Still plugging away.

 Its been a while since I posted on my renaissance blog, and thats purely because I have been spending my time painting ACW figures. I have however also been plodding away painting up 1/32 plastic medievals for a hoped for Lion Rampant game sometime next year. Hardly renaissance but near as damn it.

 Painting plastic is a whole different ball game as regards preparation and well, actually painting them. I have enjoyed the experience though.As one can see I now have a few infantry, well actually over 60, but I still need to do some foot archers and then some knights which have been harder to source. I only hope the game is worth the effort.

 I havent given up on my renaissance armies, and I can assure anyone that I have a large number? still left to paint, including two French Wars of religion armies.

Royalist Foot.

 Well Ive completed my first battaille, for the French Royalist forces, only another five or so to go, not counting the cavalry of course. John suggested a great idea regarding basing the pike, which I am keen to use on the next block. As he correctly pointed out, that for Baroque rules, my two pike blocks are actually one unit, so would look better if each base when they came together was based more towards the middle of each base to give it a better look. Probably not explained too well, but I know what I mean.

 The French Wars of Religion were still a period where pike and shot were separate entities, especially on the Huguenot side, where they fielded large musket units. As I have said before, they will look better once I get some standards on the units.

French Wars of Religion Pike.

  I intend to use the new Baroque rules for my War of Religion project, as I have found them a great set of rules that capture the feel of late renaissance period really well. Who says I'm anti European?

 This is the first base of a two base pike regiment, containing a mix of figures from the old Citidal range and the new Warlord range. They are fairly compatible. The pike were again supplied by that most excellent wargamer Jason Williams who sent me a number [ large ] of pre painted pike which I have touched up. Again they will look far better when they receive their standards, which I hope Pete from Pete's Flags will supply when he stops doing his distracting day job.
  I'm not certain how the Royal Swiss were dressed during this period, but it was well documented that they were the best pike armed troops on both sides of the war, hence the Huguenot reliance on arquebus and musket armed infantry. Its a start anyway.  

                                   

French Wars of Religion, Reiters.

 I have mentioned the extreme kindness and generosity of fellow renaissance wargamer, Jason Williams before, and this unit of Reiters is an example of his kindness. Jason sent me this unit of painted but unwanted reiters some time ago, and I have finally got around to re painting them and re basing them for the Baroque rules. They are brutes and really capture the period.

 The actual figures are from Redoubt Miniatures, a company that I have rarely used, but having now seen them in the flesh I will be buying more. The French Wars of Religion armies were predominantly cavalry based, so there will be a need for a lot of these brutes.

 This regiment are for the Royalist side, simply because Pete of Pete's Flags is creating the Royalist standards first, [ no pressure there Pete] A start anyway, with a fair way to travel, and thanks again Jason for your generosity.

Battle of Agnadello 14th May 1509, King Louis strikes terror in the Venetians..

Battle of Agnadello 14th May 1509.

Well today John and I fought the renaissance Battle of Agnadello, between the Venetians and the French led by King Louis XII.

 We fought it using the Pike and Shotte rules which we both enjoy.

Below are the orders of battle for both forces.

 When I set the game up, I was a bit concerned that it seemed too small a game by our standards, but to be honest it turned out to be a good size for a day game.

 I was also concerned that the French were too outnumbered, well I was very wrong on that score as the commentary will show, because basically my Venetians were slaughtered, as in real life, [ well I think my defeat was worse from a numbers point of view.]

 The Count of Pitigliano leading his invincible Venetian heavy cavalry, well that was until they met Louis and his bodyguard.

Using the Peter Sides booklet Renaissance Battles volume one, the Venetians were positioned on the slopes of some vineyards, in front of their position was a long dry riverbed, which was classed as  difficult terrain. Not exactly good terrain for a battle of this era, but fine if one wanted to fight a defensive battle, which I didnt.
 For a change the generalship on both sides was pretty mediocre, with all the commanders ending up as 7's. Sadly it didnt affect the French as much as it did my Venetians.

                                  
  The Duc d'Alviano [ level 7] sat on top of the hill with his bodyguard, during the battle he took an age to get his troops to actually move.

Background;
 Louis XII King of France was a consignee of the League of Cambri an alliance created to punish the Republic of Venice. He personally led an invading army made up of approximately 20,000 men.
Included in this army was 6000 dreaded Swiss .
The Venetians led by the Count of Pitigliano attempted to manoeuvre the French away from the republic and took up a position on vine clad hills. The French ignored this threat and marched towards the city of Rivolta, which drew the Venetians away from their defensive positions in pursuit. They then simply circled behind their pursuers in order to attack their rear.
The Venetians deploy first, the French move first.

French;   Louis XII.........Rash........7

Gendarmes d'Ordonnance............HvHrs.   Lance,   H/H 10  /  M 3+  / 4.  Heavy Cavalry D3 Elite 4+

Duke de'Amboise.............Dice for Generalship.

 Gendarmes d'Ordonnance............HvHrs.   Lance,   H/H 10  / M  3+  / 4.  Heavy Cavalry D3 Elite 4+

Gendarmes d'Ordonnance............HvHrs.   Lance,   H/H 10  / M  3+  / 4.  Heavy Cavalry D3 Elite 4+

French /Italian Light Horse...........Horse. Arquebus, sword,  H/H 7  / shooting value 1 /  M4+  /3.

Gascon Crossbow.....   Foot Battle Line.  Xbow.  H/H3,  2/ M 5+  /  3.

Gascon Crossbow.....   Foot Battle Line.  Xbow.  H/H3,  2/ M 5+  /  3.

Gascon Crossbow.....   Foot Battle Line.  Xbow.  H/H3,  2/ M 5+  /  3.

Gascon Crossbow.....   Foot Battle Line.  Xbow.  H/H3,  2/ M 5+  /  3.

Swiss Pike....Foot Pike Block. Pike. H/H7  / M4+  /  4 .   Hedgehog, Ferocious Charge, Elite.

Light Artillery Piece; H/H1  /3,2,1.  / M 5+  / 2.

Swiss Pike....Foot Pike Block. Pike. H/H7  / M4+  /  4 .   Hedgehog, Ferocious Charge, Elite.

Light Artillery Piece; H/H1  /3,2,1.  / M 5+  / 2.

Victory Conditions;

Must decisively defeat the Venetians, causing 2/3 of units to be shaken at any one time.

French move first.

Battle of Agnadello 14th May 1509.

Venetians....Count of Pitigliano....7  [cautious] ]

Bodyguard........HvHrs.   Lance,   H/H 8  / M  3+  / 4.  Heavy Cavalry 1 Elite 4+

Italian Men at Arms..........HvHrs.   Lance,   H/H 8  / M  3+  / 4.  Heavy Cavalry 1.

 Italian Men at Arms..........HvHrs.   Lance,   H/H 8  / M  3+  / 4.  Heavy Cavalry 1.

Italian Men at Arms..........HvHrs.   Lance,   H/H 8  / M  3+  / 4.  Heavy Cavalry 1.

Duke d'  Alviano...........Dice for Generalship.

Bodyguard........HvHrs.   Lance,   H/H 8  / M  3+  / 4.  Heavy Cavalry 1 Elite 4+

Stradiots:..Light Skirmish Horse,  H/H6   /  SV  1 /   M 5+   /  3.  Fire and Evade.

 Stradiots:..Light Skirmish Horse,  H/H6   /  SV  1 /   M 5+   /  3.  Fire and Evade. 

Stradiots:..Light Skirmish Horse,  H/H6   /  SV  1 /   M 5+   /  3.  Fire and Evade. 

Stradiots:..Light Skirmish Horse,  H/H6   /  SV  1 /   M 5+   /  3.  Fire and Evade.

Italian Pike;... Foot Pike Block. Pike. H/H6  / M4+  /  4 .   Hedgehog, Large Unit.

Italian Crossbow.....   Foot Battle Line.  Xbow.  H/H3,  2/ M 5+  /  3.

Italian Pike;... Foot Pike Block. Pike. H/H6  / M4+  /  4 .   Hedgehog, Large Unit.

Italian  Crossbow.....   Foot Battle Line.  Xbow.  H/H3,  2/ M 5+  /  3.

Italian Pike;... Foot Pike Block. Pike. H/H6  / M4+  /  4 .   Hedgehog, Large Unit.

Italian  Crossbow.....   Foot Battle Line.  Xbow.  H/H3,  2/ M 5+  /  3.

Italian Militia;.... Foot Battle Line.  Xbow.  H/H3,  2/ M 5+  /  3.

Italian Militia;.... Foot Battle Line.  Xbow.  H/H3,  2/ M 5+  /  3.

  

Romandiole Foot;... Foot Pike Block. Pike. H/H6  / M4+  /  4 .   Hedgehog.

Medium Artillery Piece; H/H1  /3,2,1.  / M 5+  / 2.

Medium Artillery Piece; H/H1  /3,2,1.  / M 5+  / 2.

Victory Conditions;

Must decisively defeat the French causing 1/2 of units to be shaken at any one time.

French move first.

 The Venetians had about 3000 stradiots in their army, that proved to be badly handled by me, never use them against large numbers of Gascon crossbowmen..

 I attempted to harass the French crossbowmen, but consistently lost the firefights.

 John had trouble moving most of his right wing, where Louis was in command, however using a 'follow me' order he attacked the Counts bodyguard. I expected a close fought fight, but took eight hits in their initial charge.

These are my saving throws. My gendarmes save on a four!

                                   Following the initial slaughter, this was my morale score!

 I had to take a reaction for my supporting cavalry, so what should have been a relatively easy throw resulted in the below!

 

By move five, a third unit of Venetian heavy cavalry was routing due to a mauling by Louis and his Gendarmes. So three quarters of my offensive cavalry was gone.

That damned King Louis laughing his metal pants off.

Not satisfied with mauling my heavy cavalry, Louis later linked back up with his bodyguard and attacked my disordered cross bowmen, that had advanced towards the Swiss. It didnt help that they were caught in the rear. They routed naturally.

Louis and his damned body guard, applied the coup de grace in the final move by charging the flank of my disordered and shaken large Italian pike block. These routed as well.

The Duke d' Alviano finally got his command to move after a lot of failures, unfortunately his cavalry was destroyed by the French artillery.

 The dreaded Swiss was very tardy in marching towards the enemy, and never came into contact with their Venetian counterparts, they didn't need to as they had routed by the time they got withing charge distance.

 So after a mere three hours of fighting I had 12 units classed as shaken or routing, and John had suffered a mere four shaken units. A very comprehensive defeat for me and a great lesson in avoiding the French Gendarmes led by their king, who virtually won the battle singlehanded.

The Battle of Agnadello 1509.

I thought I would give my French and Swiss a new opponent tomorrow, and have them face off against the Venetians at the Battle of Agnadello. Hopefully I will be able to give an account later this week.

A Start, on the Wars of Religion.

 Now that I am painting again after a break, [see my other blog re an explanation] I ave started painting some French Wars of Religion. This is the first completed arquebus unit, mainly from the Warlord range, plus some old Citidal figures thrown in for good measure. There are no standards yet, as I am hoping Pete, of Pete's Flags will come up trumps.

 The Warlord figures are a quite small and delicate, but to be honest I do like them. I should have some pike and reiters completed soon to show how things are progressing.

 I again received a couple of small parcels from that most excellent of wargamers, Jason Williams who gave me a couple of personalities originally used at the Wargames Holiday Centre.

 This chap makes a great commander for the Wars of Religion

  Jason sent me this Citidal herald, so I had to create a small command base to show him off. The herald is again from the Wargames Holiday Centre. The foot gendarme is a spare figure from one of my spare boxes.

Command figures.

 To get a feel for a period, I usually paint up a couple of command bases. This exercise tends to help me decide if I can carry on to paint up the respective armies. If I enjoyed painting up a couple of figures it usually means that I cn discipline myself to paint up various units.

 These two figures are from the old Citidal range now sold by Foundry, they are still good figures and were enjoyable to paint, so I will now begin hopefully in earnest to paint up some units.

 These chaps are figures I bought off Jim Sweeny and were originally in the collection of my long suffering wargames opponent John Reidy, 30 years plus and still lovely figures in my eyes.

A Source for the Wars of Religion.

 The French Wars of Religion are clearly not the most popular renaissance period for wargamers, but I have found a very good source of images for the period. Titled the Vinkhuijen Collection of Military Uniforms, the site contains a lot of what appear to be contemporary images from the period.