The Condotta is recruiting Swiss troops now

I have always wanted an army with Swiss pikes in it, so now I have the chance. There is something about the Swiss that appealed to me when reading about the Italian Wars. Not as flashy as their Landsknecht imitators but brutal and efficient, possibly the most feared opponents of all on the battlefields of Renaissance Italy.

I was going to work on some crossbowmen next, but the allure of the Swiss Pikes, plus the fact that I could get away from the red and white major theme of my mercenary army won out when push came to shove.

Once again, these are all Perry plastics from the European Mercenaries 1450-1500 set.

I chose to paint my Swiss in the yellow and black of the Canton of Uri, because I love the colour scheme, and it also echoes the Warhammer Averland army that I used to own a long time ago. Here are the 10 pikemen and a musician that I completed this week;

The musician is a horn blower, and the horn was taken from the Gripping Beast Dark Ages Infantry set. It fits perfectly.

The reason I only painted 11 figures is because I already had a standard bearer/leader figure. Here is the finished 12-man unit;

Here they are as a 4 x 3 block of figures, which seems a reasonable way of fielding them in a Lion Rampant force.

I am really very happy with the way that these have come out. They are quite well-armoured and to my eye represent the tough and uncompromising Swiss mercenaries who dominated the early period of the Italian Wars and earlier conflicts. Of course, I can also use them as an Averland contingent in an Empire army for Dragon Rampant against the foul Orcish green hordes or other enemies.