Category: Italian Wars

In this blog post I will look at how I converted pike block flags on three units. The units will be ready for a game at Historicon.

I am currently preparing all of my figures and terrain for the two games that I plan to put on. The first is the 1651 Battle of Berestechko that I play tested recently. I plan to run this game at 9am on the Thursday, right at the start of the convention. This game is essentially complete except for a couple of units of Polish Haiduks that I would like to paint.

My second game will be the 1522 Battle of Bicocca. I plan to run for ten players on the Friday morning. I still have a large amount of terrain and figures to complete, but I am on schedule. This game will be the larger of the two and will have about 1500 figures.

In going through the list of troops that I needed for Bicocca, I was short two Venetian pike blocks and one Landsknecht pike block in Imperial service.

However, I did have two Papal States pike blocks and a Landsknecht pike block in French service that were not needed for Bicocca and were available to be converted. With each figure on an individual 20mm x 20mm base, this conversion is as simple as painting new flag figures.

Converting Papal States to Venetian

This first picture shows my two 36 figure Papal States pike blocks with six flag figures between them.

The next picture shows the Papal States pike blocks with the Venetian flag figures that I will change out. The Flags were from Pete’s flags.

The final picture of the pike blocks shows the converted Venetian pike blocks ready for action at Bicocca. Individually basing figures allows me to change both flags and the size of the pike blocks. It is very flexible. However, you need to be more careful with the movement trays than if you glued multiple figures to the base.

Landsknechts from French to Imperial Service

The next job was to convert the 100 figure Landsknecht pike block from French to Imperial service. The first picture shows the pike block before conversion.

The next picture shows the new flag figures ready to go into the pike block. The flags used a mixture of flags from Pete’s flags and Battle Flags.

The final two images show the pike block flags in Imperial service. It is ready to fight back the Swiss coming up from the sunken road at Bicocca.

I am not sure how many people at Historicon would have noticed if I had left French flags on an Imperial pike block. Or even Papal flags on a Venetian pike block. However, I would have known and it would have made me uncomfortable during the game – maybe I am over concerned about it.

This month it has been back to painting for my Italian Wars project. I decided to make some progress on my Spanish forces before hopefully moving on to some Venetian Cavalry next month. The focus was on some Spanish Renaissance artillery.

I needed to increase the number of Spanish arquebusiers for a convention game of the Battle of Bicocca that I am planning, so I wanted to paint four units of 8 figures. I also had five Organ guns in my painting pile from Redoubt Enterprises that I wanted to paint. These guns have large spikes at the front and on the wheels, and they sound very like the Spanish war carts at the battle of Ravenna. I decided to equip man these guns with figures from the Assault Group.

The organ guns don’t really come with any instructions, so it took some playing around to see how they fitted together. I was even left with a couple of parts that didn’t look like they belonged. Overall they painted up reasonably well. At only five UK Pounds a piece they were not overly expensive either.

I used the small equipment from the Assault Group Spanish/Neapolitan artillery crew.

The color pallet of the Spanish troops is a little more on the dull side compared to some of the Spanish that I have painted before. I think that this choice has been influenced by some of the colors that I used for my recent cossack uprising project.

I have some Spanish pike and sword figures still to paint. These figures will be added to the arquebusiers to form two more colunellas. I am deciding whether or not to paint them before I move on to the Venetian Cavalry.

I was happy with how the Spanish Renaissance artillery turned out. They are certainly different from the rest of the artillery that I have in the collection. They will be great for representing the Spanish war carts when I eventually refight the Battle of Ravenna.

After spending the last nine months on my Cossack Uprising project, I am moving back to my ongoing Italian Wars project for a while. I did purchase a 28mm Ottoman Army over the Christmas period, but that will have to wait a few months.

The main emphasis of the next few months will be rounding out the forces of the Italian City States. I am hoping to increase my forces for a possible large scale outing in the fall at Historicon, if the world returns to normal by then.

For the mounted troops, this will involve Condottieri and their retinue, Lance Spezzate and Famiglia Ducale. In my next blog post I plan to go into the organization of the cavalry in some detail.

For the foot troops, I have started with some generic Italian crossbows and arquebusiers. In this batch there are 16 figures from the Assault Group. This will be mounted on two skirmish bases, each with eight figures. The ones shown here will probably end up in the service of Venice. I have another 32 similar figures on the paint bench.

The figures are relatively easy to paint. After my cossack uprising project, I have found myself using a more subdued color palette than I normally use for the Italian wars. However, I am happy how these figures have turned out. I don’t need these City State troops looking as bright and colorful as the Gendarmes, Knights and Landschnekts.

Most of the Italian foot troops will be lighter troops like these. I plan to do a longer post within a week, with some details on how I organize the cavalry. The post will have some pictures of some mounted Milanese shot figures that I also painted this week.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

Yesterday at our local club’s game day, I was able to get out my Italian Wars troops for a refight of the 1513 Battle of Novara (Ariotta). John and Lou took the Swiss troops while Pete and Dave took the French.

The initial set up was broadly in line with the recent blog post on the Battle of Ariotta. I did make a few changes:

• The Swiss Pike block C on their left flank I increased from 24 to 36 figures to give them a fighting chance.
• I added two “small” artillery pieces to the forces on the Swiss left flank. These turned out to be reasonably ineffectual, so did not make much difference to the game.
• The Swiss reserves were increased from one pike block of 36 figures to two pike blocks of 36 figures. These were never intended to be deployed as they arrived too late for the battle. However, the French player did not know this information, so it kept them honest as in the real battle there was always the threat that they could arrive.

Here are a few photos of the initial deployments:

The Swiss “Enfant Perdue” in skirmish order emerged from the woods near the village of Ariotta to start the game. Their job was charge at the French cannons to try and capture them. In the actual battle this attack failed, but in our game, due to some fantastic command rolling on the dice (snake eyes), Lou manage to assault the guns on the first turn. The guns were initially disordered due to the Swiss surprise attack so this reduced the effectiveness of the fire. The three French guns quickly fell to the Swiss, who then decided that they didn’t want to man the captured guns, but instead decided to assault the Landsknecht arquebusiers coming up in support.

The main French force was deployed the other side of the Marsh. This consisted on the French infantry and a mass of Gendarmes. They were facing Novara, expecting the Swiss attack to come from the front. The Swiss had other ideas.

Here is a view of the entire table of the Battle of Novara (Ariotta).

The Swiss on the left flank were off the table to start the game. The picture below shows the Swiss pike block C, the two small canons and the Milanese knights. Also shown are the two reserve Swiss pike blocks which never actually deployed on table.

After the initial success of the Enfant Perdue, the two main Swiss Pike blocks emerged from the woods, one to the front of the Landsknechts and one to their flank. The unit on the flank then immediately moved to engage, while the one to the front decided to move towards the French infantry (as actually happened at the real battle).

The French decided to completely ignore the plight of their German mercenaries and proceeded to send all of their cavalry and half of their infantry towards the Swiss left. The half of the French infantry that was meant to move towards the marsh and the Swiss right, failed several command rolls and refused to go the aid of the Germans.

Pete, who was commanding the Landsknechts was therefore left to fend for himself, which is exactly what occurred at the real battle. There was a bloody clash with the Swiss Pike block which had emerged on their flank. This clash went back and forward over about four or five turns with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Eventually the Landsknechts, with no support arriving were completely wiped out, again, as happened at the actual battle.

This defeat left the two massive Swiss pike blocks to march on the flank of the French main forces. Some great command rolling again by Lou enable them both to fly down the table.

The Swiss once they appeared on the French flank quickly routed the French infantry that was meant to go to the aid of the Germans, leaving them to march unopposed into the French camp.

On the French right the gendarmerie commanded by Dave had pinned down the small Swiss force and had quickly routed the Milanese knights and overrun the Swiss artillery. They then surrounded the lone Swiss pike block on that flank. John, who was commanding this small Swiss flank force was coming under great pressure.

The pike block quickly became surrounded by the Gendarmerie. but valiantly fought off several rounds of attack. A unit of Gendarmes and a unit of archers became shaken and retreated, it was 2 : 0 to the Swiss. A third wave of attacks came in with units attacking both the flank and the front. With all of the damaged that they had suffered, this was too much for the Swiss, who routed off the table.

But John and his small band of Swiss had done their job. They had drawn the attention of the entire French Gendarmerie away from the main Swiss assault on the other flank. This had enable the Swiss commanded by Lou to rout the Landsknechts and half of the French infantry and then march into the French camp.

As in the real Battle of Novara (Ariotta), the French cavalry then decided that enough was enough. With no desire to engage the two massive Swiss Pike blocks without infantry or artillery support, they decided to leave the table in good order in the direction of Milano, bragging about how they had routed a Swiss pike block.

Overall I was really pleased with how closely our game simulated the real Battle of Novara (Ariotta). This result was achieved without the players knowing much about the battle in advance of the game. There were a few minor differences:

• The enfant perdue managed to over run the French guns in our game due to some incredible die rolling.
• Robert III de la Marck, did not manage to take any gendarmes over to support the Landsknechts and rescue his son.
• The small Swiss force on their left flank saw far more action in our game than in the real battle and they were destroyed in our game.

It would be interesting to see how the Battle of Novara (Ariotta) would play out if the French commander chose to ignore the small Swiss force on their right and send the majority of their infantry and cavalry in support of the Landsknechts. If the cavalry could fix the Swiss pike, their artillery and crossbows could rain down fire into the immobile pike blocks. But that is a game for another day.

Next weekend I will be hosting the Battle of Ariotta (1513) at our local club’s Game Day. I needed to sort out which figures I will be taking so I decided to lay everything out on the kitchen counter to make things easier. It has been a while since I have had all of the figures out, so it surprised me how much the collection of Italian Wars in 28mm has grown.

I have about 200 cavalry and 900 infantry figures painted at the moment. My first figures arrived from SteelFist in December 2017, so this quantity represents about two years of work.

I am aiming to finish my collection of Italian Wars in 28mm later this year and I am planning for a total of around 300 cavalry and 1,100 infantry. That should allow me to represent any of the battles in the Italian Wars. Most of these figures should be on display at Historicon in July 2020, where I am hoping to run the Battle of Bicocca as a participation game.

I plan to take a lot of photos next weekend during the Battle of Ariotta game, so look out for an After Action Report in the next few weeks.

Black Band at Bicocca

I am considering running the Battle of Bicocca (1522) at Historicon in Lancaster, PA in July 2020 as part of the Wargaming Association of Metropolitan Philadelphia. In looking through my troops and trying to work out which I was missing, I noticed that, in addition to needing more Swiss (I always seem to need more Swiss) I would need to paint some Black Bands of Giovanni figures.

At Bicocca there were around 3,300 men from the Black Bands according to some of the references that I have. I have found very little in the way of the composition of this group at the battle, so that gives me some latitude on how to represent them.

Composition of the Black Band

At a scale of 50:1, I would need around 70 figures. From the book “The Black Bands of Giovanni” by Maurizio Arfaioli, the ratio of pike to arquebusiers in the foot troops in 1527-1528 can be found. This book gives a figure of between 55-75% arquebusiers and the rest pike men or men with “arms corte”. Although the information in the book is for a period five years later, this ratio is a very good starting place for the infantry.

For the cavalry, I plan to have a couple of units of mounted shot as these seem to be part of the black band. Mr Arfaioli also discussed the presence of light horse called alla borgognona (Burgundian) lancer. He goes on to describe these units as more medium type cavalry with a lance, corselet and burgonet. The SteelFist archers seem perfect for these troops.

So the final composition that I am looking to paint for my Black Band is:

• 24 pike and men with pole arms.
• 32 arquebusiers
• 16 mounted shot
• 8 medium cavalry with lance, corselet and burgonet

Total 80 figures – slightly more than the 70 that I was originally looking for, but still around the right number. I also think that the mix gives a really balanced force for one of the players to command. I will also need a command stand.

Painting the Black Band

The first units that I have painted (completed over Christmas) are the mounted shot armed with a mixture of crossbow and arquebuses. I used figures from The Assault Group for these units; I stayed away from the firing poses as I remain to be persuaded as to whether these units fired from the saddle or dismounted. The flags are the rather splendid devil flags from Pete’s Flags.

On the colors of the unit, I wanted to make them a little different from the brightly colored troops in my armies. However, I did not want them in all black as some sort of parody of the Black Band. What I settled for was a theme of dark grey and dark burgundy colors with leather and cloth garments mixed in. The horse furniture I kept very simple with leather colors. I was very pleased with how they turned out, with the black devil flags with gold trim, I think that they make a very obvious unit on the table without being too bright. They look a mean bunch.

The foot troops from The Assault Group should arrive later this month, so I should be able to paint up the rest of the Black Band by the end of February. In the meantime, back to painting Swiss!

Historical Background

The Battle of Ariotta in 1513 was a decisive victory for the Swiss and was one of the last truly dominating battles for the famed Swiss pike blocks.

In the Spring of 1513, Louis XII was still angry at having lost the Duchy of Milan. The King selected La Tremouille to lead a 12,000 strong army including a large contingent of Landsknecht.

The army consisted of about 6,000 German pikes, 4,000 Gascons and Navarrese, 1000 lances and 1000 light horse, including stradiots. There was also a good amount of artillery.

Tremouille crossed the Alps without opposition by taking an unexpected pass. The small Swiss force was taken by surprise and sought refuge at the town of Novara. Records indicate that there were about 4,000 Swiss at Novara. Desperate messages for reinforcements were sent back to the Cantons and a relief force of around 8,000 pikes was sent.

Tremouille set siege to the town of Novara, where the Swiss had been joined by a small force of a few hundred knights and the duke Maximilian Sforza.

On the 5th June, the Swiss reinforcements could be seen approaching Novara, and Tremouille decided to withdraw towards Milan. That evening he set up camp near the small farming village of Ariotta. He assumed that the Swiss would need to rest after the long march from the cantons, especially as some of the troops would not even arrive until the next morning.

The Swiss had no intention of resting, but instead marched on the French camp ready for a dawn attack. They silenced their drums on the march to give no indication to the French that the attack was imminent. What followed was a daring attack of surprise and movement which kept the French off balance. The Battle of Ariotta had started.

Order of battle and deployment

We plan to play the Battle of Ariotta at our club game day in February. We will be using a 5ft x 14ft battle area. The following map and notes detail the initial set up and troops that will be used. This deployment is base on information in the book “La Battaglia dell’Ariotta”.

The game will start with the Swiss approaching from the bottom of the map along the road from Novara. The French will be deployed in the positions shown on the map, while the majority of the Swiss units will initially be off table.

Swiss Forces and deployment.

The game will start on Turn 1 with the Swiss Enfant Perdue emerging from the woods to charge the French guns.

• 2 units of Enfant Perdue each of 8 figures in skirmish order armed with Halbards and Swords.

This attack was ultimately unsuccessful in the battle, but it does give the Swiss a chance of surprising, capturing and using the French artillery. It will also give the main Swiss Pike block some cover against the artillery.

On Turn 2, the main Swiss Pike block A of 6,000 men will emerge from the woods.

• Swiss Pike block A of 100 figures (10 rows wide x 10 rows deep).

In the battle this pike block was held in place for a while by some French Gendarmes and received heavy casualties from the artillery. However, it eventually got to grips with the French pike and crossbows and routed them, before turning its attention to the Landsknechts.

The Swiss player may choose to deploy pike blocks B (3000 men) and C (1,000 men) onto the table on Turn 2 or any turn after. Until they are deployed their presence will not be made known to the French. In the actual battle, these units marched unseen by the French and achieved total surprise. In the battle pike block B was tasked with attacking the Landsknechts and pike block C was intended to cause confusion in the French rear and prevent the Gendarmes effectively countering the main Swiss pike blocks near Ariotta.

• Swiss Pike Block B of 64 figures (8 rows wide x 8 rows deep)
• 16 Swiss Halbardiers supporting pike block B (8 rows wide and 2 rows deep). This unit may be added to the pike block to increase the stamina and attack values or may operate as a separate unit.

In the battle the Halbadiers operated as a separate unit and attacked the Landsknecht arquebusiers before supporting the pike block and attacking the Landsknecht pike block in the flank.

The final Swiss Pike block C marched to the rear of the French army along a canal. It was hidden from the French during this march. Its main roll is to threaten the French camp.

• Swiss Pike Block C of 24 figures (4 rows wide x 8 rows deep).
• Milanese Knights consisting of 8 figures.

The Swiss reserves in the actual battle did not arrive from the cantons in time to play a part. The lead units entered the field as the French were routing. However, the French scouts were aware of the approaching reserves and this certainly played a part in their tactical choices in the battle. They did not want to send all of their units against the two main Swiss Pike blocks and leave their rear exposed. When I run the battle, once the Swiss player has deployed pike blocks B and C, I will make the French player aware that their scouts have observed another pike block approaching along the road. Depending upon how the game is progressing, I can then choose to make this pike block available to the Swiss at any time.

• Swiss Reserve Pike block of 36 figures (6 rows wide by 6 rows deep).

French forces and deployment

The French Gendarmes will initially be classed as disordered due to the surprise attack. They are elite so they will have a chance to roll this off at the start of Turn 1

• 1 unit of Household Gendarmes (8 figures)
• 3 units of Gendarmes (8 figures each)
• 4 units of Mounted Archers (8 figures each)

The French Artillery will also start the game disordered. They will be deployed facing the road emerging from the woods. They will be the first units to see the approaching Swiss.

• 3 units of French Medium artillery

The Landsknecht pike block will start the game disordered, but the two units of shot will start the game in good order. The shot were the first units to respond to the Enfant Perdue approaching the French artillery.

• Landsknecht Pike block of 100 figures (10 rows wide by 10 rows deep)
• 2 Landsknecht shot units each of 8 figures

The French infantry will also start the game disordered.

• 4 units of French crossbow each of 16 figures
• 2 units of French pike each of 24 figures (4 rows wide by 6 rows deep)

The French Stradiots will start the game in good order as they are performing scouting duties on the French flank.

• 1 unit of Stradiots of 8 figures.

Terrain

The terrain for the Battle of Ariotta is relatively simple, we will be playing on a 5ft x 14 ft table.

The three key items of terrain are the small farming village of Ariotta, the woods and the marshes.

No fighting took place in the village of Ariotta, but it represented the left flank of the French army, so it is important that it is represented. I am in the process of building the village and I hope to have it finished for the February game. Here it is at the moment.

The next item of terrain will be the woods. These woods were used to obscure the advance of the main Swiss body. Key will be the distance between the artillery and the edge of the woods. I am to make this distance around 18-24 inches. This should give the Enfant Perdue a small chance of reaching the artillery.

The main item that will need to be included is the marsh area. I plan to make this by imbedding some static grass mats from Killing Fields terrain into their Teddy Bears mats. I will post some pictures of the marshes when I am done. The main tactical reason for the marshes will be that they limit the French Gendarmes (and other troops) to one move distance per turn (in Pike and Shotte rules, troops can potentially move up to three moves per turn) and they will not be able to claim the lance bonus when charging in the Marsh. These marshes will therefore limit the attacks on the Swiss pike block A as happened in the real battle.

The game

We plan to run the Battle of Ariotta in February. I still need to finish the terrain and to paint a few more figures. I have the Milanese knights, the Swiss Enfant Perdue and halbardiers and a unit of French crossbows still to Finish. Once we run the game I will post a full review. I am looking forward to this battle as it is not the usual type of game with two armies facing each other across the table. How the French respond to being attacked on all sides will be key. If they can decisively deploy their forces they should win. If they fail to take tactical control, they will be routed as occurred in 1513.