The Queen of Battles- Great Italian Wars

 

When thinking of pike, it is hard not to bring to mind the Great Captains, De Cordoba, Montluc, and, of course, Mainwaring.  Really though, it’s all about the Swiss.  If you didn’t hire them, how did you stop them?

There were different approaches.  

De Cordoba put his faith in entrenchments and fire power backed by pikes and swords of his own.  That was informed by repeated Spanish failures to hold the Swiss. In ideal circumstances it worked.

French commanders liked to blow them apart at a safe distance with concentrated artillery.  That could work but mostly didn’t.  Gendarmes could stymie a Swiss charge too, at a cost.  Sensibly, the French mainly hired the Swiss and encouraged their own pike soldiers to emulate their methods.

Germans decided to take the Swiss on at their own game.  Indeed, they went further, developing a pike fencing skill set that the Swiss didn’t have.  They had a great victory surrounded and over shadowed by a halo of Swiss inflicted defeats.

The Swiss were poor men with a poor man’s weapon.  Armour was limited to the front ranks.  Most Swiss went into battle with sword and pike and if they were lucky a helmet.  Consequently, they moved fast unencumbered and superbly well drilled.  Morale was sky high.  They not only expected to win, they knew they would.  Wisely they refused to fight each other when those who hired them fell out.

It took a long time and a very bloody defeat to check Swiss elan.

It follows then, that any consideration of the Great Italian Wars should reflect on just how much the activities and abilities of the Swiss shaped events.  The Swiss weren’t just pike men they were the pike men.  Generals opposing them had to plan how to contain the Swiss charge. I kept all of this in mind when writing Gonzalo.

Currently, I'm giving each Swiss unit 2 cards in the play deck. All other units get one.  That means the Swiss will be unpredictable and able to close much faster than other pike men.  They will also hit hard.  Should they be held other considerations might come into play.  I'm thinking of Spanish Rondeleros and the pike fencing techniques of Landsknechts.

You can see some of my pike formations above.  I intend to have more.  The Spanish will have four Colunellas, the Swiss three units and there will be both Imperial and French Landsknechts.  The Black Band? Certainly, and painted in accordance with the latest info' on favoured colours and flags. French Old Bands? Probably two units.

In terms of fighting pike ranks I've opted for three in Gonzalo, with an option for a, non fighting, fourth to replace casualties in the front ranks.  On that basis the unit below is either two thirds or half finished.  For pike unit width I'm going with two bases as below, or three or four.  Spanish Colunellas will deploy as you see in the pic's above, or two such side by side.

 

You may be asking what about the Italians?  I think they deserve a post, or maybe two, of their own.  The figures are being assembled.

More soon.

Light Cavalry - The Great Italian Wars

 

This is a big project for me. Lots of figures to paint and a set of rules in development.  The rules are written, first draft anyhow.  The figures are coming along nicely.  It will take some time to get to the Venetians but the journey will be pleasant.  

Writing this blog often clarifies my thinking and hopefully provides some interest and entertainment to you, the reader.  With that in mind I think it best to present this project in a series of themed articles.  These will show the toys as they roll off the line and introduce my thinking as it informed the creation of Gonzalo, the rules I will be using.

The theme of this post is the light cavalry of the Great Italian Wars.  You could find good light cavalry to points East and in Ireland or on the Anglo-Scots Border.  For the rest of Europe, they were a bit of an innovation. 

Different types of light cavalry were employed. Some like the Spanish Genitors and the Stratioti hired by the French and Venetians were comfortable skirmishing and in melee.  Others, armed with crossbow or arquebus were happiest fighting at a distance.  They could all, more or less, nip about at the same clip.

 Here are my Stratioti. They are from Venexia and Mirliton and I intend to have rather a lot of them. They could take on most other light cavalry with ease and might even give heavier armoured cavalry a bit of a shock.  

 

Early on they were paid by the head, not their own heads you will understand.

Spanish Genitors also liked to fight close up and were handy throwing javelins too.  They constituted the bulk of the Spanish cavalry. Tough and well- motivated they could give the Stratioti a run for their money.  I will have three units.

Both Genitors and Stratioti could be sudden death to skirmishing infantry.  Against pike block and Colunella not so much.  Missile cavalry on the other hand could shoot up heavy foot with relative impunity.

It was, literally, horses for courses.

There were also other light cavalry units armed respectively with crossbow and arquebus. All of the armies involved employed such units.  Mine aren't finished yet but will appear shortly.

Lastly, you will notice that all of these light cavalry are armoured to some degree.  I've gone for three grades of armour in Gonzalo.  The light cavalry being the lowest, then half armour and finally Gendarmes on barded horses..

The Great Italian Wars- A 15mm Project

 

I had one of those flashes of inspiration, sadly infrequent, and suddenly realised I could write a set of rules for the Great Italian Wars . 

 

It arose from reading volume 2 of Massimo Predonzani and Vincenzo Alberici’s “The Italian Wars”.  

 

 

The ideas pretty much all arrived at once and I had to quickly take notes. Now, draft 1 is done.  There will need to be test games and much painting.  I’ll report back here as I progress.

 

Anyhow, I thought I’d better start to assemble the troops.  I have an A4 box file full of unpainted Venexia 15mm from Lancashire Games.  Also, I had managed to paint a couple of units a few years ago so I was off to a good start.

Pleasingly, I discovered that Alternative Armies, Museum, Blue Moon, Venexia and Legio Heroica figures all work nicely together.  I have some Khurasan on order too and hope they fit with the mix.

Here is the front half of a French pike block. A mix of Alternative Armies, Museum and QRF miniatures.

The face of the future- a Spanish Colunella all from Venexia, save the Museum drummer.

As for the rules they will be card activated with a card for each unit, mostly.  I've gone for casualty removal and units of variable size.  I'll cover the whole thing in a series of themed posts starting with the light cavalry.  My aim is to have French, Spanish and Italian armies. More on this project soon.