Pikemen and Gendarmes and Bears, oh my!

I rarely post about painted units, but I'll make an exception for this lot - this is the core of a new(ish) army intended for the Swiss-Burgundian and Italian Wars, using Simon Miller's To The Strongest! rules (and in time the Renaissance set he's been promising).

Those with keen eyes and good memories might recognise many of the pike from my 2022 roundup post - I only painted seven completely new figures for this unit, the rest being rebased off rounds onto multi bases with a bit of touching up and repainting here and there.

The pike are all Swiss - three stands, each representing a different canton. I started with Berne so I could have a bear, and then added Uri and Solothurn.

Each base is 100mm deep by 60mm wide for a 150mm or 200mm grid; laser cut with wiggly edges that fit into each other.

We usually play on a 150mm grid, so most often units will be only two stands wide.

All figures are from the Perrys range - plastic mercenaries for the bulk of them, and their metal Swiss command and Swiss heads for flavour.

The Swiss range also includes a bear, which makes an excellent Hero marker for TTS!

The pike are accompanied by a general, made by carving off the head from the Perry Duke of Buckingham and attaching a Swiss head in its place.

The other iconic unit of the early Renaissance is the Gendarme. These are again Perry plastics, from their WotR Men at Arms box - I chose lots of horse barding and later helmet options to try and locate them at the very tail end of the 15th century.

They're a little anachronistic for much beyond 1500, like their pike-armed friends, but should do good service as French gendarmes or Lorrainer knights.