a one. So the battle started with a dying stand of three fast crossbowmen.
So I decided to take a defensive position and enlarge the distance to the artillery.
When I was shooting with my other stand of crossbowmen, I was able to kill one of part of his knights. Lucky me!!
Artillery can not shoot at units in close combat. And the pressure of the Italian knights was already high. So I decided to push forward and force the battle with an unshattered army. A six with the dice in the movement phase was a signal as well. Attack!!!
In the following close combat, I wiped out another knight unit.
I lost the close combat between the French and the Italian knight and have to push back, but due to the fact the Italians had to follow they were isolated between the enemy.
2:1 at the end of this round!
Andrea attacked now as well and therefor blocked the line of sight of his mighty artillery. But he lost the first close combat and has to fall back with the knights.
But his spears killed my longbowmen and pushed back my general.
The last part of the Italian attack failed as well and the army lost another batch of knights, the others had to fall back from the swiss pike.
3:2 in the end of this round!
The French had the initiative, with a six and a lot of options.
At first on my left flank my knight had to protect the rear of my general in a suicide mission against Italian cavalry and Lighthorse.
The close combat was no success. I was pushed back or could nor win.
Due to the agressive character of the battle we are already in the final stage. Andrea went on the offensive again.
Things got worst for the French. The brave knight protected the rear of their general but have to pay with their lives.
And in the center some Swiss pikes were killed by the Italian spears. At this moment the French had lost the battle.
But the French general killed another hard fighting Italian spears.
And on the right a unit of Italian knights had been locked between French knights and crossbowmen. No escape, the Italians had been killed.
Game over: The Italian army lost 5:4. History repeated.
This was a quick battle on a Sunday, so we played another - non historical - round. In the beginning Andrea said to me: Now I am winning and you don't make another report. But in the end he lost again 6:2.
Lucky me on this meeting, normally Andrea wins more often.
Was a pleasure to play again after month of work'n shit. Next time we play Egypts vs. Hittites at the EME in Lingen.
