Month: March 2020

Can you ever have too many Swiss pike?

I have seen the question of can you ever have too many Landsknechts asked, but never the question can you ever have too many Swiss? Here is an update on my Swiss pike blocks.

I am currently painting figures for the battle of Bicocca that I hope to put on at Historicon 2020. One of the main elements of the battle were the two Swiss pike blocks, one from the Rural Cantons and one from the Urban Cantons. Each pike block was about 8,000 men which at a 50:1 figure ration is 160 figures. I have chosen to represent each block by a 12×12 block of 144 figures and 16 skirmishers with arquebus or crossbows. This comes out exactly to the 160 figures each.

All of the Swiss are now ready for Historicon

Each of the Swiss pike blocks has about 15 flags each, which makes them look quite impressive on the table. I have placed Urban Canton flags on one pike block and Rural Canton flags on the other pike block; how to select flags for Swiss pike blocks was discussed in my recent blog post on Swiss Flags. As the Swiss at Bicocca were in French service I have also added about three flags with the French cross to each of the pike blocks.

Some French cross flags can be seen mixed in with the Swiss Canton and city flags.
The 4 units of 8 skirmishers up front with two light guns.
A closer view of the advancing pike blocks with the bear command base up front.

Next on my painting list for Bicocca is some SteelFist Landsknecht flag bearers. I have two 10×10 (100 figure) Landsknecht pike blocks, one has flags for Imperial service and the other has flags for French Black Band service. I will be painting about six Imperial Flag carriers so that I can convert the Black Band pike block to Imperial Service. It should be fun having two large Imperial Landsknecht pike blocks go up against the massive Swiss Pike blocks when I finally get to play the Battle of Bicocca.

Black Band of Giovanni de’ Medici – update

This post is a quick update on the Black Band of Giovanni de’ Medici that I am painting for the Battle of Bicocca game that I am planning to put on at Historicon 2020. The initial post in January gave some of my thoughts on the unit composition.

Unit composition

I had initially planned to have:

  • 24 pike
  • 32 arquebusiers
  • 16 mounted shot
  • 8 medium cavalry with lance and burgonet
  • 1 command group of 2 mounted figures representing Giovanni

I have stuck reasonably well to this list, but I did paint 16 medium cavalry rather than the initial 8 that I had planned; this was mainly because I had them in my lead pile. Extra medium cavalry can always be used in a game and I can always repurpose them by using an alternative flag.

The command base still needs to be completed over the next few weeks; I plan to use two SteelFist Gendarmes and paint Giovanni in some black armor that I have seen in a portrait of him on Wikipedia. I might also add a few hunting dogs to the command base, again from SteelFist Miniatures. I also have ordered a few more Black Band of Giovanni flags from Pete’s Flags which I will add to the medium cavalry and the command base on the basis that you can never have too many flags.

Photos of the figures

Here are some photos of the Black Band:

16 mounted shot at the front in skirmish order, a mixture of crossbows and arquebusiers from The Assault Group. The skirmish bases are from Litko.
The 16 medium cavalry using figures from SteelFist miniatures using their Archers (REN.16/17/18) with some of their LAN.26
pack of Burgonets to replace the standard helmets
A pike block of 24 figures with 4 groups of 8 arquebusier figures in skirmish order up front. The infantry are all from The Assault Group.
The medium cavalry are still waiting for their flags which I expect to arrive next week. I may add a third fag to the pike block.

Final thoughts on the Black Band of Giovanni

Overall this representation of the Black Band of Giovanni will give one player an interesting mix of units to command. They certainly don’t have the raw power to mix it up with large Swiss Pike Blocks or massed Gendarmes. However, they are more than capable of maneuvering and using their shot units to deal damage to the enemy while having the support of the pike block and medium cavalry if the enemy start to get too close.

This force is certainly not as colorful as some of the other units in my Italian Wars collection, but they do make a cohesive force. I quite like the way that the dark red and grey color scheme worked out.