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.
Very impressive units you have there! I've always thought that the Italian Wars make for some of the most attractive games, due to the variety of flags, uniforms etc. Keep up the good work:)
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve, I'm well into it now.
DeleteNever faced the longbow en masse, did they? Would have been an interesting confrontation.
ReplyDeleteNo, but judging by Flodden I doubt it would have bothered them much.
DeleteI thought I'd come up with a nice deployment mechanism and then realised it was yours from To Ur!
But then Martin Swartz came unstuck at Stoke Field, didn't he, and ended up looking like a pin cushion. Feel free to pinch the TUIH deployment system. I'm sure I stole it from somewhere anyway.
DeleteI'd forgotten Martin, though his lads were Germans not Swiss but it's a good point. I suppose the archers at Flodden were not up to the standard of the royal ones at Stoke.
DeleteThanks on the deployment thing, it's the face down cards to lay out the battle lines that I particularly liked.
The Scots were prepped for bear at Flodden. They took pavises especially because of the archers.
DeleteFlodden is an interesting one.
DeleteJames intended to fight a defensive battle where the Scots pavises would have done good service. Surrey outgeneraled James and forced him on the offensive.
I don’t think the Scot could have taken their pavises into the charge. From memory we have no mention of pavises being carried in the Scots advance.
We are told about the high quality of the armour of the Scots nobles who formed the front ranks of the pike blocks. The massed pike shafts might also have hindered the fall of the English arrows.
The ground disordered the Scots and the English bill men got among the pike men with fairly typical results. The pike men dropped their pikes and got the worst of it at close quarters.
Flodden, as you say, is an interesting one. The pikes v falling arrows is a moot point, and assumes that arrows are shot on a high trajectory in a so-called "arrow storm". The pavis discussion can go round in circles. We know they had them, we aren't told they were discarded, but that doesn't mean they didn't. The quality of armour, and completeness of the suits is also important. I don't know that the Swiss front ranks had the complete carapace with full face armour, so I think they would have been more vulnerable.
DeleteI'm becoming increasingly sceptic of lomg bow men shooting routinely at a high trajectory. Most contemperory illustrations seem to me to show aimed lateral shots.
DeleteHow did the Burgundian archers, many of them English, do against the Swiss? I'm not well versed in those battles.
We are the same page on high trajectory shooting without a doubt. As for the English archers in Burgundian service...I just don't know enough to be certain. The proportion of archers to the rest of the army is much, much, lower which no doubt makes a big difference. English archers were always in demand by continental leaders. Treaties with English monarchs in the 15th century often reference the provision of archers, but they don't appear in the numbers provided by the Swiss. It might be that the longbow can't shoot enough Swiss to slow them down on their headlong charge, so you might want to deploy them behind some form of defences like the battle of Bicocca.
DeleteYeah, that seems to have been the way to do it. Stop them and you can deal with them. Fail to and you lose.
DeleteFantastic looking unit
ReplyDeleteThanks Neil.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking I want the pike units to be three bases width because of the look of the thing, certainly for the main battle. So more painting for me.
Great stuff, always enjoy your projects especially the Crusades. One definitely needs a lot of pike if one does the Great Italian wars. Good job.
ReplyDeleteThanks Joseph. I'm currently working on a unit of Latinikon for my Crusades Byzantines, tricky shields so they are taking a bit longer than usual.
ReplyDeleteBack to the pike for the moment.
Damn fine painting OB.
ReplyDeleteMuch appreciated Ray.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff bon nuoc
ReplyDeleteThanks Hien.
ReplyDelete