Starting Pavia for 2025

 So, my next big project is to put on a game of Pavia in 2025. It so happens that 2025 is the 500th anniversary of the battle. I have long wanted to do this one and I figured 2025, probably late in the year, would be ideal. This would give me the time to paint up the forces I don't already have. I do have a substantial force of 15mm Landsknechts, Spanish, and French from back in the day, based for the old Gush rules. They have not seen action in quite some time and I want to change that. The Great Italian Wars are a very interesting period to me, and I want to get it going.

First up is some research on the period. 

First up was the Osprey Campaign series on Pavia. It is a pretty good volume, though it would seem there is much that is unknown about the battle so coming up with a good playable game will be a challenge. I do think the maps provided will be what I use to formulate my battlefield though.

I just started reading this one, and it will become my alternate source. Unfortunately the OOB they list is for the campaign, and way earlier than the time of Pavia. I'll probably be leaning on the OOB from the Osprey book, and use this for a backup. Though, I still have some reading to do in this one. I am jumping ahead in this series, but that is a minor point since the earlier Italian Wars battles don't directly impact Pavia.

Now I have this little beauty, however, the map has to go. I am using the information in the scenario to help develop my OOB, but that's really all I will be using it for. Same with the Warlord Games Pike & Shotte Rules. Using it for a reference but nothing more.

Pavia is a pretty large battle with multiple fronts, weather, and fog of war really having an impact. Designing a scenario will be a challenge. I would like to give the scenario some flavor of the actual battle but still have it a playable game. But, that part is in the future.

For rules, I will be using Impetvs. With the recent release of Warbook 4, covering the period in question I should be able to set up a nice OOB.  So what is next? Developing an OOB to use with Impetvs, and getting together a list of figures I will be needed to buy to flesh out the armies.

That is all for this post, see you next time. There will be more on Pavia in future posts.