Ottoman Turks

For our games we use the Pike and Shotte rules from Warlord as they facilitate multi-player games and get us a result in a few hours. While the rules do contain lists for the Ottomans and Poles they appear to be for the mid 17th Century and do not cover all the potential troop types.

Previously we had a group project to build forces for the Italian Wars and we faced a similar situation. What I ended up doing was producing list for each of the major antagonists. I wish I could say this was the product of much scholarly reading and research but in truth it was done by taking existing army lists from previous rules (mainly WRG 2nd Edition Renaissance and Field of Glory Renaissance with a sprinkling of Tercio and DBR) to produce the lists of troop types and ratios. It was then a matter of converting morale, armour values and weaponry to Pike and Shotte. This also included decisions on which if any of the special rules needed to be applied to add the correct flavour.

I did the same for the Ottomans, Poles and Imperial Austrian forces. I have attached copies of the list if anyone is interested.

Last but not least (unless you were a Janissary) are the rest of the infantry. Starting with the Tufekcis Musketeers and the Balkan Sharpshooters. Both these units started to appear in the 17th Century armies.

The Tufekcis (I need a couple more units of these) as a more modern fire armed unit adopting a more western way of drill that had been rejected by the Janissaries. By this period the Janissaries had become a strong “political” force, even leading to the overthrow (usually fatal) of some sultans and pasha’s so had to be handled carefully. While the Janissaries had adopted firearms early and with great enthusiasm they resisted later attempts at modernisation.

The Balkan skirmishers could be either Muslim or Christian background but all had a reputation for marksmanship and courage.

And lastly we have the Azab or Volunteer infantry. In the 15th and early 16th century they were mainly bow armed later adopting the arquebus and then musket in the 16th and 17th century.

So I approached this by having a couple of units bow armed and a couple with musket to cover both the early and late periods. I than added a couple of units with hand-to-hand weapons who can then represent either bow or musket on the battlefield.

The added advantage is that the bows and hand-to-hand units can then be used to represent the dodgy levy units.

They are pictured below with their “mobile” field defences otherwise known as tethered baggage animals.

Here we have the last of the “Kapikula” or Household Troops with the Sipahis of the Porte. While no uniforms as such were issued I have used a single colour to “tie” the units together both to help identification on the table and give a more regular appearance.

Next up we have the rest of the heavy cavalry in the form of the Timariot or Feudal Sipahis. In the 17th Century these were divided into the Anatolian (or Eastern) Sipahis and the Roumeliot (or Western) Sipahis. Part of the reason for the distinction was the unwillingness of the Anatolian Sipahis to adopt gunpowder weapons as they considered them unchivalrous (according to some sources) and they dirtied their cloths!!!

With the completion of these last sets of figures I have completed all the figures I currently have for the army ?. So here are the various units that make up the army. Hopefully in a couple of weeks there will be some better pictures as they take to the table to face the Poles in their first battle.

First up we have the light cavalry with the Delis and Turkoman/Akincis skirmishing cavalry. I do have to add more Akincis to the army but they were disbanded at the end of the 16th century.

Next up we have the “Kapikula” or “Household Troops” in the form of the Janissaries and the Artillery Corps.

The last couple of units completed were a couple of units of Azab infantry one with musket/arquebus (for later armies) and the other with bow (for early armies). These again were from The Assault Group. As with the previous units it was time for “brighter and more vivid” colours in the paint collection to be broken out and we were off.

One of the things with the Ottomans was the use of Artillery and in particular the inclusion of trained artillery troops within the “Kapikula” or “Household Troops” of the Sultan providing professional artillery crews. So Ottoman forces could include more artillery than there opponents in this period both in the field and at sieges.

While I have already completed four heavy guns it was time to add four medium guns. The original guns I have are from The Assault Group so to try and make these look different I picked up four guns and crew from Old Glory. These included a couple of “older” looking guns. This is because one advantage with an Ottoman army is you can use some of the troops over a 300 year period as dress changed little in the period. The only issue I had with the Old Glory figures was that they all had the same version of hat. While this type of hat does appear in contemporary illustrations the odd turban would have been good but you cannot have everything.

One thing that has always been mentioned on various “army lists” for the Ottomans was “chained guns”, “chains for defence of guns” or “stakes and chains to defend guns”.

Over the years I also read various descriptions about the defences used by the Ottomans and they have all used similar vague terms for the defences used by the guns on the battlefield. So as we mainly use the Pike and Shotte Black Powder variant for the games we play (good for large, multi player games over in a few hours) and not wanting my guns to be rode down by the cavalry it was time to think how I could represent these.

I have always had difficulty with the theory that the guns were actually chained together as this would mean:

a) half your crew would be on the wrong side of the defences when loading the guns

b) recoil would be a complete pain with chains and spikes flying everywhere.

So here’s my version

Next was what to do regarding the “stakes, spikes, spears” in the various descriptions. I already had some fine chain but the links were not wide enough to pass anything through.

So some square plastic tube drilled and fine plastic rod glued in place. This then had to be drilled again to pass the chain through.

Once this was done the chains were then mounted on the posts and the “spikes” spaced out and glued in place.

The final touch was painting the entire assembly starting with Gunmetal Grey and highlighting with Blue Gunmetal and Silver to try and give a bit more definition.

The last batch of figures completed at the moment are the Balkan Sharpshooters used in the later armies. These were skirmishing troops recruited from Bosnia and Albanian areas controlled by the Ottomans and had a reputation for being expert marksmen. The figures are from Warfare Miniatures.

And for something completely different (and again could upset animal lovers) are the tethered camels that were used for improvised “field defences” to protect infantry from enemy cavalry. The figures are from Redoubt Miniatures, I think from one of its colonial ranges, but a camel is a camel.

So what’s left to complete for the army? On the immediate “to do” list are some more Azab infantry, additional artillery and I need to build some “gun chains” for defence of the artillery.