The Wars of Religion - Fields of Glory

Deployment: In this battle both sides are simply seeking to destroy the opposing army whilst preserving as much of their own force as possible. The Spanish/ Catholics have opted to put their cavalry and artillery in the centre between the swamp and the forest, whilst their infantry anchor both flanks. The French Huguenots have cavalry forming a front rank all along the line, but have weighted most of their infantry towards their left.



Turn 1: The Spanish mounted arquebusiers begin some indecisive skirmishing in the centre. Their musketeers push through the forest, whilst the rest of the infantry slowly swing around the terrain and close in from the flanks. The French march their infantry past the cornfields to their left, leaving their cavalry to screen the centre. 



Turn 2: Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex leads a body of French cuirassiers in a daring charge to smash the papist mounted arquebusiers. Just as quickly he gallops to the rear when the Spanish reiters counter attack. The remaining cuirassiers repel the reiters but are badly disordered by a well timed volley of artillery.





Meanwhile the elite Spanish Tercio circles around the swamp and moves into position to protect the guns, solidly anchoring the Spanish/ catholic left. 



Turn 3: The Hugeunots pour the combined firepower of three cavalry squadrons and a company of shot into the Spanish tercio, but these veterans shrug off the trickle of casualties without any loss of cohesion. Similarly the disordered cuirassiers stoically ignore the ragged pistol and arquebus volleys directed their way and focus on reforming, ready for another charge. 



On the other flank the Swiss and English regiments veer off to face their Italian and Picard counterparts.

Turn 4: The reformed cuirassiers gallantly hurl themselves at the enemy, but the Spanish mounted arquebusiers hold their nerve. A last second volley scythes down the flower of French nobility, completely arresting the momentum of the charge and the survivors quit the field!



Elsewhere the Italian tercio boldly advances, scattering the Huguenot shot and crashing into the elite regiment of Swiss. For three bloody rounds these two juggernauts engage in 'bad war', neither side yielding and the front ranks of both cut down be pike thrust and point blank musketry, before finally the Italians are pushed back. 



Sensing a chance for glory, King Henri gallops up to the exhausted Swiss and leads them in a counter charge. The Italians are pushed to the very brink, and are forced to back up even further, but just manage to hold on.   



Unable to daunt the Spaniards with their firepower, the remaining cuirassiers foolishly charge the tercio! The maestro de campo smoothly pulls back the arquebusiers to shelter behind the pikemen, and with no easy pickings the cuirassiers retire. 

The French argoulets are fed into the narrow meat grinder between the forest and the Spanish tercio. The combined firepower of the Spanish artillery and mounted arquebusiers cuts through them and routs the unit. 





Turn 5: After a brief pause, the Swiss once again hurl themselves forward. The beleaguered Italians no longer have any will to resist and the tercio melts away, leaving the Swiss free to plough on into the Picardy regiment behind.

Stung by repeated volleys, the English regiment boldly advance into the treeline to deal with the detached Spanish manga. The musketeers are pushed back, but the English ranks are thrown into complete confusion and disorder. 



The French reiters think they spot an opportunity and charge into the rear of the Spanish tercio. The skilfully arrayed Spaniards drive them back at pike point, inflicting heavy casualties. 





Turn 6: The English regiment are exhausted and demoralised, but swing around with seconds to spare to confront the charging Spanish reiters. 



The cavalrymen recoil to safety. But then King Henri  gallops up to embolden the English and lead them in one last charge. The stunned reiters stand and fight, and are soon dragged from their saddles and cut to pieces by the billmen.



Meanwhile the badly depleted and exhausted Swiss drag themselves forwards for another assault. The Picardy regiment take an absolute thrashing and wavers on the edge of defeat, saved only by the Duke of Aumale's exhortations to fight on. At last the captains of the Swiss give the order to recall and their bloody remnant retires from the field. 



In the centre the cuirassiers seize the moment and launch themselves into the Spanish mounted arquebusiers, easily smashing them apart. 



With scarcely an hour until nightfall the Spanish commander decides to pull his battered forces back and regroup. It has been a hard fought and close battle, but with his cavalry now crippled he knows he will be hard pressed to continue the campaign. French Huguenots win!