Big Battle Burgundians vs. Swiss

We tried out Big Battle DBA last night, with the Late Swiss taking on the Burgundians. The Swiss defended, selecting a field with river, woods and a steep hill on the left and two steep hills and a wood on the right, leaving a constricted center. The Swiss deployed to plow through the center echeloned from the right. The Burgundians deployed with a large force of knights beyond the river, more knights on the other flank and a force of archers, pikes and artillery in the center. The center was given the most pips, probably because Tom is the most experienced with DBA. The cavalry wings moved slowly as a result. The Swiss were deployed twice as deep as they should have been, since it looks good and I forgot they only work 2 deep in DBA. It was of little account. We marched forward steadily while the Burgundian flanks crept forward. Some of Rick’s pikes were shot down by artillery fire and archers, but then the pike block surged up to the guns and wiped them out. Tom’s general charged into the gap and was slain. His command broke and the Burgundians threw in the towel. So we played a second game.

Tom led the Burgundians, who were heard planning to share out the chocolate looted from the Swiss camp. I made some slight changes to the terrain and deployed the pikes 2 deep. The Burgundians didn’t deploy anyone on the other side of the river. This time I decided to have the center charge while each flank supported that attack. I should have reshuffled the commands so that the center was the largest. The center command became the high-pip command. The Burgundians gave their left flank cavalry under Bill the high pips, the other flank under Dennis the medium pips and the lowest pips for the defending center. We surged forward again. The center was lined with archers and some pikes were shot down, others recoiled and others came on. An attempt to rush a steep hill saw Burgundian skirmishers seen off with loss by the Swiss defenders. Our left flank pikes took hits from the artillery but closed and overran the guns. Dennis, green at DBA didn’t push a flanking attack on the pike block. Rick’s pikes slammed into the mounted knights behind the guns and killed enough of them to demoralize the flank command. Meanwhile pikes and archers clashed in the center with heavy loss on all sides. Bill’s flanking force of knights came around the Swiss right and after heavy initial losses routed the Swiss light horsemen. The end of one turn saw the Burgundian center demoralized by losses but also saw the Swiss commander in the center slain by arrows. So both sides were demoralized in the center. In addition the Burgundian right was demoralized. It was getting late so we called the game as a slight Swiss victory, since they had two commands in good order. Losses also were running 12 Burgundian to 6 Swiss, so barring a disaster against Bill’s command the Swiss were heading towards a likely victory, but nothing like the first blow-out.

I realized that the Burgundian artillery had suffered the curse of the newly painted unit, although artillery in DBA is pretty wimpy at close quarters. The Burgundian arquebusiers (fielded as archers) were also new and they did quite well, so the ‘newly painted’ curse didn’t affect them.

After the battle rancor broke out in the Burgundian staff, rivaling the fuss in the Confederate Army of Tennessee after their battles.