Death and the Landsknecht - a review

 

The Italian Wars are currently undergoing a bit of a renaissance (sorry!) with the recent publication of the excellent war games guide All is Lost Save Honour from Helion, and now from Warlord Games we have a Pike and Shot Italian Wars supplement Death and the Landsknecht, by Charles Singleton.

Setting aside any Warlord prejudices I might harbour, and bolstered by me giving the text (not the maps) a ruthless edit before it went to Warlord I have to say that this supplement is perhaps one of, if not the best, they have published, ever. Ok, it could have been a bland unimaginative supplement like (imho) many of the others, but it isn’t; Charles knows his subject, presents it really well and we are given a well researched, written and presented supplement. Full marks for that.

The book follows the usual format for these supplements; intro to the wars, a host of dramatis personae, the tactics and armies, several scenarios, lots of new special rules to give the supplement an Italian Wars flavour, army lists and an abundance of colour photos (lots of landsknechts), full colour illustrations (mostly of landsknechts), maps and diagrams, the latter for example explaining how best to represent Swiss or Landsknecht mega pike blocks and the Spanish colunella. Also included is a neat set of siege rules and ideas for running an Italian Wars campaign. (A brief note to say that I suspect Charles had little editorial control over the images of miniatures depicted in the book).

I think, having studied it carefully, that this supplement could easily be seen as a ‘one stop shop’ for gamers new to the Italian Wars. I am no big fan of army lists as such, but the book does of course include some useful lists for those who do like such things, with troop types and attributes for just about everyone involved in the Italian Wars no matter how peripheral their input. 

Those established in the period should also gain something from the supplement, in particular the many period-specific special rules and attributes that Charles has included. I have tried most of them in a couple of games and they certainly add to the flavour of the period. Of course taken with the scenarios contained in the aforementioned Helion Wargames guide the budding and already blooming Italian Wars gamer has everything they need! 

Highly recommended. I even bought my own copy!