"French Wars of Religion army composition?" Topic

What would be the basic composition of either a Catholic or Huegonet army during the FWoR? Would one side have more cavalry than the other or would one side use more mercenaries. What figs 28mm could be used to build them. Thanks.

What would be the basic composition of either a Catholic or Huegonet army during the FWoR?

It varied so much, it's difficult to arrive at a basic army structure during the several French Wars of Religion. Just buy lots of reiters, late 16th century pikemen, gendarmes, etc.

What figs 28mm could be used to build them. Thanks.

Old Glory 28mm has a nice range suitable for the period.

Well, the Hugenots were usually, but not always, cavalry heavy. They also tended to lack pikes, using lansknechts whenever possible. Most of their foot were Hugenot arquebusiers.

The Catholics usually had a more balanced force. Good mix of cavalry types and foot units comprising pike and shot.

When Henry of Navarre became Henry IV, he inherited a lot of the standing French regiments of foot, and of course the Royal Swiss.

Figures, Old Glory, Pendraken (their only 28mm range), Essex, are the first ones that come to mind. Of course you could always use the Gamezone Empire figures, who are perfect for the middle of the century. Just a bit pricey.

Old Glory 25's:

link

Sorry, both sides tended to use as many German mercenaries as they could get their hands on.

25/28mm, only choice IMO would be Old Glory. Not that they are the ONLY choice, but that particular range is very nice sculpted (one of OG's best, IMO) and they are relatively inexpensive (especially in the US). The above comments are accurate, a few generalizations would be Catholics with gendarmes (armed with lance) and a more balanced infantry/cavalry army. Huguenots with more cavalry and French arqubusiers as thier main foot element. My advice is to look at a specific battle (Dreux, Denis, etc.) and base your armies on them with a few extra options. My 15mm armies are loosely based on Dreux, but I do have some later war additions (Millers, Perdu Enfant, Catholic League, etc.). Off the top of my head, you could go with these and be okay:

Catholic: one unit of Gendarmes, one unit of reiters, a block of Swiss pike and a combined arqubusier/pike unit of French infantry with a heavy artillery piece.

Huguenot: one unit of Millers, two units of reiters, a block of lansknecht and 2 units of French arqubusiers.

WRG has lists for both armies for DBR, which can be easily adapted for other rulesets by using the troop types and ratios.

Broadly speaking (and again off the top of my head), Honor and Offer seems to have the guts of it right.

In the early part of the war, the Catholics (Crown) had traditional armoured gendarme types (lance and pistol armed) while the Huguenots used sword and pistol armed cav that charged home as a tactic. Both sides used caracoling mercenary reiters.

Largely for economic reasons, the Huguenots had more infantry with firearms, but – until Henry of N became Henry IV – the Crown had the advantage of access to Swiss (still considered the best infantry in Europe at the time) and Landsknects while the Huguenots only had access to the latter.

Both sides used field artillery, but the Crown had the edge due, naturally enough, to access to the Royal armoury.

In the WRG lists, the Catholics suffer most from lack of arquebus / musket armed foot while the Huguenots suffer from command problems – being allowed only ally generals rather than sub generals, to reflect the insubordinate nature and lack of co-ordination among some of Henry's commanders.

By the time Henry converts and takes the crown – and along with it the Swiss and the artillery train – he has the best of both worlds. But for that reason what remained of the fighting was fairly one-sided and less interesting to game.

I would offer a correction here. In the early wars, the Huguenot nobility were armed as their Royalist counterparts, i.e., as Gendarmes with pistols. It isn't until the later wars that they adopt the sword-and-pistol tactics.

Sadly, there isn't a great deal of readily accessible material on military affairs for the Wars. However, there are many excellent works that, while focusing on other aspects of the period (economics, politics, sociology,etc.) frequently yield great bits of "wargamer" information.

The King's Army: Warfare, Soldiers and Society during the Wars of Religion in France, 1562-76 by James D. Woods sounds like it has potential:

link

I ordered a copy yesterday.

"The King's Army" is worth every penny, it's an exellent indepth study of the Royal Army. A must have for anyone with a interest in the FWOR
A review can be found here
link

I bought 'The King's Army' recently and also in case you're only interested in pure military stuff it has enough to offer. One of the better books I've bought during the last 20 years.

The composition would vary greatly depending on which army and which period of the Wars of Religion you want to recreate. You have the Royal Army of the Catholic Kings, the various Huguenot armies and the army of the Catholic Leuge which fought Henri of Navarre and his allies before and after he became king. On top of that you have the Spanish Army of Flanders which campaigned extensively in France in the 1590's (On top of that you have the armies of German mercenaries which invaded France in support of the Huguenots)

The composition also depends on wether you want to try and recreate the actual formations and deployments used or if you want to make a more typical wargames army ala DBR.

In the early period (1562-1580) you have heavy lancers (The Gendarmes in both armies), light lancers (The Royal Army's Chevaux-legers who at times also fought as pistoliers) Mounted arquebusiers (The true light cavalry in both armies)

Both sides hired German Reiters and the Hugenots general had more Reiters than the Catholics (3000 vs 1200 in 1562, 6000 vs 3000 in 1568-1569) It should be noted that the Reiters hired in the 1562-1570 period was of superior quality to the majority of those hired after 1570, charging home to fire pistols at close range and in the melee rather than firing at a distance & caracoling.

The Royal army was at times supported by cavalry lent by it's Allies. The Spanish sent Walloon lancers and the Pope hired Italian lancers to fight in France.

By 1585 the Huguenot heavy cavalry had abandoned the lance and fought with pistols&sword.

The Royal army depended mainly on native French units (commonly with 50-70% shot) and the Swiss (85-90& pike)
After the disapointing performance of the Landsknechts in both armies in the 1st War the Royal Army made little or no use of them in the later wars.
Italian mercenaries were hired during several of the 'early' wars but often suffered from a severe lack of pikemen.
Spain supported the Catholic army with Spanish infantry in 1562 and Wallon infantry in 1569.

The Huguenot infantry was formed by either naive French untis which had few if any pikes and Landknechts recruited in Protestant parts of Germany. The FWOR Landknechts were often of poor quality compared to the Landsknechts of the Italian Wars.

Henri IV Royal army contained several regiments of Swiss troops but never in such numbers as was found in the Royal army of the 1560's. Henri was supported by sizeable English forces in 1589-1593. Lord Willoughby led 4000 men to Henri's aid in 1589, Sir John Norreys led soem 3000 troops in Brittany in 1591 while the Earl of Essex led an army of similar size to aid Henri's siege of Rouen
Henri was also supported by Dutch troops during the Rouen campaing of 1591-1592 when a Dutch fleet landed Dutch and Scots infantry to take part in the siege.

As has been said, this varies on whether we're talking about early or late. But generally speaking the Huguenots had more cavalry than the Royalists. The royalists would have more and better infantry by hiring Swiss. Both could raise civic pike and shot units. The Huguenots hired landsknechts and rieters. But the royalists would also hire rieters. But the basic difference would be more cavalry for Huguenots and more infantry for Royalists.

As for infantry, hands down Old Glory. While cheap I would not buy Old Glory cavalrymen. The infantry is around 30mm and the cavalry around true 25s. The size difference makes them look stupid together. By far the best cavalry for the period is Pendrakins (sp?) Elizabethans. They are a perfic fit for the Old Glory figures. They also have every type cavalry you could want for the period. You can also buy rider and horse separately. These are best figure produced for this period.

Don't forget militia figures. Graven Image, their reaver figures, are the best out there. You might suppliment them with Vendel figures. Militia shot were sometimes brigaded with landsknecht pikes.

Rich

TMP at it's best – arcane knowledge srved up in a hurry!

Rich

Just noting your comment about militia shot with the Landsknechts .. in your FWOR wargames do you have play with these as a single pike and shot block or do you record damage or take tests on them separately?

Jez

The shot was often detached from the pikes to assault positions which were difficult for the pikes to assault. I forgot to mention sword and shield men. These were used to support the shot when detached from their pike units. Thus all three types, pikes, shot, and shield and sword men, when separated from the pikes, should record hits.

When on the flanks of the pikes, only hits on the pikes should count. Interestingly, in the TYW, shot was instructed to fire on the pikes not the other shot. The idea was, drive the pikes off and the shot has to go also. The reverse was not true. You shot the pike and thereby weakened them for the coming pike fight (or cavalry attack).

Hope this helps.

Rich

Which rules do You use for this war?

Duc,

We have a free set of rules called "Spanish Fury", a system with a different ruleset for large battles, small engagements, a large campaign, a small campaign, Naval rules, all the way down to dueling. You can check it out here:

link

Sorry for the plug, but I couldn't resist a cool thread like this.

TPC

thanks TPC
will take a look around

A question on which set of rules is best for the FWOR is likely to start a discussion on its own. I think what is interesting is that for this period, there does not seem to be a market leader compared to other periods?

I use Armarti, although we are tinkering around with the rules to suit. For example in FWOR we field the pike and shot as a combined unit that takes hits as a block. However this weekend we will fight an earlier 1513 French v English battle, loosely based on the Battle of the Spurs. Here we are fielding the pike as solid pike bocks and we will have shot support which will be fielded as skirmishers.

Cheers Jez