Showing posts with label 1524. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1524. Show all posts

Wednesday, 8 April 2020

Showcase Easter special: Renaissance - The Great Italian Wars

For easter a little extra fluff - my complete Italian wars collection,  as I'm rebasing my swordsmen and the doppel-soeldner, I will probably continue with the other skirmishers (arquebusiers and Swiss halberdiers )... in between paint job so keep me entertained ...

Enjoy!



The whole lot

Some French Gendarmes d‘Ordonnance, Men-at-arms, Archers and Stradioti

The Imperial Horse, Argulets and mounted Crossbows, Men-at-arms and Gendarmes
The German Gendarmes


The Imperial camp

The Borgias swordsmen and the Nürnberg pikeblock 
Nürnberg a bit closer


The Gascoigne Crossbows and the sinister Black Band in French service

A Hackbut the Pikeblock with a Swabian League commander and Cesare Borgias


A French gun and its point of view


The large Fugger Pikeblock and some Doppelsöldner

The Fugger a bit closer


The rest of the French Gendarmes and their Men-at-arms

Some Stradioti with bows

The Schwyz Pikeblock


The Memmingen Pikeblock

The Rest of the German Gendarmes and Men-at-arms



Behind Imperial guns the Black Band approaches

... of course there is room for more ...




Tuesday, 19 December 2017

Renaissance roll call ...

It is that time of year ... inventur, the roll call: Counted 400 with additional approx. 40 in the making...

I hope I get to 3 large pike blocks per 64 OR 5 pike blocks at 36 men.

But it will be a rare thing indeed to see these in a battle, as transport, time and other limitations put restrains on that vision...


















Friday, 15 December 2017

"Ein Hauen und Stechen..." past 1525 somewhere between Ulm and Augsburg

We played the German Peasant War, the scenario of one of my last posts (see link: http://meneken.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/the-german-peasant-war.html ), 28mm with amended P&S rules. The peasant mobs were scattered around the four winds and had a vaguely fortified camp. Bill was playing Thomas Müntzer starring as CnC in this fictional setting. Angus played the Bürgermeister of Vlissingen (actually in the Netherlands in the real world, but who cares...) and the Truchsess of Waldburg and Peter was joining the Swabian League as the famous Götz (after the Peasants failed to appear on the Negotiation point), I was helping Bill more or less efficient with the "northern" peasants.

It was a slow affair, as all Renaissance battles were, and it was more like a cluster of skirmishes. The fact that these pesky little metal pikes need a bit extra time to set up didn‘t help either ... so we are short on time. But I dare to say that my constellation of forces and possibilities worked. Maybe next time I will just let the commanders do the negotiations (today they HAD to be accompanied by a unit) and the way the set up wasn‘t clear from the start (as the "mercenaries could ave joined the Peasants as well) left the players without hope of developing a strategy (of course some of them never do). But I will still use scattered forces, woods and swamps, mercenaries that could join and tip the balance or just break away ... and of course negotiations!!! ...

Maybe even a real re-fight with a "what-if" bonus of some real Peasant war slaughters ...

But I enjoyed it a lot and think there is room for more in games to come


The initial set up
The Tross of the Truchsess coming in from Ulm
"Vlissingen" and surrounding rebels
The added value of mercenary robber knights

1st turn and the Truchsess lost his  command roll ...
the swamps to the south hinder him to attack the peasants directly
The north east corner where Reisläufer might join your side
The central peasant camp
In the NW corner the Swabian League Bürgermeister is in negotiations with the Reisläufer
Götz v. Berlichingen and his retinue arrives ...at the side of the Swabian League!!!
The Truchsess Georg v. Waldberg and his men-at-arms press forward...
The “Bauernjörg‘s" best side ...
On the NW corner the peasants succeeded to be joined by much needed Stradioti
The medium guns of the Truchsess unlimbered right in the middle of the field
The mounted crossbowmen of the League zoom in ...
The Heavy cavalry is concentrating in front of the peasant camp
The mercenary Reisläufer in the camp are getting nervous ... with Thomas and some box of branded lager ...
on the west the Swabian League keeps concentrating
still they do not dare an attack on the camp
On the North east the peasant are leaving the woods to get to the camp ...
... but the Argulets of the Truchsess are in-between ...
A light cavalry clash in the centre of the field ...
Still the paid Landsknechts stoically hold the line in the camp

The Bürgermeister is finishing off peasants in the the North East ...
... a few try to flee, but ...
in the Eastern Woods some rogue rodeleros of the peasants are giving the doppelsöldners grief
but slowly the rope is tightening ...
.. from the West some stradioti relief, too few too late ...
in the centre the Landsknechts of Götz are massing up
And events rodeleros are slowly exhausting themselves ..
The Pikeblock of Götz (starring as Black Bande) is joining up with the Truchsess ...
in fron of the camp