Thursday 15 March 2012

Renaissance Impetus: Substituting "Quantity" for "Quality"

My ferocious Landsknecht Maximilian Pike Block. The army list is circa that of the Great Italian Wars Supplement (upgrades). The Pike is only three ranks deep, it looks more as I have used the maximum number of figures (see below) becase I had them and I thought it looked impressive. The Pike are protected by two sleeves of "Trained" Harquebusiers to their flanks and a line Doppelsolders "Skirmish" but with Impact (3), to the front. The Doppelsolders job is to chase away enemy skirmishers with a fierce charge and clear the way fro the Pike to charge. The Pike Block is still the heart and soul of this Renaissance killing machine I call my own. I nominated the Pike Block to be where my General is. (It seemed a safe enough sort of place, what could go wrong? H does needs a special "representative" figure though).


To the left of the infantry mass is a screen of Crossbow "Skirmish" protecting my proud Burgundian Knights and to the far left my newest acquisition, the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", a unit of Light Horse, Mounted Crossbowmen (see below). Very pretty they looked too, we'll see how they perform, I have a theory regarding pretty painted units on a wargames table and "dice".


On a hill to the right of the Pike stands my "Big Cannon" (that old Games Workshop plastic classic and soon to have the Artillery based filed out with a second cannon, just to look good - no more combat dice). Next to it comes a ferocious unit of Germanic Men-At-Arms (MAA). They MAA have reasonable/respectable Impact and combat dice, but have great staying power being a "deep" unit (causalities transfer to the back and the front rank retains its "impetus" dice in combat). Flanking them to the right is a small band of merry Harquebusier armed "Skirmish", essentially the end of my line on the right flank (see below).


The Renaissance camp placed (nay hidden) behind the hill. Dubbed a mixture of saint and sinner. "Heaven" is nearest with a Monk and "Nun", contrasting with "Hell" and a Lady "G-Spot" figure that came from an old subscription to Wargames Illustrated when Duncan MacFarlane was running the show. This is another area where the appearance of the Renaissance army can be "improved" on. I plan to add drunks, harlots, casks of wine, surgeon's tent etc. I'll have to take a look at Redoubt Enterprises and Irregular Miniatures for some choice offerings.


Albeit via the Blackberry here is a close up of my current favorite Renaissance sons, the said "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" showing a certain eagerness to get forward (see below):   


Having said the above, I still have great affection for my Burgundian Knights in their blue and whites (nothing to do with football colours I may old). Trouble is that I always seem to throw them in too soon and they consequently get ground down rather than generate sweeping devastation (see below):


For all the dash of the Burgundian Knights you still have to admire or rather respect the staying power of the Germanic MAA and their deep formation (see below) as they keep going in stoic fashion: 


I hope you will sense that this Renaissance Band has bulked out with some more units, courtesy of successful painting tray action, and is slightly less stacked with powerful upgrades which previously restricted its frontage too much IMHO. As you might tell I have high hopes for this outing, will the fickle goddess of fate be kind on my martial endeavours?

5 comments:

Tim Gow said...

A very impressive looking army. And as Stalin said, "quantity has a quality of its own....."

Unknown said...

GReat army. I'm eagerly waiting to see it in battle

Darlo Big Battles said...

Interesting photos?

Shame there's none of the opposition?

Could this be bcause the Maximillians had their preverbials kicked by a bunch of cissy New Kingdom Egyptians (for whom the sentence quantity over quality has a whole new dimension!)

David (AKA Ramesses)

Darlo Big Battles said...

I've seen it in battle..
It looks Much better than it fights

8-)

David

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Hello Tim, who do need a certain girth of numbers especially if you are playing with 300 points to start with.

A better army is about the 500 points mark, where you have a certain balance and are not so brittle/easily outflanked

Sebastofig AAR coming, as for the Son of Pharaoh who dares leave scything such comments, may the sand wear your bones to dust and crows fest on your innards, also get a haircut and stop wearing those silly cotton dresses