Guelfs vs Ghibellines

This past Saturday I ran a medieval battle using Piquet's Band of Brothers 2.  The battle represented a fictional but probable battle between two Italian factions: The Guelfs and Ghibellines.  These two factions controlled portions of Italy during the medieval period and are partly responsible for the expansion of the Italian City States.

The forces worked out like this:
Guelfs
2 units of Spearmen with Heavy Armor
2 units of Militiamen with Spears and Medium Armor
1 unit of Peasant Foot with Improvised Weapons and Medium Armor
1 unit of Skirmishers with Cross Bows and Light Armor
1 unit of Guards with Cross Bows and Spears and Heavy Armor
1 unit of Javelinmen with Javelin and Swords and Medium Armor
2 units of Knights with Heavy Lance and Heavy Armor and Cloth Barding
1 Skilled Commander, 1 Average Sub Commander and 1 Poor Sub Commander

Ghibellines
2 units of Militiamen with Spears and Heavy Armor
2 units of Militiamen with Spears and Medium Armor
1 unit of Javelinmen with Javelin and Swords and Medium Armor
2 Units of Knights with Heavy Lance and Heavy Armor and Cloth Barding
1 Average Commander, 1 Average Sub Commander and 1 Abysmal Commander

The Ghibellines in this battle were out numbered and while they almost matched the Guelfs command wise it would be a close battle for them.  The Ghibellines got lucky in that they ended up defending for the entire battle and they picked the only hill on the board to give them an advantage.

The Ghibellines all ready for the fight.

These shots show the Guelf starting positions.  I do have to comment here that my friend commanding the Guelfs decided to not to place his army in the original positions I had marked out for him.  He decided to place the army like they had just arrived and needed to shake out for the battle.  Due to this decision it prolonged the game a little bit more than I had hoped.

Just a quick note we do not use the written initiative system using the opposing D20s.  We use dominoes  with the side winning the initiative using the Higher number of pips and the losing side using the lower number.  It moves the game along and no one sits for too long waiting for his/her turn.

The battle started off with the Ghibelline player winning the initiative and opting to go second.  The Guelf player pulled the first dominoe and started to move his troops.  The first few moves were the Guelfs moving into range and shaking out into battle line.

The Guelfs inch forward.

The Knights on the right side of battle made contact first with the javelin skirmishers.  The skirmishers evaded the knights.  In the process the skirmishers did their job as they drew the Knights almost out of the battle as they followed.

The Ghibellines held their ground despite their lack of numbers and only shifted their units to attempt to match up the attacking Guelfs.  The Guelf commander decided to finally charge his front line units while his crossbow unit provided some harassing fire.  Soon the Ghibellines were going to wish they were up higher on the hill.

 The first routed units make it back to the stream and huddle together hoping they can go home.

The knights on the left side charge but the Melee Resolution Card never appeared.  Previous to this on the other side of the battle the Knights who had chased the skirmishers finally got back into the battle and ended up charging uncontrollably into the flank of the Ghibelline Spearmen and in return were flanked by the Ghibelline Knights.  The Guelfs routed away after taking 9 hits (or 3 stands).  At this point the Ghibellines were out of Morale chips and the Guelfs were down to two left.

We had to call the game because of time.  We will revisit this battle again.