In Venetian Negroponte, a merchant hires a Condotta to fend off Turkish hands over his harvest.
Yesterday we played a game of Lion Rampant in my basement, and, as I learnt to be happy for the small things, for the first time since I started wargaming (i.e. 6 years ago, more or less) I could host a complete 28mm game using only my strenght: every miniature, scenery dice and ruleset was mine. Surely a result I could have achieved a lot earlier if I hadn't split my attention into different projects and always refused doing scenery (of course hating scratch building doesn't help me). But people grow up and hey, here we are! Of course some miniatures (just 12 actually) are still unpainted, and bases need to be finished, but I see it as a positive step.
After this ramble, the proper after action record.
The game was played by Steno (Ottoman Turkish) and my twin Edoardo (Venetian Condotta), I was the game master (too happy to lay down my new scenery). I roll on the scenario generator a "Sausage with mustard" game, but the list were chosen by them, they agreed for 30 points per side.
Ottoman Turkish
Foot MAA* @6 points
Expert Archers Janissery@6 points
Foot Sergeants@4points + 1 point for Musician (+1 morale)
Expert Mounted Yeomen@6points
Mounted Sergeants+bows@5 points
Bidowers@2 points
Venetian Condotta
Drilled Mounted MAA @7 points
Expert Foot Sergeants @6 points +1 point for Merchant (+1 morale)
Foot Sergeants@4 points
Bidowers@2 points
Bidowers@2 points
Mounted Yeomen@4 points
Archers@4 points
Background
Negroponte (now Euboea) an island in front of Greece in Venetian possession for centuries, during the Ottoman-Venetian war lasting from 1463 and 1479 was raided several times and finally conquered by the Ottoman after a long siege. We are in the earlier years of the war and the Merchant Alvise Valmarana has hired a condotta led by a Colleoni family member to defend his extensive properties on the island, mainly farms. The Turkish commander Ajeje Brazorf (of Serbian descent, as most of the Janissaries who were former christians) is going to burn down the just harvested grain to prevent the Venetian to supply the besieged city of Chalcis."
The commanders are rash (Ajeje) and Vulnerable (Colleoni).
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| Stradiots defending the four targets markers |
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| Alvise pondering his chance to save his harvest! |
Battle
The battle proved inconclusive, the Venetian Stradiots tasked to form fend off the first assaults, broke after a brief shooting engage. The Venetian commander died in battle (or was taken prisoner, who knows?) and one haystacks was set to fire by Turkish Azab (bidowers). The Turkish General and his Armoured Janissiers (foot men at arms) were chasing down almost any enemy they met (and who they were obliged to charge), and just Ajeje and one bodyguard stand at the end of the battle, which was called by me (as gamemaster) due to an heavy rainstorm hitting the battlefield.
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| the last standing of Colleoni! |
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| Eventually an haystack is on fire! |
Lot of fun was had by both the players, I also learnt how to modify pictures to make them more visually appealing, so a positive verdict for my first autarchic game!
