Furia Francese: The Battle of Seminara, 1495
Never Mind the Billhooks author Andy Callan presents a scenario for Italia; one of the new theatres in Billhooks Deluxe.
The 'Italia' chapter of Billhooks Deluxe takes the game into the heyday of Pike blocks and Gendarmes - all plumes and slashings - a period that has always been a source of inspiration to wargamers once they can get past the hurdle of having to paint all those Landsknechts!
At the beginning of this period, in 1495, a small battle was fought in the far South of Italy, which was to have big consequences for the Art of War. It pitted a Franco-Swiss army, commanded by a veteran of Bosworth, against an allied force led by a young Neapolitan king and an up-and-coming Spanish general called Gonsalvo de Cordoba. The French would come away convinced of their invincibility. The Spanish would lick their wounds, reconsider their tactics and come back with a system that would win them the reputation as the best soldiers in Europe and earn for their commander the immortal title of ‘El Gran Capitan’.
Background to the Battle
Charles VIII of France invaded Italy in late 1494 with high hopes of asserting his rather dubious dynastic claims to the Kingdom of Naples (the French Angevins had been ousted by the Spanish Aragonese half a century before). To begin with, it all went well, with the French army using a lethal combination of “shock and awe” - the most powerful artillery train and the most brutal mercenaries ever seen in Italy- to overrun the peninsula, successfully brushing aside any resistance from the disunited Italian city-states.
Charles entered Rome in triumph in December, and by February 1495, his army was in Naples.
In despair, King Alfonso abdicated in favour of his son Ferrandino, who was forced to flee the capital. It seemed to be mission accomplished for the French.
But invading the kingdom of Naples was to prove easier than controlling it, and events would conspire to bring a complete change of fortune.
Charles proved heavy-handed in his dealings with pro-Angevin factions amongst the local nobility, instead alienating them and the general populace with a series of extortionate taxes levied to offset the huge costs of his expedition.
His army began to waste away from a terrifying outbreak of an entirely new disease, syphilis, which was blamed on the locals by the French and on the French by the locals
Ferrandino successfully pleaded for military support from his Aragonese relative Ferdinand of Spain, who, as King of Sicily, was naturally unhappy at the prospect of having a powerful foreign neighbour on the mainland.
Lastly, and most worryingly, the northern Italian states had decided that the one thing that united them was a hatred of foreign invasion, and at the end of March, they formed the anti-French League of Venice (including Milan, Venice, Spain, the Pope and the Emperor).
Charles decided it was time to pack up his loot and hot-foot it back to France. He marched north in late May, leaving behind half of his army as garrisons to secure his holdings until he could return with reinforcements.
The First Battle of Seminara
Ferrandino re-grouped his supporters on the mainland, while a small Spanish expeditionary force crossed the Straits of Messina from Sicily.
The Neapolitan forces were built around a small hard-core of aristocratic Gendarmes (who had earned the reputation of being the best heavy cavalry in Italy under the reforms of the king's grandfather, Ferrante 1), backed up by a numerous but ill-trained Militia.
Gonsalvo's Spanish came fresh from the hard school of the recent conquest of Granada and were equipped to fight in the way that had brought them victory there, using a combination of relatively lightly-armoured Sword & Bucklermen (Rodeloros) and skirmisher cavalry (Jinetes).
The French had left the capable Bernard Stewart (Berault Stuart 4th Seigneur d'Aubigny) in overall charge as “Grand Constable of Naples” at the head of a powerful force of Gendarmes, Swiss mercenaries and Gascon crossbowmen.
Gonsalvo counselled a cautious strategy of reducing the French garrisons one by one, but he was overruled by the impetuous Ferrandino, who wanted to put the issue to the test of battle. And so the armies met at Seminara, in the toe of Italy, on 28th June 1495.
Sir Charles Oman, in his “History of the Art of War in the XVIth Century” (1937) dismisses the fighting in a single sentence “(Gonsalvo's) 'genitors' were completely driven off by the charge of the French gendarmes, and the Swiss pikemen ran over his miscellaneous infantry in one rush”.
Other accounts suggest things might have been a little more hard fought than that, and in due course the French position in Naples was to prove untenable, but the fact remained that Gonsalvo had suffered a chastening defeat. He was determined to make it the only one of his career, however, and was soon putting together a tactical combination of pikes, shot, swordsmen and fieldworks that would prove to be the answer to the hitherto irresistible force of the French army – dubbed by the Italians as the “furia francese” (French Fury) after the battle of Fornovo, fought only a week after Seminara but some 500 miles to the north, in the Duchy of Milan.
Seminara - The Wargame
This scenario is written specifically to bring out some of the new rules in “Billhooks Italia” and so is only very loosely based on what happened in the real thing. Detailed source material is readily available online, and the excellent “Camisado” website www.camisado1500s.blogspot.com is particularly recommended.
Setting up the Battlefield
This is a relatively small game, so a 6 x 4-foot table is perfectly adequate.
Start with a plain tabletop bisected along the middle by a wide but shallow stream bed. The stream does not affect movement, but any troops inside it cannot be shot at except by enemy lining its banks.
Dice or toss a coin for who goes first, and then Players take turns to place one terrain feature in any of the four quarters of the table (with no more than two features in each).
Choose either to 'pass' and leave a blank space, or choose from:
A vineyard (causes disarray to any troops who move through it, except Skirmishers).
A small wood (which can be entered and occupied only by Skirmishers)
A low hill (which blocks line of sight but does not affect movement, except that troops cannot charge up it).
A walled farmhouse (which can be entered and occupied only by Skirmishers).
Then, dice or toss again, and the winner gets the choice of 'end' (ie one of the long table edges) as his baseline. One band of Skirmishers may be hidden in ambush in a wood or farmhouse on your side of the table. Mark it on a map and reveal it only if enemy troops come within 6 inches.
Order of Battle
The French
Army Commander: Berault Stuart Seigneur d'Aubigny (0 points)
Two Cavalry Leaders: Captain Montblanc* and the Chevalier de Reblochon* 5 points each.
The Swiss have their own “Leader cards” in Billhooks Italia (one for each Pike Block), but these come 'points free' since they represent their unique democratic internal command structure.
120 Army points. Choose from:
Squadrons of Gendarmes @ 24 points (at least one of these, but no more than three).
Blocks of Swiss Pikes (Veterans) @ 30 points (at least one of these, but no more than two).
Bands of Gascon Skirmisher Crossbowmen @ 6 points.
Skirmishers cannot total more than one-third of the Army’s troop points.
* Fictitious leader.
The Allies
Army Commander: King Ferrandino of Naples.
Two Spanish Leaders: Gonsalvo de Cordoba, Captain Alatriste* @ 5 points each.
One Neapolitan Leader: Count of Grana Padano* @ 5 points each.
120 Army points. Choose from:
Neapolitans (they must make up more than HALF of the Army points).
A Squadron of Gendarmes @ 24 points (no more than one).
Companies of Militia Spearmen @ 9 points.
Bands of Skirmisher Crossbowmen or Handgunners @ 6 points.
Spanish
A Squadron of Demi-lances @ 16 points (no more than one).
Bands of Jinetes (Skirmisher cavalry) @ 9 points.
Companies of Rodeleros (Sword & Buckler men) @ 12 points.
Bands of Skirmisher Rodeleros or Crossbowmen @ 6 points.
The Neapolitan & Spanish skirmishers cannot total more than one-third of the army's troop points.
*Fictitious leader.
Deployment
The Core Billhooks deployment rules apply - so, troops are deployed on the table as 'Wards' followed by an initial Manoeuvre Phase, noting the new Billhook Deluxe rule regarding light cavalry “out-scouts” the enemy, forcing him to deploy two Wards first.
Special Rules
See the Quick Reference Sheet (QRF Sheets download) for all the basic troop statistics. Note in particular:
Swiss Pikemen are Veterans. They always re-roll 1s in Melee and Morale Crisis Tests. They always count four ranks in the first round of melee, whether attacking or defending. They are NEVER broken or routed. A Morale failure of any score means they are Daunted, and then only the Army Commander can rally off their Daunted token.
French Gendarmes re-roll 1s, 2s and 3s when charging. Neapolitan Gendarmes re-roll only 1s and 2s, and Spanish Demi-lances re-roll only 1s. No re-rolls apply when charging Pikes.
Cavalry attacking uphill reroll 1s (except vs Pikes). Infantry don't.
Spanish Jinetes are activated by the Skirmisher card. They always evade if attacked but are not Disarrayed.
Spanish Rodeleros hit for 4+ in ALL rounds of combat.
The Allied army Commander (King Ferrandino) can add extra hits in Melee. In this game, the French Commander (d'Aubigny) cannot (he was ill with malaria in the real battle).
Special Events: Remove ‘Fauconberg’s Gambit’, ‘Extra Arrow Supply’, and ‘Treachery’ from the core Billhooks (Wars of the Roses) deck. Note: Billhooks Deluxe includes three more Special Event Cards for each new Theatre.
‘Reorganise Gendarmes’: Two French squadrons that have suffered losses but are undaunted and within 8’’ of each other, may be ordered to reorganise as a new squadron of up to eight figures. Remove any leftover figures (above eight) and lose one Army Morale Token.
Figures
Since this is at the very start of the Italian Wars period (1494-1525), troops still had a 'late medieval' rather than “Renaissance” look to them. No one but a purist would object to using later types on the tabletop here, but if you are interested in a rather different look and are thinking 28mm plastics, the ones to go for are “kit-bashed” (converted) figures from the Perry Wars of the Roses ranges.
I have successfully combined them with heads and weapons from the Atlantic Conquistadors set to produce Spanish Rodeleros and Jinetes, and also made Stradiots (although they were not present at this battle) using Gripping Beast Arab Light Cavalry with 'top hats' based on Napoleonic shakos. “Mix and match” is the way to go with these versatile figures, and the possibilities are endless.
The peerless “Pete's Flags” is the go-to source for a range of suitable battle-standards to enhance the look of your armies in this particularly colourful period.
A Final Word
There was a second battle of Seminara in 1503, which was a rematch between D’Aubigny and the Spanish. This is included as the scenario in the Italia chapter of Billhooks Deluxe.
By Andy Callan