Death and The Landsknecht — Designer’s Notes on the Italian Wars in Pike & Shotte

It’s a great time to be a fan of fancy hats and the Pike & Shotte period. Death & The Landsknecht, now on pre-order, is our newest Pike & Shotte supplement, bringing the Italian Wars of the late 15th and early 16th Centuries to the tabletop! We’ve long had a range of fantastic Landsknecht and Italian Wars miniatures, and now they’ve got rules to match, courtesy of Charles Singleton. Naturally, we had to ask him for more details about the period, the forces, and the book!

CS – Although I may stray from time to time into other historical periods, the Pike & Shotte era has always been my main interest when it comes to wargaming. Whilst the English Civil Wars and Thirty Years’ War will always be my first loves, I often dip my toe into other conflicts too!

I first discovered the Italian Wars when I read a series of articles in Miniature Wargames during the early 1980s by Andrew Murdin, called Military Developments of the Sixteenth Century: A Wargamers Guide. Since then, I’ve gamed the period on and off over some thirty years, with armies in both 15mm and 28mm scales. I currently have a French army in 28mm for the 1520s and am also working on a Swiss army for the Swabian War of the 1490s.

Since writing the To Kill A King, an English Civil Wars supplement for Pike & Shotte back in 2017, I’d been looking around for a new wargame writing project. In my day job, the Renaissance and late 15th/early 16th Century period are right in the middle of the timespan that I cover as a commissioning editor. Books about the Italian Wars and anything to do with Landsknechts have proven to be extremely popular over the past few years, and so I felt inspired to put together a proposal for a supplement covering the conflicts. The Warlord team quickly got back to me and with my name on the dotted line, I started the new project in earnest.

SO… What were the Italian Wars, and why is it such a great period to wargame? The Italian Wars lasted from 1494 to 1559, and were a series of conflicts which saw the major European powers vying for control over the Italian Peninsula. Sparked by the French King Charles VIII’s invasion of Italy in 1494 to claim the Kingdom of Naples, the wars marked the beginning of sustained foreign intervention in Italian affairs. These conflicts would grow to involve France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Papal States, and various Italian city-states such as Venice, Milan, and Florence.

Initially, France saw rapid success, but its gains were challenged by shifting alliances and fierce resistance, and the wars soon expanded into a broader struggle for European dominance. Spain, under Ferdinand of Aragon and later Charles V, emerged as France’s chief rival, especially after the Habsburg dynasty acquired control of both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. The conflict was marked by notable battles such as Pavia (1525), and brutal events like the Sack of Rome (1527). The wars ended in 1559 with the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, solidifying Spanish dominance in Italy and marking a major shift in European power dynamics.

Militarily, the Italian Wars saw the transition from medieval to early modern warfare. Gunpowder weapons, professional standing armies, and new tactics transformed European battlefields, and in many ways, the Italian Wars can be seen as the first ‘modern’ wars. As the conflicts spread to fighting on multiple fronts, new ideas in strategy, logistics, and the finances of war had to be developed. As new allies were sought and needed to be communicated with, new forms of diplomacy had to be used to make sense of the spiralling web of alliances. Old enemies one moment could be new friends the next, and a treaty or agreement could fundamentally change the nature of the fighting almost overnight.

The introduction of the arquebus spelled the end for the medieval knight. Infantry could now be trained quickly and cheaply to use black powder weapons that could kill at long range, and against which armour and chivalry offered no protection. The period also saw the apogee of the pike. This was a weapon that was lethal in defence, being capable of holding off any number of heavily armed cavalry charges. It was also deadly in the attack as displayed by the Swiss at various battles such as Norva in June 1513.

The greatest development in military affairs was the rapid growth in the use of artillery. In the 15th Century, the monarchs of Europe had viewed artillery as almost a scientific fad. By the end of the Italian wars, it was held in equal status to cavalry and infantry, and new combined arms tactics brought all three together and formed a tactical blueprint that would endure for over three hundred years. Modern artillery was also able to reduce the old medieval fortresses of Italy to ruins within a matter of days. This in turn prompted the development of greater and stronger fortresses, and helped establish the development of military engineering into a science.

The introduction of new weapons, and tactics led to the expansion of armies and a growth in military professionalism. New ways of fighting were introduced to better suit the changing times. About this time, terms such as ‘battalion’ and ‘regiment’ started to come into use, and many institutions and traditions of modern European armies can be traced to the turn of the 16th Century.

As with the previous supplement, I wanted this new book to be a ‘springboard’ or introduction, to help wargamers get started in this fantastic period. As ever, following the Pike & Shotte ethos, the supplement is intended to be a ‘toolkit’ – the player is encouraged to adapt and tinker with the rules and army lists as much as they like. The book has three principal sections; period-specific rules, army lists, and scenarios.

The chapter detailing the special rules specific to the Italian Wars and the era they were fought in, are, I think, very much the heart of the book. After all, they are what give the rules the required ‘flavour’ for gaming the period! The Italian Wars came at a time when the heavy cavalry and gendarmes of the previous centuries saw their dominance of the battlefield increasingly challenged by the infantryman. Arguably the weapon most responsible for the rise of the foot soldier was the pike, used by almost all the armies of the conflict.

The pike was often deployed in a large square division often called a ‘Keil’, which formed the main battle line of most of the armies during the period. These large formations were supported by missile troops. Initially, these were crossbowmen, later replaced by increasing numbers of arquebusiers. The Keil could be further supported by companies of specialised assault troops armed with either polearms or two-handed swords. Their role was to storm forward out of the front ranks of the pike body to hack down the enemy files and create disorder. They usually did not last very long!

How these great bodies of densely packed pikemen actually manoeuvred or changed formation is something of a contentious subject. I think it’s probable that, like the Macedonian phalanxes in the time of Alexander, the pike blocks of the early 16th Century were made up of several individual formations analogous to battalions, and these would be brigaded together – I developed the rules to reflect this. In addition, players can upgrade their pike blocks to have extra armour, along with contingents of missile troops and supporting halberdiers or two handed swordsmen. The Spanish Colunela, the precursors of the famous Tercios, have also received similar treatment. Other rules cover such period-specific technology as war carts, mixed cavalry formations, and the front ranks of units wearing heavy armour.

When it came to devising and developing the army lists, I wanted to make things a little different. I decided to include forces that might not immediately come to mind as being involved in the Italian Wars alongside the more ‘obvious’ ones! Both English and Scottish armies fought in the War of the League of Cambrai. Scotland fought as an ally of Louis XII of France, and the English army sided with Pope Julius II and the Emperor Maximillian. The inclusion of the German Peasants’ Army reflects the desperation that many ordinary people felt across Central and North-Western Europe as continual warfare led to unrest and chaos at home and increasingly heavy taxes. The armies of the Ottoman Empire are also included, as Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent allied with the French under Francis I. Although they did little fighting on land together, the Turkish fleets did cooperate with their French allies. The Ottomans also fought against the Holy Roman Empire and unsuccessfully laid siege to Vienna.

Once the rules and the armies had been created, naturally I needed to give players the chance to use them! To this end, the book contains ten game scenarios. I looked to give a broad cross-section of battles that give a flavour of the actions fought in the Italian Wars. Some are very traditional ‘open’ battles, such as Novara or Flodden, whilst others are assaults on fortified positions, such as Marignano or Bicocca. The scenarios have been designed with flexibility and ease of play in mind, and can easily be tailored to represent a great many other engagements.

I hope that the end result is a book which serves not only as an introduction to the Italian Wars, but also as a point of reference and a new direction for readers to take their hobby in. Most of all though, I hope it encourages people to find out more about this fantastic period. Please do let me know how you get on!