Gendarmes and Archers 1513

 

When I again turned my attention  to 1513 I thought not to linger over long. Utterly wrong as it turned out. Each Gendarme needs at least one non noble horseman in support. There was a lot of painting.

I have written before about the “Lance” concept. A Lance being variably 2-5 men. One hundred Lances means at least 200 men and up to 500 men. As you can see i have simplified the representation here. 

Even with creative interpretation (cheating) it is a fair few cavalry.  Let us get to it.

Supporting Archer cavalry.

 You can see a lot of Minifigs in the pic's. A lot to like with these figures I think.

Not all Archers were archers.

David at Not By Appointment made me some flags for known French Commanders.

Above we see Berault (Bernard) Stewart. He is the lad in the middle. Note his buckle impressa drawn from his banner. Below Louis de Tremouille once again we see an impressa. In this case Fortuna's Wheel depicted on the surcoat.

Gendarme or Archer  units can fight separately if required.

Now, Burgundian Gendarmes with supporting mounted Crossbow men. A debate meanders on about shooting from the saddle. I think they did, by utilising a latch. We will see more of them in a subsequent post on England's Allies and Mercenaries.

They are shown with latches. Could they dismount to shoot? Of course. They  weren’t centaurs. The ones above are a mixture of Minifigs and Donnington.

There are lots of flags on show today. They are from Pete’s Flags, free ones from Lancashire Games and banners for Berault (Bernard) Stuart and Louis de Tremouille that David at Not By Appointment kindly made for me. 

Next to turn once more to the English.  We will begin with England's Allies and Mercenaries. 

 

Valois Soldiery 1513

 

The stars of today’s post are the French Artillery. Back then it enjoyed a fierce reputation. The guns and crews you see above are from Minifigs. Note the fine Master Gunner.  Big bases as you see. Something I learned from Barry Hilton. Guns take up a lot of space.

I’m pleased to tell you I bought them at an impressive discount. Basically I paid the retail price for one for all three. 

Should you be in the market for Valois artillery Khurasan also have a lovely set.

The French liked crossbows. Above are some Gascons. Fast moving skirmishers. Well motivated too. Note the Fortuna flag. Fortuna was something all soldiers understood. Figures from QRF, Donnington New Era and Khurasan.

One of the Commanders next. Berault (Bernard) Stuart. A Franco-Scots nobleman. Note his buckle impressa on the surcoat. His banner is carried by a pal. David at Not by Appointment kindly made it for me. Normally Commanders get a single figure base, not this time. Such fellows seldom rode alone in 1513.

Alas this small scale does not do it full justice. The last figure on the base carries a St. Dennis flag. A free one from Lancashire Games.

Some Franc Archers next. Tax exempt boys. There’s motivation for you. The Franc Archers tended to be effective soldiers. Above a strong unit with above average missilery capability. Massed crossbows worked with the front rank firing and the rear loading. This must have been just the ticket because a similar system was advocated for post pike musketry. The flags indicate the unit was raised in Brittany.

 

You have seen these close combat Franc Archers before. This time they are joined by their crossbow armed comrades. De Crequy raised this unit hence the profusion of yellow and red. I have a halberd, and variants, armed Franc Archer unit to do. 

Speaking of things concussive and slicing. Here are some Swiss Halberdiers.

Mainly Minifigs with a couple of Alternative Armies and some Roundway.  Roundway was a real loss.

 

I intend having 3 units of Archer Cavalry. This is the last one, a work in progress. Another 4 figures and it is done. The Bretons again below. The light was tricky this morning. Hopefully the photo's still work for you.

There is much more to do on this one. I estimate I’m two thirds in. The English are getting some Burgundian Gendarmes. They hired them in being short of quality noble heavy cavalry themselves. No shortage of nobles, not enough really big horses apparently. One unit only but they should look nice. I bought some Pete's Flags for them.

I have now commenced work on the French Gendarmes. Demanding stuff.

France 1513

 

Today is is very much a bits and pieces post. Roughly around  Henry Tudor's 1513 Campaign in France. We can see how various manufacturers figures fit together. Pretty well so far. 

Most of what you see I have had for years. Although, happily, some Minifigs bargains recently came my way. Including artillery. You may recall Minifigs house style was to imbue added character into command and artillery sets.

Above we have Landsknect from QRF and Alternative Armies. The latter provided the Crossbow men. Not a bad match at all. I'm wondering about asking AA to produce some French soldiers based on Stuart Mulligan's Army Royal work. Sometimes that works.

Minifigs next in the form of Archer Cavalry. Equipped with crossbows this time.

Stradiots from Minifigs above and QRF below giving me 12 in all. 

They fit with each other and can provide 2 units of 6 cavalry using Lion Rampant. Three figure variants thanks to mix and match.  

The Earl of Suffolk, or Sussex? From Essex. You know what I mean. That is one of Pete's Flags. Note the big lad's plumes in Tudor colours. It paid to play safe.

Much more to come on this one for both English and French.

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.