Tzardoms Cooperation Thread

well, a reply to your questions.

1- no, polish mercenaries did not reach italy; better said, some group of polish mercenary may well have reached venetian territory. For sure, in 1441, (for Machiavello), they were part of the Grand Army that Ulászló/Władysław, king of Poland and Hungary, summoned to the Varna crusade.
We have accounts of troops coming from territories held by John Hunyadi (Transilvanians and Szekelys) and Polish nobles and their retinue, while hungarian nobles' loyalties were more questionable (see Civil war in Hungary)

2- "Did Italian archers also hide behind pavises like crossbowmen?" I guess so, even if we have almost no depiction of archers. We got mentions of them, usually as city militia/police forces, but not really in battle.

3- Yes, there is historical evidence of them. Just look at the Hesperis

Hesperis di Basinio da Parma

4- "Cernite" or "Cernide" is a generic term that means "chosen". Since Venice stick to that system (at least in the name) until 1797, they usually identifies with venetian. You can even read about "cernite" in renaissance writers referring to ancient roman legions, as they were "chosen" among citizens. In Naples and sicily things seemed a bit different, as military units seems to be partly mercenaries, partly local lords with their retinue (often working as mercenaries, too). For sure they did not have a full-fledged city militia system, as it was more common in a "republican" form of government like in early Florence, Bologna, Genoa, Siena, Lucca or Venice. We have a mention of a "Prima Cernita" in Montferrat as a sort of honor guard for the Marquess.

5- I did one indeed :P

6- Machiavelli's reform was in early 1500s, and was more a proposal than an actual deed. In the previous 50/60 years, a massive change in military matters happened. we see the golden age of heavy knights, the progressive lightening of the infantry who carried less armour and transitioned from the lance system to a pike square, and the rapid increase of firepower, who replaced archers and crossbowmen.

7- yes, the "bargello guard" i made from old machiavello is just a foot city general, to mark a difference between "city officials" and "hired mercenaries" in Florence. There were really few mentions of unique units, so we may try to implement them from our scarce sources. We have mention of guard units of mounted crossbowmen for some general, or we get mentions of sicilian infantry (who might have something different to be noticed as such?), corsican mercenaries as papal guards (swiss were not yet sent to rome until much later), and obviously crossbowmen distinguished from the city of origin, like Genoa, Savona, Pisa, Siena and so on.

8- i had set up a distinction for several ethnic groups in the balkans. I was there for a while. I plan a set of (when possible) 2 units for each group, be they 1 infantry/1 cavalry or missile unit. I have made (or will made) the following models:
- Polish Nobles;
- Polish Light Horsemen;
- Bohemian Heavy Infantrymen (Pavise);
- Bohemian Handgunner;
- Bohemian War Wagons; (preview)
- Szekely Horse Archers; (preview)
- Szekely Archers;
- Transilvanian (Saxon) heavy infantry;
- Transilvanian (Saxon) handgunner;
- Wallachian Light Horsemen; (preview)
- Wallachian Light Infantrymen; (preview)
- Serbian Husar;
- Serbian Infantrymen;
- Bosnian Nobles;
- Bosnian Spearmen;
- Croatian Nobles;
- Croatian Spearmen;
- Dalmatian Light Horsemen;
- Dalmatian Infantrymen;
- Greek Stratiotai Spearmen;
- Greek Archers;
- Albanian Horsemen;
- Albanian Light Infantrymen; (preview)