*
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 29, 2024, 02:39:34 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Donate

We Appreciate Your Support

Members
Stats
  • Total Posts: 1686662
  • Total Topics: 118119
  • Online Today: 815
  • Online Ever: 2235
  • (October 29, 2023, 12:32:45 AM)
Users Online

Recent

Author Topic: The "Great" Italian Wars  (Read 2580 times)

Offline Admiral Alder

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 149
The "Great" Italian Wars
« on: April 08, 2021, 05:30:54 PM »
Having been inspired by similar parade ground displays on here, I thought that I might also use this space to layout my collection so far, inviting comments and criticism and hopefully work out what elements are missing so that I can maintain energy and enthusiasm to see this project to a close before I start a Stargrave or 15mm Modern/1980s project.

Initially I had hoped to create roughly 3 forces, French, Italian, and Imperial and use these for the entire Italian Wars from Fornovo to Pavia, removing bows and crossbows in favour of arquebusiers and ritters, and swapping units from one force to another throughout the wars of the Holy League...

However as the Italian and Imperial army has swelled I've failed to maintain progress with the French, so may abandon this initial starting point.

Two other issues have also cropped up, rules and basing, without setting out with a rules set in mind, unit basing and force structure has lagged behind.

With all that said the core of the project so far is the Venetians; present at Fornovo, and a mandatory requirement for the battles of the Holy League:

 

Offline RichBliss

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 180
  • With Lipbalm-Puce in the Congo
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2021, 06:10:27 PM »
They look sharp.   Nice to see bows.  They are rarely featured in people’s collections but are needed for some early battles.  Looking forward to seeing more.

Offline Lord Raglan

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3163
  • Abergavenny
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2021, 06:24:39 PM »
Those are looking pretty sexy buddy

Offline Admiral Alder

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 149
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2021, 07:10:43 AM »
They look sharp.

Glad that they're mostly plastic pikes or lifting them out of the box would be a serious health and safety concern..

Those are looking pretty sexy buddy

Thank you for the kind feedback.

The Italian Cities
I'm fairly happy with the Milanese contingent, but really need to flesh out Florence and the Neapolitans.

Offline valleyboy

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 854
    • Valleyboy's Wargames
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2021, 08:11:04 AM »
Those look great
I'd be interested to know your unit/figure make up for the Italian states as my Italian wars project seems to have stalled after painting lots of pike and Landsknecht!
I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns. - Winston Churchill

Offline HappyChappy439

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1043
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #5 on: April 09, 2021, 09:34:09 AM »
These look great! Thanks for sharing!

Offline Admiral Alder

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 149
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2021, 10:36:43 AM »
Those look great
I'd be interested to know your unit/figure make up for the Italian states as my Italian wars project seems to have stalled after painting lots of pike and Landsknecht!

Thank you,

Regarding the composition of "units" its a little bit of guess work, I note that the thread on War of the Roses ratios of bows to bills is locked due to how contentious a topic it can be, so I'm not going to claim to be an authority...

In the Early Italian Wars infantry can be armed with a huge array of melee and missile weapons as well as formations which mix infantry and cavalry, my approach is to model each unit with one type of weapon: pike/halberd/bow/crossbow etc whilst acknowledging that depending on figure scale the actual troops would have been slightly more varied, for game purposes Swiss and Landsknecht units should be at least 75% pikemen with two handed swords and halberds modelled in depending on personal preference/visual aesthetic. The Italian troops had pikes and knew how to use them, but I prefer to emphasise models with missile weapons as their deployment in battle was more of a cavalry screen/supporting role opposed to the Swiss and Landsknechts who were used in a shock assault role (regardless of individual weapons carried).

Offline RichBliss

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 180
  • With Lipbalm-Puce in the Congo
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #7 on: April 09, 2021, 06:29:01 PM »
This is similar to the philosophy I follow.  I’m more interested in how they fought than what they carried.   

Offline Admiral Alder

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 149
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #8 on: April 09, 2021, 06:44:18 PM »
This is similar to the philosophy I follow.  I’m more interested in how they fought than what they carried.

Unfortunately whilst it's my philosophy, my miniatures collection doesn't reflect this - still need to paint and assemble a lot of support troops with crossbows.

Offline Admiral Alder

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 149
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #9 on: April 21, 2021, 09:49:35 AM »
The Imperial Forces

Currently the smallest of my contingents, still need to paint the zwiehanders and some hand gunners, however this is the contingent with the largest number of manufacturers, find that the Warlord Games Landsknechts scale well with most metal and plastic miniatures.

Offline SJWi

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1642
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #10 on: April 21, 2021, 10:50:19 AM »
Admiral Alder, lovely looking figures. I think your original post said you have still to decide on rules. What are your thoughts?

A small group of us have built “Late Renaissance” Italian armies initially for Impetus, but  now using Simon Miller’s “To the Strongest” ancient/medieval rules . I understand Simon is working on a set of late 15th/16th century specific rules which i hope will hit the sweet spot.

Offline Friends of General Haig

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 729
    • My Blog:
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #11 on: April 21, 2021, 01:14:56 PM »
A great looking collection.  Lovely figures set off by those great flags👍

Offline Ockius

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 268
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #12 on: April 21, 2021, 03:09:46 PM »
Great models! Lots of colour and variety.

I played my first Italian wars era game a couple of weeks back (in 15mm though, Henry VIII’s English vs French) and we used Pike and Shotte, with modifications to the army lists and stats (easily done with those rules). They were easy and fast rules to use. However, we all have our armies based for Field of Glory Renaissance, and will eventually give that a try once we’ve plucked up the courage (the rules look complex).
My armies:
- Henry VIII's army (WIP) 15mm
- Ancient Germans (28mm)
- Ancient Belgae (Gauls with German allies) (28mm)
- Massilian Greeks (Greeks and Gallic mercenaries/subjects) (28mm)
- A few EI Romans (28mm)
- Handful of WW2 British (15mm)
- A load of old 1993-1999ish Warhammer Orcs and Goblins

Offline Bloggard

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3458
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #13 on: April 22, 2021, 11:31:08 AM »
love the way you're basing those, and the trays.

Offline bigredbat

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 961
    • BigRedBatCave
Re: The "Great" Italian Wars
« Reply #14 on: April 22, 2021, 03:02:07 PM »
Quote
I understand Simon is working on a set of late 15th/16th century specific rules which i hope will hit the sweet spot.

Indeed I am but I've been struggling with family commitments, but I'm getting close.  They are an extension of the TtS! ancient/Medieval rules which should run up to 1600 or thereabouts, they might run a bit later. 

 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
0 Replies
1061 Views
Last post January 03, 2013, 08:27:22 PM
by Bowman
172 Replies
40073 Views
Last post February 18, 2015, 03:42:35 PM
by DonVoss
8 Replies
3187 Views
Last post October 17, 2016, 06:36:48 AM
by Bushbaby
3 Replies
1532 Views
Last post August 18, 2017, 01:56:47 AM
by Sinewgrab
6 Replies
891 Views
Last post August 28, 2022, 11:05:27 AM
by robh