Legendary Transfers, Adopt now Trades, Shadow Moves and more!

Want to get the Shiny Starters? Shiny Zorua? Shiny legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!

Welcome to the Sam and Dan Games Developer Blog! Making you feel at home, every week!

Sam and Dan Games: Fundraiser! Phase 3
Help us keep making games and earn awesome prizes like Shiny Rayquaza and Shiny Heatran!  
Our Goal: $50,000

No blog post last week
Sometimes the week starts to pass and you haven't written the blog post and before you know it you say okay I'm focusing on making an update rather than write a blog post. That's what happened. But this week it's Monday I have a game plan for the week so I'm here writing the blog post. All rejoice!

Last week's update
The week before I had set out to make the second level for Cosmoids and due to server issues I wasn't able to do that. So I took last week to focus most of my time on making the level. I'm really happy with the results and would love to hear what you guys and gals think so far of Cosmoids. I'm also considering bringing it out to the public so that you can play it even if you haven't contributed to the fundraiser (as easy as that is) so that more people can have access to it and I can get more feedback. What do you guys think of that?

On top of the second level for Cosmoids, I also added Meinfoo and Timburr into the game and they will be distributed as giveaways and mystery gifts for this week.

I also made a lot of adjustments to the server code to speed things up and I'm pretty happy with the results so far. Some people tend to mention that the "new" server is not good. The thing is we never switched servers or got a new server. We are still in the same one, I've been making changes to the way things work to speed things up.

This week's update

New Story Level
This week my focus is to advance the story in PTD2. I'm really excited about this next part and hopefully I will have enough time to make it as good as it can be.

Shadow Moves
I will be adding some shadow moves from Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness that your shadow pokemon will be able to relearn. Right now I'm not sure how many, who will learn what, and what type of effectiveness the moves will have against other types but I will keep you posted throughout the week.

Mystery Gift and Giveaway
Like most weeks, there will be a Mystery Gift and Giveaway. I've been pondering about giving out both shiny and shadow versions of each on different days as something that I could do. Either way vote on the polls to decide what you will get next.

PTD1 to PTD2 Transfers - Legendary Pokemon Arrive!
A much requested transfer is that of legendary pokemon from PTD 1 to PTD2 and it is finally time! I will be adding Articune, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo and Mew to the transfer list this week!

Adopt Now for Trades
A feature I been wanting to try out for a while is for you guys to be able to put your pokemon up for adoption. Pretty much the way I'm seeing it now is that you can set an SnD coin price to your trade. A player that has SnD coins can either request a trade or straight up adopt your pokemon by paying your SnD price. You receive the coins and the other player receives the pokemon. With everything else that I have for this week I'm not sure if this will make it in time. Also you might be wondering why I don't use daily coins with this. The reason for that is the only way daily coins can exist is if they are hard to get or you can only get them at a certain rate per day. Allowing players to transfer daily coins from one account to another will open all sorts of exploits that I wish to avoid. I think this can be a great feature, what do you think?

Cosmoids
I try to move Cosmoids forward every week. I feel the more I work on it the more I want to keep working on it. I had a lot of fun just focusing on the second level. There are a few things that still need to be tweaked but I'm very excited for the future of the game. As the game becomes more developed over time, we will be talking about it more and more. For now you can play it at the funding rewards page in the PTD2 Trading Center. For this week we are tweaking the character graphic, making changes to level 1 to make it more compact and to the point, I will be figuring out ways to make the tutorial parts more understandable and easier to follow, and start work on level 3.

Weekly Progress

My Status: Not Working. Not Streaming. http://www.justin.tv/samsndgames

Cosmoids Released!

• New character graphic tweaks (100%) - adding gloves, changing hat style, different side angles
• Making level 1 more compact and to the point (100%)
• Added more details to emphasize that you are protecting your house on level 1 (100%)
• Making tutorials more easier to follow (100%)

Future PTD2 udpate Released!

• Adopt Now for Trades (100%)

PTD2 v1.43.1 Released!

• Mystery Gift (100%)
• New Pokemon (100%) - Tropius, Ferroseed, Ferrothorn
• Graphics (100%)
• Stats (100%)
• New Abilities (100%)
• Iron Barbs (100%)
• Harvest (100%)
• New Attacks (100%)
• Ingrain (100%)
• Evolutions (100%)
• Add to Trading Center (100%)
• Add to Breeding Center (100%)

PTD2 v1.43 Released!

• PTD1 to PTD2 Transfers (100%) - Legendary Pokemon!
• New Story Level (100%) - Gary makes a discovery, but is it too late?
• Intro Scene (100%)
• Battle (100%)
• Battle Layout (100%)
• Battle Wave (100%)
• Battle Attacks (100%)
• Target Takedown (100%)
• Return to Pokeballs (100%)
• Target Bomb (100%)
• Ending Dialog (100%)
• New Pokemon (100%) - , Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, and Mew
• Graphics (100%)
• Stats (100%)
• New Abilities (100%)
• New Attacks (100%)
• Ice Shard (100%)
• Mind Reader (100%) - Now last for 10 charges
• Psych Up (100%)
• Reflect Type (100%)
• Add to Trading Center (100%)
• Shadow Moves (100%) - More will be added in the future
• Shadow Blitz (100%)
• Shadow Wave (100%)
• Bug Fixes (100%)
• Shadow Unown will now stay as Shadow when you save (100%) - If you previously caught one you must catch a new one.

Thanks for visiting! As always let me know what you think! Comments below or Twitter or at support@sndgames.com (both Dan and I read that email) Thanks!

FOR SALE - five 16th C Spanish infantry.

SOLD

I have recently completed my last re-organisation of painted renaissance figures (for re-basing) and, having done so, I have 5 Wargames Foundry 16th century Spanish infantry left over. I have no intention of adding more to make them into a unit. Consequently, I have based them individually for skirmish games, etc., and offer them for sale. The price for the 5 figures is £25 including package and postage (UK or EU). Payment must be by Pay Pal. First come first served.

Getting one's out for the Lads.

This week I got out virtually everything I have in my Italian Wars collection and put it on the table to do battle. The head count of men was exactly 1111.

The night's play would, except for sporadic artillery exchanges, take place exclusively on the French right. Here French cavalry would  play havoc with the Imperial cavalry facing them.

The Imperial cavalry, flanked by massed landsknechts would take the brunt of the initial French attack, but this attack was largely made in support.....

......of the Swiss pikemen.

The French cavalry move forward with alacrity.....

...and the Swiss, not to be outdone advance with panache - a triple move - they move so far that Graham has to help out -

Wallop! The game is barely three cards old and the Swiss and landsknecht light troops are already in a fierce skirmish.

The Imperials counter with Genitors moving up to harass the oncoming French gendarmerie. 

The cavalry battle becomes general as the pike close under artillery fire.

Landsknecht skirmishers putting up a good fight against the odds.

Cavalry, artillery, and infantry in a confused melee.

Push of pike, honours about equal.

A shot showing the battlefield at the end of the first nights play.

The pike battle could be key.

The cavalry battle is almost done and the French hold the field.

To be continued.....................

Coming back from a bad week, more PTD1 to PTD2 transfers, Sun Stone, Level 2 of Cosmoids!

Want to get the Shiny Starters? Shiny Zorua? Shiny legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!

Welcome to the Sam and Dan Games Developer Blog! Where we work non stop to keep you entertained!

Sam and Dan Games: Fundraiser! Phase 3
Help us keep making games and earn awesome prizes like Shiny Rayquaza and Shiny Heatran!  
Our Goal: $50,000

Last Week's Update/Server Issues
We had a crazy week last week, both in a good and bad way. Let's start with the bad. So instead of telling you the story how it unfolded I will just tell you what the problem was and how it caused all the issues that we had. Okay. So Databases need indexes. Imagine you have a giant book and it has no index. How would you find that page you are looking for without having to go through the whole book? You can't! So I had a tiny database (the one that keeps track of what events you had done in the story) that was missing an index. Initially the database was so small that it didn't matter. But as the game grew in size and in users this database grew. It has over 2 million entries and so every day as the database grew so did the slowdown. It got so slow that our host suspended our account. I told them to put it back up so I could disable all logins while I fixed the problem. I was really conflicted about all this. I'm no expert on databases or server administration so I had very little idea on where to start. Luckily I had bought this book called High Performance MySQL: Optimization, Backups, and Replication. While I didn't have the time to read the whole book or follow everything it had to say, it did give me some ideas on trying to find the problem and how to fix it. After doing some test to see how long each thing took to load I found that loading events was taking way too long even when I was the only user playing the game, which brought the discovery of the missing index on that database. Other than that I made some upgrades to the database engines (I changed from mysam to innodb, for those with database knowledge) that should let more people in at a time. There might be some side effects to these changes that I will have to fix but I'm pretty happy that we are somewhat back to working order.

The good stuff is the new content that I was able to bring to the game. I finally put in running shoes into the game which let you move at twice the speed. (Your pokemon will also move fast, I did have a version where your pokemon wasn't as fast and he would be left behind) You can get the shoes by talking to an old man in Cherrygrove City after you defeat Zapdos there. Another big and daunting task that I had was to add fishing. I actually go the chance to stream while I was making the fishing part and frankly I had no idea how I was going to add fishing. Luckily I'm pretty quick at thinking about how to solve problems and so I thought of a way to add it in and it worked out pretty well. You can now get an old rod or good rod by defeating the fisher man on the second part of Route 32 (Read the FAQ page for more detailed info). Once you have a rod you can go to any water source available in the game and fish on it (press spacebar or z) this will trigger a battle. Things like which rod you are using, which location you are in, time of day will affect who you get to battle with. I basically set it up to mimic the actual game. I'm really happy with how it turned out so I hope you guys can enjoy it.

On top of all of this I added all the generation 1 pokemon that you can capture in PTD2 to the PTD1 to PTD2 transfers. This includes: Jigglypuff, Wigglypuff, Zubat, Golbat, Bellsprout, Weepinbell, Victreebell, Geodude, Graveler, Golem, Gastly, Haunter, Gengar, Poliwag, Poliwrath, Krabby, Kingler, Staryu and Starmie. As I do every week there was also a Mystery Gift and a Giveaway pokemon. The Mystery Gift was electric ghost type Rotom and the giveaway was Plusle and Minun. If you got the code in time you would get 2 of each Plusle and Minun. One male and one female.

Last but not least Cosmoids had a nice update. I added more losing conditions, if you let enough bug creatures pass you will lose the level. You can tell how many lives you have left by the heart graphic on the top left. Evan, one of our freelance artist, also did a revision on the grass graphic for the first level. While I thought the original ones looked fine, Dan thought they needed more work. And so Evan did the job and they look great! The other thing I added was a fainting animation to the units. Instead of disappearing you will now see them flip on their backs and then flash before they disappear. These types of details go a long way in making a game. Each of them bringing us closer to a full game.

What's happening this week:

Pokemon Center Bugs
I need detailed information about the Pokemon Center Bugs with Breeding, Trading and Picking up pokemon. The more step by step information you can give me the better.

Mystery Gift
Like every week we will have a mystery gift and a giveaway for the runner up of the poll. You have one day to vote for which of the remaining types should be the new mystery gift. Then I will post specific pokemon that can be the mystery gift and giveaway.

PTD1 to PTD2 Transfers
My goal this week is to add a lot of Generation 1 Pokemon into PTD2. So this week I plan to add: Vulpix, Ninetails, Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume, Paras, Parasect, Venonat, Venomoth, Diglett, Dugtrio, Meowth, Persian, Psyduck, Golduck, Mankey, Primeape, Growlithe, Arcanine, Abra, Kadabra, Alakazam, Machop, Machoke, and Machamp. Adding these will make it so that you can get more than half of the Generation 1 Pokemon into PTD2!

Sun Stone
Since we are adding the Oddish family and Bellossom is part of Generation 2 then I'm also adding the Sun Stone so that Gloom can evolve into Bellossom!

Cosmoids Level Select Screen and Level 2
For Cosmoids this week I want to start work on Level 2. I really want each level to feel different than the others so each level will take some time to create. On level 2 is when you finally get your first creature, but please note that you won't be able to save just yet. Since we will have multiple levels we also need a level select screen. Very similar to PTD1 there will be different chapters. I'm looking forward to making this!

Weekly Progress

My Status: Not Working. Not Streaming. http://www.justin.tv/samsndgames

Cosmoids Released!

• Level Selection Screen (100%)
• Added new Title Screen Graphic (100%)
• Added new Character Graphic (100%)
• Level 2 (100%)
• Added the level 1 intro cutscene (100%)

PTD2 v1.42.1 Released!

• Mystery Gift (100%)
• Make Bellossom's graphic bigger (100%)

PTD2 v1.42 Released!

• PTD1 to PTD2 Transfer (100%)
• Add New Pokemon to Trading Center (100%)
• Add New Pokemon to Breeding Center (100%)
• New Item (100%) - Sun Stone
• Implement in game (100%)
• Implement in Pokemon Center (100%)
• Test New Pokemon, attacks, and abilities (100%)
• New Pokemon (100%) - Vulpix, Ninetails, Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume, Bellossom, Paras, Parasect, Venonat, Venomoth, Diglett, Dugtrio, Meowth, Persian, Psyduck, Golduck, Mankey, Primeape, Growlithe, Arcanine, Abra, Kadabra, Alakazam, Machop, Machoke, and Machamp
• Graphics (100%)
• New Attacks (100%)
• Sunny Day (100%)
• Moonlight (100%)
• Aromatherapy (100%)
• Spore (100%)
• Signal Beam (100%)
• Earth Power (100%)
• Tri Attack (100%)
• Fake Out (100%)
• Pay Day (100%)
• Switcheroo (100%)
• Power Gem (100%)
• Soak (100%)
• Covet (100%)
• Karate Chop (100%)
• Seismic Toss (100%)
• Kinesis (100%)
• Miracle Eye (100%)
• Ally Switch (100%)
• Telekinesis (100%)
• Vital Throw (100%)
• Low Sweep (100%)
• New Abilities (100%)
• Drought (100%)
• Stench (100%)
• Effect Spore (100%)
• Wonder Skin (100%)
• Anger Point (100%)
• Defiant (100%)
• Marvel Scale (100%)
• Water Veil (100%)
• Stats (100%)
• Evolutions (100%)
• Bug Fixes (100%) 
• Fixed a bug with stat change buffs and debuffs (100%)

Thanks guys for sticking with us! As always let me know what you think on the comments below, on twitter or email us at support@sndgames.com Thanks!

1080p Video Game Characters Wallpapers

I created this colorful collection of 12 1080p wallpapers with some of the most iconic video game characters.
Feel free to download and use them as your desktop wallpaper.
Comment below if you like my work. :)

Click here to download

Nintendogs - Oakdale Infants Project Overview

Nintendogs is a two week project that is totally cross curricular and happens in the summer term in Year 1. The children are put into groups of 5/6 and given 1 DS and 1 game. Initially the project was put together to encourage sharing and teamwork in a rather difficult Year 1 class but we soon realised there were many other positives to this project. The major thing that came out of the project was the fact that my reluctant boy writers were writing independently and through their own choice. The children are given the task of caring for a group dog. They have to choose it together, name it, feed it, walk it and clean it together. They are given 15/20 minutes twice a day to look after their dog and every time they are given their DS’s they have to fill in their Nintendog diaries describing what they have been doing for their dog. The children began to write Nintendog adventure stories and creating comic strips and pictures during free choosing and at home and bringing them in.  The children completed maths activities that link in as well as Design and Technology, Art, Science, RE and PE activities. The children particularly enjoyed the Crufts for kids activities (sports day practise)  and our Guide Dog day where we had a real guide dog brought into school to meet with the children. The children then spent the rest of the day completing different activities e.g. wearing a blindfold and trying to eat beans, get dressed, spread butter etc. or writing their name in brail after drawing a self-portrait.  We have now run the project for 3 years this year and the children who are in Reception all look forward to being able to use the DS’s and taking part in the project. Many parents have been very impressed with the level of their children’s level of enjoyment and engagement with the project and one parent last year said ‘ it’s the first time in his school life that he is coming home eager to talk about what he did at school today.’

Swiss contingent finished

I very much like that feeling, when I'm able to say "The last one is done". It brings on a warm glow.

This weekend I finished painting the last of the Swiss pike. This makes the Swiss contingent complete (though more shot, and even more pike, can be requisitioned from other contingents if required).

As a contingent, it comprises:
216 pike, 'collectionally' organised in three 72 man 'pike squares'.
16 halberdiers in a single unit.
24 arquebusier, in two units, based as skirmish shot.

Most figures are Old Glory, but there are one or two Foundry figures mixed in here and there.


The pike squares are organised in 12 stand units. They are four stands (12 figures) wide and three stands (6 figures) deep. Though not exactly square in any sense, they are efficient, and (IMHO) good looking wargames units.

The front stands are, probably unhistorically, armoured. But I like the look of a bit of three-quarter armour where the metal meets the meat.

A halberdiers unit, which I added only for 'spicey, gamey' completeness rather than historical necessity, in a small block of 16 figures.

Men with big choppers do it for me, anyways!



A close up of the relatively bright and simple paint job. These Old Glory figures are a doddle to paint up quickly - I love 'em!

One of the two units of skirmish shot. These are an almost 50% - 50% mix of 'ebay purchased' Foundry and Old Glory. They mix very well.

As I said, I have more Swiss units for refighting big battles such as Marignano. This is a unit of 72 Swiss pike (mainly Foundry figures) which I generally use as French. As with all of my Renaissance units (except one), all flags are on interchangable tubing so, once I make six more Swiss flags on tubing, these can be Swiss again in a seconds.



BTW, the first day of Marignano 1515 is my next painting goal. I have to paint 72 Italian pike (to use, wouldn't you know it, as French!), 48 crossbowmen, 32 arquebusier, and ten or so flags. I'll refight it at a figure ratio of 1:40ish, and with the usual piece of fudge.

For this Wednesday's game I've set up a battle using my entire collection (save a few command stands). It will be the umpteenth, fictional Battle of Fastapasta.

Italian Wars, painting update (March into April)

I have painted quite a bit of stuff since my January post. As well as the stuff pictured here, I have also painted 26 gendarmes and 16 stradiots. These had their own posts last month. Most of the figures pictured below are Foundry and Old Glory. The waggons and horses are Foundry, the barrel waggon is Hinchcliffe (?). The oxen are Front Rank. The Halberdiers are Foundry plus unknowns.

 A unit of landsknecht skirmishers.

A unit of 'generic' skirmish shot - they could Italian or Swiss.

 Another unit of 'generic' skirmish shot.

Some baggage waggons that will serve for most 'horse and musket' periods. That's why they have no crew. When I find some 16th C crew I'll put them on pennies.

The waggons are old, the teams have been repainted.

The waggon in the middle has had a tarp covered load added - using balsa blocks and miliput tarp. The one in the forground had it's tilt added a loooong time ago - I think it is glue soaked cloth over wire tilt bars.

A couple of Swiss (or early Italian) guns. I didn't have quite enough crew for them so I added a scratch built wagon as filler to one of the stands.

These figures only needed re-basing.

A unit of Swiss halberdiers.

The Battle of Novara 6th June 1503.

This is a Hell Broke Loose scenario.

A short historical background
In 1512, following the Battle of Ravenna, France somehow failed to capitalise on her victory. In fact, the campaign proved to be a disaster, and she lost Milan. In mid May 1513, Louis XII of France dispatched an army, under the command of La Tremoille, over the Alps to retake his lost duchy.


By early June, much of the duchy had been retaken, and Tremoille had moved to besiege Novara (the duchy’s second city) where the duchy’s new, Swiss backed duke, Massimiliano Sforza, was holed up with 4000 Swiss.

Shortly after the French invested Novara a Swiss army arrived to its relief. On their approach La Tremoille, not wishing to be caught in his siege lines, withdrew his army. At nightfall, the dispersed units of the French army made camp around the village of Trecate. Unexpectedly, the Swiss did not tarry after their long march to Novara. They linked up with the garrison there and immediately followed up the French as they withdrew. Using local guides they made their way, in the dark, to within striking distance of the French army. Just before dawn, they attacked.

The attack began with skirmish between Swiss ‘enfants perdus’ and French pickets in the village of Trecate. La Tremoille, who had taken a billet in the village, narrowly escaped capture. But, the Swiss skirmishers did not follow up this attack. It was a feint, and their skirmishers withdrew to a wood that lay within shooting distance of Trecate’s houses from where they kept up a noisy fire.

The alarm had been sounded and French troops, bleary eyed and disorientated, were called to stand-to. They had no time to re-doploy to face their attackers – the Swiss were everywhere upon them.

This is where this scenario begins.

French order of battle
When the army invaded it numbered somewhat more than 12,000 men. It comprised 1000 lances of gendarmerie, 1000 light cavalry, 4000 Gascon and Navarrese crossbowmen, 6000 Landsknechts, and was amply provided with artillery.

Army Die: D10
Sequence Deck: D10
Morale Chips: 58
Additional cards: Scenario 1, Scenario 2.

Two commands of gendarmes.

(Motivation die D10).

1. La Tremoille with four units each of 8 gendarmes, all billeted in the village of Trecate. A class, fierce.


2. Robert of Bouillon with one unit of 8 gendarmes, outside Trecate. A class, fierce.

French light cavalry command.

(Motivation die D10).
One unit of 8 mounted crossbows. C class.

One unit of 8 stradiots.C class, grizzled, specialist close skirmishers.

French Gascon and Navarrese infantry command under Sieur de Beaumont.

(Motivation die D10).


Six units of 12 skirmish crossbowmen. D class, specialist crossbowmen.

Landsknceht and artillery command under Flourange.

(Motivation die D10).


One unit of 108 Landsknecht pike. C class, fierce, grizzled, murderous Vs Swiss.

One unit of 12 skirmish shot. C class, grizzled, specialist arquebus.

Two batteries of heavy artillery (1 gun each). D class, specialist for fire.

Milano Swiss order of battle

The Duke's army mustered less than 12,000 Swiss infantry and a few hundred horse of the Duke's bodyguard. The was divided into three bodies which advanced in echelon. The bodies were not equal in numbers. The first had a pike square 1000 strong, the second a pike square 2000 strong, and the third had a pike square of over 6000 strong. This accounts for about 75% of the force. I have no description of the supporting elements that made up the other 25% so I have added some shot and halberdiers. The army was ill supported in artillery - only a few light guns had been dragged up.

Army Die: D10
Sequence Deck: D10*
Morale Chips: 38
Additional Cards: Momentum March.

Milano-Swiss flank attack command under Massimiliano Sforza.

(Motivation Die D10).

One unit of 8 men-at-arms. A class.

One unit of 24 Swiss pike. A class, fierce, murderous Vs landsknechts.

 Milano-Swiss frontal attack command.

(Motivation Die D10).

One unit of 36 Swiss pike. A class, fierce, murderous Vs landsknechts.

One unit of 16 Swiss halberdiers. A class, fierce, murderous Vs landsknechts.

One unit of 12 skirmish shot. B class.

 Milano-Swiss main force command.

(Motivation Die D10).

One unit of 108 Swiss pike. A class, fierce, murderous Vs landsknechts.

Two units of 12 skirmish shot. B class.

One artillery battery (1 gun). D class.







Scenario notes
It is important that the bulk of the French heavy cavalry should not come too easily into the fight. To ensure this, they must be deployed billeted in Trecate (all, including the streets, is Type III + cover terrain). They may only leave the town via a road.

The marshy ground between the town and Landsknechts is Type III terrain. The French camp is Type II terrain. The Wood is Type II + cover terrain. All other terrain is Type I and open.

There is only one special scenario rule. The French sequence deck contains two Scenario cards. If a Milano-Swiss unit is in, or is in contact with, the French camp when a Scenario card is turned the French lose D6 morale chips.



Novara 1513 - Battle report

Last night Peter J. (commanding the French) and Graham H. (Commanding the Milano-Swiss) fought it out at Novara. We used the forces and scenario notes detailed in the previous two posts. The battle was done and dusted from start to finish in the evenings play (just under 3 hours). It was a pretty close run thing and both players enjoyed the encounter (I don't think they were only being polite).

There need to be very few alterations to the scenario for next weeks re-fight, where Peter and Graham will switch sides. The main change, will be the reinstatement of the two French Army Characterisation Deck cards (20 more morale chips) and a change in the definition of the two Scenario cards. It was found, that the French needed a few more morale chips, and the diversionary attacks needed a focus - the French camp. Consequently, the next time we play, whenever the French player turns a Scenario card and there is a Milano-Swiss unit in the French camp, the French player will lose d6 morale chips.

I will try, in the course of the next week, write up the full scenario with historical background, OOBs, and scenario notes in a single post.

Until then, here is the report of last nights clash

Here they come! The Swiss diversionary frontal attack swiftly assault the Gascon and Navarrese infantry.

The Swiss main force pushes its skirmishers forward but, disordered by artillery, their pike square advances tardily.

The Milanese horse and Swiss diversionary attack against the French camp forces back the light troops defending it with ease.

The Swiss frontal attack develops quickly, the Gascons and Navarese are fighting well - much better than expected.

The French gendarmerie is still in Trecate having  breakfast (you can't rush your Wheetabix), arming, and getting their Planchets to pay off the local bed warmers.

At last, Wheetabix eaten, armed, and groins scratched, the Gendarmerie comes out to play.....

...and some of it wishes it hadn't bothered.

As Gascons, Navarese, and gendarmes decide to find lodgings elsewhere, the Swiss diversionary flank attack (in the background) is meeting stiff resistance....

...very stiff resistance - the Milanese horse and Swiss go down to repeated attack from French cavalry. The camp is saved!

Meanwhile, (that new unit of) Swiss halberdiers, having become isolated, launch a frontal attack out of desperation against the best France has to offer. The gendarmerie must have not been as ready as it looked - it was routed, then dragged from their horses and butchered in the streets of Trecate.

Note the French cavalry far to the rear, the battle is almost over and it has only just getting into battle order. It rolled sooooo many odd move dice that it hardly moved in the first turns!

Finally, having suffered horrendous casualties to fire from artillery and arquebus, the landsknechts and Swiss main force come to grips.

The French have been at zero morale chips for some time and the landsknechts are beaten in short order.

The battle is over. The French are beaten.