Cossack dismounted cavalry – latest painted figures

Since my last post about two or three weeks ago, I have been painting some more cossacks to get the army closer to completion. The painting was focused on completing a couple of artillery pieces and doing the cossack dismounted cavalry. I have now painted virtually all of the cossack figures that I have, so I also placed and order with The Assault Group for two cossack peasant hordes and some Gulay Gorods (walking fort sections).

All of the figures painted over the last two weeks.

The cossacks will have a number of artillery pieces. Each of the ten war wagons has a small cannon attached. However, I also wanted some larger artillery pieces. The cossack artillery was typically made up of captured Polish ordinance. I therefore decided to use two of the SteelFist artillery pieces that I had recently bought – these come with two barrels, a French barrel and an Imperial barrel. I selected the Imperial barrels.

SteelFist guns with TAG figures

For the artillery crew I used TAG figures. I still need to decorate the bases a bit more with a selection of grass tufts. I may also add a few wooden barrels and miscellaneous items to the scene.

The second artillery piece

The cannons were painted with brass barrels and natural steel trim using Vallejo paints. The brass was washed with a Vallejo sepia wash and the natural steel was washed with a black wash. I also used the black wash on the end of the barrel and around the firing port. I then used three different rust colored powders on the steel parts, but only very lightly as I wanted the guns to be weathered but still in good condition.

The cavalry units of the cossacks often fought dismounted as they were no match for the more organized Polish cavalry. My groups of cossack cavalry are each made up of two skirmish bases of four figures each for a total of eight figures. For shot infantry I typically represent small units by eight figures and standard units with twelve figures. I decided to represent the cossack dismounted cavalry unit with a skirmish base of twelve figures. The eight mounted figures and twelve dismounted figures tend to look right on the table – the purist may ask how can you go from eight to twelve figures, but since they are never on the table at the same time, I don’t think that it is a problem.

Horse-holders behind the dismounted cavalry.

Behind each unit of cossack dismounted cavalry I have placed a horse-holder base with three horses. I had intended to use one horse-holder base behind each group of twelve infantry to indicate that they are the dismounted cavalry. After seeing how they look, I now plan to have two such bases behind each unit. I have placed an order with TAG to get the extra horses and figures.

Horse-holder

I am looking forward to the arrival of my new order from TAG. I plan to paint two peasant horde groups each with about 30 figures. These peasants will be armed with a mixture of farm implements. I hope to have the cossack army completed sometime in September, I will then move on to the Polish army to finish the project.

Cossack Army of 1651

After completing the Tatar horde, I have the Cossack Army and the Polish Army to complete for my 1651 Cossack uprising project in 28mm. Over the past few weeks I have made some progress on the cossacks. I have completed all of the mounted figures, about 30% of the infantry and I have painted (but not based) the war wagons.

The cossacks that I have completed so far.

After some changes here is a list of cossack army forces that I plan to complete:

  • 10 war wagons
  • 4 units each of 12 foot figures of Register Moloitsy (these units have flags)
  • 4 units each of 12 foot figures of Moloitsy (these units will not have flags)
  • 2 units of 30 figures of cossack peasants
  • 4 units of 8 mounted figures of mounted cossacks
  • Each of the mounted cossacks will also have a dismounted figure and horse holders
  • 2 units of cossack artillery with captured Polish guns
  • Command bases

The above picture shows the war wagons that I bought from Redoubt Enterprises and the cossack flags that I bought from Adrians Walls. All of the figures are from the Assault Group cossack range. I still have to base the war wagons, but I was quite pleased with how they turned out. I have ten of them at the moment and this should be enough for a defensive Taber (I can alway add more later as they are very reasonably priced). On the basing I plan to chain some of them together and have some small earthworks in front. I used the artillery figures from TAG to man the war wagon small calibre cannons. The flags were assembled and I use some model war ship rigging rope to lash the cross beam onto the main staff. I actually used a needle to thread it around the pole.

Another view of the war wagons.

For the cavalry I have used two bases of four figures for each unit giving a total of eight figures per unit. There are a total of four units. As the cavalry often fought dismounted I will be painting some dismounted figures on skirmish bases to go with them. I also have some horse holder figures to place on the table when they are dismounted. These dismounted figures and the horse holders are the next units on my paint bench.

A view of the cavalry and some miscellaneous transport wagons.

For the infantry I will have three types of units. The best will be 12 man units of register Moloitsy. I will have four of these. I will also have four 12 man units of Moloitsy. The register Moloitsy will be distinguished from the Moloitsy by having a flag, otherwise they will be the same. At the moment I have painted three of each unit.

I also plan to have two 30 man units of peasant cossacks armed with farm implements. I plan to use TAG figures but to equip them with farm implements from Bicorne miniatures. I have ordered the farm implements and I will review them when they arrive.

Three units of register Moloitsy and three units of Moloitsy can be seen.

Below are a few more pictures of the cossack army of 1651. With mainly infantry and dismounted figures left to paint (about another 150 figures in total), I feel that I am about half way through the cossack army. With their Tatar allies, they should be quite a formidable force for the Polish Army to take on.

A close up of the war wagon with the Register Moloitsy behind.
Looking down the war wagon Taber.
An orthodox priest is in the ranks of the Moloitsy

Poles and Tatars.

During the Covid lock-down the painting of the lead pile continues with some work on the Poles and Tatars. I have finally finished the entire Tatar force of 98 figures. For the cossack uprising project I have also completed 24 Polish Pancerni.

First off here is a photo of the 3 units of 8 Pancerni. The figures are all from The Assault Group. I decided to keep them fairly uniform in contrast to the Cossacks and Tatars that they will be facing. I like the way that they turned out with all of the flags and pennants.

To accompany the Pancerni, I will be fielding a unit of winged hussars, a unit of Reiters, five units of noble levy and three to four units of Polish Cossacks.

The photo above shows the Pancerni facing off against the Tatar horde. They are a little outnumbered at the moment so I hope to get some more figures painted over the coming weeks.

The next photo shows the size of the Tatar horde. It took me quite a while to paint this entire Tatar army. The figures are Steppe Nobles from Aventine Miniatures and the horses are from the Assault Group. I will now be taking a short break from painting Poles and Tatars and moving on to paint some mounted and foot cossacks, hopefully the war wagons will arrive soon.

The Tatar figures are quite versatile. I am also using them as Huns in a small 450AD army that I have put together (280 points in Hail Caesar rules). During lock-down I also completed a couple of Frank War-bands and a small group of archers to support them. The Franks are all from War-games Foundry. It is nice to have an ancients army without having to do to much work over and above the painting of the Tatars that I did for the Cossack uprising project. I plan to take on a club member’s late period Roman army once normal gaming resumes.

By Fire and Sword – Players Edition. First thoughts

Earlier this month my copy of By Fire and Sword – Player’s Edition arrived. The rule book was $20.00 plus $9.75 shipping from Wargamer LLC. The shipping cost seemed a little excessive given the size of the book.

The reason why I ordered the Player’s Edition is that I wanted to explore the rules without spending too much. The Task Force rule book is $40. I am also aware that there is an older rule book that includes the army lists that sold for even more. As the army lists are all on-line and can be obtained in a free pdf from the Polish website, the Players Edition seemed a good low cost way to see if I liked the rules. The one thing that is not clear is whether the Players Edition and the Task Force rule book are the same set of rules or not. It would be great if someone could let me know.

The rules are written to cover the period that I am interested in, the cossack uprising in the 1650s. In fact the creators say that it focuses on the Polish battles between 1640 and 1676, so a perfect fit for me.

Firstly I want to give some details on what I am looking for in a set of rules for the period. I plan to play battles with over 1,000 figures of 28mm. I also plan to host these at the local club where we can often have 8-12 people wanting to join in. Normally I have 2-3 people who have a working knowledge of the rules but do not play a set of rules regularly. The rest of the players pick the rules up as we are playing. I therefore need a set of rules that give a flavor of the period, but are also reasonably fast play and easy to pick up. The mantra of Lou in our club is that a good set of rules needs to be Fast, Fun and give a Flavor of the period (the three Fs)

For this reason I have been a fan of the Pike and Shotte rules for my Italian Wars battles. My first thought of rules for this Cossack Uprising period was also to use Pike and Shotte with a few custom rules for the period (such as some to allow Cossack War Wagon defenses). However, I wanted to have a look at By Fire and Sword to see if it was a good alternative or, at the very least, provide a basis for some custom rules for Pike and Shotte.

Before I delve into the rules themselves, I need to get perhaps my largest criticism out of the way first. The font, type size, line and word spacing are just terrible for me. Here is an image of one page of both Pike and Shotte and By Fire and Sword.

The Pike and Shotte page is on the left and the By Fire and Sword Page is on the right. The Pike and Shotte rules are well laid out, spaced and easy to read. I have found it all but impossible to read the By Fire and Sword without glasses and even with glasses it can become difficult when my eyes become tired. Also, maybe because of the translation from Polish to English, reading the rules can become hard work and difficult to understand what they are getting at. I have read the war wagon rules five times and I am still not entirely sure of what they mean. For this reason I am interested to know if the Task Force book is the same rules but in a larger format to make it easier to read.

Having got this initial criticism out of the way, I can say that the rules are worth giving some time to. I should note that I have not yet played a full game with them at the club, but I have been through them a number of times at home. My opinion may change a little after a club game.

The rules were written for the writers own range of 15mm figures based on their standard bases. All of the distances and ranges are in cm. To use my 28mm figures I plan to just convert the cm to inches and I think that everything will work just fine. I also think that as long as the bases of each army are roughly the same, there should be no problem for a friendly club game.

The first thing that I like about the game is the Initiative and Orders concept that they use. The overall commander and the commander of each regiment (and possibly a subordinate) are given a number of command points. This is often 3-4 for the overall commander or 2-3 for a regimental commander. It can be less for less well commanded troops like levy cavalry. These points can be used for a number of different command activities like issuing orders, rallying troops, modifying the skill or morale of troops, or delaying shooting. A commander can also pass down any command points that he does not plan to use to a lower level commander. The commander can also assign a number of command points to improve his die roll when trying to get initiative at the start of the turn. These command points ensure that a commander and his subordinates can focus their time and attention on critical areas of the battle. I believe that the way the command points are used will have an outcome over how the battle develops and who ultimately wins.

The orders are also well thought out. You can assign troops a move, charge or defense order. The type of order that a unit is given effects how it performs in various stages of a turn. For example a unit with defense orders can fire earlier in the turn and has certain shooting advantages. One particular rule that I like is that a unit with a Defense order can delay its fire to any point in the turn with the expenditure of a command point. This simulates an officer controlling the fire until the optimum time.

The movement section seems a little more complicated than the free movement of Pike and Shotte and consists of movement and maneuvers. Personally I don’t think that this complexity adds much to the game. I believe that it is aimed more to the tournament type of play that the rules were undoubtedly written for. For a club game I think that they will just slow things down.

The firing and combat sections of the game are very similar to Pike and Shotte. You take a certain number of D10 depending on the troop shooting value and the number of bases/troops. You then modify the dice role by a small number of factors to see if you can role under the skill value of the unit to hit. The one minor point here that I dislike is that rolling low is a good thing – it is very counterintuitive and I generally don’t like rules that work in this way. One interesting rule is that hits at long range have to be re-rolled to hit, I think that this is clever way of handling the effect of range. However, it could probably be handled more quickly by adding a factor to adjust the die roll.

Like Pike and Shotte, units that are hit get a save. The unit has to roll under its armor value to save. Again rolling low is better. The one thing that I don’t like on this armor save is that it has to be modified by the effectiveness of the weapon firing at you. Any time that you have to ask your opponent for information to be included in your roll it tends to slow the game down. Pike and Shotte does not have this problem.

Figures bought from the rule writer are typically based three figures to a base. Casualties are recorded by a combination of markers and removing bases from play. One or two casualties are indicated by a marker with the third casualty causing the removal of a base. A unit is typically three or four bases each of three figures. Using the combat system in the rules may require units to be mounted in a similar manner. As my figures are individually mounted, this basing would not be an issue other than requiring some new movement trays. However, as I will discuss later, I probably won’t be taking this step.

The combat resolution is similar to Pike and Shotte where the casualties suffered by each side are compared and then adjusted by a few modifiers to see who wins. The loser needs to test morale. Speaking of morale, there are a few circumstance which will lead to a unit needing to take a moral test. To take a morale test the units morale value is modified by a few factors and then the player needs to roll under the morale value on a D10. Again a low die role is good. A commander can spend command points to improve the chance of a unit passing. There are three morale levels each with their own consequences – good, disorganized or flight. Losing a morale test drops the unit one level, losing by a lot can drop the morale two levels. Rallying back to a good level from disorganized or flight level is done by spending command points and carrying out a new morale test.

There are rules for the army motivation to see when an army breaks, although I don’t plan on going into detail on those rules here.

There are also, like Pike and Shotte, a number of special rules that allow troops and armies to be customized to act like their real life counterpart. These custom rules are very good to represent this period and I may be using modified versions of some of them in my Pike and Shotte games.

Overall, there are a lot of things to like in the By Fire and Sword rules. I particularly like the command points and orders concepts. When I look at the movement, firing, combat and morale sections, there is nothing inherently wrong with the rules. They are similar to Pike and Shotte, but (in the words of Rick and Morty) just with more steps.

I think that the By Fire and Sword rules have sacrificed some playability to make them more suitable for tournament play. There is nothing wrong with this approach, it just is not tailored to club or convention day games that I like to play.

What I will probably try to do is take the command points and orders systems and integrate them into Pike and Shotte – where the command and control systems do not give me exactly what I am looking for. By adopting this approach, I won’t need to base my figures to be compatible with the rules. I will also be using some of the relative unit stats to craft some stats for the Cossack Uprising as well as incorporating some of the special rules for units and armies. The organization charts on-line are also an invaluable resource. Overall I think that the $20 was well spent and I would advise anyone looking at the period to consider reading them. By Fire and Sword is certainly interesting and some of the ideas will allow me to introduce greater period flavor into my games.

Pancerni cossacks of the Polish army.

Having just finished my Tatars (100 mounted figures), I have started to move on to Pancerni cossacks of the Polish army. The Polish cavalry will consist of three units of Pancerni, one unit of Winged Hussars, one unit of German style Reiters and five units of Noble Levy. The first unit on the block is a unit of the Pancerni.

The figures for the Pancerni are from the Assault Group. I plan to have seven figures with a lance in each group plus one figure from the command pack, to give a unit of eight figures. This means that one unit will have a drummer, one unit will have a trumpeter and the final unit will have an officer.

I decided to contrast the rag-tag nature of my cossacks, tatars and noble levy cavalry with a more uniform look to my Pancerni and winged Hussars. I therefore painted all of the figures in a very similar manner, even down to using the same decals on the saddle cloth. The decals were from Veni Vidi Vici and are their 28mm white Maltese cross decals, which make a very nice rendition of the Polish style cross. I was not expecting the decals to turn out as well as they did, but I really think that they make the unit. I have now ordered a pack of the same decals but in 15mm, so that I can use them on the banner below the trumpet on the trumpeter.

The flags and pennants were from Battle Flag. I used flags from their 28mm Polish range. I brought several packs of their pennant flags so that I can have a slightly different pennant on each group of Pancerni and Winged Hussars.

Overall I am reasonably happy with how the Pancerni cossacks of the Polish army turned out and I am looking forward to painting the next two units of them. However, ten minutes ago the postman arrived with my 8 Winged Hussars from Warlord Games. These Winged Hussars may just jump the queue.

Khmelnytsky Cossack Uprising of 1648

I have been painting my Italian Wars project for the best part of two years. I still have a number of units that I am in the process of painting for the Battle of Bicocca, but I decided that I need to work on one of my other projects to keep me sane during the quarantine. The project that I chose was the Khmelnytsky Cossack Uprising of 1648 and in particular, the 1651 Battle of Berestechko.

In this post I will give an overview of the scope of the project and show some photos of some of the first units off the paint bench. The main protagonists of the Khmelnytsky Cossack Uprising were the Zaporozhian Cossacks, with their Tatar allies against the Polish forces.

The first units off my paint bench will represent the Tatars. I have chosen the figures as they are typical Steppe cavalry and will be able to be used in games to represent anything from 400 AD Huns, Tatars allying with the Ottoman Empire in the 16th Century, to Tatar in the Khmelnytsky Uprising. When representing early Tatar, I will eventually add some Tatar flags and when representing 17th Century Tatar, I will eventually add a few muskets.

So far I have painted 56 of these Steppe Cavalry figures. Here are a few photos of the growing horde.

The figures are Aventine Miniatures Steppe Cavalry. When I chose the figures I bought some samples from Footsore, Gripping Beast and Aventine. My personal preference was for the Aventine figures as they came with a lot of attachments to personalize the figures. However, the Aventine horses did not suit my personal tastes, so I decided to use horses from the Assault Group. Luckily Aventine sell the riders without horses and The Assault Group sell the horses without riders. The Aventine figures fit perfectly on the Assault Group horses.

My plan for the Battle of Berestechko is to have the following figures:

Polish:

1 Group of 8 winged Hussars

3 Groups of 8 Pancerni

10 Groups of 8 Noble Levy Cavalry (Pospolite Riszenie)

2 Groups of 16 Haiduk Infantry

Cossack/Tatars

12 Groups of 8 Mounted Tatars

5 Groups of 8 Mounted Cossacks

4 Groups of 24 Cossack Infantry.

For the Pancerni, Haiduks and cossacks I will be using figures from the Assault Group. For the Winged Hussars I will using Warlord figures. This leaves the large group of Polish levy noble cavalry which no-one makes in 28mm. For this figures I plan to use a mixed selection from the Assault Group ranges. I will use a combination of Cossacks, Hungarian light Hussars, Hungarian light horse and Ottoman Akinjis. The reason for the selection is that some of these nobles would have worn clothing similar to the cossacks, but their style was also influenced by the Hungarians and Ottomans of the period often with feathers in their hats. this mixture should allow me to represent the levy noble cavalry.

I will also need some wagons for both sides to make the defended positions.

Next up on the paint bench are 40 mounted cossacks.

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.

Battle of Novara (Ariotta) – After action report

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:

Two units of Swiss “Enfant Perdue” in skirmish order emerge from the woods.

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.

A view from the French side of the Enfant Perdue exiting the woods to start the battle. The marsh can be seen to the right.

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.

The deployment of the French facing towards Novara, expecting the Swiss advance from the front.
A closer view of the French. Note the disorder markers near the French to simulate the surprise of the Swiss attack. These would be removed at the end of the French first turn (although the elite Gendarmes could roll it off at the start of the turn).
The French camp behind the Gendarmes

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

A view of the whole table. Note the small unit of Stradiots covering the French flank. The Stradiots were on guard duty so they were not disordered to start the game.
The French showing the commander labels.

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 most bloody engagement of the game.

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 marching unopposed on the French flank.
Lou celebrating the victory over the Landsknechts and Pete pondering what could have been if he had received support from the French.

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 Swiss pike block set their pikes to receive the Gendarmes and prepared for a bad day.

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.

The final view before the French Gendarmes decided to leave the field of battle.

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.

The Italian Wars in 28mm, a growing collection.

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.

The current collection
A closer view of some of the Swiss and Landsknecht pike blocks

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.