Swiss army done...for now

  Having painted the last of my pike units  I finally managed to finish painting my 10mm Swiss army. 

This lot.

This unit brings the force up to seven units. The rules I am using requires army's to be eight strong (Ancient and Medieval wargaming by Neil Thomas), however the Swiss have been so good at stomping the opposition even when understrength I think another unit would be a tad too much. I have a unit of hand gunners to make up the full force but they can wait for now.

In the rules the Swiss are allowed to double up their units of pikemen so I kept this in mind when basing the units. Here's the above unit combined with a unit I put together to be their rear ranks.

  So that's another project done and (almost) dusted. Cue the whole army photo.

'till next time...

Burgundian Ordonnance army done

  I managed a final push this afternoon to finish off the last two units for my 10mm Burgundian force. 

These two. These Gendarmes should finally give the army the punch they have been lacking. And with them done the army is now complete. Yay!. Here are some gratuitous army shots to show them off:

Repelling the Swiss!.

Speaking of finishing armies I only have a couple more units to do and the Swiss will also be done, then it's back to the greatest dilemma a Wargamer can ever wrestle with...What project do I do next?...I may have a couple of ideas...

...'till next time...

Even more pike!.

 Hi all, work continues on my 15th century Swiss, I have managed to get two more units of pikemen painted.

Two more done.

  As ever all the miniatures are 10mm Pendraken. In the rules they are based for (Ancient and medieval wargaming by Neil Thomas) all units are made up of four bases, however the Swiss are allowed to combine two units into one big eight base steamroller. I have deliberately based the pike units with this in mind to hopefully give the impression of a large mass of troops rather than two units bunged together.

 I have also bunged some extra banners on my completed units to make them look spiffy.

Just one more unit of pike to finish then a unit of hand gunners and the Swiss will be done...

...'till next time...

More late medieval tomfoolery

  I had a few pre-easter days off so managed to paint another Swiss pike block (and almost finished a second) in between watching far too much Trailer Park Boys, I even got another test game of this in:

 I decided to roughly link it to my last game, the plan being to play a very loose narrative campaign as I paint more units. In the last game the Swiss frankly mullered the Burgundians so this time I decided to put some slightly larger forces on the table to play a game where a hastily deployed Burgundian force have been tasked with slowing the Swiss advance to allow the main army to properly prepare to meet them. To that end a battlefield was prepared:

A field of battle, somewhere over the Burgundian border.  

 The basic idea was for the Burgundians to deploy on/ near the hill in the top of the picture, the Swiss would deploy opposite and must have more units over half strength than the opposition on the hill by the end of turn 5.

  Burgundians prepare to receive the Swiss (all minis are 10mm Pendraken).

Swiss pike form a strong center ( in the rules Swiss pike can 'double up' to create massive units).

Crossbows deployed on the hill on the Swiss left.

The final unit of pike march along the road on the right.

The battle begins with the Swiss advancing under heavy missile and artillery fire.

The Burgundians prepare to unleash another volley...

...Badly as it turned out!.

The Artillery take a heavy toll on the opposition as the Swiss close.

On the road the forces finally clash.

Which goes badly for the Burgundians.

In the centre the Swiss steamroller the Burgundian pike at the foot of the hill.

On the road the Swiss brush the opposing enemy aside and continue on.

The view from the Burgundian lines.

The final assault on the hill begins.

With just the archers left the Swiss move to the foot of the hill but it's too late!. The game ends with one unit each on the hill so a (very) narrow victory for the Burgundians!. They have done what they were ordered to do and slowed the Swiss enough to allow for a proper defence to be organised... although they would not live to see it.

The final positions at the end of the game.

Hopefully I will have some more painted units to show off soon meaning I will have an excuse for another game!. Yay!....

...'till next time...