As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, I am planning on running the Battle of Bicocca at Historicon. One of the most important terrain features will be the defenses for the Battle of Bicocca.
Historical description of the defenses
From the book “History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century” by Sir Charles Oman: On page 179 the defense width is listed at no more than 600 yards. On page 178 the defenses are described as: “On the North front, where a sunken road leading to the manor-house ran along the front of the park enclosure, he had deepened the hollow, and made a rampart along it, with the cast-up earth, piled above the existing bank. In several places he had constructed high platforms in this rampart, and placed guns upon them, which would sweep not only the fields in front, but laterally the ditch immediately below.
On page 181 he discusses the earthworks height. “the obstruction was so deep and the rampart behind it so high, that the head of a pole could hardly be stretched from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the earthwork.
Design of the defenses
From the description, there are some important factors to consider when designing this terrain feature for the game. The first is the overall length, the defenses are not a small item. The second feature is the height and the third feature are the gun platforms.
Length
On the length of 600 yards, this is 21,600 inches. If we take a 28mm at 1:56, scaled down this would be 385 inches. However, we need to remember our figure scale. I am running the game at 1 figure is about 25 men. For the pike blocks one figure would be about 5 men deep by 5 men wide. Using this frontage, I calculate that the required defense length would be 385 / 5 or about 77 inches. For table appearance, I actually made the defenses a little short of 6 feet long (72 inches). This size looks and feels about right. The defenses for the Battle of Bicocca are a dominant feature on the battlefield terrain.
Height
On the height, a pike is up to 18′ long. Using our 1:56 scale this would have meant that the defenses would need to be about 3.8″ tall. The height of the defenses is where I decided to make an artistic compromise. I used some inch thickness foam and then mounted some log barricades from AnyScale models on top. The barricades cost 2 UK Pounds a piece, which seemed reasonable. These barricades are around 0.75 inches high so the overall height of the defenses is just less than 2″. These are a little low, but still look imposing on the table top. I could still add another layer or two of foam board under these defenses to increase the height.
Gun platforms
The next job was the gun platforms. It is important that they stick out so that the artillery can fire along the length of the sunken road. The image above shows the early stage of construction of these emplacements. I am going to add logs at the front and sides of the platforms to retain the earth. Also along the entire defenses I will add terrain and rock outcrops to give a better finished appearance.
Construction of the defenses
I used a hot wire cutting tool to cut the earthworks from a 1″ foam board. I then cut and laid some terrain mats from Killing fields terrain to give the bulk of the ground cover. This ground cover will allow the earthworks to blend with the rest of the terrain. I then shaved paths to the gun emplacements with hair trimmers. After I painted a mixture of paint, Elmers glue and rail road ballast over the paths and uncovered foam board. Finally I painted, weathered and glued down the log barricades.
I still have work to do to finish the defenses, but I feel that basic design and structure is complete. I hope to finish them in the next few weeks.
The defenses for the Battle of Bicocca will allow me to deploy 6 units of arquebusier and 3 artillery pieces. The Landsknechts can be easily moved up to the barricades due to the gentle slope at the back. Combined, there should be enough firepower to cause the advancing Swiss Pike some problems.