Landsknechts with Zweihanders

Landsknechts with Zweihanders

Europe in the late 15th and early 16th Century was a place of almost constant warfare. With no organised national armies, the battlefields were the domain of the mercenary companies of the day - none more so than the colourfully dressed Landsknechts.

They could be found in most armies of Western Europe of the era, even appearing in the British Isles in the service of Henry VIII. Particularly bloody were the clashes between rival Landsknecht regiments, which became known as the 'Evil War'.

The toughest of a rough lot were the veteran Doppelsöldner - 'double pay men'. Their extra pay was for volunteering to be in the forefront and the added risk that entailed. The trick was to survive to collect the extra pay!

The Doppelsöldner were most often armed with the arquebus or crossbow and deployed ahead of the main pike blocks. Alternatively they might be armed with the vicious two-handed swords, the Zweihänders, or equally lengthy halberds. Zweihänder-armed Landsknechts were typically found in the front ranks of the pike blocks or occasionally detached to form a unit of their own for special duties and to protect the unit's colour party. The famed German mercenary force, the Black Band, included 2,000 two-handed swordsmen.

The figures in this box can represent Landsknechts raised in Germany or other nations of this era and can be armed with either halberds or zweihänder swords.

This box contains plastic and metal components to make 12 Landsknechts with zweihänder swords and 12 with halberds.

Miniatures are supplied unpainted.