First Game of The Pikeman's Lament - Ottomans and Poles

We tried out The Pikeman's Lament at the last Tring Club night and were very pleased with the rules. We also managed to get almost 3 games into 3 hours playing time (due to unforeseen circumstances we had to cut the last game short, but I reckon another 30 minutes would have seen us to the end of that as well).

Poles
1 unit Winged Hussars - Elite Gallopers
1 unit Pancerni - Gallopers
2 units Cossacks - Raw Gallopers
1 unit Dragoons - Dragoons
1 unit Haiduk Infantry - Shot

I thought about making the Hussars Aggressive, but decided not to until we had tried a few games out. I'm still undecided with the Polish light cavalry, Tartars are obviously Dragoons, or Veteran Dragoons, but armed with lances I'm not sure whether the Cossacks were primarily skirmish or melee troops.

Ottomans
1 unit Sipahis of the Porte - Gallopers
3 units Feudal Sipahis - Trotters
1 unit Tartars - Veteran Dragoons
1 unit skirmish musketeers - Commanded Shot

Sipahis of the Porte tended to be used as the heavy cavalry reserve, so I felt Gallopers suited them better. I'm not sure about other Sipahis as Trotters, but that suits them better than Gallopers or Dragoons. I may need to play about with the troop types a little bit here.

The Games

The first game was the Ga Pa scenario. For some unknown reason the Polish Commander placed his officer in one of the Cossack units, which made him quite vulnerable. The Poles put their shot in the centre and quickly moved them onto a hill, where they stayed for the game, mainly sniping at passing Turkish horsemen at long range. On the left flank the Dragoons and Pancerni faced off against a unit of Sipahis and the skirmish infantry, whilst on the right flank the Hussars faced the Sipahis of the Porte supported by the Tartars. The Cossacks were in the centre on either side of the shot, facing the last 2 Sipahi units.

On the left the Dragoons hung back whilst the Pancerni rapidly advanced against the Sipahis. The Turkish infantry ducked into a nearby wood, from whence they picked off a passing Pancerni. The Pancerni charged and we followed what was to become the standard format for melees in this game. The Gallopers won the melee, the Trotters failed their morale test and fell back, wavering. The Gallopers used their compulsory follow-up, winning again. I rolled crap morale dice and the Trotters routed. The Pancerni had only lost 1 man in melee, but the skirmishers in the wood picked off another one, so at least they were down to half strength.

On the right the Tartars advanced into range of the Winged Hussars and killed one man. Now the Hussars charged but the Tartars evaded out of range, peppering the Hussars with arrows. This opened up a gap between the Hussars and the Officer's Cossack unit and I threw my Sipahis of the Porte into the gap, supported by another unit of Sipahis. Now my Tartars attempted to Skirmish again, hoping to kill another Hussar and remain out of charge range. This is where things went really pear shaped as I rolled a double 1, then my Tartars went loopy and charged the Hussars! (On a roll of double 1 or 6 for an activation, you roll on a Good/Bad Things happen table). Of course the Hussars counter charged and smashed the Tartars in melee. The Tartars failed their morale roll and fell back wavering, The Hussars Followed up, won again and, guess what, the Tartars routed!!! Sound familiar?

                                               Tartars frustrating the Winged Hussars...

                                                ....then stupidly charging them.........

                                            ...exit stage left, pursued by Hussars!

OLD SCHOOL OTTOMAN ARMY - PART 4

I've now finished the last unit of cavalry, a unit of irregular Tartars. Together with a couple of units of Akincis and some Irregular light cavalry these complete the mounted arm of my Ottoman Turks.  These are particularly useful as they could be pressed into service with various other armies, such as my Mongols or, once they are sorted, a Polish army to face off the Ottomans.

So the usual before and after photos.

OLD SCHOOL OTTOMAN ARMY PART 3

Feudal Sipahis
These were the main fighting arm of the cavalry, known as the Timarli Sipahi. They were fief-holders, owing military service in exchange for land, in the same manner as the European knight. They served as armoured cavalry, accompanied by similarly equipped retainers. The larger the land holding, the more retainers a Sipahis was expected to provide.In the classic Ottoman deployment the Sipahis formed the two flanks, with the Timari Sipahis  deployed forward with the Sipahis of the Porte in reserve.

Before the process started.

After a grey wash and varnish.

The finished article.

OLD SCHOOL OTTOMAN ARMY PART 2

Part 2 Sipahis of the Porte

To keep things sensible I've split up the cavalry by type and will process them in units. First up, the elite cavalry of the Ottoman army, the Sipahis of the Porte. Also called the Kapıkulu Sipahi these were salaried, regular units which formed the cavalry arm of the Ottoman household troops. These were the first figures to be re-based, washed and varnished, then had the bases textured with a mixture of brown paint, sand and pva glue, before tufts of grass were added. I shall probably add a bit of static grass at a later date. Due to extensive house rebuilding most of my gaming stuff is in the loft and at the moment I've no idea where my flocks and grasses are!

After a grey wash and a coat of varnish.

Now with textured bases.

Finally with tufts added.

OLD-SCHOOL OTTOMAN ARMY

At the Tring Club we recently were contacted by a chap who offered to give away his wargames collection to any members of the club who wanted to use them. These were old 25mm wargames figures that hadn't seen the light of day since the early 1980s, but it was still a generous offer, which we gratefully accepted.

I ended up with a box labelled 17th century Ottomans and Poles. This contained about 300 painted 25mm figures, mostly a mix of Hincliffe and Minifigs, with a sprinkling of other manufacturers, the majority unbased or on flimsy bits of card, riders not stuck onto horses, loose spears etc. These bought back memories as they were the sort of figures I started gaming with back in the early 1970s. Once I'd got them all sorted out I realised that the Poles were quite incomplete, missing winged hussars or other heavy cavalry, so I put them aside for the time being.The Ottomans, on the other hand, seemed to be a viable army as they stood, comprising of 46 cavalry, 90 infantry and 2 cannon with 11 gunners. Admittedly the normal Ottoman army would have a higher cavalry to infantry ratio, but these would give me a playable army "out of the box".

My aim is to get these onto the table as quickly as possible, so no repainting other than a quick touch up of obvious damage, a wash and a coat of varnish. I'm not sure of which ruleset I will be using at this stage so the basing will be to be as generic as possible. I'll put the cavalry on 25x50mm bases and the infantry will probably end up on 25mm washers.

So here they are at the first stage;

The Infantry

Some of the Cavalry

Sipahis stuck onto horses and rebased.