Landsknecht Dwarf army (Part one)

A new army is always an interesting project, specially when it’s at the same time a fantasy army and an historical army. Landsknechts soldiers make me discovering a period of the history which I did not control completely. I have so much to write on these troops, It's hard to summarize all the information existing on landsknechts in a single article but I propose to you a brief summary of my research, enjoy.

Who are the landsknechts? The landsknechts (servants of the country) are Germanic mercenaries, their organization is strongly inspired by the frightening pikemen from Switzerland. Their principal weapon is a pike with a length of 4 metres, allowing to stop a charge of heavy cavalry. They appeared around 1470, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilien I of Habsbourg was the first to raising a force of these fearsome soldiers.

How are they organized? A company of landsknechts (Fahnlein) was composed with a majority of pikemen. The remainder of the unit was composed by more experienced soldiers named Doppelsödners (double pay), they handling halberd or two hands sword. The fahnlein is also the German word for the large flag transported within each unit.

 

The landsknechts often adopted defensive positions and jointly used the spear and the arquebuse. Pikemen and halberdiers formed a solid square, with the 2 hands swordsmen at front and rear of the square. The last row were held by the most hardened troops, they were positioned thus to add impetuosity to the attack and to discourage the desertions.
Around this block a wall was held of arquebusiers.
When the command was given to form the hedgehog, the arquebusiers  withdrawn at the 3rd rank while the pikemen settled to the front. Spaces were spared in order to allow the shooting of the arquebusiers.

 The landsknecht style! These soldiers are characterised by their dress , colors and their beret decorated with feathers. The origin of slashing clothes  probably lies in the comprehensive maladjustment of the clothing of the XVI century for the battle.

 The second aspect of the project concern my love for Dwarfs from Marauder Miniatures. Classic dwarfs have generally a Viking style but Marauder miniature innovated with his splendid range of landsknecht Dwarfs at the beginning of 90's, this is a nice base to compose my new army. New painting technics, colors, banners, greenstuff ... Pics coming soon !!