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Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Italian Wars Mounted Crossbowmen

Continuing on with my tranche of Italians Wars figures are two, three figure stands of mounted crossbowmen mustering out from the painting desk.  Having not settled on a proper contingent to field for this project, I continue painting what motivates me.  What motivates me at present is relistening to the Great Courses lecture series on the Italian Renaissance.  Luckily, mounted crossbowmen are seen throughout the period and are present  in almost all of the army lists in Impetvs as CL cavalry.

Figures are Wargames Foundry from the Late Medieval range.  While smaller than their Early 16th Century Renaissance gendarmes, they will look fine on the gaming table.
As for the Great Italian Wars project, I am at a loss for the proper term for this conflict.  To generalize the entire period of Renaissance Italian warfare, is it to be referred to as the Great Italian Wars, Italian Wars, Great Wars of Italy, or something else?  

27 comments:

  1. These mounted crossbowmen are very impressive and colored, nicely done on the bases as well...

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  2. quote: "To generalize the entire period of Renaissance Italian warfare, is it to be referred to as the Great Italian Wars, Italian Wars, Great Wars of Italy, or something else? "

    How about... "The Agony and the Ecstasy" :o)

    lovely work on your mounted crossbowmen Jon!

    cheers,

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    1. "The Agony and Ecstasy" is a good one! How about "Medici and Sons" or "All in the Family?"

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  3. These are wonderful, Jonathan. I always liked the look of mounted crossbowmen in sallets.

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  4. Good additions - almost everyone used Mounted crossbowmen (or sometimes Mounted Arquebusiers) during this era. Aside from the Turks, the only other real Light cavalry of the era were the Spanish Genitors and the Stradiots (another very ubiquitous troop type).

    "The Great Italian Wars" is the usual way to refer to these conflicts in English, although I would submit that "The Age of Machiavelli" is more evocative and more readily comprehensible.

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    1. Thanks, Peter. I will stick to "The Great Italian Wars."

      I need to look into Stradiots too.

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  5. Nice units. I had missed these guys in Foundry's catalog. I may need to pick up some as well.

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    1. They are nice figures but as mentioned, smaller than Foundry's big gendarmes.

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    2. The gendarmes are moddled on their egos and are thus perfectly in scale with the smaller castings.

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  6. They look great.

    I'd call it the "Never Ending Journey" because once I get into the pike blocks I can just keep on going

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    1. Thank you, Richard. "Never Ending Journey?" It was a long series of wars, for sure.

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  7. Great looking light cavalry, and good for pretty much every one involved in the wars , nicely painted
    Iain

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