Early Medieval to 1400 at Warfare 2024
Swiss vs Free Companies
Game 1 Swiss vs Medieval Scots
Game 2 Swiss vs Medieval Spanish
Game 5 Swiss vs Medieval German
With two clean wins under their cowbell-bedangled belts the Swiss army was now raring to go - well, walk forwards - and in the third game of the day that found them facing off against a Free Companies army in the hands of regular opponent Mr Nice
Free Company in an almost-English 100YW force, with a reliance on large numbers of foot knights and infantry halberdiers, supported by yeoman longbowmen working as mercenaries all across the Euro-Mediterranean world.
That combo potentially makes it a tricky opponent for the Swiss, as both foot their 2HW-armed knights and the Free Company's 2HW halberdiers have a "win on a tie" special ability when fighting pikemen (and spearmen), and also the mitigating factor of having better armour than the Swiss as well.
This can mean a prolonged slogging match is wont to tip in their favour the longer it goes on.
The lists for the Swiss and Free Companies from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Warfare can be seen here in the L'Art de la Guerre Wiki.
This was a nice and proper Medieval terrain setup, with a slab of open ground in the centre being the place where the two armies had decided to duke* it out and decide who would emerge triumphant
With two opposing armies who's strategy was simply to engage as many of the enemy as possible at the same time, on as broad a frontage as they possessed the setup was simple and obvious, as no doubt would be the tactics employed too - the result was the only questionable element, even at this early stage
(* "Duke" it out. In a Medieval battle. See what I did there?)
The unimaginatively linear Swiss formation swept across the battlefield towards the Free Company men with the force of a mountain avalanche, except this one was powered by melted chocolate and a love of punctual railway timetables.
As they advanced their synchronized steps created a shockwave so powerful it sent edelweiss flowers blooming prematurely across the tabletop in a development which perhaps heralded yet another battle mat purchase from Wargamers Whims?
Little-known Facts about Swiss Pikemen
We live in an expanding universe.
All of it is trying to get away from a Swiss Pike Block.
The Swiss shook themselves out into the traditional 3 blocks ready for combat, advancing like a battalion of lederhosen-clad demons summoned from the depths of a cursed fondue pot, their pikes dripping with molten terror as they headed for a date with Free Company-shaped destiny.
Desultory exchanges of fire between the skirmishers of both sides made little impact - this was the Free Company waiting to be hit with a cute combination of mounted and foot knights, and the Swiss keen to oblige them as their cowbells rang out a dirge of destruction, each clang a solemn promise that no enemy would leave the field unskewered.
L'Art de la Guerre hint - The alternating blocks of mounted and foot knights in the Free Company setup are quite sensible, as it gives the Swiss a conundrum
The choice is whether to charge all along the line, or to just engage the Free Company Infantry
The first option would see the Free Company Mounted Knights able to claim their first round +1 "Impact" bonus against the charging Swiss pikemen (which they would lose if they themselves were the ones to initiate combat by making their own charge against a steady, static line of Swiss)
Avoiding combat against the Knights and just charging piecemeal into the Foot Knights and Halberdiers though would mean the Swiss charging into positions where they were overlapped, negating the better factors that their pikes give them against other infantry.
In the end the Swiss decided to do something sort of interesting, but still pretty much attack everything all at once as well
The two main blocks of Pikemen each echeloned left and right as they closed in and then charged the Free Company line, attacking both Foot and Mounted Knights with equal fervour but leaving a Cannae-esque gap in the centre of their line where the Free Company had placed some of their best armoured, but therefore hideously slow moving, Foot Knights
These plate-armoured monstrosities suddenly found themselves peering through their slit bascinets trying to find an enemy to fight, as all the while the two bodies of Swiss pikemen attacked everything in their path with the force of an angry yodeller defending their honour after someone had foolishly insulted their hat plume.
What are the chances of that eh?
Swiss Pike vs Average Heavy Knights - a textbook Medieval European Mexican Standoff!
If bog-standard Average quality European Knights elect to have a go at an Elite Swiss Pike Block, their odds of success are not great with starting factors of 1 for the Knights (their basic factor, as their Impact bonus is cancelled when charging spears or pikemen) and 3 for the Pikemen (Pike at +2, with an additional +1 for standing to receive a mounted charge) - but if the Knights do break through, the outcome is better than might be expected as their "Furious Charge" bonus inflicts extra hits on the beaten infantrymen. But, even so the odds are poor, with the Knights winning just 1 time in 6 for an average of 0.33 hits per round of combat. The Pike are however still as happy as Larry with this matchup, winning 58% of the time and expecting to inflict a full hit on average every time the dice are rolled.
If the Pike charge the Knights however the odds are a bit more scary. In this scenario both units are on a factor of 2 (Pikes base factor is 2, and the Knights have a basic factor of 2, with an additional +1 for Impact as they are catching the Pikemen on the move). This sees the Pikemen winning 38% of combats vs the 33% won by the Knights - but the extra "Furious Charge" damage of the Knights when they win, and the mitigating benefits of their better armour combine to see them inflict an average of 0.75 casualties per round of combat vs a far less deadly 0.47 by the Swiss Pikemen.
After all this dust has settled the combat is still far from over. In subsequent rounds the Swiss will always still start on a base factor of +2 vs the Knights +1, they have more hit points to lose (4 vs 3) before breaking, but the Knights will still benefit from their better armour to reduce the chances and scale of any defeats. Toss in the potential for whoever loses a round of combat to drop combat factor as a result and, well, it's still all to play for!
The Swiss were clearly in no mood to mess about this afternoon as they surged into and over the top of the shell-shocked Free Company men like a flood of melted cheese cascading down the side of an Alp, viscous, delicious, and utterly unstoppable!
Their pikes flashed in the sunlight like a thousand polished coins, each one promising a deposit of pain into the enemy’s retirement account
On the opposite flank the Free Company men were faring somewhat better, inflicting some serious reverses onto the Swiss, much to the irritation of their massive gnome-like commander who hurled his cheese into the air in frustration.
This was not what he expected from his men after the first two battles, where they had fallen upon the enemy like St. Bernards carrying explosive cowbells when declaring war on an gaggle of unsuspecting Alpine picnicists!
Little-known Facts about Swiss Pikemen
When a Swiss Pike Block forms up, the men in in don't breathe
They hold the air hostage.
As the Swiss continued to struggle, the fully armoured Knights forced their way past the points of the wall of pikes and turned Swiss resistance into an Emmental-esque soft cheese full of many holes
Even the lumbering Free Company infantry were making hay while the Alpine sun shined, turning the flank of the mighty Kiel and threatening to roll up the Swiss right wing.
But the plan was working much better on the other flank, where the attack of the pikemen proceeded serenely, as though choreographed by the ghost of a cuckoo clock, each pike thrust a tick closer to the enemy’s untimely doom.
Their assault was proving as inescapable as the moment you realize your Swiss cheese has no more bread left to accompany it — a moment of pure, unrelenting dread swept over the Free Company men as they realised their fate was almost upon them.
Little-known Facts about Swiss Pikemen
Each Swiss Pike Block keeps an official unit diary
It's called the Guinness Book Of World Records
The pikemen (and polearm infantry) suddenly saw victory in their grasp. They let out a huge, collective angry yodel, the kind that starts deep in the soul which then echoed across the tabletop until the entire enemy army began to feel ashamed of their life choices for not moving to Switzerland, joining a clockmaking guild and picking up a pike at weekends.
The Free Company army expired, broke and began to flee, leaving behind a scene resembling an Alpine festival gone rogue, where the cheese wheels were now instruments of annihilation and the lederhosen-clad dancers had pikes for partners
The Result is a third consecutive crushing win for the Swiss!
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition, or read on for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal
Post Match Summary from the Swiss Commander
My brothers in arms, my steadfast pikemen, once more we stand victorious! Yet again, the battlefield rings with the echoes of Swiss steel and the songs of our triumph. Today, we have overcome not a nation but a band of sell-swords, men who fight not for homeland, honour, or duty, but for coin. A Free Company they call themselves—though one wonders, free from what? From loyalty? From dignity? Certainly, they were not free from the sharp ends of our pikes!
These mercenaries thought their cunning and greed would suffice against us, the shepherds of the Alps, the artisans of precision, the guardians of Swiss integrity. What they failed to understand is that our strength lies not just in our arms but in our hearts. We are not soldiers by trade but defenders by necessity. By day, we tend our cattle, craft our clocks, and manage the world's wealth with fairness and precision. By night, we stand ready to take up our pikes to protect the land we love. And while they feast on crumbs bought with blood money, we savour the finest Swiss cheese—a food as pure and enduring as our spirit.
But let us consider this, my friends: the Free Company thought themselves untouchable, for they served no flag, no king, no cause but their own. Yet even they fell before the might of Switzerland. And now, I wonder—what if we, too, were to wield our fearsome reputation not just for defence but for profit? What if the world’s kings and princes, trembling at the mere thought of our pikes, were to line up to pay us handsomely to fight on their behalf? Surely, no one would dare stand against us. Such a venture could bring wealth to our valleys and cheese to every table!
Imagine, my comrades, a future where the Swiss are not only the most feared warriors but also the most sought-after allies, earning riches without ever having to fight a single battle. For who would face an army so precise, so disciplined, so… aromatic with the scent of victory and aged Gruyere?
Still, let us not forget that today’s triumph was not bought with gold but forged in unity and love for our homeland. Let us celebrate this victory as proof of what free men, bound by duty and kinship, can achieve. And let us also honour our cheese, which, as always, sustained us through the rigors of battle. Truly, a wedge of Emmental is worth more than a chest of the Free Company’s ill-gotten coins!
Raise your pikes, my friends, and let the mercenaries of the world know this: the Swiss fight not for greed but for glory, and even if we were to take their trade, we would do it better, swifter, and more lucratively! Long live Switzerland!
Long live the Pikemen! And long live our cheese!
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Oh, misery upon misery, and thrice misery compounded! Must I again endure the dolorous tale of thy dreary triumphs, thou pint-sized gnome of the Alpine wastes? Thy latest conquest doth weary my soul, not for the challenge it posed, but for the utter lack of imagination with which it was achieved!
Once more thou dost recount thy "glory," a tale as stale and lifeless as a cuckoo clock’s ceaseless ticking. Forward thy pikes marched, as ever they do, into the fray of mounted and dismounted alike. And lo, the knights of the Free Company fell, their banners trampled beneath thy boot. But tell me, thou red-hatted scourge of originality, where is the art, the flair, the genius in this endeavor? Didst thou contrive some cunning trap? Didst thou weave stratagems so fine that the Fates themselves paused to marvel? Nay, thou didst but march and poke, poke and march, as though war were some dreary chore best completed before supper.
Thy tactics, like thy people, are bereft of all joy. Thou art as a banker counting coins—precise, methodical, and utterly devoid of soul. Is this thy passion, Swiss commander? To approach war as though it were an account ledger, each foe a mere liability to be struck off? Thy pikes are but abacuses in disguise, tallying deaths with the precision of an Alpine timepiece. Thy soldiers march not to the beat of a war drum but to the tick-tock of tedium!
Indeed, thy love of dullness is reflected in all thy nation’s works. Who but the Swiss could find joy in the crafting of obscure industrial components? Thou dost celebrate gears and valves as though they were the Iliad and the Odyssey! And cuckoo clocks—ah, the pinnacle of thy imagination! A tiny bird emerging on the hour, like thine own soldiers emerging from their mountains, predictable, monotonous, and insufferable.
And thou, commander, in thy blue tunic and ridiculous red hat, dost resemble nothing so much as a gnome escaped from some garden of mediocrity. Dost thou polish thy pike in the evenings, dreaming of yet more dreary victories? Do tales of insurance schemes and banking regulations set thy heart aflutter? Truly, thou art the most joyless purveyor of victory I have ever beheld.
Were I, Hannibal, to face the Free Company, the battle would have been a tapestry of splendor and cunning. Elephants adorned in finery would charge from unseen angles; rivers would be diverted to trap the enemy; the very earth would quake beneath the weight of my genius! But thou—thou art content to march in a straight line, like a child tracing a path in the snow.
Go, Swiss gnome, and revel in thy joyless triumphs. The gods weep not for thy enemies, but for the sheer monotony of thy success. Mayhap thy victories are celebrated with the clinking of banknotes and the unveiling of a new sprocket design. Such is the legacy thou dost leave: a commander as dull as a ledger and as unremarkable as a cuckoo’s call.
Begone, I say, before thy tales of monotony rob me of what little will to live remains! Let thy mountains keep thee, thy cheese sustain thee, and thy red hat remind thee of the fool’s cap thou hast earned when you start the next game!
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
You may also like....
Game 1 Swiss vs Medieval Scots
Game 2 Swiss vs Medieval Spanish
Game 5 Swiss vs Medieval German
View My Stats for My Match Reports Pages
