The Loose Association of Wargamers

Blimey. That's extremely useful. Ta.
Iain

Orbat for the Guelf forces.

There’s not a detailed account of the battle and the orbat is a little conjectural. I prefer the description by the Scramasax book to the one in the Osprey, mainly because the latter imagines a single front line and the Scramasax split into centre and two horns seems to better fit the enveloping nature of their forces during the battle. It also reflects the formation used at Montaperti 30 years earlier.

So the current status/physical Kanban looks like this:

All horses painted and a few more infanteria added.

Based on the following orbat (initial troop descriptions are Lion Rampant terms):

Right ‘Horn’ - Front Rank
1 unit Mounted MAA - Commander – Vieri de’ Cerchi or ‘The Gate’s Ass’ so dubbed by his political enemies since the Cerchi had their houses in the Florentine sesto (district) of Saint Peter’s Gate (Porta San Piero). The chronicler Dino Compagni described him as ‘very good looking, but devoid of cunning and a bad speaker’.
2 units Crossbows/pavisers as Crossbows + Mixed Weapons + pavises - Florentine militia
1 unit of bowmen

Right ‘Horn’ - Second Rank
2 units as Serfs - Contadini horde, the poorer citizenry of Florence
1 unit Foot Yeoman + schiltron - Communal Florentine Guild-maintained spear

The Centre - Front Rank
4 units of Mounted MAA - includes the CinC - Amerigo di Narbona (mercenary from Narbonne, France) and Guillaume de Durfort (from Carcassone) who is sometimes described as 2nd CinC and, helpfully, spoke Italian! This force will also include Dante.

The Centre - Second Rank
1 unit Foot Yeoman + Expert - the Popolo (elite militia middle class republicans from Florence)
1 unit Mercenary crossbows as Crossbows + Pavises - I’ll make these Genoese as they got everywhere.

Left ‘Horn’ - Front Rank
1 unit Mounted MAA - commander Barone de Mangiadori
1 unit Crossbows/pavisers as Crossbows + Mixed Weapons + pavises - Siennese militia
1 unit Crossbows - from Lucca

Left ‘Horn’ - Second Rank
1 unit Foot Yeoman - Communal, Guild-maintained spear
1 unit as Serfs - Contadini Horde

Reserve
2 units Mounted MAA - Commander - Corso Donati. Born around 1250 in a powerful family, Corso was a demagogue and a man of action, never afraid to take the law into his own hands. In the Commune of Florence’s councils, Corso always advocated extreme measures, legal or not, to protect Florentine interests.
1 unit as Foot Yeomen + schiltron - Communal, Guild-maintained spear
1 unit communal crossbows as Crossbow + pavise - from Prato

There’s a fair bit of baggage to be added to the rear as the Florentines seemed to have been well organised in this respect and it potentially could have quite an impact if the army was forced to retreat too far - I’m working on that separately as a more detailed paint job.

If anyone has a better view of the Guelf/Florentine forces or the Lion Rampant descriptions - I’m all ears! In particular, I’m not completely happy about having the subordinate commanders in the Horns as complete Mounted MAA units, although that’s how LR requires them. That doesn’t quite fit the infantry nature of the forces but I can’t see the respective commanders (noble, proud and filthy rich as they were) slogging it on foot. Perhaps a single base mounted command that can influence but doesn’t act as a full unit would be a better approach?

Had some excellent feedback on LAF from an Italian gamer who'd done this - might rethink my orbat based on his advice.

Meanwhile, an update - first the physical project plan (this is 5 weeks in with a fair bit of downtime):


and a couple of close-ups, a Popolo group of Florentine spears:


and some Contadini:


Basic block painting and a wash with a couple of Contrast Paints, transfers by Veni Vidi.

The infantry are proceeding at a pace, should have the Florentine foot finished by the end of the month. The cavalry are taking a little longer, I've got hung up on trying to paint circles and rings for some of the heraldry!

Those guys play in my local on Saturday night.