Landsknecht army, which miniatures do you use for cavalry?

[Christian Rosenkjær Andersen]

Greetings

I’m completely new to this, having only read the Pike & Shotte rules but never played yet. I’ve started painting an army of landsknechte, because I like the varied uniforms. Panting an entire army in the same colours does not motivate me in the same way.

As yet I have only the Foot, but looking at the liste from the Battle of Pavia in the book, the Horse includes Gendarmes, Reiters and so on. But which miniatures do people use for these? If Gendarmes are armoured knights, then maybe the War of the Roses line has something somewhat suitable, although these are earlier than the Italien Wars. For mounted arquebusiers it seems the 30 Years War line has something like that, but these are too late for my period.

I know Steel Fist minatures have some knights as well as mounted arquebusiers, has anybody used these?

[invisible officer]

Unfortunately not. The armor around 1525 was very different from the Rose war one, esp. the helmets.

 

But there is a warlord series that fits, the wars of religion gensdarmes. And the mtd. Arquebusuiers too.

[Charge The Guns]

I’m glad IO has some ideas as I am a bit hazy on this part of the period.  I know that for late 15th century some of the WotR figures will work, but by Pavia they will not be right.  Those Steel Fist Gendarmes do look glorious.  Not sure what part of the Italian Wars they work best for.

[Christian Rosenkjær Andersen]

I contacted Warlords customer service for another issue, and asked about this as well. The nice people pointed me towards the Wars of Religon Gendarmes and Mounted Arquebusiers as close enough to several of the entries on the Italian Wars army list in the P&S rulebook. They did pass my wich for more cavalry for this conflcit on to the studio…buggerit, I should have asked for more artillery as well 😉

[Peter]

I used Perry wars of the roses mounted knights and light cavalry. They may not be accurate but look the part and are relatively cheap.

[Sadurian Mike]

The horses from the Perry WotR range are great. You can use them with the optional plate barding or without, and it is relatively easy to add the distinctive ‘skirt’ sometimes seen on the heavy horse barding.

For the figures themselves, have a look at the Wargames Foundry range; “Pike and Shot: Early 16th Century Renaissance”. The human figures are good, a little stiff in pose but nice figures. I do not use the Foundry metal horses because they look too small for heavy cavalry, instead changing them for the Perry plastic horses. If you contact Foundry, they may be able to do you a deal on the riders alone – it never hurts to ask!

EDIT: I forgot to mention the most obvious choice! The Assault Group do a range of cavalry in their Renaissance ranges. You can buy them with or without the horses, so mounting the TAG figures onto Perry horses is easy.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Sadurian Mike.

[Axel Schudak]

The “Landsknechts” were by definition an infantry force only – nominally their artillery were not Landsknechts but a seperate part of the force.

Landsknechts were used in many forces – Pavia would be the Imperial army, then made up by the Spaniards (Colunella Infantry, Knights, artillery), Burgundians (Knights) and Germans (which mostly provided Landsknechts and artillery) and Italian allies. Many of the units, especially Gensdarmes (Knights) were mixed, and among the Landsknechts you could find anybody from Scots to the odd Black member, though the vast majority would be from German territory of the Empire. The cavalry of Imperial or German regional forces – when not paired with Gensdarmes paid from Imperial coffers – where often Reisige, which means anything beyond a fully armoured knight, and bands of knights, who were considered below the quality of French, Italians or Burgundians. They often came from impoverished nobles or the richer classes within the cities, and were as much on contract as Landsknechts.

Minis:

Fine miniatures for the Gensdarmes and Reisige come from Steel Fist, Wargamesfoundry, Eureka. The latter are a bit on the smallish side, but work well when within their own units – they are historically perfect to compensate. TAG has fine Spaniard and Italian Gensdarmes. Mounted arquebus or crossbow are available from Steelfist (though arquebus did fight Dragoon style, not shooting from horse).  The Perry plastics light cavalry are splendid, but a tad early for Landsknechts force after 1510. If you use them, mix heads.Their knights are – for a lack of armour development – actually better suited, but would need the typical skirts used by Gensdarmes of that era. Greenstuff and a bit of practice works. Steel Fist has fine heads that work well for characters on WG Landsknechts or Perry, and putting WGs head on Perrys cavalry makes them look quite in era.

BTW: Avoid crossbows for any type of foot and pistols for cavalry. The former were generally not used from 1500 (for Landsknechts), and the latter not before 1550.

BTW2: The Warlord Games Gensdarmes and Arquebus are splendid miniaturs in their own right (and I really love them), but I would not use them for an army before 1540 – at which time the fashion of the Landsknechts has developed away from the era the plastic and metal miniatures of WG represent (1510-1540 – the high time of the Italian wars and the defense of Vienna). Nobody will blame you if you use them together, of course, but that also holds true for Doughboys on the beaches of Normandy.

[skh25]

Warlord Wars of Religion for “Archers” Steel Fist, Foundry, Even Old Glory for Gendarmes

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