TYW: Imperialist Catholic League infantry
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June 26, 2018 at 7:00 am #139648DavidParticipant
First few units of infantry for a TYW project.
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June 26, 2018 at 7:02 am #139652DavidParticipantJune 26, 2018 at 3:11 pm #139716Rough RiderParticipantGreat stuff!Nice crisp painting and good looking basing.
June 27, 2018 at 5:36 am #139783CorsoParticipantVery nice painting – well done!
I suggest you get hold of an imperialist infantry box – it includes broad-brimmed hats, ‘birnhelm’ helmets, 4 metal armoured pikemen and an armoured officer, besides more infantry.
June 27, 2018 at 6:25 am #139785DavidParticipantThank you Rough Rider and Corso!
Corso, I have the equivalent of nine regiment boxes so I don’t have a huge need for more atm 😉 But I was thinking about getting one of the 12 pack metal pikemen and one set of 8 metal musketeers to “beef up” my units and add variety.
I’m keeping it fairly generic, these minis will have to represent most participants in the TYW, barring the stand with flag.June 27, 2018 at 6:48 am #139786Charge The GunsParticipantThose are great looking units, David. The Emperor would be proud of them! 🙂
I agree that some more armoured pikemen would be great additions.
June 28, 2018 at 5:29 am #139874invisible officerParticipantLovely painted ones.
Basing Imperials can be tricky, they often fought in Tercio (that was not old fashioned but worked until end of century) so one should prepare that Option.
June 28, 2018 at 6:24 am #139877DavidParticipantThank you Charge the Guns and Invisible Officer!
With our figure to man ratio a proper tercio would be 100-150 miniatures 😀
The imperialist/catholic league where fighting in dutch style quite early, some even say the giant 25+ rank spanish tercio was nerver seen during the TYW.June 28, 2018 at 9:32 am #139898invisible officerParticipantYou find the no longer Tercio statements often in modern books but a closer look into the contemporary German letters and texts by men on spot show that it is just half true. It was a mix of different formations.
The Imperialists used a modern form of “tercio” (a word that in Spanish originally means no special formation but just a third of the force – and allready in 1650 again just Regiment. With comtemporary men writing about a Tercio in tercio formation)
For example 1626 at Dessauer Elbbrücke Wallenstein had his men still 10 deep. Musketeers forming wings / sleeves but not with pikemen in these.
Even as late as 1648 the attack at Prague was done by a column formed by change from a “tercio” formation that had all pikemen together. Changing into storm column with all pikes at the front, followed by the shot. And no wings / hedges of musketeers.
It’s funny that modern authors ignore the contemporary textbooks that are written by soldiers. Not all old veterans but a lot still serving men.
So the 1625 Kriegsregeln by Meltzo. His formation is not as deep as the 16th century but still shows bastions of musketeers.One can call the formations at Breitenfeld 1631 “tercios” or one might even state that the Spanish at Rocroi are no longer true “tercios”. Both is true and wrong. Tactic was fluent.
Does a “tercio” need four bastions of musketeers to be called so? No, many had just two wings and a small hegde in front.The Lützen discussion about Imperial tercio or no tercio formation was caused by the dogmatic view that a tercio has to be as deep as wide.
That was not the case there. But the infantry acted like a tercio. Pikes in centre and the Muskets around.The Swedish Brigade Formation with 1/3 placed before the “line” of the rest was not the tactical non plus ultra. In the last years of TYW it was rarely seen on continent.
But looks great like your top photo.
June 28, 2018 at 9:50 am #139901DavidParticipantAgree with you fully Invisible Officer, thanks for you additon. When I write “proper tercio” above I’m referencing the practice of forming pike with as many ranks as files etc. I understand the the term was continued to be used almost synonyms to ‘regiment’?
Yes, the first picture illustrates my attempt to show a “Swedish brigade” ~1630-1632. I could perhaps add one or two rota of musketeers in the center.
When it comes to playing Pike & Shotte, I’m fine with deploying a pike center with sleeves of musketeers, roughly 1:2 ratio 🙂
June 28, 2018 at 12:03 pm #139907invisible officerParticipantExactly. It is even used today for the Spanish Legion that was formed 1920 as Tercio de Extranjeros / Tercio of the foreigners. The official name today is Legión Española but many Spaniards still say The tercio.
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We tend to think that Imperials had more pikes than others but that is not true. It was sometimes very different.
Duke Adolph of Holstein’s regiment was raised in 1626 and formed 7 companies instead of the usual 15. It was very active in the campaigns. Serving in the storm of Magdeburg and Actions like Breitenfeld.
We have an exact list from the march through Stettin in November 1627 . There it had 1361 musketeers, 327 pikemen and 897 women.So you have enough pikes. But never enough miniatures. 😉
July 25, 2018 at 9:49 pm #141990DavidParticipantVery nicely done!
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