Lockdown delirium - thinking about starting Italian Wars - rules and lists?

[Cypher226]

As the title says, in lockdown with time to kill and a ready supply of contrast paints I've been thinking about painting some Landsknechts, Swiss and French for some Italian Wars action.

Put another way I'm looking to break up the dark colour schemes of painting most of my other stuff!

I have my eye on the rather nice TAG Landsknechts and French and have a good feel for where I can get other stuff to taste, but what's the go to for rules for these conflicts?
I'm coming primarily from a GW background so not a fan of diceless systems etc (if there are any?) and would prefer something easily accessible over the most accurate ruleset, preferably with some good list building guidelines for representative forces of the sides, small skirmish options a massive benefit to get started ASAP!

Anything that fits the bill?

[SteveBurt]

As the title says, in lockdown with time to kill and a ready supply of contrast paints I've been thinking about painting some Landsknechts, Swiss and French for some Italian Wars action.

Put another way I'm looking to break up the dark colour schemes of painting most of my other stuff!

I have my eye on the rather nice TAG Landsknechts and French and have a good feel for where I can get other stuff to taste, but what's the go to for rules for these conflicts?
I'm coming primarily from a GW background so not a fan of diceless systems etc (if there are any?) and would prefer something easily accessible over the most accurate ruleset, preferably with some good list building guidelines for representative forces of the sides, small skirmish options a massive benefit to get started ASAP!

Anything that fits the bill?

You won't find a more colourful period - but most rules are geared toward big actions (and hence expect multi-based figures)
Field of Glory: Renaissance is pretty good (better than the Ancients set) and the list books are comprehensive
A Renaissance version of 'To the Strongest' is in the works
De Bellis Renationis is also very good although maybe a bit abstract if you come from a GW background
Warfare in the Age of Discovery is ok but never really clicked with me.

For small actions, Pikeman's Lament might fit the bill, or for even smaller swashbuckling type stuff maybe En Garde

[Erik]

Furioso is an interesting set of rules that are very fast. The rules can be downloaded so you are good to go when you decide. The number of figures needed is not overwhelming so it should be doable.

Coming from GW you might find a resemblance between Swiss and Khorne. Deploy your troops, take off the leash, sit back and let them do their thing  .


Cheers
Erik

[Erik]

Ohh! And Furioso has points-based lists included in the rules, so you will get your army buying fix.

[Cypher226]

Ah, great, thanks!
I'm perfectly happy with multibasing (means I can use them for kingdoms of men for KoW as well) so I'll take a look at FoG, Furioso and possibly En Garde for some really small scale stuff.

Also like the Swiss/Khorne analogy 

Cheers again, going to order aa few units and a book or two on payday so might do a bit off an unboxing thing on the old blog when they arrive 👍

[Doom Beard 78]

Here's a naughty idea; if you are used to Warhammer you could try Warhammer Ancient Battles. The rules are long out of print however, a copy of the rulebook can be found on the scribd website along with the armies of chivalry supplement which contains the sort of army lists you need/ Otherwise, if you are on Facebook, you can visit the WHW Facebook page at

https://www.facebook.com/groups/811823302281178/

there are fan written Italian Wars lists in the files page. 

FOG is rather dry and abstract and has a lot of modifiers, its quite mechanical and some, like me, find it as much fun as studying tax law

[fastolfrus]

If you are looking at skirmishes, Sharpe Practice has some War of the Roses players - not far removed from Italian Wars, armoured cavalry, early landsnechts, primitive artillery are all covered. They have a facebook group too.
Foundry had a rule set called Condotierre.