DBF New Italian Wars Armies

 

NOT wot I was expecting to do.  OK, the Turtle Cars have a fondness since I fought the one made at Bovington Camp for a TV series Leonardo's inventions**  When I saw the rules I immediately thought of fielding a force--.  I'm doing tis in a rush 'cos it's a time limited offer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3befMiZK7s

Then - Then! Those Utter Utter Bastards at - well---.   https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/15mm-renaissance-altuos-range?page=1

Quick and rough translation.  The base sizes are the same, or near enough.  Pike can go on 20mm supplied or 15mm.  Artillery needs 40mm bases.

Pike 12x 4p  48

Knights 4x5p 20

Cavalry 6x4p 24

Skirmishers 6x3 18

Artillery 2x5 10

Total 120.  That's without regard for generals, etc.

Camp -  There's tents, bits and horses.

Fantasy-ing-it-up.  There's several heraldic beasts that you could add, even a small dragon.  

I have a snail dragon (bought with Xenos Rampant in mind) --20p  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B096FWBR3K?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Large frog -Beasts, couple on a base?   4p each. 

https://www.alternative-armies.com/products/fm67-large-frog?_pos=1&_sid=c23f59ffd&_ss=r

And of course there's these new boys-- 3 at 5 = 15.   

https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/new-releases/products/hot148o-ogre-brigandine-warband-six-with-saving

Pike 16x 4p  64

Knights 8x5p 40

Light cavalry 6x3p 18

Skirmishers 6x3 18

Artillery 2x5 10

Total 150.  That's without regard for generals, barding, etc.  Da Vinchi as a mage!  In an airship would be good!  Cesare Borgia as a Heroic General plus Machiavelli as a cleric!

OK, got to be done - Turtle Car.  8 points -  Got to be 4. 32 points and we're well into our 200 goal.

Camp -  I rather like the free ruin, with a table and a few bits.

Combine the bits and you have a version of Cesare Borgias army.

**  My first experience with a pike!  The cadets and engineers made a working, if small version.  It was powered by a large geared wheel manned by 2 big cadets.  No-one measured the speed, but it exceeded walking pace on the road and handled the bumpy field with ease, going at about walking pace.

Fighting!  The open commanders seat at the top would have made him vulnerable, as any tank commander will tell you way up there--.  My pike got caught in the woodwork as the machine turned and I had to drop it or the whole bunch of us would have got tangled--.  Easy to see that like a barrel the hull would get tighter when hit until smashed.  And the slope, shedding rounds.  Building in layers, double hulled with rawhide or sheepskin buffers.  A large central "pusher" to surmount obstacles.

That's the thing.  They're meat grinders.  The small guns - more like large shotguns or deck guns - were set at knee height.  Not hard to see the machine lumbering up to a pike block and turning, shooting each gun as it bore, blowing holes as it slowly advanced over the dead and dying.  The gunners quickly reloading and replacing, filling with heat and fumes.  Fire would have been a real terror, having to climb out of the top hatch then slide down.   As with any MBT, support by skirmishers would have been a necessity.  

Modern tanks were designed to end the stalemate of the trenches.  The irony of Ukraine and the Russian attempt to stop an increasingly mechanised army-.  The turtle car would have seen the introduction of field defences and trenches on a larger scale as the only way to stop them.