Last night, I finally managed to finish the basing of my army for Chalgrove, the To The Strongest! World Championship, on Saturday. I've photographed all eleven units.
Above are the Famiglia Ducale Elmeti, the household of the Duke of Milan. All minis are Perrys, the above were by painted myself and Lionel Béchara, with the flags from Pete's flags on eBay. N.b. all photos will enlarge if clicked.
Here are some Italian later knights, again by Lionel, who did superb barber-shop lances.All the bases are my famous magnetic wobbly-edged BatBases.
More later knights, again from Lionel. I gave these deeper bases to protect the lances.
Above, yet more later knights, painted by Richard Hampson-Smith. The standards are for the Bande Nere; I suspect that there may not have been many (or even any) such knights, but the standards are too good not to use.
Here is Giovanni delle Bande Nere, himself, with the last (fifth) unit of later knights. Interestingly it appears that the famous black bands may only have been so-named after his untimely, cannon ball-related demise.
Mounted crossbowmen ex Richard. The various lights will likely screen the advance of the knights.
More mounted crossbowmen, ex Richard.
Even more mounted crossbowmen, ex Richard.
Metal light infantry crossbowmen, from a chap in Sweden.
Plastic crossbowmen, ex-Richard.
Formed crossbowmen; again re-touched and re-based minis, originally painted by Richard. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with these, yet; possibly a refused flank for the knights.
My favourite unit- Venetian spearmen painted by Richard Hampson-Smith, Shaun McTague and myself. These are raw, and likely to be used to garrison the camp. I'm aware that I need to separate the tails on the flag.
Above is the army list; it's not an especially subtle army but should do well-enough in a dead-on clash. As the army is entirely newly-painted, and I've not had time to play a game since November, I am not especially optimistic about my own prospects, but I aim to have fun!
Finally, here's a bonus unit, of Bande Nere pikemen. Unfortunately I didn't have enough points to use them, this time, but I plan to add supporting arquebusiers, post-Salute. I love the grim look of them.
So there we are, all done!
Can I take this opportunity to wish safe journeys to all forty-odd players who are attending the tournament, especially the brave Belgians and Howard who is coming down from the Scottish Isles! May none of your cards be Aces (except when playing me, that is. ;-) ).
25 comments:
They look even better with the flocking :)
Fantastic!
Thanks Tamsin; I reckon based minis always look twice as good, once flocked.
Good luck with these wonderful units Simon. Sadly new units never seem to perform well, but you never know. Whatever happens, enjoy yourself!
Doomed, they are, Steve. :-)
Gorgeous army, really inspiring stuff. Bright & colourful without ever becoming garish.
Its a lovely looking set of units Simon, you should be very pleased. You are correct about the Bande Nere, they didnt have any gendarmes but as you say Pete did such a wonderful job with the standards it would be wrong not to use them. My Bande Nere do have some pike and sword and bucklers which again they didnt have in reality.Basically they were a well trained band of arqubusiers and in great demand because of their training.The book to buy which was recommended by Pete is The Black Bands of Giovanni by Maurizio Arfaioli. I bought mine via Amazon but I know its available from Abe Books.It wasnt expensive and worth the money simply because of its detail regarding the bande which adopted black ribbons etc after the death of their leader.
Hi Robbie, yes I'm reading that very book at the moment- only part way through, though. From what I can gather there was a core of pike, but never quite enough. Also some light horse?
Have you any idea how the shotte might have formed up? I've not got that far yet. :-)
Lovely bases!
We love the bright armour of the knight!
:-)
I must remember my sunglasses... ;-)
Hello Simon,
great work, as usual. About the Black Bands nick of Giovanni it is not related to his untimely demise to a cannon ball, but to his insignia.
A "band" is an araldic device, a stripe going diagonally form top right to bottom down (for who is looking).
The banner of Giovanni had white and purple stripes.
As a symbol of mourning for the death of Pope Leo X (Giovanni's uncle and employer) he changed the color to black and purple, earning the famous nickname Giovanni of the Black Bands.
Impressive collection, Simon. The spirals on the lances are beautiful.
Thanks Dean!
Hi Ratmaul, I had read that, too, but a book on Giovanni (alas I don't have the title with me) has said it is a myth, since his band was only known as the Black Band after Giovanni's death, and the author was unable to find any evidence supporting the Pope Leo story.
Ratmaul, in fact it's the book Rod mentions "The Black Bands of Giovanni" by Maurizio Arfaioli- good reading.
Gorgeous!
Great looking army, disparate parts, all brought together by your basing, they look wonderful! Best of luck on Saturday!
All the best Iain
Thanks chaps! We'll see how they do in the morning. :-)
Good luck to you and Giovanni! :-)
Beautiful troops who performed superbly. Fourth place in the World Championships! Way to go!
Cracking stuff mate. Can't wait to see pics of them in action!
Great looking figs! I would love to see that force setting across the table from me. I have a few questions, never played "To the strongest" What would you say its merits are over other ancient or medieval rules?
And what shield are using for the commander of the Bande Nere pikemen?
Looked up "The Black Bands of Giovanni" by Maurizio Arfaioli on Amazon and its going for over a hundred used and 400 new. Guess I will have to hold off on that one.
Thanks all! I'll try to get a post together for later today. In a shocking reversal of fortune, I did very much better than I'd expected.
Hi Commissarmoody, for me the rules are better than other rules of the period, mostly because I wrote them. ;-) More seriously, they are fast to play and full of drama, with dramatic reversals of fortune. In one game yesterday I was gradually losing, but a single well-targeted and lucky charge broke an enemy unit and his whole line dissolved in a cascade of morale failures.
The shield- sorry I don't know where it came from, but it is rather striking!
Hello Simon,
I read a summary of Arfaioli'is thesis and it is not necessarily contradictory.
In fact mourning colours are worn temporarily and could have been either for the Pope or for the death of their Captain!
Arfaioli says that the "bands" that were changed from white to black were not the stripes on Giovanni 's flag but the shases worn from the shoulder of the soldiers as a "field sign".
Could be, and difficult to tell the final words without any documentation at hand!
By the way good luck for the tournament!
Hahaha, So you do have a little biased. But nothing wrong with that. I'll out it on my list of things to get in the near future.
Thanks Ratmaul- the army performed very well on the day. Now I want to go on and produce the Bande Nere...
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