Landsknecht: Total War

[caprera]

This mod aims to represent the final years of M2TW between 1450 and 1550, covering the wars in the Italian States.

A period of continuos fighting, a real Total war, these were some of the most important wars of the period, in which mercenaries, the most famous, Landsknecht and Swiss, were always involved as main infantry force, or accompained by the first professional armies as well as mercenary commanders.
In the end of the XV century the Italian states started to follow that military stream, predicted and supported by some of their most notable minds like Guicciardini and Macchiavelli, that wanted armies to be built up by professional soldiers. This mainly for economic and fidelity reasons, but also for disponibility and a more controllable preparation level.
European armies like the French one or the Holy Roman Empire, kept mercenaries as the bulk of their forces, relying on the most famous mercenaries of that time respectively like the Swiss and the Landsknechts. While these nations continued to field as infantry only these excellent soldiers, the Italian states started to show the first professionals by their side. Some of the most important battles of the time like Marignano, Pavia and Fornovo showed clearly this tendency while continuing to offer the show of great numbers of those mercenaries, considered at right amongst the best soldiers of the time. These professional armies had their infantry split between a local militia called "Ordinanze" or "Cernide" and a professional force, constituted by daily trained soldiers called "Provisionati". These two types shared in many forms their weaponry and equipment, even at a different level.
In the first years of the XVI century this constitution remained and showed the rightness of the initial ideas, with professinal, persistent armies of even 25K effectives in relatively small states like the Duchy of Milan. And even if in these years some of these states military and politically died for many reasons, this new army concept remained and developed till nowadays, side by side again with the mighty figures and Swiss and Landsknechts mercenaries, making this period one of the most colorful of the netire military history.
Our aim here is to answers with a mod to some "What if..." about the Italian Wars.
One of them could be:" What if Milan succeded in defending itself from the French invasion in 1495?" Or another one:"What if the combined forces of the Holy League failed to stop the French king at Fornovo ?"
These are only two of the many questions history offers. Particulary important fo Italian history, this perìios gives us the opportunity of an hypothetical mod; a "what if mod" where the answer is the player's game.

Starting with the historical states of 1450 and featuring "fantastic" units extracted mixing tradition and military advances, we aim to recreate that "total war" time introducing an alternative ending aside with historical events like French and German invasions or Ottoman corsairs...


The mod map has changed many times because we incurred in different problems working on the old one.
Mainly about realism because of the particular "modus pugnandi" of this historical period and different sources in conflict.
The introduction of the Ottoman Empire, as well as other major european powers like France was a limitation to realism and gameplay once in-game, accordingly to historical events and actual geography.
Their importance won't be reduced or limitated: the focus was and remained the wars that one after another occurred in Italy during these years, and these factions will mantain thier importance as invading armies.

This will be the factions list with the slots used:

Venice - Repubblica di Venezia
Sicily - Regno di Napoli
Milan - Ducato di Milano
Scotland - Principato di Trento
Russia - Domini dei Gonzaga
Moors - Domini Estensi
Danes - Repubblica di Siena
Portugal - Repubblica di Genova
Poland - Repubblica di Lucca
Papists - Stato della Chiesa
Mongols - Marchesato di Saluzzo
Tartars - Repubblica di Firenze
England - Ducato di Savoia
Aztecs - Respublica Ragusina
Hungary - Condottieri
Rebels
France - Regno di Francia
HRE - Arciducato d'Austria
Spain - Regno d'Aragona
Byzantium - Confederazione Elvetica
Egyptians - Stati Barbareschi
Turks - Impero Ottomano
These 6 as spawning armies



While for the map there are no possible previews, here a sample of how will be the battlefield of the mod:



Italy has been included totally as well as Dalmatian Venice and its islands. As you can see borders include other nations but their role in the mod will be different from vanilla Med2. Occasional invasions, like historically occurred, will be realised as spawning armies, to be more realistic and respect historical alliances.


You can always follow this mod progress (but in Italian only with it's Italian name) also on :original:


UPDATED!

[quadrille]

I just love the landsknechts! But I think you are too ambitious. I'd say concentrate on a small period of time and ideally a small part of Europe as well. I can't offer you my help since I'm already involved in another mod, but I have zillions of landsknecht ref pictures on my computer.. Send me a pm if you're interested.

[caprera]

Mmm.. yeah, maybe but i would like to start discussing when someone will join. This is just an idea i'm not sure of everything posted before and i repeat when i'll have someone to work with i'll discuss with them.
AH, check your PMs and ty for the reply

[Mored]

It's a good idea but there is one problem, Swiss wasn't a real faction, more a kind of mercenaries.

[caprera]

They would be recruitable as normal units by all main factions and recruitable as mercenaries as now in RTW for all minor ones... I don't see the problem

[Lord Kal]

I can offer historical advice for Wars of the Roses.

[caprera]

Thx for the offer Lord Kal but we changed the aim of the mod. New members joined the "Historic Resources Project". As now we are discussing about the new map and the factions that will be present on it. Maybe u'll see some progress update about it soon...

[caprera]

Here are some support banners i made for the mod. Feel free to use them as you like :wink:

[malvagion]

hello cap, it's me, G!

[caprera]

Welcome onboard man

[Sidus Preclarum]

Ironically, this painitng is supposed to represent Issus. Which lead us to the very interesting discussion of the filiation between the pike square and the Phalanx, and Machiaveli's art of war, &c &c &c ...
Well, that's a project I would like to see done, so Godspeed.

[caprera]

THX Sidus, we'll see

[malvagion]

Yes, i can announce that we have all the maps we need for this mod (geo-politicals, economicals and socials maps)

[caprera]

The final decision has been taken and i can now give you a precise timeline for the mod: it will cover ALL the Italian wars from 1494 to 1559, introducing all the main city-states of northern and central Italy as well as the Swiss Confederation, France and the Holy Roman Empire*. We haven't a real factions list because of different ideas on the role of Austria, Spain and HRE*.We are thinking to introduce only the powers that fought incisively during the first war to let players decide a new aftermath of the Italian wars.
Btw i can show you the map area that you'll see in the mod.

It goes from Paris to Naples and even if it looks quite small, think about seeing every small town on northern Italy or all the valleys of Switzerland...

[caprera]

Faction list posted on first post !
We are still not sure about Hungary and Ottoman Empire roles as their a part of their territories is included in the map...
Some suggestions ?

[Sidus Preclarum]

err ... no Venice ?

[caprera]

INCREDIBLE ERROR !! now corrected...

[Sidus Preclarum]

lol

[malvagion]

We're now goin' to create a initial units-list that we hope to finish in 1 or 2 weeks. If someone has suggestions or preferences about a particular units he would like to see in-game please tell us, u're welcome. I can start with a little preview: recruitable commanders, to represent the famous mercenary commanders ofthis period like Georg Von Frundsberg...

[caprera]

Exactly! :original:
For now we're thinking about a osprey-based-list, using images and descriptions. We're also sure about the role of the most famous mercenary formations like Swiss, Germans and Italians that give the name to the mod. Factions will recruit them as normal units depending on the province, with some limitations for those who were famous for using mainly their own professional soldiers like Siena, Genova and Venice. Factions will still be able to recruit these merrcenary units on the campaign map as normal mercs in RTW. Btw discussions on this topic are still underway.

I would also announce that i'm goin' toward a major breakthrought in RTW engine.
I'm talkin' about using two different models in the same unit. Imagine wardogs units...

I'm still in need of formations editors but i'm hopeful ...