Italian lance spezzate Great Italian Wars 53

 So not that long ago I hosted and played a couple of great Italian wars games, Fornova and Agnadello, I resolved that I needed more Italian pike and a unit is primed, some way down the painting queue and also some heavy cavalry that were more Italian and less gendarme like. Now, when I say recently, a quick look at the blog reveals it was April 2024, so not too bad, in the meantime I was gifted a pile of second hand assembled and black primed mounted plastic perry later knights by Des who realised that there weren't that many cavalry in the war of the roses, I gratefully accepted them! I had to add swords to them and swap a few heads but all good and mixed in was some metal Perry command, so with a little clean up , swords ,additional priming and with the addition of a few more riders I now had 32 mounted later knights, four units.

I have then  the first of my lance spezzate, profesional heavy cavalry employed by the Venetian state, mounted on 45mm x 60mm bases and as usual eight to a unit, I've gone for some in darker armour, which seems correct, judging by contempary art and helps to break up all that shiny steel colour, less elaborate than full on gendarmes but still later knight heavy cavalry, with flags from Petes flags, lovely things in their own right!

I picked up a couple of Helion books on the great Italian wars, their wargaming guide which was really rather good , nice to have Stuarts guide to painting landscknechts in print as well. The other book was the second in their great Italian wars, Agnadello etc both good and cheap on Amazon ( he admits,guiltily!) The chaps here were inspired ( loosely!) by the illustrations in that book.

 Three more of these units and a couple of archer cavalry (another kind of heavy cavalry) on the way in and around continuing Napoleonics and occasional dark age Late Roman types I guess?

All the best 

Iain

Another Valour and Fortitude AAR Napoleonics 88

 We had another go with Valour and Fortitude,we are really enjoying these rules and it helps that were playing it enough to get pretty fast at it . Des came up with an AI scenario based on what we had, without any historical context to be honest but it gave a good game. We had three brigades apiece, I had one with French line and some artillery, a confederation of the Rhine brigade and a brigade with an Italian infantry unit and two light cavalry units. Des had a British brigade, an Austrian brigade and a Portuguese brigade and we decided to fight down the length if the board. I finally got to use my recently completed German farm as an objective, the other two objectives were shared between us, a bridge near my deployment zone and a hill near Des's deployment zone, clearly the struggle for the farm was going to be crucial. Des ended up as the aggressor so he had the first go and his Austrian brigade headed for the farm and occupied it in the next go.  There was a bit of feinting between the Austrian cavalry and the French hussars as neither side wanted to comit too soon as we have found out there isnt really a benefit in charging first, except if youre the aggressor you win a tie. On the other side desolutary fire from each sides artillery caused occasional damage. I moved my French infantry up ready to assault the farmhouse.

With the first assault on the farm the Austrian unit was shaken but didnt have to take a Fortitude test In the next turn Des swapped out the shaken unit for a new unit, this time the confederation brigade was able to fire on the Austrian unit in the farm and inflict a casualty, this was important as the unit I now attacked with was fresh and so was hitting on 3s and the Austrians on 4s, the Austrians were ejected, and the unit routed.Id earlier played the same card Des had used in the last game which meant if I held this objective at the end it would be worth double points. Meanwhile Id decided to charge the Austrian chevauleger, even though their stats are much better than my hussars, I had brigade support from my supporting second unit of hussars, the Austrians had a unit of grenz in support, even though the odds were on Des's side I was lucky and he was shaken, he managed to fail his activation in the next in the next go, you need to roll a 2 or more on a d6, I interpenetrated my second unit of hussars they destroyed the chevaulegers, forced another Fortitude test which this time Des failed which gave him a defeat and meant the unit which had occupied the farm routed as they were shaken. I was able to rally my unit in the farm while Des tried to get his British brigade moving. With my remaining French infantry I attacked the Portugese in my final go, I wasnt successful but had a card which meant I didnt have to take a Valour test, on the other side the hussars were able to remove the grenz, the last Austrian unit left, Des failed his Fortitude test and aquired another defeat, plus one for losing the entire Austrian brigade. When we worked out the victory points it was 11 to 2, because he was sitting on an objective. I hadn't lost a unit but at the end my French infantry brigade were pretty much all shaken. Fun game, it was more difficult because we were fighting on the 4' width, I think Des was overly protective of his British but because of the narrow table and his tendancy to form line and wait for the French to attack meant the British saw no action and the Portugese very little, I only mounted the attack at the end because the game was over and I knew I couldnt lose with the card I had, if Id been a bit smarter at dispositions I could have limited the casualties from the Portugese muskets, still we both had fun and will be returning to this rule set. Well done if youve waded through my wall of text and photos!

All the best 

Iain

Historic buildings in Somerset

 Recently we had a break in Somerset and stayed in a corrugated shed near Glastonbury that had originaly been built for members of the womens land army in WW2, young women, often with no experience of agriculture who replaced the men who went to war and kept the UK fed until some years after the war, a fascinating bit of history, the shed is nicely dressed in period too, I should have got some photos, however the aim of this post is  to give me a reference of various medieval buildings and possible scratch building projects that I thought might be of interest to others? So once more no toy soldiers Im afraid!

We do have a castle though! Built in the French style by a veteran of the 100 years war Nunney castle was besieged and slighted by Parliament during the war of Three Kingdoms. I liked the sheds/ barns next to the castle too!

Angels from a medieval cassock and the kitchen from Glastonbury Abbey, great gargoyles!

The ruins of the abbey, every window or doorway is decorated in a slightly different manner, a very atmospheric ruin!

St Patricks chapel, a medieval building still standing at the abbey would make a nice sized scratch build?

The tower on the top of Glastonbury tor and the abbeys tithe barn.

The bishops palace at Wells , complete with crenelated walls and gatehouse, I love the mixed facade with windows ,all different , all over the place by the waters edge, there was a bit of a siege of sorts, just before the civil war with the maquis of Hertford hiding behind the somewhat insubstantial walls.      ( really just built for show) from the Somerset parliamentarian mob! I think a small bishops palace would be a lovely project? It would make a nice medieval urban kind of secular structure too?

Wells cathedral, really impressive, especially the stone truss work that had to be added when the tower went on top, it looks surprisingly space age to me, I like the stained glass made up of bits that were smashed out as being too catholic after the reformation, during the civil war I think? Instead we end up with abstract stained glass! The facade, one of the largest collection of medieval sculpture in the world , made me think, you could do a basic structure in foamboard and then cut out a load of arches and use various redundant figures... but thankfully Ive mostly talked myself out of doing a 28mm compatable medieval cathedral! Nice town, I mean city, quaintly in England if you have a cathedral then you have to be in a city, so wells in spite of being the size of a small town is a city and towns that are bigger than most cities arent!

Vicars close for the choral vicars, the oldest continualy inhabited street in Europe, more nice secular medieval architeccture.

A couple of other medieval buildings in Wells.

Lytes Cary , a late medieval manor house, again, could be a nice little build?

The barn that goes with it, a barn would definately be nice?

Lots of inspiration for terrain projects.

Next up, back to toy soldiers!

All the best

 Iain