German Peasants War - Possible rules for it?

[SJWi]

Armstrong, to add to what MGH has said based on the To The Strongest list in Simon Miller's Medieval list book. If you are unfamiliar with the rules they used gridded squares so your troop numbers are rather dictated by figure scale and box size. Very different in 10mm from 28mm. He seems to differentiate between pre and post 1499, with the majority of cavalry being knights plus some lighter lancers and mounted crossbows. Landsknechts form the majority of the "close-in" infantry, with some city militia as well. There are units of formed crossbow as well as skirmish units of crossbow and arquebus, with the latter increasing in number after 1499.     

[SJWi]

MGH, glad the suggested movement penalty seemed to work for you. Did you use any war wagons? They seem quite a unit in the army list produced by Simon Miller. 

[bigredbat]

...another way to restrict the manoeuvrability of the peasants would be to make them out of command; consider their generals to be so poor that they don't provide command (ie no generals, just models for local colour). With the peasants being deep, the extra activation penalties would be crippling!

It is terrific to see this obscure but colourful war being gamed. I must confess I've been severely tempted by the Steel Fist and other minis...

[MGH]

SJWi,

       Nope, no war wagons. I honestly don't think they had any if those are supposed to be like that of the much better organized Hussites fame. They did use wagons as a sort of defensive barricade to slow the SL attacks but not much evidence they were effective at all.

     I do have some wagons which I will be using as part of my victory conditions (like loot filled wagons for various players to get off the table during a scenario).

Bigredbat,

           Nice idea about no commanders, I believe they did have one professional soldier in command of one of the peasant bands for awhile, but he was there rather unwillingly and then deserted when he got the chance. I may do that though, give them very few or even no commanders.
            Given the playtest battle, the peasants had a hard time of it already though 

           And yes I was intrigued by the history and I also like obscure wars so I wanted to this one. The big drawback though for those who want balanced games is the battles of the war were one-sided. I think the peasants won one battle late in the war, up in the mountains and it was an ambush of a column. Any formed pitched battle though and look out, peasants.

           That said I'm enjoying myself immensely in this project and that's the point, right? 

         Oh and fanboy comment:   I love TtS system - I use it for Republican Romans v.s. Gauls/Germans and Spanish, Mongols v.s. Sung Chinese, Teutonic Order vs Prussians, Early Crusades v.s Muslims, Great Italian Wars.

[Armstrong47]

MGH,and SWJi,
Thank you very much for the info and advice.
I plan to use Never mind the Billhooks for the larger games,and Never mind the Ruckus for smaller skirmish actions.
I also plan to introduce a little bit of fantasy eventually in the shape of witches, vampires,and the odd werewolf, nothing fancy,just the sort of thing that people believed in the early sixteenth century.
Most of the books I've found online seem to be socio-economic histories of the Peasants Revolt and early sixteenth century Germany in general,so not much help militarily,.
One thing I found surprising, reading the Helion book on the Peasant armies is the amount of armour and firearms they seemed to have
I agree with he the fighting was pretty one sided,so I'm thinking of giving the Peasants some German and Swiss allies just to even things up. Not too sure about the historical accuracy,but I do believe that they did have some professional soldiers fighting with them.

[carlos marighela]

Not sure that German and Swiss mercenaries accepted payment in turnips. Witches on the other hand....