Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Landsknechts

I've been redeveloping some interest in my Willie Landsknechts.

I painted up a couple of them ages ago and rediscovered them only yesterday. I think I have the enthusiasm to paint some more when the current mini leadpile of Slovaks dries up over the next few days.

Whether this turns into an army or just an itch scratcher, I don't know. I do recall that Phil Olley had an army made from older GW figures which looked very nice and that's probably my primary inspiration. I would think that a couple of "regiments" and some of the David Wilson "Willie" Gens d'Armes would do as a minimum with some converted pikemen as artillerists. There were a couple of nice looking "Renaissance" guns in the Tradition range, too as I recall.

Now, apart from having the appropriate Osprey, I know nothing about them organisationally. Can one of the more learned members point me in the right direction as to what proportions of figures I ought to get? Pikes, arquebuses, halberds and great swords?

3 comments:

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said...

George Gush's book is available as a free ebook , not sure why, but its useful.

A lot depends on what you have in mind, a skirmish with a handful of troops or something larger. They were raised in companies of 100 or so but were grouped into regiments of several thousand. In larger groups the ratio was roughly between 10 -25% arquebus depending on how far into the 16thC you are, 10% two-handers and halberds and 65-80% pikemen. Most of the shot deployed as skirmishers but some formed with the pikes. Smaller detachments would have a higher ratio of shot & 2 handers than larger bodies.


Conrad Kinch said...

Pro GLoria miniatures on the Empress site might also be worth a look, they have some lovely stuff, particularly some Duhrer inspired vignettes.

http://www.empressminiatures.com/userimages/procart68.htm

Bloggerator said...

Thank-you Ross, Conrad.

I shall plan my purchases accordingly.

Greg