HYW armies complete

Today I finished off my 1/72 HYW armies with the painting of 6 mounted crossbow from Zvezda. These are double-sized Basic Impetus armies based on 12cm frontage. I will be using them for a mini-campaign "The Chevauchee" for Impetus this weekend. These particular elements are light cavalry with crossbow (2 x CL), very useful for screening knights from bowfire or flanking.



I'll post up pics of the other elements since I am so fond of these armies. The models are Zvezda and Italeri 1/72. The Zvezda stuff is simply superb, I don't do it justice.

Here we have the French mounted nobles or men-at-arms (3x CP), these guys of course are the core of the army. Vulnerable to bow, but rock hard:





Three elements of dismounted nobles or men-at-arms (3x FP), less vulnerable to the longbow and still pretty hard, but s l o w :



Heavy foot, likely Scots (2x FP), not as hard (oi?) but still s l o w :



Mercenary Genoese crossbow missile units (2x T), good missle troops and too valuable as good shooters to be in the meatshield:



French crossbow and handgunner skirmishers (5x S) which serve as the meat shield. These guys are essential, they can take pavises:



Finally, light and heavy artillery (2 x ART), I have never tried these, it will be interesting to see how they fare. They at least give the French something to shoot back with at long range:



That's about 400 points worth of troops in terms of Impetus. The period is meant to be early HYW, so no Joan and peasant elements (yet).

Facing them are the rost-boeufs, starting with mounted nobles and men-at-arms featuring a very nice model of the Black Prince (3x CP) they are not as hard as the French, pricey but useful for counterattacking and would crush any French foot:





Nobles and men-at-arms dismounted (3x FP), I would be more likely to deploy them this way and intersperse them with the bow for local counterattacks on worn French knights:



Welsh foot (2x FL) and retinue billmen (2x FP), similar role as the dismounted heavies but a bit cheaper, the Welsh are potentially very useful since they are quick light foot with long spears:



And of course, a shitload of nasty longbow (8x T), these guys are deadly, especially to mounted if deployed behind stakes:




The HYW is one of my favourite periods, the French were silly, stubborn and impetuous and the English were complete bastards. Bad time to be a French peasant (when was it a good time?). But I like the mix of troop types and it lends itself well to campaign settings.

I will be playtesting with Bob this weekend, I predict the French will have a hard time of it because their army starts the game separated, but if they can combine and pin down the boeufs early then it could go their way, provided of course their heavy elements make it across the field intact under the storm of arrows.

Next up: DBA with Mark (again) ... I'll be watching the cheeky monkey and his extra elements ...