Saturday, April 16, 2011

Why the Italian Wars?

So why the Italian Wars?
Up until now I have pretty much been a Napoleonic gamer with brief forays into other periods. During one of these said forays I got ineterested in Italian Condottiere and did some searching on The Miniatures Page.
During this i discovered some threads on the Italian Wars and through them links to some web pages. When i saw the colour and gorgeous models i was hooked.
These three sites are primarily my inspiration for the period;
http://stuartsworkbench.blogspot.com/
http://olicanalad.blogspot.com/
http://warcabinet.blogspot.com/p/italian-wars.html

As you can see some gorgeous stuff and mainly Foundry (sculpted by the Perry's)

So I had a new interest but it went on the back burner until I had a good read of James Roach's Pike and Plunder campaign rules.
http://pikeandplunder.vexillia.ltd.uk/

I read them and it mention a Warrior Pope, this peaked my curiousity. While being a non religiuos type myself i have always enjoyed the history of the Catholic Church and its rituals etc. So looked further into it and discovered there really was a Warrior Pope who lead armies into battle and his name was Julius II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Julius_II

I dont know why but i have always liked the idea of Holy Warriors, I love the idea of Warrior priests in Warhammer and always loved the Templars and Hospitallers as warrior monks. Not to mention the Buddhist warrior monks of Japan. Needless to say this was right up my alley so i began in my obsessive compulsive way to read whatever i could get my hands on about Julius and soon fell in love with the period 1490-1513.

The Borgias, Julius II, Gonsalvo, Emperor Maximilian, Louis XII of France and Henry VIII. What colour!
It was about now that also discovered Stuarts army for Henry VIII and the absolutely gorgeous figure he had done of him.
http://stuartsworkbench.blogspot.com/2010/01/current-project.html

 I had been actually looking at doing the War of the Roses (which I still will do at some point!) but now I was completely sold on the early Renaissance and began collecting and painting as well as getting the good Cardinal to paint vast reams of figures.
http://thecardinalspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/painting-service-details.html

 8 months later and I am at the point i am now. I am also working on my own version of Henry VIII as a strapping 22 year old like Stuart's for the 1513 invasion of France. Plus a unit of Yeoman of the Guard.
 I am pinching all of Stuarts ideas and some of his banners! Thanks mate!

1 comment:

  1. Glad that my efforts have inspired you, I look forward to seeing your Tudors. Get in touch if there's anything you need help with.

    All the best

    Stuart

    ReplyDelete