Battle of Florence

Three Papal armies were converging on Florence. The position for looked hopeless and the Florentine commander was almost beaten before the battle.

The terrain consisted of a few woods and flat ground, not best suited to the Papal forces but the preponderance of numbers should see them win. Florence formed up with a massive pike centre in front of the walls to the city. The Papal forces had a pike block centre with auxiliaries on the flanks. They expected reinforcements on either flank, each consisting of three elements from the 12 element army.

The Florentine commander changed tack normal very passive he opted for a slightly more aggressive approach pushing his line forward and sending psilo into the woods on his right flank. The Papal commander (me) attempted to buy time by pushing forward aggressively but not closing to contact in an effort to bluff Florence into holding. The Florentine commander did indeed take the bluff and hold and the left flank Papal army had arrived. As the Papacy attempted to stall and wait for the right hand army to arrive Florence began light skirmishing against the left flank reinforcements. This skirmishing began to escalate as each side began feeding troops in. The Papal commander should have known better instead of a concentrated attack it now became devolved into a piecemeal assault and Florence really grasped the nettle and came out of his box.

Instead of a crushing attack with overwhelming numbers the Papal troops now found themselves getting in the way of each other as the Florentines went on the offensive. It was close run but Florence prevailed to save the capital for another day.

The strategic situation changed little, while the capital held the remaining territories were open for conquest.