The Catholic Army on Parade

The Catholic army has been completed and here is the result.  All figures are from Irregular Miniatures' 2mm ranges.

This is the full army set in array.  The gens d'armes forming the first line with French pike and shot units and a Spanish tercio in the second and the Swiss pike in the third line behind some artillery.  The town is made from the excellent 2mm buildings from Brigade Models.  They are from their Mediterranean range.  I have some of the medieval/renaissance buildings for this period waiting to be painted.

A closer shot of the lines.

A view from the rear ranks.

The Spanish tercio.  I'm not sure that I am happy with this.  For impact, I'm inclined to make the pike block larger.  I'll ponder on this.

The photo is more blurred than I thought, sorry.  Here is a birds eye view with a tape measure down to give a sense of scale.  Basically the gens d'armes line is 60cm long.

A closer view of the rear of two of the French pike and shot regiments.  

The French constantly struggled to find enough pikemen, so often had units with a large proportion of shot.  The Huguenot foot often had no pike at all!

These two represent the Catholic/Royalist old bands or regiments and have a proportion of 2:1 - essentially what was aimed at.  The raised Catholic regiments and bands often had a ratio of 1:1.

Here's a photo of the two foot units with a 15mm French Franco-Prussian War unit behind it for scale comparison.

And... the same units with a tape measure as well.

This picture shows three units of gens d'armes as viewed from behind.

I should at this point say that my mustering of both Catholic and Huguenot armies are based on the Battle of Coutras, 20th October 1587, with the express intention of using that as a foundation from which to expand.

My army list for the Catholic army at Coutras is not perfect but this is as best as I can make out.

Commander:  Ann, Duc de Joyeuse

Joyeuse's Gens d'armes
Lavardin's Gens d'armes
Montigny's Gens d'armes
Mercurio's Stradiots
Picardy Pike and Shot Regt.
Tiercellin Pike and Shot Regt.
Cluseau Pike and Shot Regt.
Verduissant Pike and Shot Regt.

Now to get on with Henri of Navarre's Huguenot army.