Were the Swiss not mainly defeated by artillery fire and musketry safe behind earthworks, rather than from melee infantry?Originally Posted by King Henry V
http://www.answers.com/topic/battle-of-bicocca
Were the Swiss not mainly defeated by artillery fire and musketry safe behind earthworks, rather than from melee infantry?Originally Posted by King Henry V
http://www.answers.com/topic/battle-of-bicocca
Condotierri were mercenaries operating in Northern Italy.
"We live, we die and death not ends it"
a condottieri units never existed ...existed the "Condottiero" = 1 person leading a group of mercenaries or a person hired to hire a group of mercenaries .... Hackwood ( or Colleoni , Da Giussano , Da Barbiaro etc etc )was a condottiero ( or condottiere , is the same ) but was not a unit and even less a unit of men at arms .
so for example in my Mtw2 ive replaced it with another unit ( Tuscan Fenditori )
They can be called Contada which means contract. Condotierri armies often had their own systems of management, recruitment, logistics, organization and so forth. All they needed was money and sought work from the various city states in Italy and also in many of the kingdoms in Europe.
I'm Italian ... the italian word is "soldati di ventura" and that is something like "Adventure's soldiers" ... btw we can call them in any way but they are not a specific unit just mercenary troops of every kind
As far as I know, the Condottori system was a rather inefficient one. When they participated in campaigns the condottori was notorious for switching sides to the highest payer. Condottories was also normally unvilling to fight, because the more men they had, the more they would get paid. When the condottories however had to fight, they mainly just led their men in fancy manouvers and it was rare that fights got serios.
So if they are included it is my humble opinion that they get horrible moral.
its not totally true ... some condottieri and their units are considered the best of their age , Hackwood , Bande nere , Colleoni were excellent as their troops .. if a unit was inefficent no one would consider to hire it !!
That system of course failed miserabily against professional state armies of France and Spain at the beginning of XVI century but before that they were superior ( as shown with the many french defeats from milan ).
so i will still consider them an elite but of course FEW .
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