Troops on Parade - Italian Wars Papal Army

In this occasional series of posts on Yarkshire Gamer I have been looking back at some of the collections I have built up over the years, in contrast this post is more looking forward with this my latest project.

Regular readers will have seen this army build up fairly rapidly over the last few months, helped by both the Analogue Hobbies Winter Paint Challenge and an unplanned period of 6 weeks off work. It's by no means complete but this will be the bulk of the army going forward. Focus will switch to other projects but I have plans to add the odd unit here and there and let's face it an Army is never really finished.

If you prefer Moving Pictures (not the Rush album ! although that is awesome) Yarkshire TV have spent millions, ok a cup of Tea and a Tunnocks Wafer in producing this Cecil B de Mille like historical epic, enjoy.

For those of you scared of moving pictures I have added some still photos to the post, above is the vanguard showing two units of shot, a gun and 4 Command Bases.

The one thing that impresses me the most with this army are these command stands, I am normally useless when it comes to these and end up with massive armies with no command bases, I am always borrowing SYW commanders when playing Napoleonic games and vice versa, not with this army, by Jove no.

The first 5 ranks of Condottieri are Foundry, the rear 2 Perrys, although it added to the cost I am glad I went for 2 flags per 6 figures it gives the units a great look.

The other flank of the Parade is full of my light Cavalry, Stradiots with bow and others with Lance, Mounted Crossbow and some Light lance armed troops to, all Perrys, a mix of metal and plastic.

I got a bit carried away on the mounted troops for the army but somewhere in the middle of all that horse flesh are three Pike Blocks, a Sword and Shield unit and a Polearm unit.

I love the way the pikes look en masse. Nearest the camera is a block from TAG figures the rest are Perrys again a mix of metals and plastic.

My personal favourite unit is the red and white liveried Papal Pike Block, the colours, figures and flags just seem to work really well together.

So there we have a little journey around the latest addition to the Yarkshire Gamer stable, hope you enjoyed.