"George Gush's Renaissance Warfare - Airfix Magazine Articles" Topic

I have made new scans of the illustrations to George Gush's Renaissance Warfare – Airfix Magazine Articles and replaced the old .gifs with .jpgs. The download .zip of all 23 parts is now somewhat larger.
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Infantry weapons and organisation
Part 3: infantry missile weapons
Part 4: The artillery
Part 5: Cavalry weapons and organisation
Part 6: Henry VIII's army
Part 7: Irish army of the 16th Century
Part 8: The Universal Soldier
Part 9: Swiss
Part 10: The Turks – Part 1: the Spahis
Part 11: The Turks – Part 2: Janissaries and others
Part 12: The Scots
Part 13: the Polish Army
Part 14: Spanish infantry
Part 15: Spanish Ginetes to Caballos Corazas
Part 16: The French
Part 17: the Imperialists
Part 18: Persians and other easterners
Part 19: the Dutch army
Part 20: the Swedish army
Part 21: the Swedish army (continued)
Part 22: the Muscovites
Part 23: the Muscovites (continued)

These are old and sometimes inaccurate, but, still useful.

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Thanks Druzhina

That is great. I used to have Gush's book but lent it to someone and never got it back.

Regards

A very useful resource. Many thanks.

Tudor flags in colour very nice.

I still have the originals

Outstanding, thank you so much!

'Sometimes inaccurate' is really understatement here ;)

When were the articles originally published, can anyone remember – early 1970s?

1975

Can someone point out inacuracies. Being old doesn't automaticaly makes it inacurate.

Thanks!

Can someone point out inacuracies. Being old doesn't automaticaly makes it inacurate.

Lutzen. The text says the Imperialists used smaller formations 800-1000 men instead of the big Spanish style blocks. AFAIK, Lutzen was characterized by the use of 4 big blocks in the center with a few smaller regiments to hold the windmill hill. I have not read the whole thing though. There could be other inaccuracies.

Nice article and very interesting never the less. Thanks for posting!

Lutzen. The text says the Imperialists used smaller formations 800-1000 men instead of the big Spanish style blocks. AFAIK, Lutzen was characterized by the use of 4 big blocks in the center with a few smaller regiments to hold the windmill hill. I have not read the whole thing though. There could be other inaccuracies.

Well that is one (rare) instances when Gush is right. The "4 big blocks" were an invention by the engraver who illustrated the battle for "Theatrum Europeaum" and is not supported by any eyewitness or primary sources. We have ample evidence for the Imperial deploymentsuch as Holk's letter written just days after the battle, the deployment sketch today on display in the HGM in Wein and the large painting of the battle which Piccolomini commisioned Snayers to make to name 3 of the most important.

Lutzen. The text says the Imperialists used smaller formations 800-1000 men instead of the big Spanish style blocks. AFAIK, Lutzen was characterized by the use of 4 big blocks in the center with a few smaller regiments to hold the windmill hill.

Of course the Imperial array at Lutzen is a subject of long debate, and there are people here who know the evidence much better than I do; but isn't Gush more or less correct here? Brzezinski in the Lutzen Osprey (2001) quotes Holk, the man who personally put the Imperial infantry into formation, as writing that the first line was "5000 on foot in five brigades" and "the middle [line] in two brigades each of 1000 and six companies of horse…" – in other words, exactly the strength Gush suggested, right from the horse's mouth.

Edit: And I see that one of those better-informed people has beaten me to it!

Polish army is full of errors, just the few examples:
- it wasn't Polish army, it was Polish and Lithuanian armies, that were part of the Commonwealth
- Gush wrote about the colours of the uniform like it was standard thing in Commonwealth armies, which of course wasn't
- Pancerni are mentioned but no 'cossack style cavalry' which in fact was much more common than pancerni until 1670's
- light cavalry was NOT made of Cossacks
- bagpipes were not the standard musical instrument of he the Polish infantry
- dragoons rarely had pistol, not to mention brace of them
- no heavy dragoons in Commonwealth armies
- 'rajtar' cavalry was not based on Swedish formations
and for large part of the 17th century they retained armour
- Lithuanian Tatars in 17th century didn't look like the one from the picture. They were very much like Poles and Lithuanians with their clothes
and I could like that whole night…

It's perhaps hard to recall what a ground breaking series this was – mistakes/errors/misinterpretations and all.

Forty years ago the amount of information available for many of these armies – in English and outside university libraries was (approximately) diddly-squat.

George Gush really moved things forwards for Renaissance era gaming, never one of the really big periods and even more so back in '75 when there were hardly any figures compared to, say, ancients/medievals.

Nice to see these articles more widely available – but like Cardinal hawkwood "I still have the originals"!

This new listing of the contents should be quite useful. Most of the chapters from the book were already available online here:

myarmoury.com/features.html

There is some other interesting stuff there too. Putting all of this online will now save John Curry a bit of work if he had planned to publish this in his useful history of wargaming series.

George Gush really moved things forwards for Renaissance era gaming, never one of the really big periods and even more so back in '75 when there were hardly any figures compared to, say, ancients/medievals.

Parts 24 and 25, which I did not include, are on converting Airfix figures for Renaissance armies e.g making lansknechts from British 8th Army figures.

Also from George Gush's book are
The Burgundian Army of Charles the Bold
The Italians
Military Orders
The Moghul Empire
The English Civil War

Druzhina
15th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Please add 24 and 25! I would love to see those as I have the original book but never saw the magazine articles.

I recon if these are added in than it may help those who are critical of Gush's efforts appreciate just how rare information AND wargames figures were for this period way back when he was writing these gems.

I'd second bruntonboy's request.

Although I have them already I third that suggestion. The commitment of gamers of that era to get the figures they wanted/needed was quite remarkable.

lansknechts from British 8th Army figures…..you kids don't know what I'm talking about .

Well that is one (rare) instances when Gush is right. The "4 big blocks" were an invention by the engraver who illustrated the battle for "Theatrum Europeaum" and is not supported by any eyewitness or primary sources. We have ample evidence for the Imperial deploymentsuch as Holk's letter written just days after the battle, the deployment sketch today on display in the HGM in Wein and the large painting of the battle which Piccolomini commisioned Snayers to make to name 3 of the most important.

I figured you'd be by to enlighten us Daniel! Thanks for the insight! As usual, very informative!

I still some time use my paper back copy of Renaissance Armies by George Gush (orange cover).

This book did more for renaissance wargaming at the time than any other (along with his quirky rules).

With the help of this book I was able to build by converting Hinchliff 25mm Ottoman's and Muscovite's into a Persian Army,no manufacturas in the late 70's I still have them.

I find them more informative than the Osprey equivalent. Different format I know.

Here they are:
Part 24 – Converting Airfix figures for Renaissance armies by George Gush
Part 25 – Converting Airfix figures for Renaissance armies (continued)

Druzhina
16th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Those are some impressive conversions! I don't remember those last two articles – I must have given up Airfix Mag before they appeared. Thanks, Druzhina.

Thanks! Very much appeciated.

Hello all
I have Mr Gush's Renaissance Armies book, but I haven't yet read it. Can anyone advise if there is anything extra in the Airfix Magazine articles or whether they just cover the same ground as the book. I don't want to print them out if they cover the same territory.
Thank you

Can anyone indicate whether the article on the armies of the Moghul Empire remains accurate and reliable?

I've still got my two copies…the orange cover and the green cover!

I have Mr Gush's Renaissance Armies book, but I haven't yet read it. Can anyone advise if there is anything extra in the Airfix Magazine articles or whether they just cover the same ground as the book. I don't want to print them out if they cover the same territory

I noticed that the Polish chapter was revised, with a few new illustrations.

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers