College of Kings

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.

In the Pike and Shotte rules, if cavalry charge a pike block that is not either disordered or already in combat, they will loose all charge bonuses and the pike unit will get double the number of attack dice.

These rules make it a very bad proposition for Cavalry to charge a pike block. These rules work reasonably well for playing two armies of combined arms (cavalry, infantry and artillery). They also work where there are many smaller pike blocks. However, when playing an historical battle such as Novara, Marignano and Bicocca, where one side is mainly composed of large Swiss pike blocks, the question of how to use the Gendarmes always comes up. Often the Gendarmes are left hanging around, not daring to take on the Swiss pikes.

My perspective on this issue was changed when I read the book L’Ultima Battaglia del Medioevo (La Battaglia Dell’Ariotta, Novara 6 Giugno 1513), by Mario Troso. On Page 88 of the book he states that “the French cavalry could attack a pike square only if it was in motion, while standing, however, the pike are ready to fix the base of the pike to the ground so that the spikes are projected against the chest of the horses, so that a charge would be disastrous”. He has a picture showing a pikeman bracing his pike on the ground with one foot against the pike (picture F5).

I have also read that a moving pike block could not easily change direction to face a cavalry charge from the flank.

So the question that I was faced with is how I could adjust the Pike and Shotte rules to replicate some of the cavalry charges against pike blocks that occurred at battles such as Ariotta and Marignano. In this blog post I aim to describe some of the additional rules that I plan to use at our next club game which will be the 1513 battle of Ariotta, Novara.

The aim of the rule changes is to allow the Gendarmes to force the Swiss pikes to set up in stationary formation. This move would allow the French cannon to attack the Swiss and prevent the Swiss from attacking the French and Landschnekt foot units. In the battle, only when the Gendarmes retreated in the face of threats to their rear, were the Swiss finally able to get to grips with the main Landschnekt pike block.

The changes that I plan to make to the rules are quite simple and are based around charges and charge responses:

1. If a pike block did not move in the previous turn, any cavalry charge will loose all charge bonuses and the pike block will get double the number of attack dice (unless the pike block is disordered, shaken or already engaged in combat). i.e. no change to the original rules. The pike block can turn to face the cavalry.
2. If a cavalry unit is within one move of a pike block (front, flank or rear), and the pike block moved in the previous turn, then the cavalry can charge the pike block with full charge bonuses. The pike block will not get any increase in attack dice.
3. If a cavalry unit is within two moves of the front of a pike block and the pike block moved in the previous turn, the cavalry can attempt to charge the pike block (they will need to get a command roll that allows two moves). As a charge reaction the pike block can attempt to set the pikes to receive the charge by rolling a command roll. If the pike block completes this charge reaction and sets the pikes, the cavalry commander can either complete the charge (with loss of charge bonuses and double the pike attack dice), or pull up 6″ short.
4. If a cavalry unit is within three moves of the front of a pike block and the pike block moved in a previous turn, the cavalry can attempt to charge the pike block (they will need to get a command roll that allows three moves). The pike block will have sufficient time to set the pikes (they do not need to take a command roll but can do this move automatically). If the pike block sets the pikes, the cavalry commander can either complete the charge (with loss of charge bonuses and double the pike attack dice), or pull up 6″ short.
5. If a cavalry unit is within two moves of the flank or rear of a pike block, and the pike block moved in the previous turn, then the cavalry can attempt to charge the pike block with full charge bonuses (they will need to get a command roll that allows two moves). The pike block will not get any increase in attack dice. The pike block can turn to face the charge but will not have time to set the pikes.
6. If a cavalry unit is within three moves of the flank or rear of a pike block and the pike block moved in the previous turn, the cavalry can attempt to charge the pike block (they will need to get a command roll that allows three moves). As a charge reaction the pike block can attempt to turn to face the charge and set the pikes to receive the charge by rolling a command roll. If the pike block completes this charge reaction and sets the pikes, the cavalry commander can either complete the charge (with loss of charge bonuses and double the pike attack dice), or pull up 6″ short. If the pike block does not complete the charge reaction, they can still turn to face the cavalry but will not have the pikes set.

These rule changes can allow the cavalry to fix the pike block in place; if the pike block decides to move it will run the risk of being charged by the cavalry. A fixed pike block can be attacked by artillery (or shot) as happened at Ariotta.

The rule changes initially sound a bit complex, but are in fact quite simple. They limit the movement of pike blocks when cavalry are in the vicinity. These rule changes make the interaction between cavalry and pike close to my perception of what occurred historically. For example at Marignano, the French Gendarmes made repeated charges against the flanks of the Swiss Pikes. At the battle of Ariotta (Novara), the French Gendarmes fixed the largest Swiss Pike block in place allowing the French artillery to inflict heavy casualties. In the unmodified Pike and Shotte rules, neither of these situations could be accurately represented in a game. Hopefully these rule changes allow some of the historical battles to be played more realistically.

I will need to play test the rules further to make sure that there are no unintended consequences and that pike movement is not completely eliminated. However, I think that as long as cavalry are not within one move of the front of a pike block (and the pikes do not have cavalry to the flank or rear), then it should not prevent movement. If there are cavalry close to the front of the pike Block, then the pikes need to take them seriously.

La Battaglia dell’Ariotta, is is the first book review that I have done for my blog. About a month ago I ordered the book L’Ultima Battaglia del Medioevo, La Battaglia dell’Ariotta, Novara 6 Guigno 1513 by Mario Troso.

I became aware of the book when I was researching the Battle of Novara for an upcoming game that I am planning for the club’s game day. I visited the website of Societa Storica Novarese , the historical society of Novrese. On this website I discovered that the battle of Novara actually occurred near a small hamlet called Ariotta. This differs from most accounts that I have read in English books such as Oman, that reports that the battle occurred around the town of Trecate, which is about 8km east of Ariotta.

Now, I don’t consider myself an historical scholar, but I feel that information provided by the historical society of Novrese at least has to be taken seriously. This lead me to search on Google for “La Battaglia Dell’Ariotta” and to my surprise a number of Italian books came up. The one that most interested me was the book by Mario Troso. He has his own website here.

I actually found a copy on eBay and purchased the book for around 60 Euro including shipping to the United States (you may able to find it cheaper elsewhere as the cover price is 24 Euro). It seemed a little expensive, but the promise of a different perspective of the battle on the 6th June 1513 lured me in.

The book arrived within a week and when I opened the package what I found was by far the best book purchase that I have made on the Italian Wars. The 60 Euros was a distant memory. The book is absolutely beautifully presented with 127 glossy pages. The book is littered with maps, photographs and pictures. Troop movements and unit organizations are shown on clear maps. Everything that a Wargamer could ever need to recreate the battle of Novara (or as I now refer to it, the Battle of Ariotta), is included in this book. I cannot recommend it enough.

I understand that many readers may be put off that the book is in Italian, but please don’t let that daunt you. My Italian is only at a very basic level and to fully comprehend all of the value in this book you do need to be able to read the text. But we are now living in an age where technology can help you – I download the Google Translate app to my phone. With this app, you point the camera at a page in the book, take a picture of the page and the app then instantly translates the text into English. It really is instantaneous – not even a few seconds. While the translation may not be 100% perfect, it does make the text easily understandable. Now a whole new range of Italian books on the Italian Wars is open to me. The app is so easy to use, I think that anyone could use it to read foreign language texts within a few minutes.

Being able to read the texts allowed me to understand the sections on the events leading up to the battle, the description of the battle and the tactics used in the battle. One item that was particularly interesting was how pike blocks defended against cavalry. I had always wondered how cavalry could counter pike blocks and this book answered many of my questions. I will be going into detail on this subject in an upcoming blog post and showing how I have introduced some simple house rules for Pike and Shotte to accurately portray my new understanding.

The book also completely revised my understanding of the troop formations, deployments, movement and tactics at the battle. The recount of the battle of Ariotta in this book is completely different than the description given by Oman. It is as if they are talking about two different battles. I personally am more inclined to believe the account given by Mario Troso in this book. You are welcome to make your own choice on which account to believe. But looking on the positive side, I could replay both versions as a game, which gives me an extra battle to play with my figures – a wargaming win-win.

I would love to post some pictures of the maps and other items from the inside of the book just to show you how well the book is put together, but I want to respect the authors ownership of the material. What I can do is fully recommend this book, La Battaglia dell’Ariotta, if you are considering refighting the battle of Ariotta.

I was probably like most Italian Wars figure gamers when it came to choosing Flags for Swiss Pike blocks. I ordered a sheet of 12 flags from Pete’s Flags off eBay and when they arrived, I quickly put the ones that I liked the most onto my pike blocks. Depending upon the size of the pike blocks, they had between three and six flags each. Initially I was not worried whether the flags that I was using would go together historically.

As a follow up to my recent instruction video on attaching flags to a 28mm Swiss Pike Block, I decided to do a bit of research on the subject. I want to stress that this research is ongoing and this blog post will evolve as I get more information. I am not claiming that everything is totally correct, but it is my current understanding of Swiss flags. It would be great to hear from anyone that has better information.

The Swiss Cantons

I wanted to start my research with an understanding of the Swiss Cantons during the Italian Wars period. At this time there were thirteen cantons in the old Swiss Confederacy. Five of the cantons were rural cantons and eight of the cantons were urban cantons. The distinction between rural and urban cantons is important and will be covered later.

The rural cantons were: Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus and Appenzell.

The urban cantons were: Zurich, Bern, Luzern, Zug, Basel, Fribourg, Solothurn (often called Soleure) and Schaffhausen.

Three of these canons, Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden were the founders of the original Swiss Confederacy in the late 13th century and often marched together in battle.

The above flag sheet from Pete’s flags includes at least eleven of the thirteen cantons. I have managed to identify the flags as follows:

• Row 1: Bern (left), Schaffhausen (right).
• Row 2: Thun, town in Bern canton (left), Zug (right)
• Row 3: Appenzell (left), Schwyz (right)
• Row 4: Basel (left), Uri (right)
• Row 5: Unterwalden (left), Zurich (right)
• Row 6: Solothurn (left), Glarus (right)

The sheet does not include Luzern and Fribourg.

Allies of the Swiss Confederacy.

There were a number of Allies of the Swiss Confederacy. In the period of the Italian Wars they were independent territories or alliances, but today they have joined Switzerland and have the designation of canton. There are three of these allies that I will discuss. In many cases these allies provided troops to the Swiss Confederacy and in some cases actually sent troops to Italy independently.

Grisons

In 1471 the League of ten jurisdictions, the League of Gods house and the Grey League joined together to form the Grey League (Grisons). The area that they occupy is to the East of the Swiss confederacy with the Republic of Venice to the South. Grisons became a canton in 1803. Due to the frequency of Grisons troops fighting in the Italian Wars, I will be adding some Grisons flags to my collection.

Valais

Valais is to the South West of the Swiss confederacy. To its North is Fribourg and Bern and to the South is the Duchy of Milan. Valais became a canton in 1815.

St. Gallen

St. Gallen is North of Appenzell. St. Gallen became a canton in 1803.

The battles with Swiss pike blocks.

Seminara (1495)

800 Swiss troops were deployed in a three deep pike line. At the moment I have no details on which cantons provided the troops although they were led by Tambien Chandieu.

Fornovo (1495)

3000 Swiss troops were deployed in a single pike block. At the moment I have no details on which cantons provided the troops.

Cerignola (1503)

Swiss troops were deployed. At the moment I have no details on which cantons provided the troops.

Garigliano (1503)

8000 Swiss troops were deployed. At the moment I have no details on which cantons provided the troops.

Agnadello (1509)

In 1499 King Louis of France had made an agreement with the Swiss confederacy that allowed him to recruit whenever he needed men. In 1509 this agreement was coming to an end. Due to some resentment towards the French, the confederacy declined to provide troops for the campaign. Louis turned to the Grisons to provide 6,000 pike troops. It is reported that these troops were less cohesive and less disciplined than the bands previously provided by the cantons. In my games I decrease the effectiveness of these “Swiss” pike blocks.

(reference: Mallet and Shaw Pg. 88/89)

Novara (Ariotta) (1513)

According to Oman, the Swiss were split into three units. The largest unit had 7,000 troops and was directed against the Landschnekts. According to Oman commanders from Bern, Zurich and Unterwalden were lost in fighting the Landschnekts, so it can be inferred that at least these three cantons were part of the large pike block. The other two pike blocks are listed as containing 1,000 and 2,000 troops.

(reference: Oman Pg 159.)

However, according to Mario Torso (La Battaglia dell’Ariotta), a source which I am more inclined to believe than Oman, the battle was launched by forces from Basel, Bern, Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Zug, Fribourg, Solothurn, Schaffhausen, Valais and Unterwalden.

Forces from Bern, Fribourg and Valias had arrived from the cantons via the Simplon pass. Forces from Basel, Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Solothurn and Zug had arrived via the San Gotthard pass.

The forces of Schaffhausen, Zurich, Glarus, Appenzell and St. Gallen had taken the San Bernardino pass and only the lead elements of the Schaffhausen troops arrived in time for the battle. This would seem to contradict Oman in relation to the Zurich canton being represented at the battle (although it is possible that some troops from Zurich were part of the Novara garrison).

(reference: Mario Troso. La Battaglia Dell’Ariotta PG 62, note 112 and Pg 74, note 149).

Mario Troso states that there were three pike blocks, one of 6,000 troops, one of 3,000 troops and one of 1,000 troops. There are no details of which troops were in each of the pike blocks.

Marignano (1515)

It was reported that Bern, Fribourg, Solothurn and Valais troops left for home shortly before the battle, so these cantons should not be represented at the battle of Marignano. These troops were essentially bribed by the French to leave.

There were three large pike blocks at this battle of 10,000, 10,000 and 8,000 troops.

The left pike block was composed of troops from Lucerne, Schaffhausen, and Basel.

The main battle consisted of troops from the old cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. It also included Zug and some Grisons.

The right pike block consisted of Zurich and the eastern cantons of Appenzell and Glarus as well troops from St.Gallen.

(reference: Oman pg 68. footnote, pg 163. and pg 169. footnote)

Bicocca (1522)

At this battle there were two pike blocks each of 8,000 troops. One pike block was composed of troops from the rural cantons (Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus and Appenzell. It also included the allies of Valais and Grisons) and the other pike block was composed of troops from the urban cantons (Zurich, Bern, Luzern, Zug, Basel, Fribourg, Solothurn and Schaffhausen). I have not found out which pike block was on the left and which pike block was on the right.

There are reports that the rural cantons and urban cantons raced into battle in competition with each other.

(reference: Oman Pg 68/69)

Pavia (1525)

At this battle there were Swiss 5000 troops. On February 20th, four days before the battle of Pavia, the 6,000 troops of the Grisons marched back to the Valtelline area. This move was because Sforza’s Milanese troops had captured the castle town of Chiavenna which controlled the main route from the Grisons to Italy. The Grisons troops wanted to protect their boarders. While this information does not shed light on which Swiss troops were at the battle of Pavia, it is certain that the Grisons were not at Pavia.

(ref. Oman Pg 196/197)

On the famous picture of the Battle of Pavia at the Royal Armory, there is a group of the Swiss contingent portrayed. They are shown carrying two flags, a blue French flag with three Fleur-de-lis and a yellow flag with an image of a whole black bull. Although the flag of Uri is a black bull’s head on a yellow flag, I would suggest that the flag on the picture could be a variation of the Uri canton flag.

(ref. Royal Armouries Picture of Battle of Pavia)

Other flags

It is my understanding that when the whole Swiss Confederacy went to war, such as at Novara and Marignano, only Swiss flags were used.

When the Swiss provided troops to another nation such as at Bicocca, then the pike block would also fly flags of the nation that was paying them (note that I have not yet added any French flags to my Bicocca pike blocks in the photos above, I have a number of French flags on order so they will be added in the next month or two).

In addition to the canton flags, a pike block would also fly flags of some of the Swiss cities that had provided troops. In my pike blocks I do have some of these city flags, such as the flags Lorraine and Thun when I use the troops from the Bern canton or the flag of Greyers when I use troops from the Fribourg canton.

Conclusion on Flags for Swiss Pike blocks

Hopefully this article has given you some information on Flags for Swiss Pike blocks. There are some historical records that show which cantons fought in which pike block at some of the Italian wars battles. My research is limited at this stage, but I plan to add to this blog post as I find new information.

I plan to us the appropriate Canton (and city) flags for a pike block where I have historical information. Where I don’t have historical information I will at least keep the three old cantons in the same pike block. I may also have another pike block dominated by Bern and its cities, as Bern often had enough troops to form its own block. In those battles where the Swiss served another nation, I will also add one or two flags of that nation keeping the design of the nation flag as nondescript as possible (such as a simple French cross).

There is an advantage in mounting figures on individual bases and using a movement tray for the pike block; it allows me to swap out flags for a particular battle. This will mean that I don’t have to have the flags of the traitorous Bern canton when I refight Marignano – not that anyone at our club game would comment.

Here is a short video showing how to add flags to a 28mm Swiss pike block. The video shows how I added five flags from Pete’s Flags to a 100 figure 28mm Swiss Pike block. The video includes cutting, gluing, shaping and finishing the flag to give a natural look. The whole project of adding five flags took about thirty minutes. The complexity level is low and can be carried out by a novice.

In my next blog post I will be looking at the flags of different Swiss cantons, cities and regions and how to mix these flags within a pike block to give a realistic appearance. I will be looking at the mix of flags for different historical battles from the Italian Wars in the period of 1496 – 1525.

In this blog post I will discuss some of the simple changes that I make to the Pike and Shotte hedgehog rule to make it more relevant to the Italian Wars.

Images of pike blocks

Many images of Italian Wars pike blocks show large pike blocks with either crossbows or arquebusiers along the flanks of the pike block or at the front of the pike block. As in the picture below of Pavia, from the Royal Armouries Collection, the pike blocks in these images are often moving.

Pike and Shotte hedgehog rule

My main issue with the way Pike and Shotte handles shot units in a “hedgehog” with pike blocks is that the resulting hedgehog is considered immobile. This lack of movement even extends to when a pike block looses a battle and would otherwise be pushed back in a break test. The way that the rules handle the hedgehog may be more appropriate to later periods that are covered by the rules, but they do not cover my understanding of the Italian Wars. I have therefore implemented a few minor changes to the hedgehog rules for our club Italian Wars games, these are:

1. Pike blocks in a hedgehog can move like normal pike blocks.
2. Pike blocks in a hedgehog can retire when losing a break test.
3. Up to two small shot units can withdraw into a pike block.
4. Up to one standard shot unit can withdraw into a pike block.
5. When in a hedgehog a pike block still has flanks and a rear, just like a normal pike block.
6. When in a hedgehog a pike block can still be supported, just like a normal pike block.
7. A pike block in a hedgehog receives a +2 combat result bonus versus cavalry, just like a normal pike block. [The +3 modifier is eliminated].

All of the other hedgehog rules are the same including how casualties from shot or melee are allocated amongst the various units in the hedgehog.

In short, most of the changes that I have made mean that the hedgehog unit is treated the same as a standard pike block. Movement is the same, it performs the same against cavalry and can be supported in battle the same.

To represent a unit in a hedgehog with a pike block, I just move the base of the unit in contact with the pike block. Normally the shot unit is just moved to the rear of the pike block like in the photo above, but it could be moved to the side depending upon the situation.

The other rule affecting all pike blocks that I change is the one for Cavalry Charges Against Pike. The rule penalizes the Cavalry and doubles the combat dice for the pike unless the pike block is already engaged in combat or is disordered. I also add “shaken” to list.

This Saturday we rolled out the battle of Garigliano 1503 at our local club’s game day. We incorporated a lot of the game improvements that we identified during our initial play-test.

One of the main changes from the initial Garigliano 1503 game was to swap the positions of the Spanish and the Papal troops. The Papal troops moved to the left, allowing their knights to engage the French Gendarmes. This left the Spanish on the right, giving the Jinetes the flank and allowing the firepower of the Colunelas to be brought against the Swiss. The Spanish were also given two extra Colunelas to give them a chance against the Swiss.

Another change was to add an Italian sword unit and a couple of small Landschnekt shot units to the Spanish forces near the bridge. This was to give them a chance of capturing the bridge.

The final change in the deployments was not to have all four units of French Gendarmes and the four units of French Archers to start on the table, as in the test game, they quickly swept aside everything in front of them. In this game we had one unit of Gendarmes and one unit of Archers enter on turn one from the road to Trajetto. A further unit of Gendarmes and Archers entered from the road on Turns 2, 3 and 4. The Gendarmes and Archers can be seen on the table edge waiting to be deployed in the photo below.

The extra Spanish units near the bridge, along with putting one of the club’s aggressive attacking players in charge of these units, paid dividends. The attack on the bridge was launched in Turn 1. This contrasted with the play test, where the units near the bridge just sat behind their defenses.

The initial unit of French Gendarmes and Archers rode out to meet the rapidly advancing Papal Knights. With the delayed deployment of the French horse, the Papal units would have the initial numerical advantage. Due to some terrible die rolling a unit of French Gendarmes was quickly routed (double 1s on a break test). This Cavalry battle would go back and forth throughout the game with fresh troops feeding the fight.

On the French left, things were slow to develop. The Spanish Jinetes advance quickly and started to throw spears into the Swiss Pike block who took up defensive positions.

The Spanish Colunelas slowly advanced to engage the Swiss pike, but were a little too cautious.

Over near the bridge, the Landschnekts had finally advanced through the mud between the Spanish and French field defense (this mud limited them to a maximum move of one move per turn no matter what the command roll). The Landschnekts then managed to cross the defenses and engage the French defenders. Sensing the crisis at the bridge, the French commander diverted his household Gendarmes (Probably the best unit on the table) to support the bridgehead. This meant that the household Gendarmes could not support the attack against the Papal Knights, but things seemed to be going well for the rest of the French Gendarmerie even without the Household Gendarmes.

The French Gendarmes forced the remaining Papal Knights to retreat in good order to prevent the French forces coming around behind the Spanish.

The fighting between the Swiss and the Spanish was becoming bogged down. The arquebusiers were crowding the area preventing the Colunelas from charging the Swiss.

The French Black Band Landschnekts advance between Castleforte and the River Garigliano to support the Gendarmes. One of the Papal pike blocks charged in to fill the gap and met the Landschnekts. They just lost the resulting combat, but then unfortunately rolled low on their break test and routed off the table.

At the bridge the French Household Gendarmes turned the tide of the battle. They attacked one of the Landschnekt pike blocks along with the remaining French Pike block. The second Landschnekt pike block charged in, causing casualties to the French. Unfortunately they could not save the first Landschnekt pike block. Again due to some bad rolling on the part of the Spanish team, both of the Landschnekt pike blocks decided to leave the field of battle. With this lost, the Spanish dreams of capturing the bridge were over.

The French Gendarmes then charged into the remaining Papal Knights in the hopes of breaking the Spanish line and allowing the Gendarmes and Stradiots to get into the rear of the Spanish Colunelas.

With the risk to their rear and the forward momentum being almost zero, the bulk of the Spanish colunelas, Jinetes and Knights decided that the day could not be won. They then decided to retreat in good order off the table.

The Spanish again had not managed to achieve the historical result of routing the French at the Battle of Garigliano 1503. Although this game was a lot closer than the initial play test.

I would not try and force an historical result by adding more Spanish forces as in the real battle the French did have more troops. Overall, I was happy with the changes that we made as a result of the play test. Changing the deployments and controlling the rate at which the Gendarmes entered was both historically accurate and made the battle more balanced.

I may play the game again later in the year between a couple of friends. If I do, I don’t think I would change anything about the scenario. I think to be more effective, the Spanish colunelas need to be much more aggressive in dealing with the Swiss. They have greater firepower and cavalry support. I think that if they were more aggressive, they could quickly roll up the Swiss; this would leave them in a great position to threaten the French camp and move towards Trajetto.

At the bridge, I think that the Spanish have a very real chance of capturing the bridge. Only some very unlucky die rolling prevented their success. So in conclusion I think that the Spanish have a chance of victory if they are aggressive.

Overall I was very happy with how our replay of the Battle of Garigliano 1503 worked out. We had eight people playing (only 2 that had played Pike and Shotte before). They game moved at a fair pace and was over in about four hours. I would like to thank all of those that joined in; everyone seemed to have a good time.

For now I plan to move onto the 1515 battle of Marignano. I need to paint up another 200 Swiss pike to give me enough for 3 one hundred figure pike blocks. I am hoping to have this painting complete by the end of the year ready for a club game in January. It will be my first time with pike blocks this large.

So once the armies are assembled and the terrain is constructed it is time to get down to gaming. I use the Pike and Shotte rules for my Italian Wars games and there are a few useful items that make the game go easier. In this short blog post I will list the tools that I use.

1. Unit data sheets.

In a recent blog I posted the unit data sheets that I use for a game. Having a copy of the data sheets for each player, with the special rules on the bottom, really reduces the need for players to thumb through the rule book mid-game. It also helps new players easily see how there units compare to other units on the table. To make these data sheets sturdy, I bought a laminator from an office supply store for about $35 dollars. This was a great investment and all of my data sheets are now laminated and can be used for game after game.

2. Dice box

For my terrain I use terrain mats by killing fields terrain. I think that these terrain mats look great and allow figures to move easily across them. However, they are not great for rolling dice on. In addition, I don’t really like people throwing dice into my freshly painted troops. The solution was to make a dice box for each player. I went down the local craft supply store and found boxes for $5 each. I then spray painted them in either blue or red and then glued a cheap piece of felt in the bottom. These boxes work great. I will probably add a motif or flag to the front of the boxes in the future.

3. Measuring stick

It took me a while to realize, but every distance in Pike and Shotte is a multiple of 3″. This applies to ranges, moving distances and command distances. I therefore bought some balsa sticks and painted them every three inches to make simple measuring sticks. These cheap, light weight measuring sticks work really well and put a stop to the clumsy player dropping an industrial weight tape measure right on top of your newly painted Swiss pike block. If someone drops one of these very light weight measuring sticks it is unlikely to do any damage to figures.

4. Casualty markers

I came across some custom casualty markers from warbases.co.uk. These markers are there 30mm diameter Style 2 bases and cost 67 pence each.

When I received the pdf markers I painted the top white and the sides bronze. This took me a couple of minutes for each marker. I then bought some clear decal paper off eBay and printed some custom flag decals on my standard desktop printer. Once I had sealed the decals, I put them onto the casualty markers and sprayed them with Testers Dullcote. In an afternoon I had 60-70 markers. Each unit now had a marker with a flag showing the nationality of the unit.

You can hide the markers by painting them green or sticking a casualty figure on them. However, I took a different view. I am trying to have a lot of flags on my units to increase the color and spectacle of the table. These markers are in fitting with that concept and I like the look.

5. Other markers

Pike and Shotte needs some way of showing if a unit is Shaken, Disordered or Winning (a melee). I again went with warbases.co.uk. They make custom pdf tokens with your wording for 25 pence each.

I think that these tokens look both elegant and discrete and don’t detract from the game. At the price they are also a bargain.

These are the items that I use to make the game easy to play while also not distracting from the appearance of the game. All of the items were quick and cheap to make, and some of them even aim to protect the figures.

For now I have played Pike and Shotte with two sized pike blocks. The standard pike block is 24 figures (4 wide and 6 deep). The large pike block is 36 figures (6 wide and 6 deep). In 28mm these give some impressive looking units on the table. The rules very successfully handle the increased effectiveness of these sized units with extra attack dice and stamina for the larger units. The larger units can also recover from disorder by adding a casualty.

At a figure scale of 50:1 these would mean the standard pike blocks represent about 1000 – 1200 men and the large pike blocks represent 1500 – 2000 men.

Historical pike block sizes

So where is the problem? If we look at the Italian wars, there were some exceptionally large pike blocks employed, particularly by the Swiss and Landschnekts. While there is some debate in the literature of the exact number of men at each battle, the following numbers show how large the pike blocks could be:

• At Marignano, the Black Band Landschnekts had 6,000 men deployed in two pike blocks giving about 3,000 men per pike block.
• Also at Marignano, the Swiss had a minimum of 15,000 men (the sources vary considerably on this number with some saying up to 28,000 men). These men were deployed in three pike blocks giving about 5,000 men per pike block.
• At Bicocca, the Swiss had 16,000 men in two pike blocks, giving about 8,000 men per pike block.
• At Ravenna, the Landschnekts had 9,500 men in one pike block.

Representing large pike blocks on the table

Now everyone who plays the Italian Wars loves flags, gendarmes and large pike blocks. So how can I resist representing some of these large blocks on the table. I already have three Swiss pike blocks each of 36 figures. These figures are individually mounted on 20mm x 20mm magnetic bases and deployed on movement trays to form a 6 x 6 pike block, so I have plenty of opportunity to rebase on movement trays for different battles.

So naturally I have started to look at playing Marignano as my next battle, which would mean deploying three pike blocks of 5,000 men each; at a scale of 50:1 this would mean pike blocks of 100 figures each. I would therefore need to increase my three 36 figure Swiss pike blocks to three 100 figure pike blocks – so I ordered an extra 200 figures. I also contacted Litko. the company that I purchase my movement trays from; their standard movement trays are not this big, but James from Litko (who is always exceptionally helpful), custom designed the larger movement trays for me.

While I was ordering these movement trays I also ordered others for the different sized pike blocks, using the 50:1 figure ratio throughout:

• The 3,000 men blocks are 64 figures in an 8 x 8 block
• The 5,000 men blocks are 100 figures in a 10 x 10 block
• The 8,000 men blocks are 144 figures in a 12 x 12 block
• The 9,500 men blocks are 196 figures in a 14 x 14 block

I have to say that I am looking forward to have three 100 figures Swiss pike blocks on the table at Marignano or a 196 figure Landschnekt pike block at Ravenna.

Large pike blocks in Pike and Shotte

It is one thing painting a deploying a large pike block, it is another making it function within the Pike and Shotte rules. The two main factors that I need to account for are the Hand to Hand dice and the Stamina.

Hand to Hand dice

I already have large Swiss and Landschnekt pike blocks of 36 figures (6 wide and 6 deep) on my unit tables. These have 9 hand to hand dice and 6 stamina. As all of the super sized pike blocks are Swiss or Landschnekt, I decided to use these figures as a starting point.

I then decided that it was not the total number of men in the pike block that contributed to the hand to hand dice, rather it was the number of men in the front few rows. That means that the fighting value of a pike block is proportional to its width. A six figure wide block has a hand to hand value of 9, or 1.5 per man. Using this ratio, I calculated the hand to hand value of a 64 figure pike block – the block is 8 figures wide x 1.5 = 12 hand to hand value.

Similarly for 100 figure pike block you would get a 15 hand to hand value and so on for increasingly large blocks.

This calculation therefore gives us the hand to hand value for each pike block. The only modification I have needed to make is that on some occasions not all of the front row of the large pike block will be in contact with an opposing unit. If a 100 figure pike block is in contact with a standard pike block of 24 figures (4 wide, 6 deep), I allow only figures directly in contact plus a one figure overlap on each side to fight. So only 6 figures would be able to fight out of the ten. This would allow the 100 figure pike block to use 9 (6 figures x 1.5) hand to hand dice out of its maximum of 15.

Stamina

The stamina of a unit is proportional to the number of men in the unit. So if a 36 figure pike block has a stamina of 6, a 64 figure pike block would have a stamina of 6 x 64 / 36 which rounding down is 10.

Likewise a 196 figure pike block would have a stamina of 6 x 196 / 36 which rounding down is 32.

As you can see, these pike blocks can take a lot of casualties. The table below summarizes my current plans for handling large units.

Break tests

The only other modification that I have found that I need is to the break test rules. I want to avoid the situation where a 196 figure pike block encounters a standard pike block and due to some poor dice rolls, looses a round of combat by one casualty. The 196 figure pike block would then be required to take a break test and if they roll double 1s, they would rout off the board with only one casualty. This situation seemed unrealistic to me.

I am hoping to solve this situation by using a special rule that any pike block of 8 x 8 or larger does not need to take a break test until its casualties reach half of its stamina level.

Conclusion

Hopefully some of these thoughts on big pike blocks encourage others to give them a try. I would be interested in any comments of feedback on how other people handle them in the Pike and Shotte rules.