"Late Medieval Swiss" Topic

Hi everybody,

I've just picked up a few boxes of the Perry mercenaries, and I'm looking to put together a Swiss army for the Burgundian Wars. I have the Osprey Swiss at War book, but it only gives the uniform colours for a couple of the major Cantons (unless I've missed them, in which case I could be pointed to page numbers…). I was wondering if there was a source for the colors of the uniforms for any Cantons not mentioned in that book?

On another note, can anybody point be in the direction of somewhere I can buy good quality (preferably cloth) banners for 28mm Swiss?

Many thanks!

As a recall, the Osprey book gives the breakdown of troops by Canton. You can simply lok up the cantonal colours are use these for each unit.

Swiss National colours were white and red. These were also the colours of Schwiez Canton.
Zurich, Zug and Luzern are all Mid Blue & White
Bern was the biggest canton at that time and used Red, Yellow and Black.
Uri is Yellow and Black.

Google for pictures by Diebold Schilling. The Battle of Grandson by Diebold Schilling is on the Wikipedia page and is good inspiration.

TMP thread with drawings of Swiss Burgundy War.
TMP link

Wikipedia
link
link
link

There is a Danish Club which has excellent flags for the Swiss Burgundy War, but I don't have the link at the moment.

Here are some of mine.

link
Mick

Thanks mate! Really appreciate all that. I was more looking for people who sold banners since I don't have the facilities to print anything unfortunately…

Can't wait to do this army, although painting 240-odd infantrymen is going to be interesting.

Dear Hashut,

I think you will have fun.

Medieval Swiss and Burgundy make for the prettiest tabletop battles.

I have a Swiss Army based on Mirliton and Foundry and now Perry figures. I am currently building a Burgundian force using mostly Perry plastics.

Mick

It might be worth noticing that probably not everybody in a given cantonal contingent was uniformly clothed. There might be town contingents with jackets of uniform style, wealthy individuals with clothes in cantonal colours (but with a variety cuts and styles) and other individuals with their everyday clothing that might not bear much resemblance to the cantonal colours.

As a gamer, it is probably most interesting to use a lot of cantonal colours, but it might be good to apply variation within the units on how the colours are used on different individuals.

Yes, uniformity was nonexistent for the most part. Having your "colors" was one thing, getting everyone outfitted a "wholenuther" issue. I can see armbands in the colors, and/or headgear that also sported the color(s). But whole outfits would be a rare thing….

According to their blog Little Big Man Studios is working on some Swiss and Burgundian banners they already have pavise decoration for the Burgundians

link

scroll down to the seventh item.

I would concur with greifbringer's assumptions re the low amount of uniformity in canton colours.

Re your enquiry for cloth flags – the very items were available via ebay and I would strongly recommend them, for both accuracy and quality. They could be ordered in 28mm and 15mm sheets. However can't see them at the moment – believe the ebay seller was 'sasha-4sale' ??Hope that may assist?

Simon.

Here is the link to flags at Krigspil in Denmark.
krigsspil.dk

From the home page go to "Download" and then to "Medieval & Renaissance"

Thanks for all the info! So lots of greys, browns and cream clothes with the occasional coloured piece?

I'll keep an eye on both those banner sources, thanks Simon and Jedburgh!

Once all the miniatures arrive I'll start a blog and keep you all abreast!

Krigsspil is good otherwise can purchase them from 'Freezywater'. I believe they do it by battle. Not sure on availability of these nowadays?

Micks figures just boggle the mind and shame mine from the table.

Dear Hashut
I would not do too many dull colours. Swiss verses Burgundians is the best possible excuse to paint two brightly coloured armies.

Swiss (all metal – Mirliton and Perry plus Foundry command)

Burgundians (all Perry plastics, with LBMS PAV5 transfer)

Regards
Mick

@Mick: Very purty! I don't see any Swiss halberd though. And don't you like cavalry? The Burgundians ought to have a mounted unit or two, surely….

There are also quite a few Swiss halberdiers and a breach loading gun..but they were late for the photoshoot. :-)

I have two boxes of Perry Mounted Men at Arms on order to complete the Burgundians. I also have a breach loading gun and command on order.

@Uesugi Kenshin,
Thanks for the compliment.

Painterman does much better Swiss and Burgundian figures than mine. His blog is awesome. Check it out and be inspired…
link

Mick

I am excited about this, thanks for all the help! Unfortunately university is putting the brakes on this all a bit, but there's only a few more months of that left…

Are those Freezywater flags cloth or paper? Is there anywhere I can see what they look like at all?

I just remembered this link to the battle of Murten panorama.
link
link

The Confederates and their allies are said to have numbered 24,000. Most were armed with pikes, halberds and battle axes, with small groups also brandishing bows, crossbows or arquebuses. They also included 1,800 horsemen, mainly from Austria and Lorraine.

A bit late to this topic, but I hope this helps. This is a list of Swiss Cantons, when they joined the Confederation, and their traditional Cantonal colours

1291 Uri yellow/black
1291 Schwyz red
1291 Unterwalden red/white
1332 Lucerne white/blue
1351 Zurich blue/white
1352 Glarus red/black/white/red
1352 Zug white/blue/white
1353 Bern red/black
1481 Fribourg black/white
1481 Solothurn red/white
1501 Basel BS white/black BL white/red
1501 Schaffhausen green/black
1513 Appenzell white/black
1803 St. Gallen green/white
1803 Graubunden black/white/blue
1803 Aargau black/blue
1803 Thurgau green/white
1803 Ticino red/blue
1803 Vaud white/green
1815 Valais white/red
1815 Neuchatel red/yellow
1815 Geneve yellow/red
1979 Jura white/red