Dawn Surprise

I suddenly decided today that I needed a quick game, as one does sometimes.

Swiss mercenaries in French pay storm the heights.

Casting my eye about to see who hadn't been out recently and would be easy to fit into a One Hour Wargames scenario, I decided that the 40mm 16thC lads were up. The last time I used them I noted that the simplified rules needed an overhaul to make them clearer and more engaging. An hour later I was ready to go.

The scenario chosen was "Shambolic Command".  After diddling about a bit I decided that when using a 45" x 45" table, a 1/3 increase in stands would give me about the same frontage of troops as the original scenario. I then rolled a few dice and selected armies. That gave me a defending force of 2 small units of Landsknechts on the hill (probably should have been one), each 2 pike and 1 shot with a similar force plus a light gun, a unit of mounted arquebusiers and a unit of lancers back in camp, with no General. My equivalent to the original command restiction was to merely have all units out of command and let them roll each turn as per the rules. It worked very shambolically.

The attacking French force was represented by 2x 4 pike, a unit of 2 shot, a light gun and a commander.

The battle gets going. (End of Turn 2 I think)

The attack up the hill was a hard slog, not helped by the commander rushing to the front to inspire the men and dying a glorious death instead. Meanwhile the gun and arquebusiers did a sterling job of thwarting  attempts by Imperial cavalry to turn the flank.

About an hour and 8 turns later, the Imperial army broke and retreated at which point I remembered that I had meant to take more pictures. Oh well.

The end.

The rules worked better but since I several times found myself confused by the language and all the unexplained bits. I have decided to rework them to make more sense at which point I'll get the lads out for another go.