1513 Valois French

 

Humans repeat behaviour. Consequently it comes as no surprise to find I have two French Renaissance Armies. One is in “heroic” 15mm scale. It has Venexia and Blue Moon figures. It is intended for the Great Italian Wars. Shortly I will turn my attention to it, for Gonzalo!

The other French array is older and smaller. Here we find Minifigs, Essex and QRF. Mostly anyhow. That one is today’s subject. It is intended for 1513'ish, to fight the English. The latter in the form of an augmented version of my English Flodden army. What fun awaits. 

By the way, I took out Ian Heath's Foundry Book on the period. He notes that for pikemen the English relied on Landsknecht pike. Colourful. I have painted a small unit of English arquebusiers too. Mostly they hired in firearms, Spanish and Italians featured.

Back to France. Let’s have a look at what we have.

Stradiots from QRF. Betimes the English hired these fellows too. Stradiots had fought the Turks. Not a drink of water. Maybe they had the edge on the Border Horse? Or, perhaps it was just to deny them to the French? Stradiots were handy with the mace. They liked to stun.

 

Archer Cavalry from Minifigs led by a Gladiator standard bearer. The latter has had his hand successfully drilled. I’m not getting better at drilling. It’s just he has a massive hand that would be hard to snap. He is on an Essex horse. Pleasing enough, I think. The flag is one of the free ones from Lancashire Games.

Archer Cavalry sans bow. That happened. Archer sometimes just meant a soldier. These are from Donnington. 

QRF Landsknechts. These will do for either English or French Armies. 

I need to paint another 4 pike men for this unit. Nice little figures.

QRF Swiss, because I have them. Right period, wrong theatre.

I wanted some Franc Archers pike units. The Franc Archers ratio was usually one third pike, two thirds crossbows. Unlike the Gascons these crossbow men seem to have formed up. I need a couple of units like that.

I thought I might do specific noble's contingents. 

Antoine de Crequy and Bernard/Berault Stuart because I have the flags. Actually Stuart was smiting away in Italy at the time. De Crequy though was about.

I have also got a flag for Blaise Montluc and I might do another unit for him. I enjoy reading Montluc. As with Bernal Diaz he reads like a modern to me. Translations of course. 

Adventuriers from lots of manufacturers. 

Above from Essex.

Arquebusiers above Essex and QRF. Below from Khurasan.

I'll show this Army again when it is finished. Likewise with the English one. 

I should say most of what you see was painted a long time ago. A few additions and re-basing did the trick.

This brings us to Lion Rampant and what I think of as Lion Mulligan. That being Stuart Mulligan's Lion Rampant version for 1513 and there abouts. Between what is on Stuart's Army Royal blog and the magazine article I think I have it. I want to try it out as he seems to get interesting games.

Once I have done that I want to try it again with Montluc's (and other contemporaries) thoughts on arquebus v bow as an adjustment. I'm just curious to see how it might work.

Also my Flodden rules can easily accommodate 1513 in France and I will be doing just that.

A final thought. I had not intended doing this when I listed this year's projects. Yet, here we are. A nice aspect of the hobby. Sometimes we surprise ourselves. 

 

Back to the Maximilian War

Above, the 1st Regiment of the Mexican Republic. Below, the 2nd Regiment of the Mexican Republic.

The second Battalion of the Belgian Legion. Fashion note, the Belgians wore grey kepis. The drummer lacks a Haverlock and you can see his grey kepi.

While researching this project I came across a set of rules for the Maximilian Adventure. I had a read and they look good. Certainly worth a try. Here is a link if you are so inclined.

web.archive.org/web/20040814060448/http://www.geocities.com/fenerator/maxrules.htm

More irregular Mexican lancers. 

This means I have completed 3 squadrons (6 bases) of these tough and handy lads.

Zouaves, first class troops. I should manage another battalion. I don't think turbans were worn in Mexico. But, we go with what we have got. Actually if there was a chance of being sabred I would want a turban.

Unless, a real risk, the remaining figures get redesignated as Brazilian Zuavos da Bahia for the Great Paraguayan War. They were free men of colour making a point in the Brazilian Army.  The Great Paraguayan War/Triple Alliances continues to intrigue me.

The Foreign Legion, did they really join to forget?  Very good troops. I think I'll do another two units. I intend to differentiate them by trouser colour. They should all wear white ones. But, field conditions and all mine will be a mixture.

Last, but certainly not least, the Algerians. You could not beat them for colour or much else.

 

I'd estimate I'm about half way through what I bought.  Cheers Scott. All very pleasing and I hope to buy more from GeoffQRF via Little Corporal. I am optimistic. To paraphrase Neil Young the listings have begun. 

I might add another base to each infantry unit for Field of Battle considerations. It is not essential I hasten to say. Against this I want to do the War of the Triple Alliance. Some of my Maximilian figures would make first rate Paraguayans. GeoffQRF/Little Corporal will re list their Triple Alliance range but I don't know when.   A dilemma.

Anyhow, by my calculation I now have the following completed.

French- 1 squadron of cavalry and 3 Battalions of infantry.

Mexican Imperials 2 squadrons of cavalry and 4 Battalion of infantry.

Mexican Republic 4 Squadrons of cavalry and 4 Battalions of infantry. 

It is all coming along nicely. Once everything is done we will have a parade for each Army.

Flodden, I Have More

 

Today I’m pleased to show you more units for Flodden/1513. A lost cache provided the necessary figures. Above, Khurasan archers in royal livery fronting the Macclesfield contingent. 

Christopher Savage, Mayor of Macclesfield commands. His banner is one of Ray's. Thanks kindly Ray. The Billmen are from QRF.

 

Lords Hamilton and Maxwell and their pikemen. All from QRF and once again benefiting from Ray's flags.

  

Above Hamilton's in line to show variants. Below ready for action.

Lord Maxwell's in line.

 Ditto in battle order.

More English archers in Royal Livery. These are the last of my Khurasan archers. 

English arquebusiers, a rarity in this period. Figures from Essex and QRF.

They appeared in France but not at Flodden. The flag is from Army Royal.

This project is just about done. Some artillery and half a dozen Border Horse left to do and that's it. 

Maximilian-Down Mexico Way

 

If you want to do the French Intervention AKA the Maximilian Adventure in 15mm you really need QRF. A venerable but comprehensive range of figures. Substitutes are possible but will only take you so far.

Back in January I got the Maximilian bug. I had some figures but nowhere near enough. QRF under new ownership was just about to hit the rocks which didn't help. I placed an advert on LAF and got a good result.

Last month I commenced unpacking what I got. Below you can see my painting progress so far.

The Austrian Legion. I need a second Battalion of these.

The Belgian Legion Battalion. Apparently these lads were all young with no real military experience. Their Commander was keen for glory. There was a second battalion and I have the figures for them. QRF make some excellent mule mounted Belgians. I want some.

Death in a sky blue coat - the Chasseurs de Afrique. Feared and famous. They are getting a second squadron.

Mexican National Guard. This unit in a distinctive red coat. Uniforms varied from place to place. White is always good if you are stuck.

Mexican Battalion Supreme Powers. I should have painted 3 yellow sardinas (vertical stripes) on each sleeve. It would hardly be noticeable in this scale so I didn't. This battalion was very well armed with Henry repeating rifles. They were described as very confidant soldiers.

The Egyptian Battalion. Mostly Sudanese slaves who were collected in lieu of back taxes by the soon to be Khedive of Egypt. Once in Maximilian's Service they were freed. Everyone had only good things to say about these fellows. Their flag is not the Egyptian one as I substituted a Company Flag. The survivors ended up in Paris.

The Empress Lancers named for Carlotta, Empress of Mexico. Mrs Max' in other words. Her daddy was King of the Belgians. Hence the Belgian Legion.

Two squadrons of Mexican Irregular cavalry. Handy with the lance. 

Lances were used to herd cattle in Spain and Spanish America. Great training for spearing people apparently.

Mexican regular cavalry. Depending on when these lads could be Imperialists or Republicans. 

That is it so far. 

Now, good news. Geoff is shortly to launch GeoffQRF and will sell the Maximilian range along with half of the old Frei Korps range.  I will be adding to my collection. 

Also I'm keen to do a Great Paraguayan War/ Triple Alliance Project. GeoffQRF can provide the figures. Here I think of Eliza Lynch, what a story.

Cid Stuff

 

As I write it is very hot also I have been very busy. Not an ideal combination.  All the same I have finally found time for some Cid Stuff. Thinking about and writing up In The Days of the Cid. 

The key concepts are there. Fearsome charges, storms of arrows and dashing Jinete. The steady advance of the Berber spearmen. Basque javelin men skipping from vantage to vantage. Last stands by Nubians or Crusaders. Evocative.

Above Caballeros Hidalgos, look at that little pennon. Below, Christian Jinete. From Donnington New Era. I continue to warm to the brand of the broken hand. I only broke one figure this time.

In my Spanish Civil War Game I first introduced the key concepts here on this blog. As much for my own clarity as to interest others. I'm minded to do the same again.  

Let's start with Command. In the Days of The Cid the top dog commanding is you, the Player. The General.

Below the General are the Counts and Emirs and Mercenary Captains whose contingents form the Host. Like the General, the Mercenary Captains are exempt from the following table. They have been paid to do a job. Not so the Counts and Emirs.

Players throw a D6 for each Count or Emir and consult the table below for their Unique Quality and Epithet.

Dice Score	Quality
1.	The Cruel	If wounded or killed his contingent will immediately withdraw from combat without him.
2.	The Cunning	May successfully order his contingent to evade without testing.
3.	The Generous	May not be killed by a Mercenary unit regardless of combat result.
4.	The Valorous	May successfully order his contingent to charge without testing.
5.	The Pious	May excuse the first unit of his contingent required to test morale.
6.	The unbeaten	May double his personal combat dice if personally engaged.

Obviously, this approach requires some individual figures to personate the Counts and Emirs. 

Likewise there are some other special figures, famous banners, drums of war. 

You can see a selection above, Essex, Minifigs and Donnington Old Era.

A bit of Minifigs nostalgia here. Murabit Cavalry. I thought I had more of these and some Minifig Negro Cavalry too. Seemingly not. I wouldn't mind some of the latter.

You might recall recently seeing some exceptionally well painted Minifigs Late Romans of the same vintage. The result was splendid. Really first class. Anyhow, it inspired me to take my time with Minifigs in order to get the best result. I have a fair few more.

My unarmoured Basque cavalry have been redesignated as Caballeros Villanos. I had based them 3 to a 40mm frontage base. I was going to use the old spread them out technique to convince that they were skirmishers. It didn't work for me.

Instead we are going to have lots of these fellows on single figure bases sweeping in and out of the action. Above some Christian Jinete have caught some Moorish javelin men in the open. 

The plus side? I now have two units of Caballeros Villanos.

In The Days of The Cid is a Card powered game. Some units react to their own card being turned. Others need an order from their Count or Emir.  Each of those can usually get their contingent to move as a group. It gets trickier when individual units need special attention. Or start running away.

There is something else too. Some cards favour a specific side. If the opposing player turns such a card he may remove it from play. Denying his foe advantage. This is new to me. Will it go as far as Card Trading? Maybe.

Foot Skirmishers I’m doing 3 to a rounded edge base like these Africans above. From Donnington New Era. 

I did wonder about making the Andalusian crossbow men skirmishers. It is a nice idea with good gaming potential. I decided against it. 

Instead I envisage blocks of Andalusian Crossbow men relying on the penetrative power of their weapons to keep the enemy away. They had not been a great success as spearmen. Perhaps the crossbow would suit them better.

At this stage of the project I will also be doing some Basque and Berber Skirmishers, javelin men both.  More Cid Stuff as it comes.