The War of the League of Aspico, Episode 2 - King of Rome, Pope of the Hill

After their Nibeunese allies got beaten at the Battle of Piadda, there was pressure on Papal general Lodovico da Montelupo, to force decisive action. With peace looming, the League of Aspico needed a victory to bring to the bargaining table.

Opportunity presented itself when, encouraged by their Fransican allies' easy victory, the Republic of Fradice launched an attak on the Lomagna, without any clear strategic intention other than the good old 'pillage what you can, burn what you can't' method.

The two armies met at Monte Piombo on the common border. Montelupo was wise enough to send a scouting force of two gendarme units and occupy the ruling height. Otherwise, the deployment of the two armies mirrored each other: both had three gendarme, two pike block and one arquebusier unit.

The War of the League of Aspico, Episode 1

The army of the Kingdom of Fransica has crossed the Northern Alps to the Italian Peninsula. They formed an alliance with the Republic of Fradicine and are ready to start a war. 

Their opponents are the League of Aspico, comprising the northwestern Italian states under the Alliance of Nibeuno, and the Papal State to the south.

The Fransicans, with a well equipped army, advanced into Nibeunese territory. The opposing army had trouble paying their Swiss mercenaries, which meant a limited deployment. King Robert VIII (nicknamed Le Puant) had met the enemy at the border river of Piadda, and was determined to crush them once and for all.

Battle of Pavia - 500th Anniversary Refight

Last afternoon (technically one day before the anniversary of the battle) we refought the Battle of Pavia, to commemorate its five hundreth anniversary, using my homemade unit blocks, makeshift terrain and a modified version of One Hour Wargames. My wife commanded the French and I the Imperialists.

You can view the locations and initial dispositions on the map above, we are at the early morning hours when the Imperial arquebusiers are already occupying Mirabello castle and the pike blocks had deployed on the near side of the walls of the Visconti park.

The Second Batch of Steel Fist Knights

Finished four more Renaissance lance-armed knights produced by Steel Fist Miniatures. They are excellent sculpts and painted up well.

First unit for the Italian Wars

This is sort of a refurbishment, as I had these four Perry men-at-arms from a previous collection, most of which I sold. All they needed was a new base and some touching up, including a layer of clearcoat.

They will join the Imperialist forces in the Italian Wars, being just a little bit out of date for the latter part of the conflict.

I have a large Italian Wars project in mind, with about 450 figures per side, with 120x120mm pike bases and 120x60mm for everything else - these are the first few to test the concept.

More Italian Wars

A few more 6mm figures march off the painting desk in orderly formation. All of them are H&R Italian Wars stuff. 

Tiny Landsknechts Episode One

Just a quick situation report from Random&Creativeland: I have received the large(ish) order of Renaissance figures from Heroics and Ros and started painting away. I'm still amazed how quickly and effectively a 6mm force can be completed. 

I based the figures on not very traditional 50x35mm bases, which will suffice for Pikeman's Lament and most homebrews - the 60x30mm version does not have enough depth for the lowered pikes or multiple ranks.