The Italian Wars Italian Pikemen set contains 8 Renaissance infantry armed with long pikes, ideal for representing the infantry of the Italian states during the turbulent wars of the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

The pike became one of the defining infantry weapons of Renaissance warfare. The spectacular battlefield successes of Swiss pikemen, followed by the rise of the German Landsknechts, demonstrated that disciplined bodies of infantry armed with long pikes could resist heavy cavalry and also attack aggressively in dense formations. During the Italian Wars, armies increasingly relied on combinations of pikemen and missile troops as infantry became more important on the battlefield.

Italian armies themselves drew on a mixture of professional infantry, mercenaries and troops raised by the numerous states competing for power across the peninsula. Milan, Venice, Florence, the Papal States and other Italian powers all fielded increasingly significant infantry forces during the Renaissance, while foreign Swiss, German, French and Spanish troops also campaigned throughout Italy.

As firearms became more widespread, pikemen increasingly fought alongside arquebusiers. The shot could engage and disrupt enemy formations at range, while the long pikes gave protection against cavalry and provided considerable strength in close combat. This evolving relationship between pike and firearm troops became one of the characteristic features of sixteenth-century warfare.

These 28mm Italian Pikemen therefore work particularly well alongside our Italian Wars Arquebusiers, or as part of a larger Renaissance army facing Swiss, Landsknecht, French, Spanish or Imperial opponents.

Pack contents:

• 8 Italian Pikemen
• 8 different figures
• Armed with long pikes

Supplied unpainted.