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#10 • £3.55
THE MAGAZINE FOR THE DISCERNING WARGAMER
● WARHAMMER ANCIENT BATTLES FOR 15 MM ● DELENDA EST CARTHAGO!
THE SECOND PUNIC WAR FOR DBM (II) ● PLATE COLLECTION ●
DOSSIER: PAVIA 1525
● HOW TO PAINT MINIATURES
BASIC THEORY (I) ● AND MORE…
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03 Editorial 20 ingles
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Leader PUBLISHING COMPANY: Revistas Profesionales, S.L. www.revistasprofesionales.com c/ Valentín Beato, 42 - 3ª Planta ☎ +34 91 304 87 64 - Fax +34 91 327 13 03 28037 MADRID - SPAIN PUBLISHER: Agustín Buelta DIRECTOR: Antonio Rico -
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[email protected] PHOTOGRAPHER: Anastasio Jiménez TRANSLATOR: Nathan Adam Burkiewicz FORMATING: Raúl Clavijo COLLABORATORS: Juan Jesús Vegas, Emilio García, Peter Bunde, Wolfgang Kania, , arlos de la Rocha, Antonio Carrasco, Adolfo Ramos, Joaquín Mejía, Miguel Abellán Gutiérrez y El Mercenario. SPECIAL THANKS: Mark Copplestone, Javier García Cano, Le Vieux Moustache, Fantassin Miniaturas, Corvus Belli, Lbrería Atlántica, La Flecha Negra y TwT. ADVERTISING: Felipe Ribagorda
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reetings! Here we are again with yet another issue of our particular view of the world of wargames. The central theme of our magazine this month couldn’t be more current. The outcome of the Italian Wars established the future distribution of powers in Europe (well, in some ways it was a bit more aggressive than the situation today…but not by much!). In the absence of constitutions or agricultural policies, what was at stake was the control of Northern Italy. This territory was a key point of geostrategic importance on the routes between the Mediterranean Sea and Central Europe and one of the economic engines of the time. The Battle of Pavia was so significant that it ensured Spanish hegemony for at least one century and forced France out of the spotlight. The Wargames: Soldiers & Strategy team hope you have a great summer. We also hope you have the chance to rest up for our next encounter in September when we return to celebrate a relevant anniversary: that of the Battle of Berlin and the end of the Second World War in Europe. See you then! Wargames Editorial Staff
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Contents News & Classifieds Our own little forum ..............................................................4 Interview with…Mark Copplestone Some words from the most eccentric modeller in the world of wargames! ............................................................................6 Warhammer Ancient Battles for 15 mm Adapting the rules to other wargame scales ............................8 Delenda est Carthago! The Second Punic War for DBM (II) ......................................12 Plate Collection 1st Silesian Cuirassier Regiment ..........................................20
DOSSIER: PAVIA 1525 The Italian Wars The Road to Pavia................................................................24 The Battle of Pavia Scenario for Warfare in the Age of Discovery ..........................34 Bibliography on Pavia Expand your knowledge on this exciting period ......................42 Renaissance Miniatures The best brands of wargame figures for this period................46 How to Paint Miniatures Basic Theory (I) ..................................................................48 Scenery Step by Step Vegetable Garden, Cobwalls and Stone Walls ........................54 The Latest in Miniature Soldiers The latest wargame figure releases ......................................58 Publications New releases from the sector’s main publishers....................60 Boardgames The most exciting game releases ........................................62 Virtual War Hearts of Iron II ..................................................................64
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News III “2 DE MAYO” SHOW Alcorcón - Madrid (Spain)
This May the “El Último Tercio” association celebrated the “2 de Mayo” Simulation and Strategy Show for the third consecutive year in the castles of San José de Valderas in Alcorcón, Madrid. It was given the name “2 de Mayo” in honour of the popular revolt led by the inhabitants of Madrid against the French invasion. These show have become a reference in Spain for the world of simulation and strategy with historical and fantasy miniatures. It’s a must for any die-hard fan. This year, the guys from “El Último Tercio” were lucky to have the invaluable support of clubs from all parts of Spain. The Landwehr club from Málaga did an excellent job for the second year in a row. They amazed visitors with their brilliant 4x3m diorama of the Battle of Leipzig with more than 7,000 figures. The Alpha-Ares club from Barcelona came in force. On the one hand, they set up a game of the Battle of Talavera using the “Le Gran Armee” rule set that was open to the general public. They even used a computer during the game! Their historic simulation won the admiration of amateur (and expert) onlookers. They also organised a representation of a British assault on a small French fort during the Franco-British wars in XVIII-century Canada. The various clubs from Madrid didn’t want to miss out on the fun either. Club Dragón organised open games of DBM for amateurs, and club A.M.S. presented an excellent recreation of the Battle of La Albuera in 15m using their own magnificent rule set, “Serrez les Ranges”. The organising club made their presence felt as well. This time round they set up four dioramas. One was a representation of the Battle of Brunete that was backed up with extensive historic documentation; this was one of the dioramas that the visitors liked the most. Following their naval tradition, they set up a deployment of different naval formations from the Punic Wars.
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This diorama had nearly 1,000 period ships in 1:300 scale. They also organised indispensable open games for the Second World War in 20mm using a rule set they designed themselves called “Generales”. Lastly, they gave visitors a touch of entertainment with their recreation of the prehistoric period with a smoking volcano and all that was based on the set of rules “Settlers”. But, not all of the dioramas and representations were historic-based. Club Cota de Malla, who collaborated with El Último Tercio in the organization of the event, made us smile and grimace with their “MagmaBowl”. It consisted of a Blood Bowl stadium on top of lava where the slightest error would fry players to a crisp. Both the youngest and not so young visitors had a blast during the numerous games that were played. The contributions from the shops and even the attendees themselves also surprised us. Mars Ultor from Valencia captured the attention of the youngest onlookers with their “Hellish Fortress” and their great stadium for Blood Bowl displayed by Ociojoven. Librería Atlantica’s presence was more classical. They
encouraged people to put themselves in the shoes of Nelson or Churruca in their Napoleonic naval war demonstrations. As you can see, it was a fun-packed weekend. There was also a representation of the shoot-outs from the game “Gangsters” organised by some creative attendees. The table and the players’ props and outfits made their recreation of the 1920s in Chicago truly fabulous. But, one of the activities that dazzled the public the most was the reenactors’ representations. During the entire weekend, organisation members mingled with crowd wearing Napoleonic-era uniforms, those of the Volunteers of Madrid to be exact. They would stop to have their photo taken with anyone who asked. The main course was served up by the Historic Recreation Association “I Legio Gemina” from Tarragona. Those present were astonished by their demonstrations of Roman weapons (made out of the original material and according to period norms), formations, combat methods and even orders given in Latin. We can’t forget about one of the weekend’s leiv motiv: the Tournaments. As usual with fantasy games, the Warhammer tournaments attracted a huge crowd of youngsters who came to participate in the tournaments and open games or just to see the magnificent armies and games. “In the Name of Glory”, based on the rules that share the same name, is the only historic Napoleonic-period tournament currently being developed in Spain. It has attracted strong backing thanks to the sponsorship of the Spanish company Fantassin. This time around, the first prize trophy, the Great Imperial Eagle, flew to Barcelona. The last match held in Barcelona was won by a member of “El Último Tercio”. But, the latest encounter allowed club “Alpha Ares” to take their revenge on them. Theme games were also represented at this year’s event. Given the huge number of activities programmed this year, the tur-
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nout wasn’t as big as previous years. Even so, open games of Warcraft and Captain Alatriste were organised and sponsored by Devir. The game that by far was most sought after was Catan. It practically monopolised the theme game area the whole weekend. Unfortunately, the demand was so high that there weren’t enough monitors or time which meant that some people didn’t get a chance to play. The second-hand market set up at this year’s event worked perfectly. Many of the visiting fans were able to find that discontinued game or figure they thought they would never get their hands on. There was also a painting workshop where kids could have fun and learn to paint figures while the adults were calmly browsing about the show or enjoying the open matches. We can’t leave out all of the professionals that attended. The turnout was incredible. There were representatives from practically the whole sector of simulation and strategy with miniatures. Companies that were present either physically or as sponsors include: Fantassin Miniatures, La Flecha Negra, Atlántica Juegos, Mars Ultor, Escenografic, FX Alemany, Ociojoven, Generación X, Devir Iberia, Campaign Game Miniatures and Deltaediciones who displayed their first release on the market, their game book Borodino. Deltaediciones’ book provides a new way of understanding military history. Its creative description of the battle is based on a terrain map with coordinates on which the counters that represent the troops are deployed just as they were in the real battle. To sum up the event, the visitors, participants and collaborators all had a great time in an atmosphere of camaraderie and fun. Both expert gamers and those attending this type of event for the first time were captivated by the exceptional area used for the activities. Seeing the staff wearing period outfits and the ceiling decorated with historic flags from different periods gave the event a more festive look.
And to wrap up, we must say that the event was such a success that the organisers had some difficulties. Unfortunately and much to their regret, they ended up having to call off games and activities that had originally been programmed. There was so much demand for space and so little available that they had no choice but to do so. We apologise to anyone that was affected by this. There are many other things we haven’t touched on, but we unfortunately don’t have enough space to write about everything. That’s why I suggest you come and participate next year. I’m sure you’ll come back once you’ve experienced it in person. David Barderas President of A.S.H.E “El Último Tercio” www.elultimotercio.ya.st
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06-07 Entrevista ingles
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INTERVIEW WITH… MARK COPPLESTONE As you may have noticed, in the last issue we published the results of the Wargames: Soldiers & Strategy survey instead of our regular interview section. But now we are back and we bring you an interview with Mark Copplestone. ark Copplestone is one of the most popular and recognised miniature designers and author of some of today’s mythical fantasy and historic figure ranges. After working for Wargames Foundry, where he undoubtedly left an unforgettable mark, Mark decided to devote all of his efforts to developing his own brand, Copplestone Castings. This endeavour has given him free rein to develop his enormous talent and reveal his most creative, original and eccentric side. His current ranges avoid strict and conventional styles and tend to combine both history and fantasy. His figures have contributed a breath of fresh air to a market that can be a bit stale at times.
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What inspired your interest in toy soldiers? The 1960s, when I was growing up, was the great period of film epics, and whenever I went to the cinema to see one of them I'd go home desperate to play the game. That was difficult though - the game and the toy soldiers just didn't exist back then. Running around the back garden with my friends shouting "Front rank fire!" didn't quite have the epic feel I wanted, so instead I'd make dozens of models from Plasticene modelling clay. I can still remember the "Zulu" range, complete with pins for bayonets. I even have a vague memory of re-fighting "The Wind in the Willows"! Ever since then I've read a lot of military history (and bought a lot of books), but it's the films that have really influenced the kind of wargames figures I want to make. It's particularly pushed me into making as many head variants as possible, because I want look at a wargames unit and see "lit-
tle men", with individual faces. In my mind it's more like a panning shot in a film than an exercise in modelling a moment in time. It's a very personal thing, but I prefer minor pose variations in a unit, rather than the "all action" style. What was your first contact with this hobby? I think it was "Airfix" magazine that showed me that there were grown-ups who loved messing around with little plastic figures. There were some great articles on converting the small range of 1/72nd figures into more exotic troops, with the aid of a hot needle mounted in a cork, tissue paper and Plasticene hardened with polystyrene cement, finished off with a Humbrol gloss enamel paint. Through the adverts I came across the first of the Funcken uniform books and ordered a little booklet called "Discovering Wargaming". What led you to take the step from enthusiast to professional? I'd always carried on reading military history, but for about 10 years I hadn't really touched a toy soldier, and then in around 1980 I bought the first issue of the new "Miniature Wargames" magazine. Then I bought a few Minifigs English Civil War miniatures. They were quite nice, but not enough variants for me so I bought some Milliput, made my own multi-part models and then some silicone rubber moulds for drop-casting them. I saw an advert from Chronicle Miniatures who were looking for a sculptor and sent off a few samples. Nick Lund, who ran the company, gave me some good advice and I made a set of ruffians for him. They went into production and I got paid. Chronicle Miniatures were soon swallowed up by Citadel Miniatures, but I carried on doing freelance work for Dixon Miniatures whilst working as a schoolteacher in the daytime. Trevor Dixon kindly let me do my own ranges (multiple head variants included) – 15mm Marlburians and 25mm Grand Alliance and Legends of Nippon. A few years later, Games Workshop were advertising for sculptors and I got a job with them. Since then, through various ups and downs, it's been my full-time job. How did you learn to design? Did you have a teacher or are you self-taught? A lot of it was self-taught, but I did get the chance at Games Workshop to talk with and watch a lot of great sculptors. Bob Naismith, who was my manager, showed me his technique for
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things like faces and hands, which I still use, but picked up ideas and ways of approaching design from lots of people there. After that I suppose it's just repetition and experience. For many years I've also gone to a weekly life sculpture class, and I suppose this must have affected my style in some way What is your modelling technique? What process do you follow when designing a figure? Which materials do you use? I still stick to the method I learned at Games Workshop – a wire stick man stuck into a cork, roughly bulked out in putty and then finally built up area by area. I still use Green Stuff (Duro Kneadatite), though sometimes I mix it with Sylmasta A+B putty. The only odd thing I often do is to take the head off a model when it's finished to see if a different head position would work better – often it does. I sometimes do rough sketches to remind myself of possible variants and details of equipment, but usually I work surrounded by stacks of books open at relevant pages and then just wait to see what happens. How would you define your current style? Clean, characterful and easy-to-paint – I hope. How has your evolution as a professional been from the time you began working with Foundry to the time you founded Copplestone Castings? The good thing about Foundry was that I was free to make whatever ranges I wanted so, for example, I could build up the whole idea of "Darkest Africa" as a wargaming period. Foundry pulled me back into making historical ranges after years of working on fantasy for Games Workshop, Grenadier and Heartbreaker and I've carried on in same way with Copplestone Castings. Copplestone Castings offers a wide variety of ranges, including Bolsheviks from the 20’s, gangs of futuristic punks, European pioneers that explored Africa in the 19th Century, penguins, polar bears, dinosaurs and gangsters from the times of the Prohibition...It is obvious that commercial interests are not what drive you when designing your figures. So, what does motivate you to create new ranges? You sound like my bank manager, who is always says things like "Why don't you just make something that people actually want?". Basically I want to make ranges that interest me, and that I hope will intrigue other people. The Back of Beyond is a good example. It was a coming together of lots of my interests: the Russian Civil War (especially the bizarre story of the Mad Baron), China in the 1920s, the Great Game (the rivalry between Britain and Russia in Central Asia), Tibet and Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese graphic novels. There were a few films too: "Doctor Zhivago", "The Sand Pebbles, "Lost Horizon", "Seven Years in Tibet" and "High Road to China". When I read Peter Hopkirk's book "Setting the East Ablaze" I realised it could all make sense as a single wargames range.
Which is Copplestone Casting’s best-selling range? Which is your main market, the US or Europe? At the moment the best-selling range is The Back of Beyond, I really can't see any pattern to sales, which in the course of a year are spread across all the ranges. We did lose US customers at one point (probably because of the high value of the pound) but they seem to be coming back now. What projects do you have in store for the future? I want to keep all the ranges going, but I also want to make a new fantasy range. It's almost 20 years since I worked on the Future Warriors and Fantasy Warriors for Grenadier, and there's now a whole new style of fantasy, typified by Rackham. I'd at least like to make a few strong, single miniatures. Besides being a professional designer, are you still a wargamer? Which are your favourite gaming rules? I hardly ever actually play a game, though like a lot of wargamers I'm always planning to. I scribble away, covering sheets of paper with points values, possible army lists and campaigns systems and that's about as far as it goes. Sometimes I make the terrain – packed away in the loft I have African jungle an savannah, as well as Central Asian mountains – but things never quite come together. The last games I played were Darkest Africa and WW1, using Chris Peers' rules. And to conclude, two customary questions: What do you think the current state of the collector’s and wargame world is? For customers there's never been more choice – of period and scale with an huge variety within each. There are certainly more good sculptors around than ever before, and I'm pleased to see more of them running their own companies. Lastly, what do you think about our magazine Wargames: Soldiers & Strategy? It's really good to see a new magazine, especially one that has such good photographs and high production values. Thanks for answering our questions! We at Wargames: Soldiers & Strategy wish you the best of luck and hope that Copplestone Castings continues its success and that you stay as original as you have been up to now. Wargames staff
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WARHAMMER ANCIENT BATTLES FOR 15MM
Late Roman legionnaires (V Century) for Fall of the West. The 24-figure unit is four ranks deep with the last line manned by archers.
For many gamers 15mm is the best scale to represent battles with. Although WAB is designed for 25mm, it can be adapted to 15mm with a few simple conversions. ORGANISING ARMIES IN 15MM The best option is to put your miniatures on 25x25mm stands and to organise them according to the following table: Type Number Infantry, Light Infantry ......................................................4 Cavalry, Light Cavalry ........................................................2 Skirmishers ........................................................................2 Personalities............................................................Variable Artillery, Elephants, etc. ....................................................1 For other types of miniature, such as elephants, chariots and war machines, use stands that are at least 25mm wide and deep enough for the miniature to fit on. (You can use plastic stands sold by Games Workshop and Mars Ultor or make them yourself out of the material you prefer).
SKIRMISHERS Skirmishers or any troops in a loose formation may fight as long as the stands (not each miniature) are 3cm apart or less.
ORGANISING UNITS Units must be made out of complete stands, i.e. an infantry unit with eight soldiers is organised on two stands, a cavalry unit with eight figures is organised on four stands, etc. It’s best to put the unit’s musician and standard bearer on the same stand, and the officer on another one.
PERSONALITIES Put your personalities on “personality stands” and create a small diorama or vignette with several miniatures. A personality stand can have one or two personalities for gaming purposes. For example, it can include the general and standard bearer of the battle. This is regardless of the number of miniatures that are actually on the personality stand. It acts just like a normal troop stand and takes up the number of ranks assigned to the troop type it represents. Bear in my mind that if a personality stand represents two personalities, both of them must be on foot or mounted. Personalities mounted on chariots or elephants will always be unaccompanied.
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Two units of Saxon thengs for Shieldwall. Both units have 12 figures each and are 2 ranks deep.
RANK BONUS Rank bonuses are applied to ranks of miniatures and not ranks of stands.
REMOVING CASUALTIES
HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT Use the stands as a reference during the battle instead of individual miniatures like in 25mm. This way, if a stand comes into contact with another, all of the figures on the stand that can fight are considered to be engaged.
All the cavalry miniatures can attack their enemy.
You can use markers for casualties or turn the stand 90º to the right to represent one casualty, 180º for two, 270º for three and then remove the stand for the forth. Even though you can use markers, the best thing to do is to remove entire stands. Frankish soldiers from the V Century for Fall of the West. The 24 figures are assembled in 4 ranks.
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Roman troops (I Century AD) on DBM bases. The cohort is made up of 24 legionnaires and is 4 ranks deep, while the 12 archers form only one rank.
DBM ARMIES IN WAB
A unit of 12 light infantrymen in 2 ranks skirmishing.
Fighting in DBM is based on elements. The width of these elements is the same but the depth can vary depending on the number of figures used. Being able to create stands with varying numbers of figures allows DBM gamers to represent the troops that occupied a similar front in a real battle. This is the exact opposite of WAB where one figure represents one or ten men. To adapt an army based on DBM for gaming WAB, use the elements as stands and group them to form Warhammer units just as we explained above. Points are spent for every figure on the element. Elements of generals and subgenerals become personality stands as described above. It’s very important that you use markers for or note down the casualties on each element. Here are some examples: A unit of 16 infantrymen in four ranks. An example of hand-to-hand combat: when a cavalry unit faces a light infantry unit, the elements in contact can fight as usual. If the light infantry are equipped with lances, the second rank can also attack. Carthaginian/Hellenistic elephant.
Unit of 10 skirmishers.
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XVII-century “Tercio” for Warhammer: English Civil War. It is made up of pikemen in the centre and musketeers on the sides.
FLEE AND PURSUE - 25mm Flee, Pursue, Destroy 6’’ / 15cm or less 2D6 / 5D6 More than 6’’ / 15cm 3D6 / 8D6 Fire and Flee 6’’ / 15cm or less 1D6 / 3D6 More than 6’’ / 15cm 2D6 / 5D6
TABLAS
Inches 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
MOVEMENT 25 mm cm 2 5 8 10 12 15 18 20
MOVEMENT REDUCTION 25 mm Armour Inches cm Heavy Armour and Shield 1 2 Barding 1 2 Both 2 5 PROJECTILE WEAPONS 25 mm Weapon Inches cm Javelins and Darts 8 20 Short Bow 16 40 Compound Bow 24 60 Longbow 30 75 Crossbow 30 75 Sling 18 45 Knife or Star 6 15 Throwing Axe 6 15 Ballista 48 120 Catapult 48 120
15 mm cm 1 3 4,5 6 7.5 9 10,5 12
FLEE AND PURSUE - 15 mm Flee, Pursue, Destroy 9cm or less 3D6 More than 9cm 5D6 Fire and Flee 9cm or less 3D3 More than 9cm 3D6
15 mm cm 1.5 1.5 3 15 mm cm 12 24 36 46 46 28 9 9 72 72
XVII-century Reiters/Ironsides for Warhammer: English Civil War.
PSYCHOLOGY 25 mm Effect Inches cm Panic Friendly unit fleeing at the start of the turn. 4 10 Friendly unit demoralised or destroyed in hand-to-hand combat. 6 15 Friendly unit destroyed by their pursuers or by shots. 4 10 Terror 6 15 General and Battle Standard 12 30
15 mm cm 6 9 6 9 18.5
NOTES As regards the tables, I’ve included the distances both in inches, as they are given in the manuals in English, and in centimetres for those of you who are used to fantasy games. The reason for doing this is to provide you with a quick-conversion chart. All of the distances have been calculated multiplying them by 0.6 and using the conversion: 1 inch = 2.54cm. I’ve rounded up the distances where necessary to make them all consistent. Troops on the same hill but on opposite sides can’t see each other at less than 6cm. In addition, troops located on a hill can see over any obstacle that is lower than the height of the hill plus the height of the miniature (1.5cm for this scale). There’s a dead zone with no visibility behind the terrain at the same height as the hill. Author: Juan Jesús Vegas Photographs: Anastasio Jiménez Figures from Essex and Corvus Belli painted by El Mercenario Special thanks to “Librería Atlántica” for coming up with the idea of using 15mm figures
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DELENDA EST CARTHAGO! “And therefore, I conclude that Carthage must be destroyed.” We wrap up our series on scenarios dedicated to the Second Punic War with the famous motto that helped spark off the Third and final war. The tragic ending of this conflict sums up the Romans’ general feeling towards the Carthaginians and their civilization during its entire existence. This sentiment, however, was mutual.
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ato the Censor, Cato the relentless, would punctuate all of his speeches with this slogan, even if it was in no way related to the subject being debated at the time. He would also walk around the Forum with fruits from the Libyan coast exported by Carthage, shouting: “this is grown at two day’s journey from the port of Ostia.” Cato’s dreadful fear of the greatest economic power that existed in Antiquity was justified. After Hannibal’s defeat at Zama (202 BC) , the surrender conditions would have destroyed any empire for good. But, in fifty years the hard-working descendents of the Phoenicians prospered so much that they were able to pay off all of the war indemnity. However, they made the mistake of showing the Romans that they were even wealthier than they were before the attack on Saguntum (218 BC). One of the conditions imposed by the Romans after the second war banned Carthage from fighting against anyone without Rome’s permission, especially if it was one of their allies. Massinissa, the Numidian king, was one of them. Fifty years earlier, Scipio was triumphant at Zama and the Romans showed their appreciation by tying the hands of their enemies and leaving an undefined border between their territory and Carthage. As a result, Carthage was de12
fenceless against the constant raids led by the Numidian cavalry. After paying off the war indemnity Rome had imposed, the Punics decided to defend themselves against Massinissa. It was then when Cato’s indoctrination had its desired effect. The Senate declared war on them (149 BC) with the excuse that they had attacked a Roman ally. The Punics’ humiliating submission to Rome’s conditions (surrendering children as hostages and handing over all their weapons, almost their entire fleet and huge amounts of wheat) didn’t succeed in keeping the peace. Rome was hungry for war. Roman continued to provoke the Punics and even demanded that Carthage be demolished and moved several kilometres inland. Having had enough, the citizens themselves then eliminated their ruling class and prepared to face an inevitable conflict. But, this time they were without Hannibal. The Romans quite effortlessly landed on the African coast. The Punics resisted the siege for three years even though they knew they had little chance of winning. Finally, in 146 BC, Scipio Emilianus’ legionnaires captured the last buildings in Carthage still controlled by the defenders, leaving behind a trail of tens of thousands of dead bodies. The city’s grounds were completely razed and covered with salt, but they allowed the city to be rebuilt inland. The territory was then established as a Roman
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province. This is how the Third and final Punic war ended. Although Cato died the same year in which the war he so much yearned for began, his wishes were fulfilled. This victory, however, was achieved at the expense of the lives and freedom of more than 500,000 men, women and children killed or reduced to slavery and at the expense of a rich and cultured civilization that was literally yanked out of the face of the earth along with their mother city. Cato, the unbearable. Cato, the sadist. By no means is this article attempting to discredit the Roman civilization or idealise Carthage’s domination in the territories she occupied. There were a lot of Libyan and Numidian uprisings in northern Africa. Hamilcar Barca and his successors subjugated the people of Hispania with a firm
An elephant leads the Carthaginian attack, followed by the Libyan and Phoenician infantry.
The Roman equites, made up of the elite of Rome’s citizens, were always outnumbered by the Carthaginian cavalry.
hand; Hasdrubal, Hamilcar’s son-in-law, was assassinated in 221 BC out of revenge for the crucifixion of a Spanish leader named Tago . The recruiting and taxation system used by the Punics in Hispania heavily burdened the native inhabitants. So,
when the Romans cleverly assured these natives better conditions, many of them happily and gullibly sided with them. However, they quickly realised that these were empty promises and that they had changed masters. In short, all of the ancient civilizations committed countless acts of cruelty and abuse against the people under their control. In this case, the Roman world won the Punic War and their official history was written from a victor’s viewpoint. Consequently, their historians overlooked the desolation on their own Peninsula caused by the policy of terror employed to prevent the Italic population from joining Hannibal. They also ignored Scipio’s plundering of Carthago Nova, justified the devastation of Carthage and turned a blind eye to the destruction of Etruria decades before… Rome had undoubtedly enlightened mankind during this period. However, light creates shadows whenever it is cast on a hidden interest. After this brief introduction about the end of the fight for control of the western Mediterranean, we would like to look at three other battles that took place during Hannibal’s tiThe Numidian cavalry was one of the keys of the conflict. Fighting for the Carthaginians, they mes. Had Carthage’s war efforts been prowere essential for Hannibal in his first victories. But, when they changed sides at the end of perly directed, history would’ve been radically the war the tables turned in Rome’s favour. changed. 13
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SCENARIO 1: “CARTHAGO NOVA CAPTURED, HISPANIA CONQUERED”
Carthaginian heavy infantry protect the entrance to Carthago Nova.
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ublius Cornelius Scipio learned from Hannibal that the best strategy to win a battle was the simplest. He knew that the fluctuating war in Hispania against his enemy would quickly tip the balance in favour of Rome if he was able to strike the very core of the Carthaginian colony. Once Carthago Nova was captured (209 BC), the rest of Hispania wouldn’t take long to fall. And that is exactly what happened. As soon as he reached the Iberian Peninsula, Scipio rounded up the survivors of the defeats at Castulo and Ilorci that had fled to the north of the River Iberus. The rescued troops were added to the ranks of Scipio’s reinforcement legions and formed a superb base of veterans dying to get their revenge. Another 40,000 legionnaires were incorporated into this force. Scipio’s capture of the capital of the Spanish colony was brilliant given the audacity, planning and execution of this extraordinary feat of arms. In a really short period of time, approximately seven or eight days, Scipio took his troops down the Mediterranean coast and arrived at the city. This movement was possibly supported by their fleet along the coast. The ships could have lightened the legionnaires’ load by trans-
porting all of their supplies. Nobody expected such a bold move. As a result, the Punic forces were divided up and set on different missions in the southern and central areas of the Peninsula. The city was heavily fortified and was manned by a small garrison. This force would’ve been enough to defend it if Scipio hadn’t found a ford in a nearby marsh at an unguarded section of the wall. He convinced his soldiers that Neptune had shown him a passage across the water in a dream. He then launched an attack across the water and was followed by his men whose morale couldn’t have been higher. Unfortunately for the Carthaginians, this action allowed them to sack the city after taking it. On the other hand, he did free the indigenous prisoners held by the Punics and sent them back home to show the Iberian tribes that he was a liberator. Carthago Nova was now in the hands of the Romans. The tons of silver that were being sent to Africa were now redirected to Italy. Thousands of enemy soldiers had been neutralised. And they controlled the most important port of Hispania. The initiative was theirs. Rome had found a leader capable of confronting Hannibal.
The Gameboard The table represents the walled city of Carthago Nova, the surrounding area and its tremendous bay. The width of the streets (Rd) that cross the BUA corresponds to the drawing. The terrain surrounding the city is considered easy. The ford in the marsh equals the width of two elements.
Army Lists
Roman legionnaires in maniple formation penetrate the Punic defences.
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The Carthaginian player uses the main list for Later Carthaginian 275 BC–146 BC, Book II, nº 32. The only options that can be used are Only before 200 BC (with no El (I) or Numidian allies) and Only from 235 BC to 201 BC. The Roman player uses the list for Polybian Roman 275 BC–105 BC, Book II, nº 33. The option Only from 202 BC cannot be used. He must have a Spanish allied com-
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Scenario 1: Carthago Nova
WW M
LEGEND
M
Width: More than the front of 1 element and less than the front of 2 elements. Width: More than the front of 2 elements and less than the front of 3 elements. Width: More than the front of 3 elements. BUA
Art(0) Art(0)
Ford
GA(s)
Bg Bg
Rd Bg Bg Bg Bg
PF
GATE
mand from the list for Ancient Spanish 240 BC-20 BC, Book II, nº 39 without Exp (O). The only option that can be used is Only Celtiberians.
Deployment The Carthaginian player deploys his ground troops within the city. However, no element (except those shown in the picture) can be placed at less than 600 steps from the area of the wall that the ford leads to. The two (compulsory) elements of Art start the game pointing towards the sea. Regardless of the number of generals chosen, six elements of Bg will be placed on the points specified on the gameboard. Only one compulsory naval element of Reg Gal (S) can be deployed as shown in the drawing. The Roman player deploys his ground troops freely around the outside of the city. At least three naval elements of Reg Gal (S) with crew are compulsory. All of the ships are positioned with the bow touching the edge of the table.
Special Rules The Carthaginian player can only deploy 250 army points. After he has placed all of his elements, the Roman player follows suit. No type of ambush is allowed. At the start of turn six, the Punic player throws a die to see if a flank march of a command formed by the remaining 150 army points enters. These points represent either of the two forces that were operating far from the city and that, at that time, were retur-
ning at a forced march after hearing about the siege. After rolling the 6 needed for a flank march, the die is immediately thrown again. If the result is an odd number, this means the troops that are approaching from the centre of the Peninsula will enter in the next turn on the Roman’s left side. If the result is even, the troops that are coming in from the south will enter in the next turn on the Roman’s right side. This force plays with the usual 400 AP. Their elements don’t fight against the section of the wall that the ford leads to; they simply pass by it with the movement. The port is controlled by the element inside the city that is closest to it. The Roman player moves first.
Victory Conditions -The usual conditions are used for both sides. -Automatic victory for the Punic side if the enemy C-in-C is eliminated. -Automatic victory for the Roman player if he sacks all of the elements of Bg.
Some Considerations Rome has to play with a Spanish allied command. The reason for this is that a third of the forces that participated were made up of around the 15,000 natives recruited by Scipio in the area controlled by the Romans north of the River Iberus. Perhaps everyone would’ve heard about the riches that had been accumulated in such a flourishing city. Many even would’ve had a few scores to settle with their old ally masters. It would be a good idea for the Roman player to fill his force with Ps prepared to move easily around a BUA. It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to have the possibility of landing troops in the port; the Roman attack was such a surprise that it caught the Carthaginians off guard and with most of their fleet out at sea. On the other hand, the possibility of an enemy flank march will prevent the Roman C-in-C from launching an organised attack from a comfortable position outside the city. Careful with the Bg: greed can break up even the most disciplined army, and generals’ command ranges are reduced between the buildings in the city. In addition to covering their Bg from the enemy’s greedy sackers, the Punic player has to desperately defend themselves while they wait for their supposed support.
Light Spanish troops, Rome’s allies, advance through the streets of the city spreading chaos.
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SCENARIO 2: METAURUS, THE REAL DECISIVE BATTLE
The Carthaginian army is surprised by the Roman legions as they cross the River Metaurus.
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some of his troops to meet up with Salinator. Nero left part of n the first series of scenarios, we pointed out that the his army behind to keep an eye on Hannibal, who didn’t realiBattle of Metaurus (207) was the encounter that decise that his adversary was on the move. Once they had joined ded the Second Punic War. It’s funny though that this forces, the Romans surprised the Punic leader and used their battle hasn’t been considered as important as other battles numeric superiority to harass his forces. It took Hasdrubal a such as Trebbia or Trasimene, examples of crushing but inlong time to find a ford in the River Metaurus to slip across to decisive defeats. The Romans were able to replenish their the other side. His enemies attacked him right in the worst ranks after these losses. At Cannae, nonetheless, they moment when part of his army had crossed and the other was sent an army three-times the size of those crushed at Trebwaiting to cross. Faced with this situation and the fact that his bia and Trasimeno to their death. Perhaps it’s because MeCeltic soldiers had fled to the camp to get drunk, he was unataurus marks the end of Hannibal’s adventure in Italy or beble to deploy in optimum conditions. At this moment, an agocause it symbolises disappointment and a complete failure nizing battle broke out in which the elephants crushed anyone after a glorious effort. In any case, we’ve unfairly overloothat got in their way. Despite this, the Iberian soldiers were ked the fact that Hasdrubal Barca also crossed the Alps able to hold the right wing on a hill. It seemed like they could and that two Roman generals, Gaius Claudius Nero and Tistill save the situation when Claudius Nero went around the tus Livius Salinator, acted cunningly, using their common hill and attacked the Spanish rearguard. From this moment sense, intelligence and strategic expertise. What would’ve on, the battlefield turned into a bloodbath. Hasdrubal was kihappened if Hannibal and his brother had embraced again lled and his most faithful men fell as well. When they saw that and had added the troops under his command to another it was all over, they threw themselves into the thick of the figh48,000 infantrymen, 8,000 cavalrymen and 15 elephants? ting. The Romans then headed for the Punic camp and proceThese weren’t mere replacement troops sent to fight the exeded to finish off the demoralised and drunk Celtic soldiers. hausted Romans; the morale of the invading army would’ve reached its peak and it would’ve been the definitive drive for the rebellion of the Italic towns and possibly for the siege on Rome. However, all of these wishes weren’t fulfilled. The harsh reality facing Hannibal was that he had to be permanently on the defensive. He knew that the Senate in his country wouldn’t send him more reinforcements. Hasdrubal made his first mistake when he sent messengers to inform his brother of the route and meeting point. His messengers were intercepted by the Romans. He then went on to make an even more serious mistake: that of not wanting to give battle when he had no other choice. Salinator didn’t want to attack him by himself and just pursued him. But Claudius Nero wasn’t aware of the The Spanish, Libyan and Phoenician infantry try to contain the Romans while the rest of the new invader’s planned route and he took troops finish their retreat. 16
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HASDRUBAL
Scenario 2: Metaurus
CV (0) Gauls
elements of Wb (F) and with at least 3 elements of each troop type listed in the chart. All of these troops must be placed as shown in the drawing. The rest of his troops can be deployed wherever he wishes. The Roman player deploys freely, except for one cavalry wing made up of any troops the player wants. This wing must be positioned on the left under the command of the C-in-C.
Ford River Metaurus
Ligurinas Wb (F) Gauls
CV (0) LH (0) Punics Numidians C-in-C
ps – troo t ningoymen i a Reme Depl Fre El (I)
H (G) Spanish mercenaries scutarii Spanish mercenaries caetratii Balearic slingers
ning
ai Rem
ps
troo
ee – Fr
ent
loym
Dep
Special Rules The Roman player must go around the hill with the cavalry wing mentioned above and attack the Spanish soldiers from behind. As explained in the following point, if the Punic player’s element is able to exit along the long edge of the board using normal movements then it is a victory and not a defeat.
Compulsory Cv (O) under the command of the C-in-C.
NERO AND SALINATOR
The Gameboard
Victory Conditions
The River Metaurus is difficult terrain in all of the sections it crosses. There is a small ford in the central area that has the same width as the front of one element. The hill is considered H(G). The rest of the terrain is flat.
-The usual conditions are used for both sides. -Automatic victory for the Punic side if he is able to get 50% of his elements off his edge of the board.
Some Considerations Army Lists The Carthaginian player uses the main list for Later Carthaginian 275 BC–146 BC, Book II, nº 32. The only options that can be used are Only before 200 BC (without Numidian allies) and Only from 235 BC to 201 BC. The Roman player uses the list for Polybian Roman 275 BC–105 BC, Book II, nº 33. The option Only from 202 BC cannot be used.
Deployment The Punic player deploys with his back to the River Metaurus. He can only use one compulsory EI (I) that must be placed according to the drawing. He must play with at least 5
Hasdrubal would’ve won a partial victory if he had been able to cross the river with most of his men. However, this was a tough mission to achieve in such a difficult moment. The elephants were terrified by the Romans. They caused more damage and disorder among their own ranks than among the enemy’s. Despite this, the Punic forces were able to keep their composure. The decisive moment of the battle took place when the Roman cavalry easily flanked the hill. This suggests that the rash deployment and crossing of the river threw Hannibal’s cavalry into disorder and kept them from blocking the opening. That’s why the right side of the Spanish infantry wasn’t covered by anyone. Their only advantage is that they’re positioned on elevated terrain.
The Republican legions, made up of Roman citizens and Italic allies, prepare to win an overwhelming victory.
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SCENARIO 3: ZAMA OR THE GLORY OF SCIPIO
The plain of Zama, at the gates of Carthage, was the scenario chosen for the last battle of the Second Punic War.
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his is undoubtedly one of the most famous battles of Antiquity. It deserves to be remembered for the expertise with which both sides fought, for the uncertainty of its outcome until the last moment and for the relatively strange circumstances in which it occurred. First of all, it shouldn’t have taken place at all. Carthage and Rome had signed an agreement just before Hannibal returned to Africa. Considering what they had lost, the Carthaginians negotiated a very advantageous treaty. It basically stated that Hispania was under Rome’s control and gave Rome hegemony in the entire area. In addition, a relatively reasonable war indemnity and a bearable reduction of her army and fleet were imposed. But, the Senate of Carthage wanted to put the finishing touch on the endless series of atrocities committed throughout the 16-year conflict. They refused to comply with the treaty when they found out that Hannibal had landed. Hannibal had no choice but to confront his enraged enemy. Scenario 3: Zama
Free Deployment Foot Troops and C-in-C
{
Remaining Cavalry
HANNIBAL
El (I)
Free Deployment Foot Troops and C-in-C Remaining Cavalry SCIPIO
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He acted according to his amazing tactical skill. During his entire life, this same skill allowed him to make the most of the forces he had under his command at any moment. He faced two major obstacles: his inferiority in cavalry and the limited reliability of the Carthaginian and Libyan troops he had recently recruited. He decided to deploy the infantry in three lines. In the front line he positioned relatively light troops: Gauls, Mauritanians, Ligurians and Balearic slingers; the second line was formed by Libyans and Carthaginians; and the third reserve line was stronger and more reliable than the rest and was manned by the Italian, Celtic and Spanish veterans from his previous campaigns. Just like the Roman hastati, principes and triarii. Hannibal trusted that his position on a small elevation, the hot weather and the distance between him and his adversary worked to his advantage. His idea was that the first two battle lines would slow down the Roman charge and that the last line would finish the exhausted soldiers off. He put his eighty elephants in front of his troops and sent them directly into the Roman formation. The cavalry’s mission was to steer Massinissa’s danAll the LH gerous Numidian cavalry away from their lines. These Roman allies greatly outnumbered Hannibal’s cavalry. Hannibal’s masterly deployment was matched by Scipio’s. When he saw the herd of elephants charging towards him, he ordered dozens of trumpets to be sounded in his ranks. Many elephants bolted and charged into their own troops. The beasts that continued charging towards the Roman formation were ineffective. The legionnaires had been positioned and instructed to leave alleys between them through Numidian which the elephants could be herded. Once Allied they had passed, they would pursue them and Command finish them off from behind. Then the Romans charged the first line that had been scattered by their own elephants. Despite this, Hannibal’s men resisted the Roman assault. They were
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expecting the immediate support from the fresh troops in the second line, but the Punic and Libyan soldiers refused. The men from Hannibal’s front line had to fall back. Upon reaching the second line they unleashed their anger on their fellow soldiers. The legionnaires took advantage of the quarrel between the first- and second-line troops and drove them back to the third line. But, the Roman troops began to show signs of fatigue after the first two charges. Noticing this, Hannibal saw his opportunity. Amazingly, he was able to assemble the soldiers that had fled and position them on the ends of the third line. The line then began to curve with the aim of encircling the enemy troops, just as it did at Cannae. Sci- After switching sides, Massinissa’s Numidian cavalry would play a key role in Rome’s victory. pio was very optimistic at the start of the battle when he saw the Spanish cavalry flee from the Numidians. be used. He must have a Numidian allied command from the NuHis men were euphoric after having driven back the enemy but midian or Early Moorish 215 BC-25 AD, Book II, nº 40 lists. The were exhausted after the fighting. At this moment, however, Scioption Only Syphax is compulsory… (except elephants). pio watched in despair how his men were falling into a deadly trap. He realised that his cavalry hadn’t fled but was just disDeployment tancing the Numidians from the fighting. He immediately tried to Deploy troops according to the drawing. prevent the disaster by withdrawing his soldiers from the fighting in good order. This was the decisive moment of the battle. MasSpecial Rules sinissa’s cavalry returned at that moment and attacked the rear The Punic player must line up at least four EI (I). The Numidian of Hannibal’s troops. Just like at the end of all armed encounters allied cavalry must engage with the enemy cavalry that’s located of Antiquity, the skirmishing gave way to a pursuit and then the in front of them and completely eliminate them before attacking slaughter. Nearly 20,000 of Hannibal’s soldiers fell on the plain other elements. of Zama. In spite of this, he was able to slip away with 5,000 troThe game begins with the elephants charging against the ops. He appeared before the senate of Carthage to declare that enemy without the support of the other elements. The rest of the he had lost not only the battle, but also the war. If he had just a Carthaginian foot troops do not move until the Roman legionbit more time, he would’ve been able to announce his victory. naires attack them. The legionnaires must attack these troops as soon as they get rid of the elephants.
The Gameboard The board represents the plain of Zama. The elevation of the terrain that Hannibal’s army was positioned on does not appear because it wasn’t even a small hill.
Victory Conditions -The usual conditions are used for both sides. -Automatic victory for either player if the enemy C-in-C is eliminated.
Army Lists The Carthaginian player uses the main list for Later Carthaginian 275 BC–146 BC, Book II, nº 32. They can only use a maximum of three elements of Numidian mercenary cavalry Irr LH (O). The only option that can be used is Only before 200 BC (except Numidian allies and Gallic cavalry). The option Only Hannibal in Africa in 202 BC is compulsory. The Roman player uses the list for Polybian Roman 275 BC–105 BC, Book II, nº 33. The option Only from 202 BC cannot
Some Considerations Scipio proved to be one of the greatest military leaders. He knew how to understand all aspects of the development of the fighting by putting himself in the shoes of the adversary that he had always respected. In fact, when some of the Roman senators that accompanied him on the subsequent negotiations demanded that Hannibal hand himself over, Scipio said that he would lend his sword to anyone who wanted to go and capture him. He had already tried his luck once. As regards the deployment for the battle, it is difficult to simulate the alleys the Romans opened to dodge the elephants with DBM. Instead, you can first set the elephants against light troops, as normally happened. The remaining elements can be deployed freely. Given the characteristics of this set of rules, positioning them in line would be counterproductive. The elimination, retreat or fleeing of the first two lines will put the last line at risk. The third line, in fact, was the line that nearly won the battle.
A herd of North African and Indian elephants led the Carthaginian attack with the aim of scattering Rome’s well-disposed battle line. However, the experienced Roman legionnaires saw them coming and prevented them from achieving their goal.
Author: Emilio García García Collaborator: Emilio García Hidalgo Figures from Essex and Corvus Belli painted by El Mercenario
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Kingdom of Prussia 1st Silesian Cuirassier Regiment - 1813 p Trumpeter
Cuirassier
Officer
NCO
Staff Officer
Captain
Kollet Cartridge boxes Officers
Plate
NCO and troopers
Volunteer Jägers
Sword’s strap Officers and SergeantMajor Officer in parade dress
Officer
Trumpeteer
NCO
Cuirassier
1 2 3 4 Squadron NCO and Trumpeteers
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Trumpeter in campaign dress Standard
Officer in campaing leibrock and provisional sabraque
NCO in campaign dress
Cuirassier in campaign dress
Volunteer Jäger
ain
Lieutenant
Officer in off-duty dress
Kollet
Litewka
Officer in campaign dress
NCO and troopers
NCO in campaign dress
Cuirassier in campaign dress
Officer in kollet
NCO in litewka
Jäger in litewka
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Kingdom of Prussia 1st Silesian Cuirassier Regiment 1813 he 1st Silesian Cuirassier regiment was founded in 1808 from the old Von Wagenfeld Cuirassier Regiment #4 and the remnants of the dissolved Von Roquette Dragoon Regiment #13. Squadrons one though three came from the Cuirassier Regiment and the fourth from the Dragoon Regiment. The Von Wagenfeld Cuirassier Regiment was not engaged at the battles of Jena and Auerstaedt in 1806 and thus missed the disastrous defeat of the Prussians. The newly formed 1st Silesian Cuirassier Regiment had a total strength of four squadrons which comprised 601 horses. In 1813 an additional squadron of Volunteer Jagers was formed but its strength in July 1813 was only 31 men. They were disbanded in 1814 after the defeat of Napoleon. The three Prussian Cuirassier Regiments were always in the same brigade during the campaigns of 1813 and 1814. They saw action at the battles of Gross-Goerschen, Bautzen, Haynau, Dresden, Kulm, Liebertwolkwitz and Leipzig. They fought in France in the winter campaign of 1914. In 1815 they belonged to the Prussian Fifth Army Corps commanded by General Tauentzien, and were thus not engaged in the Waterloo campaign.
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Uniform: The headdress was a high black leather helmet of Russian design with black horse hair crest. On the left side a white and black (silver and black for officers) national cockade was fixed under the chin scale boss. The double breasted coat (kollet) was white with an open black collar, black cuffs and black piping at the shoulder straps and turnbacks. The buttons are yellow. The riding trousers were dark grey and were closed on the outside leg with twenty-four buttons. The inner sides of the trousers were reinforced with black leather. After 1814, the buttons were reduced to twelve and later the buttons nearly disappeared. The leather belts were white and on the black pouch was a brass plaque with the Prussian Eagle and trophies. The old swords, from before 1806, were still in use. The brown sword straps had woollen tassels in squadron colours (see plate for sequence). Twenty men of every company (there were two companies per squadron) were armed with a carbine that was hooked to the pouch belt. The sabraque and pistol holster covers were of black cloth with yellow lace at the border. The grey greatcoat was placed before the pistols holders. The NCOs were distinguished by gold lace on the collar and cuffs. Their sabre knots had a mixed white and black tassel. Sergeant-Majors (Wachtmeister) used the porte-epee of the officers. The trumpeters had black swallow nests with gold lace on their coats and had the NCO’s rank distinctions.
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On campaign the men, NCOs and trumpeters used a simple dark blue coat (litewka) with black collar and white shoulder straps. The NCO’s lace was often fixed on the collar though this was not according to regulations. The trumpeters had no swallow nests on their litewka. The officer’s uniform was very similar to the men’s. The Prussian officers’ silver sash with two black stripes was worn by all officers. The epaulettes showed the officer’s rank (see plate for details). The sword strap was mixed silver and black. The shape of the pistol holders differed from that of the rank and file and the saddle cloth was decorated with gold lace. Off duty and on campaign the officers used the simple single breasted leibrock. It was dark blue with black collars and cuffs. The turnbacks and piping on the breast were white. The officers used a white leibrock, decorated with a gold aguilette on the right shoulder, for ceremonial occasions. A cocked hat and a light sword was worn when off duty. The Voluntary Jagers had a shako that vas normally covered by oilcloth to protect it from the elements. Their uniform was that of the senior regiment but in green colour. Thus, the Jagers should have used green coats but most wore a simple green litewka. Scale epaulettes were worn on the shoulders with the fields in the black regimental colour. Black leather belts and pouches were worn, the latter without decorations. The Jagers were armed with a dragoon sabre with a black sabre strap. The distinctions of the officers and NCOs were like those in the senior regiment. Trumpeter’s distinctions are unknown but were likely the same as the Cuirassier Trumpeters. The sabraque was of black felt with a red border. Standard: In 1813 only one standard per regiment was in use. The Silesian Cuirassiers used the old standard of the fifth squadron of the Old Von Wagenfeld Cuirassier Regiment #4. It was awarded by the Electoral Duke (Kurfuerst) Friedrich Wilhelm in the 18th Century. Plate: Peter Bunde Translation: Buddy Hoch
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DOSSIER PAVIA 1525
-The Italian Wars The Road to Pavia -The Battle of Pavia Scenario for Warfare in the Age of Discovery -Bibliography on Pavia -Renaissance Miniatures
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Italian infantry made up of a core of pikemen supported by crossbowmen.
THE ITALIAN WARS In 1511, Louis XII, King of France, backed by the Empire (Germanic Holy Roman Empire), took control of the Duchy of Milan. This victory allowed him to consolidate his hegemony in northern Italy. This seemed to be the end of a long series of conflicts that had drawn Italy into an almost perpetual war. A war in which all of the states involved vied for supremacy.
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ctually, this was the beginning of a new phase. During this period of fighting, the Italian states fell from their dominant position and were pushed aside by the two major super powers at the moment. Spain, represented at this time by the King of Aragon, Ferdinand the Catholic, was invited by Pope Julius II to join the Holy League. The main objective of this coalition was to recover Milan from the King of France and to win back the territories that had been taken from the Pope. This date marked the beginning of Spain’s intervention in Northern Italy. The Spanish settled and remained in this region for the next two hundred years.
The Vying Forces The French responded to the threat of the coalition created by the Pope by mobilising their forces again. At the time, their forces were considered to be the largest and most fearsome of Europe. On the Pope’s side, the best units by far were those sent by Spain. These soldiers had recently defeated the French and forced them out of southern Italy after a tough war. With this victory, they consolidated the House of Aragon’s control in the Kingdom of Naples.
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The two armies were face to face once again at Ravenna. The clash between the two forces was terribly bloody for the period. In the end, the French were able to defeat the Spanish and Italian troops thanks to their powerful artillery and their dreaded heavy cavalry. The retreat of the Viceroy’s army didn’t end in a disaster thanks to the fact that it was covered by a force of 2,000 Spanish troops led by Antonio de Leyva. This contingent formed an immovable phalanx of pikes and arquebusiers that the French cavalry crashed into. It was here where the young and promising French general, Gaston de Foix, lost his life. This victory soon turned against the French. Now, all of the region’s great powers joined forces in order to drive the French out of Italy. Switzerland, the Empire, Spain, Venice, the Pope and even England sided against the French and wasted little time in recovering Milan from them. The Pope was now able to manoeuvre without any pressure. In an attempt to distance himself from the continuous menacing protection of the King of Aragon, he made a pact with the Empire in November 1512 to divide up Venice. Consequently, this absurd move led the Dux into the arms of the French. In March 1513, the Dux and France signed a new alliance treaty in Blois. Four months later and to everyone’s relief, the war-hungry pope, Julius
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II, died. He was succeeded by Leo XII, another member of the Medici family. The League of Blois was created and threatened to overthrow the order imposed after the Holy League’s victory the previous year. This threat was countered with the Perpetual League –an alliance that once again brought together the emperor Maximilian, Ferdinand of Aragon, Henry VIII of England, the Duke of Milan, the Swiss and the Pope.
New French Invasion of Lombardy Spring 1513: the French cross the Alps once again and invade Lombardy. But, surprisingly this time they are stopped and routed by the Swiss at the Battle of Novara. Without any cavalry or artillery support, 8,000 Swiss troops carried out a bold night assault in which they completely crushed the huge French army. The Venetians were every bit as good. The army of the Perpetual League, led by the Viceroy of Naples, won an overwhelming victory over the French forces at the Battle of Vicenza. Attacked on all fronts, France needed and obtained a truce. This opened up a negotiation period in which anything could happen. France and Spain drew closer together. There was even talk of a possible wedding between Louis XII’s daughter and the young Charles of Hapsburg (the future Charles V). This was too much for the Pope. He feared, with reason, a confluence of interests between Ferdinand of Aragon and the king of France. Thanks to the Pope’s mediation, Louis XII (53 years old) married Henry VIII’s young sister (16 years old). What seemed like the beginning of a fruitful relationship between neighbours ended up sending the aged king of France to his grave, victim of the life of excess he and his young wife led.
Francis of Angulema, King of France It was time for the new generation to take over. Francis of Angulema now came to the throne of France. Young, enthusiastic and surrounded by a new and high-spirited generation, the king picked up the Italian Wars just where his predecessors had left off. In 1515, a huge French force of around 50,000 men crossed the Alps and entered Lombardy. Before them lied the Swiss, who had taken control of the duchy of Milan. No one except the king of France was able to drive them out of this region. Encouraged by their leader Cardinal Schinner, the Swiss fought courageously at the Battle of Marignano. In the end, however, they were defeated by Francis I in what was his greatest military victory. Now settled in Milan, Francis was glad to see how first the death of Ferdinand of Aragon and then that of Maximilian of Austria cleared the way for his advance. It was the perfect chance to put France at the head of Christian Europe. This sparked off a fierce political battle between the young Charles I of Spain and the King of France for the position as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire which had been left vacant after the death of Maximilian of Austria. Buying up electoral votes with Spanish gold, Charles of Hapsburg became Charles V of Germany. Francis didn’t spare a minute and resumed the fighting on all fronts.
The Campaign of Pavia The young emperor faced many difficulties. This gave the King of France well-founded hopes of obtaining victory. However, his only problem was that he had made himself too many enemies. In Italy, his army suffered a humiliating defeat at Bicoc25
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Spanish stradiots and genitors prepare for battle. The Imperial cavalry was mostly light, which contrasted with the heavy French gendarmerie.
defeated, the Imperial forces quickly withdrew from the duchy of Milan. In their retreat they left behind a strong garrison in Pavia that was going to be used to slow down French movements. Meanwhile, Charles V’s army reorganised and prepared for the counteroffensive. After occupying Milan and taking control of the entire Duchy, Francis marched on Pavia and subjected it to a fierce siege. Inside, the Spaniard Antonio de Leyva resisted the assault with a large garrison of around 6,000 Spanish, Italian and German troops. The siege went on for a few months. This gave the Imperial forces time to reinforce their ranks and prepare for battle. At the same time as the Imperial army regained their strength, the French forces dwindled substantialTHE BATTLE OF PAVIA ly. When Frundsberg’s 12,000 landsknechts reached Italy, the The description of the Battle of Pavia given in this article is Marquis of Pescara finally took the offensive. He did so before based on some of the Spanish chronicles of the period. It is his huge army, who had yet to be paid, could split up again or mainly inspired by the accounts of Friar Juan de Oznayo, who desert to the enemy. stood at the side of Marquis of Pescara’s arquebusiers during As they reached the battlefield outside of Pavia, the Imthe entire battle. Here he witnessed firsthand most of the perial troops fortified their positions to defend themselves events of the battle that we give below. from the fearsome French artillery. As the days passed, it In 1524, Francis I entered Italy in pursuit of the Imperial became clear to the Imperials that it was impossible for army that had unsuccessfully invaded Provence. Completely them to give battle to Francis. The Spanish infantry, equipped with two-handed swords or sword and buckler, ready to penetrate the French troops were well entrenched enemy pikes. and didn’t have the slightest intention of leaving their positions to fight on the battlefield. An attack against this defence would have simply been suicide. Faced with the task of finding a way to force their enemy out of their fortifications, the commander in chief of the Imperial army, the Marquis of Pescara, decided to make a detour and attack through the huge walled park of Mirabelllo. The king of France had set up camp in the park and certainly didn’t expect the Imperial troops to attack from this side. At midnight on 23 February 1525, a large group of sappers from the Imperial army began to make three openings in the front of ca at the hands of Spanish and German forces. Soon France would take the defensive on all fronts. The Imperial forces now attempted to invade France from Lombardy. Charles V’s army invaded the region of Provence. The attack ended up being a real disaster. They were able to reach Marseilles, but the siege turned into a nightmare. Harassed and chased during their retreat, they were barely able to make it back to the duchy of Milan. From this moment on, the Imperial army disbanded and Francis took over the reins of the operations.
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the wall that surrounded the park. The openings were far from the French positions. They thought that they could surprise the French with their sudden appearance on the battlefield. Unfortunately for the Imperials, breaching the park wall and getting inside was more difficult than they expected. The French had been alerted and had enough time to organise their troops and strategy for the battle. When the first Spanish and Italian squares were able to get through the wall and enter the park, the French had practically deployed for the encounter and had decided the tactic they were going to use. At that moment, Francis began to deploy more than 30 heavy artillery pieces, plus many more smaller-calibre pieces. This battery was his main tactical weapon against the Imperials. Thanks to the technique they had developed, the French were able to move and aim their heavy artillery relatively quickly. That, perhaps, was what most surprised the Marquis of Pescara. He surely expected his adversary’s batteries to still be positioned next to Pavia.
The French Camp
decided to aim the guns crossways after studying the Imperial’s line of advance. The king deployed his light cavalry and gendarmerie next to him. Although perhaps a little too far away then recommended, he deployed a group of some 4,000 German landsknechts from Gueldres under the command of Suffolk (Richard De la Pole) and part of the French infantry –some 2,000 Gascon and Béarnaise troops. The second group that manoeuvred on the far right was made up of Fleurange’s Swiss troops. There were between 3,000 and 5,000 men in all. These were by far the French army’s best troops. Their right flank was protected by a corps of light cavalry, around 500 cavalrymen under the command of Tiercelin. The third group acted as the rearguard and, at the same time, maintained the siege on Pavia. They had around 10,000 men positioned in various bastions and entrenchments. Their core was made up of a unit of Swiss led by Montmorency. If there was a need, these troops could reach the battlefield quickly.
The Imperial Deployment
Given the circumstances and the lack of time, the French deployment was a bit haphazard. Their biggest mistake The Imperial advance column went through the wood that covwas their failure to establish a unified battle line. As we ered most of this part of the park. When the French lines were will see below, this shortcoming played a big part in the detected, the column began to deploy in front of the enemy. At outcome of the encounter. Their line this moment, Pescara himself led a The chronicler estimated that at was made up of three different comunit of Spanish troops towards the hill one point the arquebusiers fired bat groups. The most powerful group on top of which was the castle of was positioned next to the king. Mirabello. This was a very important between 3,000 and 4,000 There were 3,600 cavalrymen, tactical position. From here, he had a projectiles at the compact among which were the famous genclear view of the battlefield and could darmerie (their knights), around 900 also surprise the French from the side landsknecht squares. men which some of the Spanish if they launched an attack. chronicles refer to as the old catafracts –the French nobilThe Imperial army’s exposed battle line began to suffer the ity’s finest whose ranks included more than seventy effects of the devastating fire from Francis’ artillery. The caprinces and great noblemen. In this area, they deployed sualties inflicted on the Imperial columns were relatively serithe above mentioned artillery, which according to the ous (at the end of the day, they suffered around 600 losses). sources, was commanded by a Gascon -the expert and vetCaught off guard and helpless, the Imperial troops had to pull eran soldier, Galliot de Genouillac. From this position, he back a few metres. They tried to take advantage of the terGerman landsknechts, main source of the German mercenaries which made up a large part of the Imperial infantry.
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Frundsberg, the loyal German, kept any Spanish arquebusier he came across just in case. He even personally tied their arms together in order to take them to reinforce his own units of shooters. By doing this, he was able to get up to 30 Spanish arquebusiers who gladly agreed to stay alongside the old German that all the Spanish troops appreciated.
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It must be said that there was a considerable number of units from Naples serving in the Spanish armies. Consequently, it is hard to distinguish between these troops and the Spanish. Many of their feats of arms either went unnoticed or, as during this battle, were mistaken for Spanish deeds.
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ing any further. It also exhausted the fighting power of the French cavalrymen, who, despite their victory, must have suffered a considerable number of casualties. The only resistance the Swiss came across were the few pieces of light artillery that the Spanish troops had situated in that area. The Spanish began to use this battery against the Swiss, who were belting their usual cry of victory: France, France! They were certain that they had won the day’s fighting. And they were quite right. Victims of their leaders’ indecision in that crucial moment, the Imperial battle line was still pinned down by Francis’ artillery fire.
The Moment of Truth
rain’s uneven ground so as to minimise the damage caused by the French artillery fire as much as possible. During those initial moments of confusion, Fleurange’s troops, certainly acting according to a predetermined plan, advanced uncontrollably alongside Tiercelin’s light cavalry towards the opening through which the Imperial forces had entered. If they manoeuvred quickly enough they could surprise Pescara’s rear at a time in which his forces were pinned down on the terrain by the sustained fire from the French batteries. As we will see, this was a difficult moment of indecision for the Imperials.
The First Clashes Fate would have it the French light cavalry and part of the Swiss troops heading for the breach in the wall ran into the infantry unit from Naples that had fallen behind and was still marching through this sector. Once again, the discipline and cohesion of the magnificent troops in the service of Charles prevented a disaster. As Captain Papacoda, commander of the Italian unit, was weighing up the possibility of falling back to a nearby poplar grove to avoid making contact with the enemy cavalry, he was reprimanded by one of his second lieutenants: “…the emperor had paid you many years for a day like today; and, therefore, your duty is to stay right where you are, if you don’t be certain that you will be the first person I jab with my pike”. Obviously, the Italian captain held his position, prepared for the worst. The clash was terrible. The troops from Naples fought bravely but were unable to avoid being annihilated. According to the chronicler, this encounter, although it ended in an Imperial defeat, prevented the French from advanc30
The Viceroy of Naples, Lannoy, in command of the Spanish heavy cavalry, noticed Fleurange’s advance. Caught up in the confusion, he sent word of this to Pescara –remember that Pescara was positioned at Mirabello: “the best thing to do was to take cover in the moat of Mirabello and wait for the rest of the troops to come; that way, we will be safe from the French artillery and able to calmly assess our possible courses of action”. When the Marquis of Pescara read the Viceroy’s letter, he sent him the order to take his cavalry and to charge immediately against the French positions. Meanwhile, Pescara began to retreat. He abandoned his position at Mirabello and returned to the centre. He ordered his cavalrymen to dismount and placed them next to the infantry. The Viceroy, in disbelief, sent another letter to Pescara recommending that the best thing would be to withdraw to Mirabello. Once again, Pescara firmly ordered him to attack the French positions. Pescara knew that the Viceroy’s idea was completely ridiculous. If they were to retreat to the moats of Mirabello, they would be quickly surrounded by their enemies. After encircling them, they could reposition their batteries and pound them, if possible, even more than they had up to that moment. After sending the order, he got on his horse, drew his sword and led his Spanish troops (among which were 800 arquebusiers) on the advance. His intention was to join forces with the Viceroy and attack the French positions together. Just as Viceroy Lannoy received the order, he saw, much to his dismay, how the Marquis of Pescara had already begun the offensive on his own. He didn’t reply. He only made the sign of the cross over himself and prepared for what was practically a suicidal charge against the enemy positions.
The Decisive Moment The Spanish heavy cavalry (around 400 men-at-arms out of 1,600 cavalrymen in all) led by the Viceroy of Naples (the Flemish Lannoy), began to trot and to deploy in good order towards the French positions with their lances at the ready. On their right they were supported by the squadrons of light cavalry (500 men) commanded by the Marquis of Civita Saint Angelo. Enraged, the King of France pushed his artillery to fire more quickly. Before them, the Imperial advance had begun. However, that amazing spectacle was too much for the impatient and confident Francis. He decided to stop concentrating
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on the artillery and to prepare his magnificent cavalry for a counterattack. This was the crucial moment of the battle. Fleurange held his position at the Imperial rear, while the King, forgetting about any tactical considerations, decided to charge against the Spanish. By doing this, the King came between the Spanish troops and his own artillery. As the French batteries were pounding the ill-fated attackers, they were forced to cease fire because of the king’s foolish move. The commander-in-chief, seeing a heroic and magnificent victory over his detested enemy within his grasp, gave up his greatest and clearest advantage. The mistake made at Crecy and Azincourt was repeating itself. As we will see, this time it wasn’t the archers, but the even deadlier arquebusiers who ended up destroying the proud and arrogant noble cavalry of the Kingdom of France. The French cavalry deployed in four lines for the attack as their artillery silenced. The gendarmeries forming the front line charged immediately after. The superior strength of the French made a swift victory over the weaker Spanish formation very likely. However, Pescara was fully aware of his possibilities. He detached a veteran, captain Quesada, at the head of 200 elite shooters. They quickly marched towards the flank of the area where the French and Imperial troops were fighting. During the clash between the French gendarmerie and the Spanish heavy cavalry, the Spanish were repelled and quickly driven back. It wasn’t long before they were pushed back to where they had started the attack. Here, they began to receive help from some of the infantry units. But, it wasn’t enough to hold back the French drive. Francis I was sure that victory was his. However, he didn’t realise that his cavalry didn’t have any infantry support until his charge reached the line of the wood. Frundsberg sent a group of landsknechts to protect two companies of Spanish arquebusiers led by Alonso de Córdoba and Rodrigo de Ripalda. When Francis I was about to react, these troops entered the brawl and began to knock down, one after another, the King’s brave knights.
Quesada’s arquebusiers, now positioned on the flank of the French line, began to open heavy fire on the French units in formation behind the fighting and that had yet to enter the battle. They also concentrated their fire on the French troops they could identify in the mêlée. The white crosses Francis I’s knights wore on their uniforms made them easy targets. They were also easily distinguished from the white shirts that Pescara ordered the whole army (including the knights) to put on before the battle. Pescara most likely did this to help his arquebusiers fire more accurately. To support his cavalry’s assault, Francis ordered the far-off squares of Suffolk’s German landsknechts to advance on the right flank towards the Spanish infantry. In the distance, the Marquis of Pescara saw the Englishman’s infantry advancing. He tricked his men into believing that the squares advancing across the plain were in fact Leyva’s men who had left Pavia to enter the fighting. The 2,500 men of the Spanish infantry happily advanced towards who they thought were their comrades. With this manoeuvre Pescara moved away from Frundsberg’s landsknechts that were positioned at the Imperial rear and that were getting ready to enter the skirmish to support the Viceroy’s cavalry. When Pescara’s troops realised that who they were advancing towards was in fact the enemy, they received the order to halt. Then the large contingent of arquebusiers (600) moved forward, well prepared for the mêlée. Many of them had four or five projectiles in their mouth and two or three lit fuses in their hand in order to charge and fire as quickly as possible. Pescara then told all of his men to kneel down and await the order to rise and attack. Meanwhile, Suffolk’s men stopped and closed ranks at the same time as their vanguard of two hundred shooters and arquebusiers advanced a few more metres and opened fire on the Spanish soldiers. Luckily for the Spanish troops, the technique used by the enemy shooters was not very effective. Although it may now seem strange, they fired their
The arquebus, along with the pike, showed its devastating destructive power throughout the battle.
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Seeing the withdrawal and that Suffolk’s Franco-German inarquebuses, which were supported on rests, without aimfantry was fleeing, the King was in need of the support of ing. Since the Spanish infantry was squatting, the hail of his infantry. He got the order to attack the Swiss to Fleuprojectiles went over their heads and barely caused any range as best he could. Francis counted on the help of damage. As usual, the German shooters immediately fell these troops in which he had put all of his faith. He thought back to take cover behind the pikes while they reloaded. that they would be able to reduce the tremendous pressure This was the moment Pescara was waiting for. Shouting, his knights were resisting. Supposedly, the Imperial forces “Santiago Spain, get those that are fleeing!” the fighting bewould pull back when threatened by Fleurange’s advance togan. The 600 Spanish arquebusiers stood up at once and wards the flank occupied by Pescara. Fleurange had a hard began to unleash a hail of bullets on the German formatime getting his squares to move since the Swiss weren’t tions that more or less resisted the assault. too interested in going back into to the mêlée. But, when We must point out that the characteristics which made they finally went back in, they did so with determination. the Spanish arquebusiers famous during those times During their movement, they passed by the Imperial posiwere their firing capacity (they fired quicker than their adtions occupied by Frundsberg’s landversaries) and accuracy. These two At first, the Marquis of Pescara sknechts. Once the Swiss advance characteristics together made them the Spanish army’s main tactical grabbed a heavy lance to fight with. was within range of the shooters lined up next to the German pikeweapon, and, by far, the deadliest But, he found it awkward and men, it was pounded by the heavy of them all. They fired so quickly at the Ger- immediately threw it to the ground. fire released by the arquebusiers mans that they were soon decimat- In the end, he pulled out his sword. from Spain and Naples. The German pikes acted as a cover for these ed. Suffolk’s squares began to pull troops, who, in turn, provided cover for the Germans. back little by little towards the encampment even without According to the Spanish chroniclers, the Swiss then ran into having engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Unfortunately for a unit of Italian mercenaries that probably had come to reinthe troops from Gueldres, during their bloody retreat they force them. They joined forces and moved together towards ran into the side of Quesada’s company of arquebusiers the position occupied by the Spanish troops. That day, luck that was returning from the area where they had just maswasn’t on the side of the Swiss. To their dismay, as they sacred the French cavalry. From this position, Quesada’s neared their camp, they fell into the hands of the vanguard of company sprayed the Germans with yet another hail of Spanish arquebusiers led by Pescara himself. bullets. This action scattered the German troops and put At this stage, Francis I’s cavalry was practically doomed. In them to flight. the great battle being fought on the plain, the French cavalrymen had been dismounted and killed by the German pikemen, THE CAPTURE OF THE KING OF FRANCE the Spanish infantry and the accurate and repetitive arqueFrancis I was in a serious situation. After the initial victoribusiers’ fire. The arquebusiers agreed beforehand to finish off ous impulse, his cavalrymen were first stopped and then all of the French troops they came across while they adovercome. The Imperial army had concentrated their landvanced. Many French nobles who had already surrendered to sknechts, arquebusiers and all of their cavalry on them. The gendarmerie, Francis I’s heavy cavalry, was the pride of the army and was made up of the elite of French society.
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their opponents were killed cold-bloodedly when the arquebusiers found them. This attitude was adopted when Pescara informed his men just before the battle what they were up against. According to the Marquis, Francis had given the order that no Spanish prisoners were to be taken. His men were furious and their response was not surprising: it was to be an all-out war. After the defeat of Suffolk’s squares, Marquis of Pescara’s Spanish troops reached the positions of the French artillery and wiped out their crews and defenders. The mêlée had broken up the Spanish formations, but that did not stop them from trudging on to destroy and silence the batteries for good. Now confident, they were completely surprised when Fleurange’s Swiss squares suddenly came out of the thick morning fog. As mentioned above, the king had given Fleurange the order to advance on this area. The sudden appearance of these men forced the Spanish to pull back and reorganise quickly. The Spanish troops’ confused retreat made the Swiss think that victory was near. But, once the Spanish soldiers had regrouped, they formed a new and devastating line of fire that stopped their enemies in their tracks. Soon, more and more arquebusiers joined forces with the vanguard and opened fire on the Swiss. In order to continue their advance, the Swiss waited, with a mixture of discipline and fear, for the firing to stop. However, the Swiss ended up falling to pieces. They turned to their right and withdrew from the battlefield, heading in the direction of the River Tesino. After the battle was over, Francis I accused the Swiss of being cowards. He said that the Swiss and the deadly and unceasing fire from the Spanish arquebusiers were responsible for their defeat. During the battle, the King of France never knew why his generals, the Duke of Alenzon and the Duke of Montmorency –who were in command of the siege on Pavia- hadn’t brought the reinforcements that he had surely asked them for. He would know the answer after he surrendered. Antonio de Leyva, the superb general in command of the garrison under siege at Pavia, had carried out a crushing sortie at the front of his men. The French in that area were totally surprised by the Spanish men, who proceeded to chase and kill the French left, right and centre. Informed of the disaster, Alenzon decided to beat a comfortable retreat with his detachments. The old and experienced Montmorency was unable to save himself and was killed in the mêlée. The biggest disaster, however, occurred after Leyva’s forces destroyed the pontoon bridge that joined the two banks of the Tesino. The thousands of men, mostly Swiss, who were fleeing from the adversaries, fell into its icy waters. It was all over. The French camp had been taken, their artillery silenced, their reserves scattered or wiped out and their knights practically annihilated after the encounter with the Imperial infantry. After seeing that Fleurange had been defeated, Francis I considered the battle lost and tried to escape. He was riding practically by himself until his horse was shot down by an arquebusier. Juan de Urbieta, a mounted nobleman from Biscay who formed part of the Catalonian Hugo de Moncada’s squadron, placed his sword on Francis’s side and advised him to surrender. The King then recognised his defeat. Shortly after, all of the battle’s main figures showed up -the Marquis of Pescara, the Marquis del Vasto, Lannoy, Bourbon, Alarcón... They all wanted to see or appear before the King of France. Francis I had to bear the humiliation of seeing how the tunic he was wearing was torn to pieces by the Spanish infantrymen that wanted a memento of that memorable day. On the battlefields at Pavia, these infantrymen forged by fire and sword the myth of the Spanish army’s invincibility. For more than one hundred years this army would dominate European battlefields. Author and maps: Carlos de la Rocha Photographs: Anastasio Jiménez Figures from Bicorne and Renegade From the collection of Javier García Cano
Pavia was such a huge defeat for the French army, and more specifically for their aristocratic heavy cavalry, that it can only be compared to Aguincourt.
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THE BATTLE OF PAVIA SCENARIO FOR WARFARE IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY
O
n 24 February 1525 between six and eight o’clock in the morning, Francis I’s hopes of taking control of the Duchy of Milan were shattered. The account of those two decisive hours is rather confusing. When the next day dawned, the park of Pavia was shrouded in fog. Soon, columns of smoke from the blasts of French guns and Imperial arquebuses would also appear. The rumbling of the cannons would soon be accompanied by the cries of pain of the wounded, the agonizing neighing of dying horses, the roars of those still on their feet and the clash of thousands of arms. If battles are chaotic in themselves, then Pavia was exceptionally frenzied. There’s another obstacle we come up against when designing a scenario based on history. As you have probably imagined, this is that we all know “what happened” and have more or less of an idea about the successes and failures of each side, or at least those that the benefit of hindsight has led us to believe. If we look at, for example, Francis’s charge against the Imperial lines we now know he made a mistake. This tactical error masked the French artillery that was battering the Imperial columns. However, if we consider the events according to the information
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Francis had to carry out his battle plan, then the decision he took makes more sense. Pounded by the guns, the Imperial columns received the order to retreat through the wood in order to then move towards the Imperial left. At the same time, Lannoy’s cavalry and the light horsemen of Civita Sant Angelo advanced to cover this manoeuvre. Some (Italian or German) arquebusiers also followed the Imperial cavalry into the wood. The only thing that the King of France could tell from what he could see was that the Imperial army was withdrawing and that his artillery wasn’t destroying it quickly enough. This makes Friar Juan de Oznayo’s account that the king ordered his artillerymen to increase their rate of fire logical. Under these circumstances, a decisive charge would’ve given him the victory and would’ve destroyed the Imperial army. And if is his infantry led by Lorena and Suffolk had been deployed in a position where they were able to provide support, perhaps he would’ve been right. A joint cavalry and infantry attack could be devastating even against experienced troops -19 years later the French victory at Ceresole (11/04/1544) would prove this. The last stumbling block is the lack of a set of rules capable of reflecting the flexibility of a battle like Pavia. Most
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rules are based on obsolete ideas about warfare at that time and the effectiveness of Renaissance weapons, not to mention those regarding actual tactics or formations. Perhaps the one that best grasps the dynamic of Renaissance wars –better than a lot of “professional” rule sets, is Spanish Fury! This set of rules can be downloaded for free from www.freewargamesrules.co.ok. Unfortunately, it only covers the wars in Flanders and the Wars of Religion in France between 1565 and 1595. However, for this scenario I have opted for a commercial rule set, Warfare in the Age of Discovery, published by Tod Kershner and Dale Wood in 1999. It has some interesting ideas, such as the gradual deterioration of the units’ armour grade to show that soldiers with better armour were deployed in the front lines and, therefore, were the first casualties. It also uses an interesting random troop movement system. As an added extra, WAoD uses the same basing system as DBR. This makes it compatible with the bases you may have prepared for DBR. It comes with several historical orders of battle (Pavia included), but, in my opinion, they could be greatly improved. For example, in the order of battle for Pavia the Swiss are elite troops, which was not the case for this battle. It is true that Francis I exaggerated the number of Swiss troops that defected in order to justify the defeat. But, it also true that after the defeats at Marignano in 1515 and La Bicocca in 1522, the Swiss were no longer the elite shock troops that had terrorized Italy since the end of the XV Century. Giving them a higher morale grade than the landsknechts of the Bande Nera like the authors do is not correct. The scenario only covers the main battle. I have not included the fighting in the northeast area of the park between Stittlich’s squadrons of landsknechts and Fleurange’s Swiss and French coustiliers or Leyva’s sortie at Pavia against Montmorency’s forces. On the other hand, I have taken into account the possibility that the events in
the other areas of the battle would have affected what was happening in the main scenario. I’ve added a short explanation of what each value means so that players can adapt the information given for this scenario to any other rules they may have.
IMPERIAL ORDER OF BATTLE (MAIN BATTLE) WAoD uses a figure ratio of 1 miniature:25 soldiers. Each turn is equivalent to 20 minutes –although for this scenario turns will be 15 minutes each. The terrain scale is 1 inch:25 yards –more or less 9 metres per centimetre. The scenario has been made for a 120x180cm gaming table.
Imperial Leaders Leader rating in WAoD is reflected by a numeric value between 0 (the worst) and 6 (the best). The leaders of each division or of the battle are the Marquis of Pescara, the Duke of Bourbon and Georg von Fründsberg. Del Vasto and Lannoy can command –i.e. give leader ratings to- their respective detachments, but they must be activated at the same time as the division of Fründsberg (del Vasto) and Bourbon (Lannoy). Marquis of Pescara Commander-in-Chief Duke of Bourbon Marquis del Vasto Georg von Fründsberg Viceroy Lannoy
Leader Leader Leader Leader Leader
Rating Rating Rating Rating Rating
5 5 3* 4(5)** 3***
*The Marquis del Vasto and his detachment can’t move until turn 4 or until he has a French unit in his line of sight. From the 4th turn on, he can act as part of Fründsberg’s division. **For Fründsberg apply the leader rating given in brackets when he’s in command of a landsknecht unit in melee against
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the landsknechts of the Bande Nera at the service of France or against the Swiss. In any other case, apply the normal leader rating. ***He must be deployed as the commander of the Cavalry lancers. In WAoD the morale grade for units is determined by a numeric value between 0 (the worst) and 4 (the best). The types of troops’ armour include: Unarmoured, 1/2 Armour, 3/4 Armour and Full Armour. These rules assign each unit a formation that is described on a table that comes with the set of rules. The Spanish and landsknecht formations are very similar: the first stand has arquebusiers, followed by four pike stands placed one directly behind the other and a stand of halberdiers/swordsmen (landsknechts) or of skilled swordsmen (Spanish). Even though these formations were more theoretical than real, I decided to respect them for gaming purposes.
Duke of Bourbon’s Division 4 units of Landsknechts, Type: Pikes // Morale Grade: 2 with a morale of 3 and 2 with a morale of 2 // Weapons: Pikes/Arquebuses // Blood Enemies: the Swiss and the landsknechts of the Bande Nera // Formation: 6. Notes for Duke of Bourbon’s Division: It enters after turn 2 as reinforcement. See map for the entry zone.
Lannoy’s Detachment 5 units of Men-at-Arms, Type: Shock Cavalry // Morale Grade: 3 // Armour: Full // Weapons: Light Lance // Formation 10. 4 units of Light Cavalry/Stradiots or Genitors, Type: Light Cavalry // Morale Grade: 2 // Armour: None // Weapons: Light Lance // Formation: 11 // Notes: shields. 36
Notes for Lannoy’s Detachment: this detachment is activated at the same time as the Duke of Bourbon’s Division. As far as the rest is concerned, it acts as an independent division. Lannoy must always be deployed with a unit of Men-atArms.
Marquis of Pescara’s Division 6 units of Spanish Pikes, Type: Pikes // Morale Grade: 1 with a morale of 4, 3 with a morale of 3 and 2 with a morale of 2 // Armour: 3/4 // Weapons: Pikes // Formation: 7 // Notes: the stands of arquebusiers must not be included since they are deployed separately. See the special notes for the Division. 2 units of Landsknechts, Type: Pikes // Morale Grade: 3 // Armour: 3/4 // Weapons: Pikes and Arquebuses // Formation: 6 // Blood Enemies: the Swiss and the landsknechts of the Bande Nera. 3 Arquebusiers, Type: Missile Infantry // Morale Grade: 3 // Armour: None // Weapons: Arquebuses // Formation: 2. See notes. 1 unit of Arquebusiers, Type: Missile Infantry // Morale Grade: 4 // Armour: none // Weapons: Arquebuses // Formation: 2. Special notes for Pescara’s Division: the arquebusiers that have a morale grade of 3 must always be within 10cm and in the line of sight of the Spanish pike units in his division. The unit with a morale grade of 4 can act independently. The units with a morale grade of 3 can disregard the penalty for moving the first time they fire during battle. The unit with a morale grade of 4 can ignore this penalty for the entire battle.
Georg von Fründsberg’s Division 6 units of Landsknechts, Type: Pikes // Morale Grade: 5 with a morale of 3, 1 with a morale of 2 // Armour: 3/4 //
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Weapons: Pikes and Arquebuses // Formation: 6 // Blood Enemies: the Swiss and landsknechts of the Bande Nera. 1 additional unit of Arquebusiers, Type: Missile Infantry // Morale Grade: 3 // Armour: none // Weapons: Arquebuses // Formation: 2. Notes for Fründsberg’s Division: it can enter after turn 2 as reinforcement. See map for the entry zone.
Del Vasto’s Detachment 3 units of Arquebusiers, Type: Missile Infantry // Morale Grade: 1 with a morale of 4, 2 with a morale of 3 // Armour: none // Weapons: Arquebuses // Formation: 2. 6 units of Italian escopeteros, Type: Skirmish // Morale Grade: 1 // Armour: none // Weapons: Arquebuses // Formation: 1. Special notes for Del Vasto’s detachment: this detachment is activated along with Fründsberg’s division. But, during the 1st and 2nd turn it can’t be activated. After turn 3, it can move as normal.
FRENCH ORDER OF BATTLE (MAIN BATTLE) French Leaders Francis I** Leader Rating 5 (Commander-in-Chief) Count of Suffolk Leader Rating 3 Duke of Lorena Leader Rating 2 La Pallise Leader Rating* Fleurange Leader Rating 3 (Optional. See notes.) *La Pallise is considered to be part of Francis’ circle (you don’t have to include another officer stand). At the beginning 38
of the activation of the King’s division, throw 1D6. With a result of 4 or + La Pallise will give a +1 to Francis I’s leader rating during the activation. If you roll a 6, La Pallise is considered wounded or dead and no longer affects the game after this activation. **If the unit with Francis I is defeated in a melee or flees, throw 1D6. If a 3 or + is rolled, then the King is considered captured. If a 6 is rolled, a Spanish arquebusier will have killed him with one deadly shot. Optional: Fleurange commanded the French division that was in Torre del Gallo and that was formed with 4,000 Swiss and around 1,000 light cavalry horsemen. After hearing the movements of the Imperials in the northern part of the park, Fleurange decided on his own initiative to move his troops towards the Porta Pescarina. But, despite the initial success of the French, Stittlich’s landsknechts and the Italians were able to first pass them and to then put them to flight. What would have happened if this wasn’t the case and Fleurange had arrived in time to save Francis and attack the Imperial rearguard? If both players agree, they can represent this what-if situation. The French player can throw 1D6 after the 5th turn of the game. If he rolls a 6, Fleurange obtained victory and can move his detachment onto the gaming terrain through any point on the northern half of the table in the Imperial deployment zone.
Francis I’s Division 6 units of Gendarmeries, Type: Shock Cavalry // Morale Grade: 4 // Armour: Horse // Weapons: Heavy Lance // Formation: 10. 12 units of “Archers”, Type: Shock Cavalry // Morale Grade: 3 // Armour: 3/4 // Weapons: Light Lance. // Formation: 10.
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3 units of Shooters, Type: Missile Infantry // Morale Grade: 1 // Armour: none // Weapons: Arquebuses // Formation: 2 Special notes: Suffolk’s division moves onto the board after turn 2. See map for the entry zone.
Fleurange’s Detachment 4 units of Swiss, Type: Pikes // Morale Grade: 3 // Armour: 3/4 // Weapons: Pikes // Formation: 4 4 units of Stradiots, Type: Light Cavalry // Morale Grade: 2 // Armour: 3/4 // Weapons: Light Lances // Formation: 11 2 units of Mounted Arquebusiers, Type: Missile Cavalry // Morale Grade: 1 // Armour: none // Weapons: Arquebuses // Formation: 11 Special notes for Fleurange’s detachment: after the turn in which it enters the gaming table, it is considered to be part of the king’s division.
SPECIAL RULES FOR THE SCENARIO -The scenario lasts 12 turns (from 06.00 until 08.45 or until one of the armies flees). -Victory: the French win a decisive victory if they are able to put 5 units of Stradiots, Type: Light Cavalry // Morale Grade: 2 // Armour: 1/2 // Weapons: Light Lance // Formation: 11 // Shields 10 pieces of artillery. Civilian artillerymen. Technical Level: 6. They can pivot and shoot without being penalised. 4 pieces are heavy artillery and the rest are medium artillery. Special notes for Francis I’s Division: the king must always be assigned to a unit of Gendarmeries. If there are Imperial cavalry or arquebusier units in the line of sight and there are no Imperial pike units in the French cavalry’s line of sight, the division must advance towards the former and try to attack the Imperial cavalry. Designer’s note: the restriction for the pikes may seem strange, but in 1525 they would have learned that cavalry couldn’t defeat a pike square by itself. At Pavia, Francis didn’t know that there were Imperial pike forces in good order –we have seen that he thought that they were retreating. If he had been aware of how close Pescara’s and Bourbon’s troops were, he probably wouldn’t have launched the fateful attack.
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Lorena’s Division 5 Landsknechts Bande Nera, Type: Pikes // Morale Grade: 1 with a morale of 4 and the rest with a morale of 3 // Armour: 3/4 // Weapons: Pikes and Arquebuses // Formation: 6 // Blood Enemies: Imperial landsknechts 3 units of Swiss, Type: Pikes // Morale Grade: 3 // Armour: 3/4 // Weapons: Pikes and Arquebuses // Formation: 5 // Blood Enemies: Landsknechts. Special notes: Lorena’s division moves onto the gaming table after turn 2. See map for the entry zone.
Suffolk’s Division 4 units of French Pikes, Type: Pikes // Morale Grade: 1 // Armour: 3/4 // Weapons: Pikes // Formation: 4
Front Rank Figurines The Granary Banbury Road Lower Boddington Daventry Northants NN11 6XY (UK) Tel +44 (0)1327 262720 Fax +44 (0)1327 260569 28mm ranges: 100 Years War War of the Spanish Succession
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the Imperial army to flight. They win a marginal victory if the Imperial army has at least one more division than the French in flight at the end of the battle. Any other result is a marginal victory for the Imperial army, except if King Francis is captured or killed. In this case, it is a decisive victory. Designer’s note: seeing them coming wouldn’t have helped the French at all since the Imperials could have got provisions to Pavia. This almost surely would have forced the French to return to their bases and to lose all of the benefits obtained at the campaign of 1524. I haven’t considered the possibility of a draw. There wasn’t one. The side that failed would’ve at least had to retreat –a withdrawal was usually a disaster for a XVI-century army. If the French won, Pavia would’ve fallen, most of the Imperial army would’ve disbanded and the Duchy of Milan would’ve augmented Francis of Angouleme’s titles –and his coffers. -Lines of sight: visibility was very bad during the entire battle except in the final moments. To reflect this, any enemy unit more than 50cm (or 30cm if it’s in wooded terrain) away is out of the line of sight and can’t be attacked or shot at. After turn 5, this distance is increased 10cm each turn until turn 8 (not inclusive). From this turn on, there are no restrictions applied to the lines of sight. -Initial deployment: see map. -Terrain: all units except for heavy cavalry can cross the stream without being penalised. If the heavy cavalry cross the stream, they will lose 1D6cm and will become disorganised. The wood is not very dense and doesn’t affect infantry
or light cavalry movement. Apply the light forest rules to the heavy cavalry. -Capture/death of Francis I: if Francis is killed or captured, all of the French units on the battlefield that are not fleeing must immediately throw 1D6. If the roll is 3 or greater, the unit flees immediately. All Imperial units will also roll 1D6. If the result is 5 or higher, they can add 1 point to their morale grade (up to a maximum of 4). Designer’s note: I know this is a rather artificial way of representing the effects of the capture of Francis I. In reality, when he fell into the hands of the Imperial army, the French had already lost the battle.
CONCLUSION The benefit of hindsight is very misleading. For us, the outcome at Pavia can seem like the natural consequence of technical superiority and more skilful Imperial commanding. This is far from the truth. The French had several chances to defeat the Imperial army. A combination of luck, courage, boldness and appropriate decisions taken in the right moment is what ultimately tipped the balance in favour of the Imperial forces. But, during three hours of terror and chaos, the future of the Hapsburgs in Italy hung by a thread. Author: Antonio Carrasco Photographs: Anastasio Jiménez Figures from Javier García Cano’s collection
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BIBLIOGRAPHY ON PAVIA Putting together a list of books on Pavia is not an easy task. Despite the great importance of the battle and the huge number of existing sources, for some inexplicable reason there are few works devoted to it. That’s why we’ve had to include more general books that at least make some reference to the historic context, the campaign and the battle of Pavia.
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lbi de la Cuesta, Julio. De Pavía a Rocroi. Los tercios de infantería española en los siglos XVI y XVII. Madrid, Balkan Editores, 1999 // This is a very useful reference for those wanting to know about the peculiarities of the organisation and tactics of the Spanish tercios. However, despite the title, the text doesn’t touch very much on the Italian Wars. Spanish. Cadenas y Vicent, Vicente de: La herencia imperial de Carlos V en Italia: El Milanesado. Madrid, Instituto Salazar y Castro (CSIC), 1978 // This study traces the detailed history of the Duchy of Milan from its origins to its final acquisition by Emperor Charles V. As usual in this collection, the author’s text is accompanied and supported by material taken from the large number of documents from the period. However, these documents are in Latin and Old Italian which means that they are inaccessible to most of us. The book has 500 pages, though about 40% of it is support material. This proportion is the same in the rest of the author’s books that are given below. Spanish. Cadenas y Vicent, Vicente de: La República de Siena y su anexión a la Corona de España. Madrid, Instituto Salazar y Castro (CSIC), 1985 // After a review of the history of this Italian Republic, this work provides a detailed analysis of the events that led Sienna to lose its independence and to fall under the control of the Crown. 170 pages including the additional support material. Spanish. Cadenas y Vicent, Vicente de: El protectorado de Carlos V en Génova: la “condotta” de Andrea Doria. Madrid, Instituto Salazar y Castro (CSIC), 1977 // History of Genoa that centres, as the rest of the series, on the end of the XV Century and the beginning of the XVI. This is a key book for visualising what took
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place during France’s final attempt to win back the territory of Naples and for understanding the reasons behind their tremendous failure. This defeat embittered the final years of the life of Francis I and forced France to abandon her territorial ambitions in Milan and Naples forever. 290 pages including the additional support material. Spanish. Cadenas y Vicent, Vicente de: El saco de Prato: La primera reposición de los Médicis en Florencia y la presencia de España en el Milanesado. Madrid, Instituto Salazar y Castro (CSIC), 1982 // One event that aroused great interest in its day was the sacking of the city of Prato in Florence by the Holy League’s Hispano-German troops. One of the objectives of this coalition was to put the control of Florence back in the hands of the Medicis as a favour for Pope Leo X, one more member of this famous, powerful and influential Tuscan family. 140 pages including the additional support material. Spanish. Cadenas y Vicent, Vicente de: El fin de la República Florentina: segunda reposición de los Médicis en Florencia por los Ejércitos españoles. Madrid, Instituto Salazar y Castro (CSIC), 1976 // The story of what took place before, during and after the Medicis took control of Florence for the second time thanks to the army of Charles V. 400 pages including the additional support material. Spanish. Cadenas y Vicent, Vicente de: El saco de Roma de 1527 por el Ejército de Carlos V. Madrid, Instituto Salazar y Castro (CSIC), 1976 // This study is set in Italy’s complicated political picture at the end of the XV Century and the beginning of the XVI. It explains how the extremely Catholic king of Spain ended up waging war against the Pope and entering Rome in his pursuit. 430 pages including the additional support material. Spanish.
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Chase, Kenneth. Firearms. A Global History to 1700. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003. // Strictly speaking, this book doesn’t deal with the Battle of Pavia. Nonetheless, it’s a good work for understanding the historical context and the reasons why firearms were more successful than the more traditional long-distance combat methods. English. Díaz-Plaja, Fernando: Historia de España en sus documentos. Madrid, Cátedra, 1988 // For this work, the author has compiled hundreds of official documents -letters, reports, records- of the history of Spain throughout the entire century. Very interesting and an indispensable reference. Spanish. Garnier, Jacques Dictionnaire Perrin des guerres et des batailles d l’histoire de France. Paris, Editions Perrin, 2004. // As its title indicates, this is a general dictionary of the battles and campaigns of the history of France ranging from the Celtic invasions of Italy in 399 BC to the intervention in Kosovo in 1998-1999. The period that interests us is covered in several entries. Apart from the specific entry on Pavia, other interesting entries include those pertaining to the battles of Fornovo (1495) Ravenna (1512) Bicocca (1522) and Cerissoles (1544). It also contains descriptions of the Ita-
lian campaigns, from the French intervention in Milan in 1494 to the Peace of Ardres (1546) which gave the French control of Savoy as long as they refrained from being involved in Italy’s affairs. The complicated succession of Francis I and the beginning of the Wars of Religion were decisive in France’s agreement to this treaty. French. Hacket, Francis: Francisco I. Barcelona. Planeta de Agostini, 1995 // An old biography first published in Spain in 1941. Despite this, it’s still the best and most detailed work you can find on the life of Francis I, at least in Spanish. Spanish. Hall, Bert S.: Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe. Baltimore, The John Hopkins University Press, 1997 // I must confess that this book is among my favourites. It analyses the Battle of Pavia from the viewpoint of the role that firearms played in its development. The author’s vision of what occurred and especially of the defeat of the French cavalry seems very accurate to me, especially in the light of Friar Juan de Oznayo’s account of the battle. However, Hall’s research doesn’t centre on Pavia, but on the evolution of weapons and their role on the battlefield in Renaissance Europe with special emphasis on the Italian Wars. English.
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Kostam, Angus: Pavia 1525. The Climax of the Italian Wars. Oxford, Osprey Publishing, 1996. Campaign Series nº 44. // Like all of the books from the Osprey series, this book has the virtue of providing a concise summary and good maps of a battle whose development was especially complicated. However, it doesn’t take into account the Spanish accounts of the battle and the text is written from a French viewpoint. So, it gives the impression that the Spanish Imperials were mere guests of stone into which the heroic charges of Francis I and his nobles crashed. Since it’s the only and most accessible story on the battle, I must recommend it. English. Martínez de Campos, C.: España Bélica, s. XVI. Apogeo y primeras grietas. Madrid, Aguilar, 1966 // I imagine this collection is out of print. However, you can still find it in some specialised used book stores. Its pages provide a magnificent overview of the military events that took place during the first half of the XVI Century. Spanish. Mesa, Eduardo de: Los Tercios en las campañas del Mediterráneo s. XVI (Italia). Madrid, Almena, 2001 // This book, from the Soldados y Batalla collection, is divided into two main sections. The first concentrates on the tercios and explains the configuration, organisation, tactics, formations, etc. of the
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Great Captain’s “proto-tercios”. The second looks at the campaigns and includes a section devoted to Pavia. Like the rest of the books from this series, it contains excellent colour plates that show soldiers from the period, a very useful guide for miniature painters. Spanish. Oman, Sir Charles: A History of the Art of War in Sixteenth Century. London, Greenhill Press, 1991. // This is the reprint of Oman’s 1937 classic…with all that that entails. English. Tracy, James D.: Emperor Charles V, Impresario of War. Campaign Strategy, International Finance and Domestic Politics. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002. // An interesting analysis of the campaigns of Emperor Charles. This work explains the events that brought about the campaigns and is not a straightforward account of the operations. It’s not a book for the general public and may be a bit “heavy” for those of you that only have a superficial interest in the period. In spite of this, I believe its inclusion in this bibliography is justified because it’s one of the few accessible works that covers the reign of Charles instead of his son’s more popular reign. English. Authors: Carlos de la Rocha and Antonio Carrasco
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46-47 Marcas ingles
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MINIATURE BRANDS FOR THE ITALIAN WARS 28mm Landsknecht gun crew. Wargames Foundry.
Although the Renaissance is not one of wargamers’ favourite periods, it still has quite a lot followers and companies that design figures for it. The explanation for this is quite simple: no other age has uniforms as spectacular as this one –from the landsknechts’ colourful slashed garments to the gendarmes’ full armour.
T
his is what has led many wargamers, collectors or history lovers to form miniature Renaissance armies. This demand has driven a lot brands to embark on the venture of designing figures for recreating these armies and of tackling the problems of creating such a varied and complex range. If we consider the Renaissance as being the period more or less between 1450 and 1550, then a lot of these brands don’t just confine themselves to Western Europe (the Burgundy Wars, War of Granada, the Italian Wars); they also usually have ranges for Eastern Europe (Poles, Hungarians, Bohemians) and even Asia (Ottoman Turks, Persians). However, for this article we are going to stick to the ranges that are directly related to this month’s dossier, the Italian Wars.
28MM We kick off our article with Old Glory 28mm. This important brand has by far the most complete range of figures for recreating this period. In their catalogue we find three main series: -Landsknechts, which includes landsknechts (light and heavy pikemen, halberdiers, dopplesoldner, arquebusiers, commands and artillery crews), stradiots, gendarmes and Spanish (genitors, bucklers, pikemen, arquebusiers and crossbowmen). -Swiss & Italian, which has Swiss (light and heavy pikemen, halberdiers, arquebusiers, mounted and foot crossbowmen and commands) and Italians (gendarmes, infantrymen, mounted arquebusiers and artillery crews). -Artillery, which covers five different gun models (culverine, light guns, organ guns, guns-Burgundian carriage and horsedrawn guns).
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Figures are consistent with Old Glory’s characteristic style –a nice finish and a wide variety of models with action- and movement-packed poses. In fact, I believe this range, as a whole, is one of Old Glory’s best and their most attractive item. Their figures are sold in bags of 30 foot, 12 mounted or 2 guns at a below-average price. www.oldgloryminiatures.com. Next up is Wargames Foundry. Even though they only offer their landsknecht range for the Italian Wars, it is spectacular. The flamboyant garments of the period meet the genius of their designers, the Perry Brothers, to produce one of the most extraordinary figure ranges ever seen. These miniatures follow their creators’ usual style: very fine details, elegant movements and exhaustive historic precision. It’s too bad though that the range only has landsknechts (light and heavy pike15mm Landsknecht pikemen. Venexia Miniatures.
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Landsknecht (RNL). Both ranges complement each other and provide a huge number of references for every type of soldier from any nation involved in the conflict: Spanish, French, Italian, German landsknechts, Swiss, stradiots, etc. Their figures are sold in packs of 8 foot and 4 mounted (6 and 3, respectively, if they are commands) at an average price. You can also purchase special army packs designed for DBR. www.essexminiatures.co.uk. Venexia, a high-quality Italian company, has a small range of figures for the Renaissance in their catalogue that they are in the midst of enlarging. For now they have 3 gendarme and 6 landsknecht references, including commands, pikemen, halberdiers and arquebusiers. The figures are nicely finished and have very dynamic movement. They are sold in packs of 4 mounted figures and 8 on fo15mm Landsknecht pikemen, painted and photographied by Jorge Fano. Essex Miniatures. ot (3 or 4 respectively if they are commands) at a slightly above-average price. They can also be men/halberdiers, arquebusiers, artillerymen/guns, compurchased in unit packs of 12 mounted figures and 24 on fomands) and gendarmes (commands and troops) and doesn’t ot, including commands and even the flag of the chosen reinclude other types of troop. giment. www.venexiaminiatures.com. But, we can complement it with the small (but excellent) El Going back to the UK, Museum Miniatures offers an inteDorado range designed by Mark Copplestone. It includes conresting range of landsknechts/Swiss for the end of the XV quistadores armed with swords and shields and arquebuses Century and beginning of the XVI. It includes pikemen (light, that we can use as Spanish bucklers and arquebusiers. The medium and heavy), halberdiers (light, medium and heavy), arstyle is a bit different to the Perry Brothers’, but, in my opiquebusiers (firing and reloading), crossbowmen (firing), dopnion, they perfectly complement each other. plesoldner and officers. Their mounted troops include crossFoundry miniatures are sold in blisters of 6-8 foot, 3 mounbowmen, arquebusiers, knights and the Emperor Maximilian, ted or 1 gun plus 4 artillerymen at an above-average price. Charles V’s grandfather. Lastly, they sell a wide assortment of The pikemen/halberdier packs don’t come with weapons, but equipment: three kinds of guns (light, heavy and organ) with pointed steel rods are sold separately and can be used for pitheir respective artillery crews, wagons and draught animals, kes. www.wargamesfoundry.com mantlets and gabions, civilians, etc. Their figures have been Redoubt Enterprises are very well known for their Thirty very carefully designed and both their style and their size are Years War and American Civil War figures, but they also hacompletely compatible with brands like Essex. Their figures ve other interesting ranges in their catalogue, one of them are also sold in packs of 8 foot and 4 mounted at an average being for the Renaissance. They offer quite a wide variety of price. They sell army packs designed especially for DBR too. references. Their infantry include bucklers, crossbowmen, www.museumminiatures.co.uk. arquebusiers, officers, swordsmen, halberdiers and landskWe could not wrap up this article without mentioning Minecht pikemen/halberdiers, arquebusiers and crossbowniature Figurines-Minifigs, one of the most veteran compamen. And for mounted troops we find heavy cavalry/gendarnies of the sector. Their extensive range contains both genemes, stradiots, Spanish genitors and crossbowmen and ric and specific references for Italians, Spanish, French, mounted arquebusiers. They also supply a wide assortment Swiss and landsknechts. They have quite a large variety of reof “extras”, including everything from guns and artillery ferences, comparable with Essex and other veteran brands. crews, individual weapons and wagons to vignettes (storMinifigs allows us to represent any type of troops from this ming party carrying an assault ladder, a signing on for solperiod, including Spanish, French and landsknecht generals diers, drunk landsknechts, landsknechts playing cards, sapand historical personalities such as Charles V, Francis I or per units…) and personalities (generals, Francis I, Charles V Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, the Great Captain. They are and Henry VIII). Miniatures are sold individually at an averasold in packs of 8 figures on foot or 4 mounted at an average price. www.redoubtenterprises.com. ge price. www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk. Essex Miniatures, which is normally a regular in our 15mm section, also has an extensive catalogue of 25mm that offers an amazing Renaissance range. There is a wide variety of fiWargames Editorial Staff gures for the Swiss, Burgundians, landsknechts and gendarmes. They also have a range of 28mm Landsknecht gun. Redoubt Enterprises. Spanish troops, but these are more for the middle or end of the XVI Century. Essex’s 28mm miniatures are sold individually at a slightly below-average price.www.essexminiatures.co.uk.
15MM Of course, Essex Miniatures couldn’t miss out on the Renaissance for 15mm. Two of their ranges can be used to recreate the Italian Wars: Medieval and Early Renaissance (MER) and Renaissance 47
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HOW TO PAINT MINIATURES BASIC THEORY (1) Like in almost everything, a miniature painter is made, not born. Being a good or bad painter is not a question of talent, but of technique and practice. You’ll find the first here in the pages of Wargames: Soldiers & Strategy, but the second is up to you.
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n this issue we bring you the first of a miniseries of theory articles. Our idea is to give readers regular “instalments” that they will be able to collect to make their own painting guide. We will do our best to explain all of the possible techniques out there and to share all of the experiences we’ve had since we started our step-by-step painting section. We’ll try to give you the most comprehensive overview of everything related to miniature painting. In this month’s article we’re going to look at materials, styles and techniques. Future issues will cover topics such as handling different types of paint, colour palettes, equivalents between different brands, terrains for decorating stands, etc.
MATERIALS Paints There is quite a big selection when it comes to water- and solvent-based paints. I highly recommend acrylics since they are water-soluble. Even though solvent-based paints cover better, acrylics are the easiest to use and give your figures a more realistic finish. Plus you can also avoid any rows that might 48
arise at home because of the awful smell of the solvents. Here are the market’s top manufacturers of acrylic paints: -Vallejo: this excellent Spanish brand is world renown and is an indispensable reference for any experienced painter. They sell a range of 200 different colours where we can find practically all of the shades we’ll need. Vallejo offers highquality paints that cover any surface easily, even when diluted. In general, their paints tend to dry to a matt finish. In my case, Vallejo makes up around 90% of my collection of paints and at least 60% of those that I use on a regular basis. -Andrea: this brand’s catalogue has fewer colours than Vallejo’s and their paints are not as easy to use. They generally don’t cover as well and must be applied very thick, practically without being diluted at all. But, their main advantage is that their colours have an extra-matt finish. Since I’m a huge fan of matt finishes, I usually use Andrea colours, such as black, dark blue, different shades of brown, etc. when the Vallejo equivalent is too glossy. To make up for these problems, I often use a combination of Andrea and Vallejo paints. The resulting mixtures cover well and dry to a matt finish. -Games Workshop: this company offers a range of paints that’s more focused on fantasy miniatures; regardless of this,
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On our palettes we can add paint on top of other paint that has already dried. But, we should remember to clean them from time to time…
properly. Normally, all you need to do is put the brush in water and shake it a bit. But, if you see there is paint still stuck on the bristles, then you can rest the brush on the side of the jar an gently twist it. Don’t ever clean the brush on the bottom of the jar and, of course, never store your brush inside the jar. To dry it, always use toilet paper or paper towels. Never ever use rags or any type of cloth.
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all types of painters use them. They have an average-sized range of paints and their colours generally cover well. Their shades, however, tend to be a bit extravagant and their finishes, glossy. On the other hand, their range of metallic colours is outstanding and is superior to any acrylic range I know of.
Brushes The market offers a wide array of brushes for you to choose from. You’ll find all types of materials and price ranges. In my opinion, the best (though the most expensive) are sable brushes. However, you can also get a hold of some high-quality synthetic brushes. Sable brushes tend to have soft bristles while the hair on synthetic brushes is stiffer. As always, the best is to use the brush that best suits your painting habits. As regards size, brushes for painting miniatures range from “2” (the thickest) to “5/0” (the finest). The sizes I use most are “1” (especially for base colours) and “0” (for highlighting and details), though occasionally I use a “3/0” (for fine details). Besides the traditional brushes, we also have flat brushes which are especially useful for drybushing (see Painting Techniques). Taking good care of your brushes is a must if you want to keep them in good condition for a long time. The best way to do this is to clean them
-Priming: Putting an undercoat on figures is extremely important. This base helps our acrylics cover the figure easily and prevents the paint from chipping once dry. The colour we use for priming (usually black or white) will determine what painting style we use as we sill see later. Primers can be bought in a pot or as a spray. I recommend sprays because they tend to be enamel rather than acrylic paint (which means they adhere better and are more resistant). They are also easier and quicker to use, they spread evenly on the figure and dry quickly. Like any other spray, you must shake the can well before using. When applying it, what you want to do is “fire” short bursts at about 30cm from the figure. You always need to hold the can at a right angle and never pointing down because the nozzle will clog up and begin to drip.
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The smell of the propellent given off by sprays is very strong, so always use them in a well-ventilated working area (balcony, terrace or out the window). -Varnishes: there are two types of varnish, acrylic or solvent-based, and three kinds of finish to choose from: matt, semi-gloss or high-gloss. Solvent-based varnishes usually provide better protection and tend to have more of a matt finish. As we will see later, I highly recommend you have at least one type of varnish at hand. -Glues: There are quite a few different types of glue out there to choose from. You should have three of them on hand at your work station: cyanocrylate (“Super Glue”), multi-purpose contact glue and white glue. We will use cyanocrylate, the quickest-drying and “cleanest” out of three, for gluing pieces of lead together. This adhesive is very strong and toxic, so be careful. Once dry (which is practically instantly), the adhesive crystallises between the two pieces which means that any hard blow (e.g. falling on the floor) will make break the bond. Contact glue will be more useful for attaching figures to the temporary base we’ll use for painting as well as to the permanent base. After applying it, it’s a good idea to wait a bit before putting the pieces together. This will optimise its sticking power. It takes a little while to dry, but the bond is a lot more solid. The only way to separate the pieces is by cutting the glue. We’ll use white glue (diluted) to attach the sand or artificial grass that will decorate the figure’s permanent base. -Supports: Before painting our miniatures, we need to attach them to some kind of support. This will allow us to hold and move the figures as we wish while we’re painting without having to the touch the figure at all. There are two basic supports we can use: strips of wood or plastic containers (empty painting pots, film canisters, etc.). I recommend using wooden strips that are around 30cm long, 2cm wide for 15mm miniatures or 3-4cm for 28mm miniatures and no more than 1cm tall. This will make them more stable since the width is greater than the height. In my opinion, the strips are our best bet if we are going to “massproduce” figures with similar or identical uniforms. Now, if we’re only going to paint one miniature, empty pots are more appropriate. But, you should experiment and use whichever is most comfortable for you. For painting shields, we can convert both systems as follows: if we use wooden strips, we can hammer headless nails in them to stick the shields on; if we opt for empty paint pots, we can glue on a piece of plastic sprue and use the “arms” as tiny supports. We’ll use cyanocrylate to glue the shield to the support since it’s cleaner and can be easily removed once we’ve finished. -Painter’s Palette: As obvious as it may seem, having a good palette to put and mix our colours on is very important. You can choose what you like best, anything from plastic plates to professional palettes. I personally use small porcelain appetizer dishes; they are the perfect size and easy to handle. Since acrylics turn into a kind of plastic when they dry, we won’t have any problems adding or mixing new paint on top of dry paint. -Modelling Tools: the last important element you need is a nice set of tools. You should have modelling knives, a hand drill with different sized bits and some files. I recommend you also have tweezers, wire cutters, scissors, etc.
PAINTING STYLES White or Black Base Coat? When painting a figure, the first thing we need to decide is whether to use a white or black primer for the undercoat. This choice will determine the painting style we use. Generally speaking, a black base coat will make the painting process easier. We can use the colour of the base coat for the lines separating the different areas of the figure, e.g. between the coat and the trousers or between the belts and the 50
coat. This will give us the same effect as black-lining would (see Painting Techniques). The finish tends to be a tad darker and contrasts more than a white base coat does. Sometimes, though, this gives us a more realistic end result. The main problem with black base coats is that colours don’t go cover very well and we’ll often have to apply several coats of base colours. With a white base coat you’ll find that colours go on a lot easier, the finish will be brighter and the colours less saturated. On the other hand, it can also create a bit more work for us. If we want as little contrast as possible we’ll have to blackline the figure to separate the different areas.
Bitumen of Judea “Bitumen of Judea” is the term used to refer to a simple and very effective technique that brings together the best aspects of white and black base coats. First we put a coat of white primer on the figure and then we apply the base colours. As we just pointed out, this will be easier and quicker than over a black base coat. Once we’ve finished this step, we prepare a mixture of solvent-based matt varnish from Marabú, bitumen of Judea and turpentine or mineral spirits on a clean non-porous concave surface (plastic spoons are the best for this). Bitumen of Judea, the key ingredient of this invention, is very watery, glossy and extremely dark. Just a few drops added to the mix with a brush will do the job. The Marabú varnish will make up most of the mix; its two components, varnish and solvent, must be mixed well before use. I recommend you stir it with the handle of an old brush instead of shaking it. The varnish performs several functions in this mixture: it gives the bitumen more body, helps it adhere to the surface, and reduces its degree of darkness and brightness to give us a matt finish. If we want an extra-matt finish, we can take out some of the solvent before mixing the components of the varnish. By removing a third or fourth of the solvent, we’ll increase the proportion of varnish in the container. I recommend doing this when you buy a new container. Since the varnish weighs more it settles on the bottom, perfectly separated from the solvent. If you can’t get your hands on Marabú varnish, you can use Titan’s “synthetic matt varnish” for wood instead. Lastly, we need to dilute the mixture a bit so that it’s not so thick. To do this, we can add a few drops of turpentine or mineral spirits to it with our brush. After mixing everything together, we should get a very dark brown patina that’s not very thick. We must varnish the figure with this patina; apply a generous coat on the entire figure but try to avoid excessive accumulations. This will give our figure an “aged” effect and will also serve as a black base coat or black-lining since it accumulates more in the recesses. In other words, it’s a wash (see Painting Techniques) that can be used for any colour. When it has dried, we’ll be able to add highlights to the figure as we normally do. Remember that both the varnish and the bitumen of Judea are soluble in solvent. So, it goes without saying that we’ll have to clean the brush we use in turpentine to apply the patina. 1
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Conclusion A painter’s decision to use one style or another by no means has to be definitive. Although each of you will be more comfortable with a certain style, we should use the style that is most logical for the figure we’re going to paint. So, if a figure has dark colours, then I recommend using a black base coat, and if you’re applying light shades, a white base coat is better. Bear in mind that bitumen of Judea can only be used on top of a white base coat and is completely useless on dark colours. It’s very useful when we’re painting with medium or light shades.
PAINTING TECHNIQUES Washes 4
This technique allows you to mark the figure’s crevices and recesses instead of accentuating its relief. This concept is similar to that of the bitumen of Judea. The only difference is that we may have to apply different coloured washes on the same figure depending on the base colours used. To do this, all you have to do is pick the colour you want to use for the wash (usually shades of brown or black, depending on the base colour we want to darken) and water it down until it looks more like coloured water than paint. As you apply it over the selected surface, it will run into the grooves by itself producing a quick and simple contrast. Once it has dried, it’s a good idea to add some highlights to the figure. For obvious reasons, this technique is especially useful on very rough surfaces, such as animal skins, horse manes, coats of mail, sand, etc.
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Black-lining The effect achieved with black-lining is similar to that of a wash, but is a bit more subtle. Instead of applying watereddown paint, we paint on very fine lines with our brush in order to accentuate the boundaries between the different areas of the figure. Black paint is normally used to for this. We can also employ this technique when painting faces to make the facial features stand out, but we’ll need to use brown instead of black. This technique is absolutely necessary if we are painting over a white base coat and choose not to use bitumen of Judea or washes. 1a
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ries of steps, going from dark to light. That is, on a surface that we have previously applied the base colour to, we add paint to the raised areas to give it more volume. To do this, we gradually thin down the base colour to get a contrast between the different “layers” of highlights we want to add. Dilute the paint however you like and then apply it using accurate brushstrokes. The number of “layers” depends on your preferences. However, I think that one base colour and two highlights is more than enough for 28mm figures, and the base colour and one highlight for 15mm figures. In the article dedicated to painting horses, we saw that the highlighting technique used is different. Since they have larger and more or less smooth surfaces, it is a good idea to use one base colour and three highlights for 28mm, and the base plus two highlights for 15mm. 1a
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Drybrushing
Highlights Even though the aim of all painting techniques is to create “light” areas that contrast with “shaded” areas, we use this technique when we’re adding highlights to a surface over a se52
Lastly, we have drybrushing. Although it is a very simple and effective technique, it should be used sparingly. Drybrushing allows us to add highlights on textured surfaces. Once the base colour on the surface we want to paint has dried, we water down the same colour on our palette and we soak up the paint with the tip of our brush. But, instead of applying it directly on the figure, first we’ll drag the brush tip over some toilet paper to get rid of most of the paint. This
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way, there will still be paint on the brush, but it won’t run or drip off. Once the brush is “dry”, we drag it lightly over the chosen surface. The idea is that the paint remaining in the brush is applied to the raised areas and not in the crevices or grooves. Given the fact that it’s a very quick and simple resource, there are a lot of people who overuse it to paint on all types of surfaces (even faces or capes). This is not the best idea. Yes, it is an interesting technique, but it’s only good for rough and textured surfaces. This makes it perfectly compatible with washes; while you use the drybrushing to add highlights, you use washing for shading. One last tip: drybrushing severely damages brushes, so I recommend you use old and used ones. Flat brushes are better yet as they are more resistant and their shape is better suited for this technique.
Conclusion
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As you can see, using one technique doesn’t exclude the others. On the contrary, all of them are perfectly compatible. Their usefulness will depend on our painting style and what we’re going to paint. For example, if we’re painting over a black base coat, black-lining can only be used on the faces, since the rest of the figure doesn’t need it. But, if we’re painting with a white base coat and bitumen of Judea, then we rule out the possibility of using washes since the patina of varnish and bitumen take care of this. So, the usefulness of all the styles and techniques that we’ve described in this article depends on each painter’s preferences and the figure being painted. The fact that we tend to use some more than others doesn’t mean that we have to rule out the others. You don’t master painting just by perfecting one style or techniques and repeating it over and over again. Your mastery will come once you’ve acquire a wide range of resources that you can dip into to confront the infinite number of situations you come up against when painting miniatures.
TO VARNISH OR NOT TO VARNISH? 6
Once we have finished painting the figure, we must decide if we want to varnish it or not. Personally, I’m not a big fan of varnishing. I’m afraid to ruin all my hard work of adding fine details and the matt finish with the varnish. But, varnishing is, in principle, necessary for protecting painted figures, especially if we’re going to use them for gaming. There’s a wide variety of varnishes, in tins or sprays, acrylic- or solvent-based, matt or gloss, etc. Although I know good and experienced painters that use spray varnish, I don’t like using it. I recommend varnishes in tins, solventbased if possible, that have, of course, a matt finish. The third option is the most professional of them all and is used a lot in modelling: this is to varnish the entire figure with a gloss varnish and then, once it’s dry, varnish it again with a matt varnish. According to experts, using this process will give us a totally matt and even finish. Well, there you have several options to practise and experiment with. As with everything else, choose the one that you like the most. Author: El Mercenario Photographs: Anastasio Jiménez
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VEGETABLE GARDEN, COBWALLS AND STONE WALLS
Countryside landscapes are normally full of average-sized stone walls used to mark off different pieces of land. These sturdy walls could be used to make parapets and to establish lines of defence. ontinuing along the same lines as last issue’s article, we’re going to show you how to build two more pieces for your gaming table. The first has two different uses: a field, which in this case is no more than a small vegetable garden, and a stone wall – an averaged-sized barrier. It goes without saying that the measurements for these two models can be modified to suit your needs or tastes. The garden model contains the elements that you would normally find in a real garden: a piece of land with furrows marked by the ploughs, some plants scattered around and a low wall to keep farm animals out, that is, of course, excluding those that fly. Tall walls were also used to enclose pieces of property and to make it harder for people to trespass. This type of wall was used especially around farms or homes. These walls are made of adobe or brick and are covered with plaster. On top, a line of tiles are added to protect it from the rain.
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GARDEN WITH A LOW STONE WALL MATERIALS AND TOOLS
All you’ll need is two-part epoxy. We could also use wooden strips to make a small gate for the garden entrance (Photo 1). Our main tool is going to be an old toothbrush, which we’ll use to add texture to the putty. 54
BUILDING STEPS First, what you want to do is to take a piece of paper and a pencil and draw the outline of the garden and stonewall (Photo 2). Then we mix the epoxy putty and fill in the area we just drew on the paper. Wet the putty a bit with your fingers and spread it out well. Add texture with the toothbrush and let it dry well (Photo 3). Take a little bit of putty and roll it out until you get long strips. Then lay them out, evenly spaced, in the garden perpendicular to each so that they look like the furrows left by the ploughs (Photo 4). With your toothbrush add texture to the putty until it blends into the ground (Photo 5). Take a bit of putty and make small balls that resemble stones. We’ll place these stones around the perimeter of the garden. The stones don’t have to be placed perfectly. You should vary the height of the wall and add a couple of stones on the ground so that it looks more realistic (Photo 6). We can make a small entrance to the garden with two stones to give the whole thing some charm (Photo 7). Following the tips explained in the last issue of our magazine, you can make a small wooden gate. To spice the garden up, we’re going to make some plants out of putty. Roll out some more strips of putty (Photo 8) and cut them into equal-sized pieces. Then flatten them with your fingers (if you wet your fingers with water the putty won’t stick to them) and use a knife to mark lines on them so that they look like le-
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aves (Photo 9). Next, we pick them up and make small bouquets (Photo 10). We carefully place them in the garden on top of the furrows (Photo 11). The only thing left to do is to paint it using a sandy colour for the ground and green shades for the plants (Photo A).
ADOBE OR BRICK WALL MATERIALS
We’ll need grey cardboard (2mm thick) and epoxy putty (Photo 12). We’re going to make two pieces –a straight section and another at a right angle for the corners.
BUILDING STEPS For the straight side, we cut out a 4x10cm piece of cardboard and we cover it with epoxy putty. Spread it out well with wet fingers and give it a bit of texture with the toothbrush (Photo 13). Set it aside until it has dried completely. On a piece of paper, we draw the base where we’re going to put this section of the wall (Photo 14). We then put a little bit of putty
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around the base and we give it some texture with the toothbrush (Photo 15). We follow the same steps for the corner section. Cut out two 6x4cm pieces of cardboard and cover them with putty. Make a right angle with them and set them on a piece of paper. We then add some putty all around the base for the ground (Photo 17). To make the tiles on the top of the wall, we roll out a strip of putty, press it with a piece of wood (Photo 17) and lay it on the wall. We then use our knife to cut lines into the putty to make it resemble tiles. To make it look more realistic, we can lift a few of the tiles up a tad with the tip of our knife (Photo 18). Once the putty is dry, remove the paper from the bottom and decorate it with a sandy colour and white plus shades of green for the plants on the base (Photo B). If we want to use our walls as lines of defence or strongholds, we can make loopholes in the wall that our troops can shoot out of or add a step so they can fire over the top of the wall. We can also imitate bullet holes and gunpowder marks on the plaster. Author and Photographs: Adolfo Ramos
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Miniature review
Republican Romans in 28mm. Crusader Miniatures.
We’re back with the low-down on what we think are the most interesting figures that have been released over the last two months. This time round our review takes a look at a wide variety of new items, including everything from the magnificent 15mm ranges for WWII from Flames of War to the spectacular 10mm armies from Old Glory. This month we begin yet again with Calpe Miniaturas’ magnificent catalogue specialised in the Napoleonic Prussian army. Their latest release is an incredible range of hussars. They have three different series: line hussars with their sabre on their shoulder, line hussars charging and leib-husaren, the famous totenkopf husaren also charging. The miniatures with the sabre on their shoulders come as one piece, but those that are attacking come with the sabre arm unattached so that you can make your units more dynamic. There are over 40 different references in all, more than 10 for each series. They also offer the corresponding jäger volunteers for these series which round off the range. Calpe Roman general in Miniaturas also offers Peter Bunde’s 30mm. Andrea wonderful uniform plates, the same Miniatures. ones we’ve been including in the last few issues of Wargames: Soldiers & Strategy.
[email protected]. Crusader Miniatures has embarked on a new 28mm project, Polybius’ Republican Roman Army. At the moment, the range is rather small. They only have a couple of references of hastatii (with pilum and gladius) and one of triarii, velites, leves, penal legionnaires and legionary commands. However, they’ve promised to develop an extensive catalogue that will cover an unexplainable gap in the 28mm market of references for the Punic Wars. In spite of the importance of these wars, most companies have overlooked them in their catalogues. These miniatures follow the style line that their modeller, 58
Mark Sims, has us used to: fine detail, movement, volume, various poses, etc. www.crusaderminiatures.com. Andrea Miniatures surprises us once again with their new 30mm range devoted to Classic Rome. As of now, we can get our hands on Republican troops (velite, triari, hastati, general) and Late Imperials (legionnaire, auxiliary troops, eastern archer). The style of these figures is similar to the last Napoleonic range, i.e. figures that are only 30mm tall but are highly stylised. But, this characteristic makes them incompatible with any other brand. Their extraordinary detail and little variety mean that they are more suitable for exhibitions and classic deployments than for wargaming. Nonetheless, you should definitely take a look at this range, especially if you’re a collector or fan of the Ancient World. Their figures are sold in bags that come with three figures of the same type and the general is sold separately. www.andrea-miniatures.com One of the most impressive 15mm releases for WWII that has come out recently is from Flames of War. They offer an excellent gaming system with different rule and army books as well as a spectacular range of miniatures. Their miniature catalogue has been enlarged at a fast pace. Every month they release dozens of new figures. The guys at Flames of War are immersed in the Mediterranean theatre of operations at the moment. They have finished ranges for the Afrika Korps and the 8th British Army. The latter is being enlarged with an extensive series of new releases that cover all the troops of
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the Commonwealth, from Canada, South Africa and India to Australia, New Zealand and Maoris. The Axis’ opponents are on their way. The first miniatures for the Italian army, bersaglieri troops with their support weapons, as well as the rule book (Avanti Savoia!) will be available soon. www.FlamesOfWar.com. On the 15mm Antiquity front, we have some new releases from Corvus Belli who are working hard on completing their current ranges. Their Spanish range has been enhanced with a foot command group that includes officers, standardbearer, musician and a priestess along the lines Medieval bombard in 15mm. Corvus Belli.
Ancient Spanish command group in 15mm. Corvus Belli.
large-calibre cannon is manned by an officer and three artillerymen. www.corvusbelli.com. With the recent publication of the rule set Warmaster Ancients, we can’t miss out on the magnificent 10mm range from Old Glory. Their small size makes it extremely easy to store them or deploy them on the gaming table and to game large battles. The fact they are small doesn’t take away from their quality or their spectacular appearance when deployed. Crusader II tanks and infantry from Montgomery’s 8th Army in 15mm. Flames of War.
of “The Lady of Elche” and two different references of Celtiberians wearing Iberian outfits and their characteristic black capes. They have also designed a new reference for their Imperial Roman range. In this case, we have legionnaires on winter campaign that are wearing trousers and capes and are even unshaven! We can’t forget to mention their medieval bombard for the Hundred Years War. This
Plastic bases for DBM. Mars Ultor.
On the other hand, their reduced price means that anyone can afford them. For Warmaster Ancients, designed for gaming with Ancients and Medievals, Old Glory offers ranges of Egyptians, Hittites and Assyrians; Macedonians, Persians and Indians; Caesarean, Imperial and Late Romans; Dacians, Sarmatians, Goths, Huns, Parthians and Sassanids; Normans and Saxons, etc. Although they exceed the limits of the rules, Old Glory also has excellent and extensive 10mm ranges of Napoleonics, the American Civil War, the American War of Independence, the Colonial Wars, the English Civil War, the Spanish War of Succession, etc. www.oldgloryminiatures.com. And to bring our review to an end, we direct our attention to Mars Ultor, the Spanish fantasy miniature brand. Besides the indispensable foam trays for shipping miniatures safely, what is most interesting are their plastic bases with DBM dimensions. These bases are thin (1.5cm tall) and rigid. They can support any weight without bending or warping. They are sold in packs of 10 (4x4) or 20 (4x3, 4x2 and 4x1.5) at a reasonable price. They also have bases for 28mm with straight edges that are 3cm tall. The dimensions of these bases correspond to Warhammer which means they are very useful for Warhammer Historical. www.marsultor.com. Wargames Editorial Staff
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Painting Horses: A Modelling Manual Publisher: Andrea Press Authors: J. Cabos, J. Palomares, J. Caballero Delso and F. Gómez Languages: Spanish and English www.andrea-miniatures.com Even though this manual focuses on figure modelling for 54mm and bigger, I find it very useful since the ideas given can be applied to wargame scales. It offers detailed information on how to transform and paint horses with acrylics, oils and even airbrushing. All the steps are illustrated with superb photographs that help you understand the explanations. Paperback, 64 full-colour pages.
Tenerife 1797 La derrota de Nelson Guerreros y Batallas nº19 Publisher: Almena Author: José I. Lago and José M. Rodríguez Illustrations: Dionisio Cueto Language: Spanish www.libreria-almena.com In 1797, an English fleet under the command of their mythical admiral Nelson attacked Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In the end they were crushed by the city’s garrison. Although he was able to save his fleet after surrendering, this was one of the most significant military defeats of his career. Paperback, 88 pages, 8 colour plates plus maps of the Spanish city’s fortifications.
Numancia Publisher: Falcata Ibérica Author: Fernando Pimentel Pardo Illustrations: Julián Ernesto Aron Language: Spanish The epic resistance of the Iberian city Numancia was one of the greatest challenges the invincible Roman legions had to face during the fight for Hispania after the definitive defeat of Carthage. The central theme of this book is Numancia. However, the author sets it in a wide historical context that begins with the Punic Wars and glides over the Celtiberian Wars. He takes a close look at specific aspects such as the structure and organisation of the Roman le60
gions, the Spanish inhabitants of the plateau, Viriato’s uprising, etc. This is a must-have for all Ancient History fans. Paperback, 180 pages, 24 colour plates with photographs, maps and interesting illustrations on the troops involved in the conflict.
March of the Death’s Head Division Publisher: Concord Publications Author: Paul Thomas Illustrations: Stephen Andrew Language: English www.concord-publications.com The Totenkopf Division went down in history as one of the SS’s most fanatical units. It was formed after the invasion of Poland and participated in the campaigns of France 1940, Russia (Barbarossa, Demyansk pocket, Kharkov, Kursk, Grodno), Poland 1944 and Hungary 1945. They finally surrendered to the Americans in Austria. Paperback, 52 pages, 4 colour plates and 146 black-and-white illustrations, many of which are being published for the first time.
Blitzkrieg: The German Army 1939-41 Publisher: Concord Publications Author: Gordon Rottman Illustrations: Ron Volstad Language: English www.concord-publications.com This book provides a detailed look at 20 scenarios from the first part of WWII. It covers clear examples of the German blitzkrieg including: Warsaw, Narvik, Somme, Crete, Sidi Rezegh, Sollum, Smolensk, Leningrad, etc. All of these actions display the German’s huge superiority. Their combined arms force (infantry, tanks, artillery and air force) and the effective execution of orders from their highly professional senior staff made them a tough opponent. Paperback, 48 pages and 20 colour plates by the excellent illustrator Ron Volstad, probably the best as far as WWII is concerned.
The Pacific War Companion From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima General Military Publisher: Osprey Publishing Author: Various Language: English www.ospreypublishing.com Following the same style as the previously published D-Day Companion, this book is a compendium of different articles written by renowned historians. Each chapter of the book covers a specific subject of the
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Pacific War: strategic planning of the operations, tactical innovations, experiences of the soldiers involved in the conflict, etc. Hardback, 272 pages.
to their aid. This setback represented a serious threat for Republican France. Their fate was placed in the hands of a young Corsican artillery captain in charge of reconquering the city: Napoleon Bonaparte. Paperback, 96 pages.
Warriors of Medieval Japan For King & Country Intelligence Handbook on British & Empire Infantry Forces
General Military Publisher: Osprey Publishing Author: Stephen Turnbull Illustrations: Angus McBride, Wayne Reynolds, Howard Gerrard Language: English www.ospreypublishing.com New compilation from Osprey of books that were previously published in the Warrior series including Samurai 1550–1600, Ashigaru 1467–1649, Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949–1603 and Ninja AD 1460–1650. Hardback, 288 pages.
Sassanian Elite Cavalry AD 224–642 Elite nº110 Publisher: Osprey Publishing Author: Kaveh Farrokh Illustrations: Angus McBride Language: English www.ospreypublishing.com The main and most powerful weapon of the Sassanian Empire, Rome’s great rival power, was their cavalry. Their heavy catafract cavalry was greatly feared in the Ancient World. They made such an impact that their tactics and equipment were copied by the Romans, Arabs, Turks and Byzantines, who were ultimately responsible for incorporating them into the military tradition of Western Europe. Paperback, 64 pages with 10 colour plates.
Toulon 1793 Napoleon’s first great victory Campaign nº153 Publisher: Osprey Publishing Author: Robert A. Forczyk Illustrations: Adam Hook Language: English www.ospreypublishing.com In August 1793, the city of Toulon, one of France’s principal ports in the Mediterranean (and perhaps the best garrisoned) was controlled by the young Republic’s enemies. A monarchical uprising had overthrown the Republican authority and English and Spanish forces had come
Publisher: Battlefront Miniatures Author: Phil Yates Illustrations: Randy Elliot, Roberto Flores and Warren Mahy Language: English www.FlamesOfWar.com. New book for the game Flames of War devoted to the British Army in the Mediterranean theatre of operations (Northern Africa, Sicily and Italy). It completes the last book, Desert Rats, with the inclusion of lists for the whole Commonwealth: Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. In addition to the usual tactical guides, painting guides and regiment and personality profiles, it comes with special rules to be added to the base rule set (night attacks, for example). The book is illustrated with period photos as well as full-colour photos of figures and scenarios. All this makes this book as indispensable as the previous ones. Paperback, 64 pages.
Warmaster Ancients Publisher: Warhammer Historical Language: English www.warhammer-historical.com As its name states, Warmaster Ancients is the historic wargames adaptation of Games Workshop’s rule set, Warmaster, designed for 10mm miniatures. It has been especially created for the recent 10-12mm ranges of historic miniatures, though it can be adapted to both 6mm and 15mm. The rules are designed so that you can game big battles without having to take a loan out on your house to buy the army. And all that with Warmaster’s fast-playing, dynamic and fun gaming system that many wargamers are using for their historic battles. In addition to the rules, the book comes with 25 complete lists for representing Ramses II’s Egyptian armies, Julius Caesar’s Romans, Alexander’s Macedonians, Harold Haradra’s Saxons, William the Conqueror’s Normans, etc. Wargames Editorial Staff
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World in War: Combined Arms 1939-45. Publisher: Spel Janst. First release from this new European publisher. They enter the market with an Attack! or Axis & Allies type game for WWII. The game is easy to learn and comes with a rule book illustrated like a comic; the rules are brief but good. It can also be set up quickly since the starting positions are printed on the board. The game explores the modern combat tactics used in WWII and the use of combined arms. Its original battle system offers players strategic and tactical options in every turn. You can choose to command Germany, the Soviet Union or the Western Powers. Each player has access to several resources, including different types of ground troops, warships, planes and industrial regions. When it’s their turn, players can produce new troops, move units and give battle. The objective is to control the enemy’s production centres. The game’s components are high quality. It comes with 360 plastic miniatures (8 different types of troops), assembled game board, two battle wheels and original illustrated rules. Board game for 2 to 4 players, 12 years and up. Playing time: 2 to 3 hours.
Assyrian Wars. Publisher: Udo Grebe Games. Surprising new release from this creative German publisher. It’s wonderful to see how over the last few years new periods and fascinating historic events have been designed for wargame fans. This game carries us back to ancient Mesopotamia’s age of splendour. It covers from 722 to 605 BC, including the period of the last four great Assyrian Kings and the period of decline up to the fall of the Assyrian Empire and the defeat of their Egyptian allies. In 722 BC, Sargon II is crowned “King of the World” in Nineveh. But a few small problems threaten the most effective and strongest army that the world has ever seen. In the west, an Assyrian army is laying a hunger siege on Samaria in Israel. Will the Egyptian Pharaoh interfere? In the north, the savage Kingdom of Uratu threatens Assyria’s borders. In the south, Mardukkapallidin has become King of Babylonia and has begun a revolt against Assyria that the powerful Elam Kingdom has joined in the southeast. In the east, the countless Mede tribes are a growing threat. The first signs of a huge migration from the north of Cimmerian and Scythian tribes are observed. And we can’t forget about all those minor states that refuse to pay their tributes and that need to be punished! Will you be able to maintain your Empire as King of Assyria? Or will you free the world of Assyrian tyranny as leader of Babylonia, Mede, Elam or Egypt? Assyrian Wars is a multi-player game. If you choose to be Assyria you’ll have to play against all the others. Temporary alliances are possible and conflicting trade interests can spark off minor conflicts. Each turn represents the ruling period of one Assyrian king, except the last which represents the decline and fall of the Empire. Turns are divided into impulses. Each card that is played represents an impulse. It combines elements of point-to-point games with the Blitzkrieg General system for ancient warfare. Assyrian Wars has an easy entry level for beginners. Even so, it still has complex situations that depend on players’ strategic skill. Every game is different since nobody knows which random cards each player receives in addition to their fixed home cards. For experienced players the game comes with rules such as Heavy Infantry, Light Infantry, Bowmen, Heavy Cavalry, Light Cavalry, Mounted Bowmen and Chariots. Assyrian Wars allows players to game detailed siege warfare. 66 cities are waiting for you to conquer them! Will you be able to get through the gigantic walls and water your horses at the rivers of Babylonia?
Panzer Grenadier: Beyond Normandy. Publisher: Avalanche Press. On 6 June 1944, the Allied landing in France was a resounding success. With more men and materials arriving every day, the growing strength of the British and American forces should have been able to quickly penetrate inland. But, three weeks after the landings, the 62
beachhead had expanded only slightly. They were concerned that the bloody fighting that took place in WWI would be repeated. According to the plan, the British forces should have captured the city of Caen at 15 kms from Gold Beach on the first or second day of the invasion. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, at the command of the 21st Army Group, was pressured to secure the city and to immobilise the German mobile forces while the Americans captured the port of Cherbourg. But, the direct attack on the city was unsuccessful and cost huge Canadian and British losses. Then the British attacked to the west of Caen, where a successful advance could outflank the city and force the Germans to retreat. This was known as Operation EPSOM and was an attempt to obtain by manoeuvres what couldn’t be attained by direct assaults. The British divisions, which didn’t have any combat experience but had been training for years, confronted the feared SS troops of four panzer divisions. They would both quickly experience the harsh realities of war in the hedgerows and fields of Normandy. Even though Montgomery wasn’t able to get the Germans to retreat from Caen, he did attract the German armoured units to the British Army and immobilise it. The Germans had sent the I and II SS Panzer Corps to Normandy in order to drive the allies back out into the sea. The British efforts forced the Germans to use their armoured units as they arrived. This exhausted the Germans and made it impossible for them to launch an offensive. Beyond Normandy is a game from the Panzer Grenadier series that covers the British operations from the end of June to mid July and the German reactions to them. Following the system begun with Panzer Grenadier: Battle of the Bulge, they have chosen to use historic maps instead of geomorphic maps. It comes with three maps (two at 55x85cm and one at 55x43cm) that show the real battlefield at 200 metres per hex, including bridges, villages, tracks, roads, hedgerows and churches. The 583 playing pieces represent leaders, infantry and tank platoons and artillery batteries. It comes with the weapons used by the British infantry and armoured brigades, plus the German SS and Wehrmacht infantry and panzer divisions. The new types of tanks that haven’t appeared in the series until now include the Churchill, Cromwell and Firefly, the flame-throwing Crocodile and the bomb-throwing AVRE. The Germans have strong SS grenadiers, Panther tanks and much more. The game comes with 39 scenarios and 5 “super” scenarios (which combine two or more of the normal scenarios).
Manifest Destiny. Publisher: GMT Games. New card-driven strategy game (similar to Paths of Glory, Wilderness War etc.) for 3 to 5 players that allows us to relive the history of North America from colonial times to the present. Designed by the author of the popular Age of Renaissance, Manifest Destiny combines the strategic components of longer civilization-style games with the new easier-to-play European games. The aim of the game is to appeal to a wide range of players by combining several unique elements that require strategic balance to win. Each player controls a mercantile empire that expands into territories with new markets across North America. Players use their cash to buy Progressions and tokens. The Progressions provide players with additional capabilities. The tokens are used to expand your territory and to purchase Pioneers, cities and additional cards. Pioneers are used to explore “Breakthroughs”, cities increase cash flow and improve the defence of the territories. There are a limited number of pieces that can be used to buy items each turn. Players’ Profits rise or fall depending on whether they lose or gain territories. Each territory produces one or more products.
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Each game is different – there is no standard strategy for winning. The game incorporates several elements that give all players a level playing field – cards and Progressions have been designed to help straggling players. It comes with a map, a deck of 64 cards, 95 Progression and Breakthrough Deeds, money in five values, game book, reference booklet, five player aid cards, five 6-sided dice, a complete set of assorted wooden blocks for each player and a set of stickers for the wooden blocks.
Empire of the Sun. Publisher: GMT Games. If there’s a wargame designer who is admired by all fans, it’s undoubtedly Mark Herman. Formerly at the head of Victory Games, he has played an essential role in the enlightenment of our hobby. Since he’s started working for the Pentagon, the number of games he has been able designed has greatly reduced. That’s why every one of his new games is quite an exciting and long-awaited event. Empire of the Sun (EotS) is Mark Herman’s third card-driven game, a game system which he invented in We The People. EotS is at strategic level and covers the entire War in the Pacific, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to Japan’s surrender. EotS is the first card-driven game that uses a hexagon-based system that is closer to classic wargames. It maintains all the tension and uncertainty players expect from this type of game. Players take the roles of MacArthur, Yamamoto, Nimitz and Mountbatten and lead their forces across the globe from India to Hawaii and from Alaska to Australia. The game is represented on a single equal-projection map. As in other card-driven games, players try to maximise the impact of their cards while trying to hide their real intentions from their adversary. Each player faces a wide range of clear strategic options. EotS focuses on directing the main axes of advance. In the beginning of the game, the Japanese must try to reach their historic expansion while Allied forces fight against the clock to react with the forces they have in the area trying to inflict as much damage as possible on the hard-to-replace veteran Japanese units. Combat in EotS is based on being able to bring together the combined land, air and sea forces in a two-level system. The first level covers the air-naval combat and the second the ground combat. The key variable that determines which side wins a strategic victory is the level of US political will. The Japanese win the game if they are able to force the US into the negotiated peace which they were unable to do historically. The Japanese achieve this by eliminating countries like India, China and Australia from the war, while inflicting serious casualties on US forces. The delivery of the A-bomb is not guaranteed, which requires Operation Olympic and the invasion of Japan in many games. The Japanese often obtain victory in this situation. The scenarios of EotS have been designed with the busy fan, players with a lot of free time and tournament players in mind. EotS was made to be played in year-long scenarios (1942, 1943 and 1944) with three turns each that can be played in less than two hours. If you’re a fan of card-driven games, then you’ll love EotS. Its creative design takes the genre into a familiar but new direction. Now if you’re a fan of classic hexagon wargames, then this game has all the ingredients that first got you involved in this hobby, but with a new level of excitement and the possibility of playing over and over again. The game is complete, but easy to learn. It comes with two sets of counters, two decks of strategy cards (82 Japanese and 83 Allied), a 55x85cm map, 2 Player Aid cards, rules and a ten-sided die. Scale: 4-month turns, 150 miles per hex, brigade-, division-, corps- and army-level units. For 1-2 players.
Lobositz. Publisher: Clash of Arms Games. August 29th, 1756: The Seven Years War breaks out in Europe. The Prussian army commanded by Frederick II (later known as “The Great” by his admirers) invaded Saxony. With a swift
drive through the neutral electorate of Saxony, he attempted to open a road to Austria’s rich Elbe River valley in Bohemia. The Saxon army didn’t directly resist the invading forces. Instead, they pulled back to a fortified camp on the Elbe around Pirna and waited to be rescued by the Austrians. The Prussian invasion stopped here. Frederick has no choice but to lay siege on the Saxons. Meanwhile, in northern Bohemia, the Austrian army led by Field Marshal Browne gathered its strength and prepared to go to the aid of its new ally. Maintaining the initiative, Frederick divided up his army, leaving half of it to pin down the Saxons in Pirna and marching to Bohemia with the rest to find the Austrians. On the morning of October 1, they ran into Browne’s army that was deployed around the small town of Lobositz on the banks of the Elbe. Here, a ten-hour struggle ensued with charges and countercharges across fog-covered fields, hills and vineyards. The encounter culminated in a street fight amongst burning buildings. Finally, once the night had arrived, the Austrians withdrew in good order and abandoned the battlefield. Although this battle was small compared with the rest of those fought during the Seven Years War, the action at Lobositz was important since it delayed Austrian relief enough to make the Saxons surrender at Pirna. What was even more important was that the Prussians learned that their enemy wasn’t “the same old Austrians” they confronted in the past and that they couldn’t expect a swift victory. Lobositz was the first of many battles fought in a war that would last seven bloody years. This is the new volume for the Battles from the Age of Reason series (Leuthen, Zorndorf and Brandywine/Germantown are also available). For those of you who haven’t played this game yet, bear in mind that it’s a rather complex gaming system, but impeccably designed with high-quality components. Contents: 1 map, 560 counters, series rules, exclusive rules, player aid cards and dice.
The Mighty Endeavor. Publisher: Multi-Man Publishing. June 6th, 1944: the Allies launch the invasion of Europe at Normandy. Was this the right place to start the invasion of France? What would you have done if you were Eisenhower? The Mighty Endeavor is a game from the Standard Combat Series that covers the entire campaign on the Western front from June 1944 to April 1945. The Allied player can land anywhere he wants along France’s coastline. The objective is first to liberate France and Holland from German occupation and then to cross the Rhine and take Germany’s industrial cities on the river. The Mighty Endeavor is the tenth game from the award-winning Standard Combat Series (SCS). The gaming system has been designed to provide players with games that are easy to play but that don’t sacrifice a great deal of historic detail or realism. It includes a 55x85cm map, 280 counters, series rules, specific rules, player aid cards and dice. Playing Time: 4 hours or more. Scale: division-level units, 15 miles per hex.
Strategy & Tactics 228: Old Contemptibles. Publisher: Decision Games. The card game for this issue is devoted to the Battle of the Meuse, the first clash between the small British expeditionary force and Germany’s right advance wing. It also includes counters and rules for an updated variant of Back to Iraq 3 (game from issue 228) that reflects the current situation of the conflict. Author: Joaquín Mejía
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Hearts of Iron II is perhaps one of the games that has created the most hype/sparked most interest recently. It’s the sequel to Hearts of Iron, a game that didn’t fail to move anyone who played it, for good or ill. At last, after several long-awaited years we can now take command of any of the great nations that participated in the bloodiest war of all times: World War II.
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Paradox confirms once again that their games stand out for their excellent playability. Few strategy games have been so well designed and are as attractive as this one: a perfect and in-depth historical analysis, an easy-to-use interface through which you can manage all of the game’s variables and a realistic and fun combat system generally make up the basic elements of Paradox games. Players will choose a country whose territory lies in different provinces and then try to administer its resources and armed forces. Your objective is to conquer as many territories as possible and, therefore, win victory points. The overall aim is to rack up as many victory points as you can. The game structure consists of the two major alliances of World War II: The Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan and their minor allies) and the Allies (the UK, France and the US, along with the USSR). Usually players will choose to be part of one of these blocks. So, if you are in command of a power in the block that obtains the most victory points, then you win the game. As leader of the nation that you select, you’ll have to control the basic macroeconomic variables for the war. In Hearts of Iron II, your economic power for the war has been is based on you Industrial Capacity (IC) (measured in units). We can assign different IC values to Consumer Goods to keep our population happy, to Production to improve our provinces or troops, to Supplies to obtain the materials needed for our forces, to Reinforcements so that our damaged divisions recover and to Modernisations to update our troops’ weapons. If you want to win Hearts of Iron II, you must figure out the best balance between the variables. Of
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course, you can increase your country’s Industrial Capacity by investing in research and building more factories. Did we say “Research”? Research is another one of the pillars of HoI II that will allow you to develop your nation. It even has its own screen within the player interface, along with the map, the production screen and the diplomacy screen. You will have to allocate your nation’s money to the state’s major minds and industries to develop new technologies that will allow you to advance and improve your combat capabilities. In addition to the factors and capabilities of your citizens, you have one last and powerful tool that could tip the balance of the events in your favour. This is diplomacy. This option permits us to declare war, seek alliances, open negotiations and sign trade agreements with the rest of the countries. Knowing how to move around this element of the game is very important. Trade agreements will be absolutely necessary if you want to obtain the raw materials needed for your industry to work at full capacity. Almost no country has the capacity to survive on its own reserves. So, you must pay close attention to your reserves and make sure you obtain the materials that are in short supply. Having to control all of these variables as well as your relations may at first seem overwhelming to some of you, but it’s not really that bad. Thanks to a very intuitive management system you can quickly learn enough to get by with a super power. To do this, though, you must approach the game with quite a bit of patience. This is not a “click-the-mouse-buttonquickly” game, but a real strategy game in which you’ll have to prepare thoroughly before launching an attack. You must prepare the appropriate troops and follow some essential
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listed. Apart from this screen, using the scroll-down system you can access the rest of the game’s most important sections: Production, Technology, Diplomacy and the Statistics screen. The graphics are decent overall. All of the screens are aesthetically acceptable and are easy to navigate through. However, there is one setback –the map system. None of the maps are really clear and they don’t provide all of the information you need. A better alternative would have been to include a map with all of the most important information (terrain, factories, radars…) to which you could choose to add or remove all of the layers. As we have said, none of the maps are really easy to use and you have to jump from one to another without really getting what you want.
steps so that your offensive doesn’t end up being a complete disaster. In HoI II you might launch an attack with an overwhelming numerical superiority and fail miserably because you didn’t consider all of the factors. This, along with the fact that no two games of Hearts of Iron II are the same, makes it an incredibly addictive and long-lasting game. You can spend months trying the game’s different alternatives and countries without ever obtaining the same outcome twice. This game’s freedom of action, within the limits of the war, is simply infinite. And that’s without mentioning the multiplayer mode which takes the fun to unimaginable levels. However, it had to have at least one drawback. For experts or old players, the game can seem too easy to win with one of the super powers. The AI is no doubt to blame for this. Despite having polished some aspects of HoI I, it still has some serious defects. This and the fact that the really excessive amount of resources that any moderately active country can pull together (you can obtain enough raw materials for the whole game just in 1942) take away from the game’s final result and difficulty level. But don’t lose hope. Paradox is known for developing updates for all their games. I’m sure they’ll release a patch soon that will improve all these aspects and any other small errors the game may have.
Graphics Undoubtedly, the graphics are the least important feature of this type of game. Although they have improved from the previous version, HoI II has a very straight-forward and classical interface that makes it easy for you to use all of its features. The interface consists of one map (with different views), a side-bar with all of the details of units or the selected province, a mini-map of the world and a top-bar where all of the most important macroeconomic information is
As you have probably been able to deduce from the review, this game has really convinced us. It is one of the best war-strategy games that have been released recently, and one that best represents WWII. It’s comprehensive, fun, indepth, realistic, infinitely re-playable and absolutely addictive. Only a couple of blots take away from the outstanding final result. If Paradox had spent a little more time developing the AI so that the rivals were a real challenge for expert gamers and if they had made it so the number of resources obtained weren’t so high, then the game would have been much more complete. Not to mention the fact that the map is not as clear and easy-to-use as it should be. Nonetheless, the first two problems we have pointed out will most likely be fixed, at least in part, by future patches released by Paradox. So, if you are looking for a real strategy game, Hearts of Iron II is one of the best options available on the market today. Author: Miguel Abellán Gutiérrez
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DOSSIER: Alexander The Great, Black troops in the American Civil War, The Assautl on Fort Blakeley, The Siege of fortresses during the Napoleonic Wars, Painting horses step by step, Virtual War: Pax Romana, New Releases…
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I would like to receive issues 2 3 4 5 6 7 Circle the issues of Wargames Soldiers & Strategy that you would like to receive at the price of 6 euros each (P&P not included), by reimbursement. If you make an order for less than 6.01 euros and you wish to save on shipping costs, you can send us the corresponding amount of stamps plus 0.66 euros for registered mail.
NAME AND SURNAME
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AGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .OCCUPATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HOME ADDRESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .POST CODE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
METHOD OF PAYMENT
❑ Cash On Delivery ❑ Money Order to REVISTAS PROFESIONALES S.L. ❑ Bank transfer to Banco Popular
0075 - 1040 - 43 - 0600047439 ❑ Bank Cheque to REVISTAS PROFESIONALES, S.L. (Only for amounts over 30 euros) For orders over 30 euros when paying by bank or credir card without shipping expenses ❑ Direct billing Bank: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Signature: Address: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Account Number: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Account holder: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Date: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ❑ Credit card _ _ _ _/_ _ _ _/_ _ _ _/_ _ _ _ Expiry Date: (The coupon must be sent for all payment methods)
Cut out or photocopy this coupon and send it to REVISTAS PROFESIONALES, S.L. C/ Valentín Beato, 42, 3ª - 28037 Madrid - SPAIN
e-mail:
[email protected]
Contraportada ingles
17/6/05
12:38
Página 1
