A new contingent : Italian mercenaries

Italian mercenaries often fought for the king of France as they were reliable and readily available contrary to most feudal troops at his disposal. It is only natural that I give them the hommage they deserve by adding a entire contingent of them in my army.

Italian mercenaries were well-known for their intense usage of crossbows and pavises. Genoese crossbowmen were probably the most popular as they are still famous to this day. During my research I noted that they would fight in mix formation of crossbowmen and spearmen. It is however unclear to me how that would illustrate of the battlefield and who would bear the pavises and how. Considering crossbowmen are medium infantry I originally planned to base eight miniatures per base, a rule I set for this project. However, I later decided to create mix unit with one third spearmen and two third crossbowmen, thus increasing the miniature count to nine for simplicity sake. The three spearmen would form a first rank of pavisiers and the six crossbowmen would simply stand behind shooting overhead.

I made three such units and an additional unit entirely composed of spearmen heavy infantry with pavises - twelve miniatures per base - so that the overall ratio of crossbowmen and spearmen would be close to fifty-fifty. It also give a bit of punch in melee to the contingent so it can act independently form the main army.

The entire contingent with thee mixed units,
a spearmen units and a base for the leader.

In game, mixed units would be crossbowmen with the rule for pavises and an extra rule making them able in melee. In Sword & Spear that would be the "melee capable" characteristics, in Mortem et Gloriam they would simply be equipped with spears.

The leader is accompanied by a crossbowman and
 a spearman, a way for them to be representative
 of the entire contingent.