The Battle of Città Gemellate - Tudor English vs Venitian Republic - Mortiem et Gloriam

During the carnage of lockdown Andy had been busily painting away, and he kindly invited me over to try playing against his new Venitian Republican army (he has Milanise too, but that's for another day). Who was I to resist playing against these superbly painted Mike's Models figures?


We had tried to arrange this game several times, but due to my house being in pieces right now, it was a snap choice of Wednesday - GO!

Why is Henry at war with Venice? Politics? Reliigion? Vanity?

Most likely, he owes money...

 My list - my never victorious Tudor English. it just never, ever works. So, a nice easy win for Andy then.


The table. Again, Andy has superb terrain. We both chose towns, a coastline anchors left, and a wood and field also lurk on the left. These two towns were to prove critical.


Henry is slightly outscouted then! (Black =0, Green 10%, Yellow 20%)

My generals were two talented subordinates and Henry, who although he believes he is a legend, is actually just a floating competent.
Initial moves commence after deployment. My Welsh spears are moving through the wood, being met by a unit of Swiss halbardiers. My artillery is already doing nothing, but my two units of billmen bracket a keil my mercanary pikes. My archers move ahead sharply to try and secure the lower town plus also hopefully scare away knights with their powerbows, while my men at arms and knights try to untangle themselves on the right. My artillery does - nothing, all game. Andy has a Swiss ally, who is split across the upper town of two halbardiers, a pike unit and a skirmisher, the Venitians had two pike blocks with skirmishers, and three knight units backed up by Stradiots (cavalry with crossbows and melee experst, useful). A tasty list.

Andy brings his Swiss halbadriers quickly down the left flank, looking for Welsh scalps, so I swing one of my Billmen units to support. My pike keil get a yellow, which is a double move card to help them plug the obvious gap between towns. They are mercanaries and on the plus side, will be outnumbered by at least two of Andy's pike units, but if they sell themseles dearly then I don't have to pay them! Andy's skirmishers take the lower town, while his Swiss general holes up in a nice tavern in the upper town, can you spot him?

On the right, my archers and men at arms mangae to remove themselves from the cavalry wall, and watch as (from left to right) my Royal Household kinghts, Demi-lancer and Knights stream past in a multi-coloured display of brightly painted bridal and flags. Andy has regrouped all his knights together from their initial scattered deployment. These are a very potent strike force, especially as they are all charging lancer, devastating charger, so better than two of my units on the charge, and in melee, they are melee experts and the front rank is heavily armoured, so better than my Demi-lancers in a drawn out combat. Plus, lurking in the backfield, are his Stradiots, who are melee expert, so if they get round my flank will cause a world of hurt!


Back to the left, my welsh spears and my billmen take advantage of numbers in the charge phase. I break cover with my Welsh (the Swiss are flexible and were deployed in loose, so getting them before they got into the woods was a must, plus I get shove with my English Billmen as they are close vs loose, but I had to put in a general to help). I could not engineer a flank charge without endangering my Welsh friends by leaving them outclassed in a prolonged melee, so frontal it had to be. 8 Swiss vs 14 English and Welsh, hmm...

My carefully wrought plan was this, while his other two units charge my demi-lancers and knight, my superiors charge his left-hand unit to pin them, allowing my men-at-arms in. Great plan, but it could all go so wrong.

And it so nearly did! Andy chose to block charge his knights, and because it was my turn, this meant that I moved first in the turn sequence, so my four superiors were now hitting 8 average knights, and his other 4 sailed past to hit my 6 of average knights in an even fight. Help! Note the men-at-arms and the archers behind, trying to look useful. I should have charged my average knights first, breaking up his block, but I blew it.


And soon enough, my average knights lose a base on impact. Oh dear.


The melee was more positive, my average knights expanded and knowing the demi-lancers were an overlap, were able to inflict a wound and a kill on the cream of Ventian nobility. The wound would get bought off straight away. However, the Ventians were cunningly joined by their general, so were up against me, and killed a second base. Behind them, my superior lancers of the Household Knights were starting to deal damage, killing a heavily armoured knight on one unit, revealing the soft underbelly of the unit. They took a wound in return, and hopefully they would survive this war of attrition long enough for my men-at-arms to assist.

Over by the wood, my Welsh spears and billmen are rather outclassed. Andy's Swiss had +1 for two ranks of bills, and +1 for melee experts, my bills just get a +1, my Welsh get a +1 for melee expert, but give away a +1 for being unprotected, so I needed the Earl of Suffolk to step in and help +1 to take me to even. I was losing bases, but so were the Swiss, could I get him before he gets me?

Lunch was served, and Andy had matched it to his army! Not having had an oven at home for three weeks as we repaired our kitchen, this was a real treat.


Anyway, repleat after lunch we were back to the game, and despite Andy's Swiss general having a hearty pudding in the bar, and his Venitian general getting left behind, he had managed to get his other Swiss halbardiers through the town without upsetting their bosses' panna cotta, and ready to charge my second billmen, while one Swiss and one Venitian pike block charged my keil (they like each other so much in Andy's army that they even swapped flags within units). Off right, his other Venitian pike block is up to something as it disappears right...


What it was up to was getting itself into EXACTLY the wrong place. Andy intercept charged with it to stop my men-at-arms getting an overlap after their charge on his cavalry, but it left one file of his pike block fighting in difficult terrain, and therefore at a -3 and with no pike bonus, at all! What was I thinking? Well, I was taking a massive risk here charging cavalry, as I would be on a hefty minus myself in the impact phase vs lance armed cavalry. All my factors come into play in the melee phase, so being average, 2-handed-cut-and-crush, melee expert, heavy armour would receive NO charge bonuses, at all. Andy's knight got a +2 for charging lancer, +1 for devastating charge, and a further +1 for fighting foot charging him. I could have stood off, but I took the red and white, and lost a base and a wound. However, against the pikes, my revenge was swift. I contacted the left-hand file, in the open, but part of his base was in the town, so he, instead of being +2, was -3! I also received +1 for 2-handed-cut-and-crush vs foot on the charge, so I was +4 and caused, guess what? A skull and a wound!


Over in the pike action, my blocking force of 12 pike bases fighting 16, in a completely even combat, saw my Keil doing well. They took a wound, and dealt out 2 skulls and a wound on green dice! If I keep it up it would not be such a futile gesture.

The English billmen and Swiss halbardiers charge each other, and being evenly matched, only cause a wound each on each other on three rolls of green dice. Pity, as I will be down against the might of the Helvetian forces from now on!

My superior Household knights expand and break Andy's knights in the melee (2-0), ably assisted by my Yeomanry hacking into the next knight block and the pikes, while below my average knights get through the front, heavily armoured rank of Venitian kights, leaving only protected knights behind and me at an advantage, but not enough to break them. I had not noticed Andy had got his stradiots around my Household Knight's flanks - yoiks!

Well, that's something you don't see very often, perfectly stuck on edge.

The superiors are definitely in trouble here, they have taken a wound, but are hanging in the breeze after bloodying the nose of the Venitian cavalry (2-0). The averages behind just cannnot shift the condottori...

Here it comes. will we survive or will the cream of English nobility be ridden down?

At the same moment, my archers charge both Andy's pikes that are in the town and a unit of crossbowmen, who while in skirmish would normally be out of there, but in difficult going can stand and fight.

The stradiots come in hard, but with only one base in contact, he can only kill one base (he is on +4 for a flank attack, I get +1 for being superior, so a net +3, a red die for Andy). Which he does with a skull. That could have been a lot, lot worse.


The men-at-arms show their strength (+2 2=handed-cut & crush, +1 melee expert, +1 heavily armoured, whereas Andy gets +1 for melee expert, but does not get his heavy armour bonus against 2hc&c, so I'm on red dice, add in a general I'm on red and white  and he gets a black dice) and smash another unit of knights into tiny little pieces (4-0), but are looking brittle themselves.  Meanwhile, Henry himself joins his yeomanry in hitting the pikes, not as well as against cavalry, but close.

The skirmishers show what they cam do against the English archers (green vs white & black, a great roll from Andy), who themselves cause a kill on the Venitian pikes (+3 for fighting against an opponent in bad going, but give away a +2 as they are affected by the terrain), who wound back..

My average knights break the beaten up Venitian knights (6-0) killing the general, and then smack into the stradiots flank.  He only needs a wound to break me, whereas my superior knights had turned to face +1 superior, +1 melee expert, +1 heavy armour against +1 melee experts gives me a net +2 and a yellow dice. This causes a kill.

Now, for those of you who have never played MeG this is where we get an interesting moment in the rules. Andy's stradiots are fighting in two direction when my average lancers hit. I get +2 for charging lancers, and +4 for the flank, so +6 overall. The first base (on the left) does a kill, Andy removes the front base. Then my second attack goes in, also causing a kill, but because he cannot break contact, he has to remove the back base in the file. Look weird, but works.

In the move phase, I swing a base of household knights into the melee, but they are not needed as my average knights get the break. (8-0) Black cards in the box are the discards from this turn.

In the keil vs pike debate, I have lost 4.5/12 (or a 1/3 if you're being picky - yes, I know who you are), while Andy's pikes have lost three stands each (6.5/16), for an even fight, it's hard work for both of us.

The scene moves on, in and around the lower town many fights rage. Andy's right hand pikes are down to 4 out of 8 bases, and my Welsh spearmen and average knights are both within a hit of breaking.

The breaks come in, after Andy chooses carefully, where he is most likely to pick off a unit. The stradiots were already leaving, and despite going for the best chance of a kill, the pikes decide to join them as my Men-at-arms do their thing (15-0)

Over on the left,, my three units fighting Andy's halbardiers hold on, and the pikes, put in to slow down Andy's have fought hard to hold the line. 


A great game, Andy was unlucky not to have picked up any of my units. He had three that were within a hit of breaking. The two towns broke up his battle line, and I engineered getting my men-at-arms into his cavalary. He was unlucky with his attacks on even dice, wheras my luck was defintely in during this game, sorry Andy! 

As ever, Andy was a complete gentleman all game and it was a brilliant day all round, thank you mate!

And, for the first time in their MeG history, Henry VIII and the Tudors win! Woooooooohoooo!