More Military Architecture

Just finished additions to the castle and walls that I recently completed - see this post.  These were more walls, roofed towers, a gatehouse and ravelins.

My aims are to maintain flexibility in the shape of the fortifications on the table, and to reflect in a slightly loose fashion the changing art of fortification in the 16th century.

With the advent and advances in artillery there was a recognition that the old style castles and city walls were vulnerable.  With the continual warfare in northern Italy during the 16th century came the development of the "trace italienne".  Essentially, this is what we would start to recognise as Vauban forts with low silhouetted bastions, hornworks, ravelins and glacis.  For example, Palmanova looks very much like a "Vaubanesque" star fort.

Map of Palmanova in 1593 by Joris Hoefnagel

Unfortunately, this new style fortification was very expensive.  So, city walls and towers were often just shortened and filled in with rubble, then bastions etc. placed at vulnerable points outside.  Ditches were both deepened and widened.

It is some of the latter that I hope to reflect.  As you can see in following image of Amiens, the city walls are basically the medieval ones.  However, dotted around the walls around are what appear to be bastions/ravelins.  The star forts are those of Henry IV's siege lines.

Siege of Amiens 1597 by Frans Hogenberg 

This can also be seen in the following painting, with what likes like a bastion in front the medieval city gates.

Henry IV at Amiens 1597, artist unknown.  Musée de Versailles

So, how have I done?

A walled town (Amiens?) with its medieval walls "modified" with aspects of the trace italienne.

And with hornworks replacing the bastion by the city gates.

I'm thinking about how best to represent the ditches that surrounded the walls and bastions, whilst still maintaining flexibility of layout.  However, this will quickly go onto the "to do" list while I finish making more 2mm roads and give in to the itch to paint some soldiers.