Friday 1 March 2024

German Peasant's War crossbowmen and arquebusiers



Progress on my German Peasants wars collection continues with the addition of some missile troops. Here we have a unit of 24 peasants and landsknecht armed with crossbows and arquebuses. The figures are a mix of Steel Fist, Grenadier, Old Glory, Wargames Foundry and Warlord Games figures. Whilst some of the units of peasants for this collection have been put together so they could be used as German or Tudor rebels this unit is specifically for the German Peasant's War of 1524-1526. The peasant bands included many landsknecht in their ranks so each of the 6 bases in the unit is a mix of men in peasant garb and more flamboyantly dressed landsknecht. By the 1520s you would be unlikely to find landsknecht fighting with crossbows but some of the landsknecht in this unit carry them as a nod to the fact the peasant bands were armed with whatever weapons they could get their hands on.

It was fun putting this unit together and they work well when deployed in front of the rest of the peasant band as shown in the photos below.

A unit of peasants armed with crossbows and arquebuses.

28mm Peasant shot.

The unit is a mix of peasants and landsknecht.

28mm Peasant and landsknecht shot.




 

Thursday 15 February 2024

16th Century Janissaries


Today's post sees a return to the Ottoman army with some more janissaries. The figures are from the excellent Warfare Miniatures Ottoman Turkish range. The range represents the janissaries of the 17th and 18th centuries but as these particular figures are armed with bows or swords and shields they also work well for the 16th century. I have tweaked some them a little to make them more suitable for the 1500s but there are no great changes to the miniatures. As discussed in my original post on the janissaries, https://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2020/05/early-16th-century-janissaries.html, it is difficult to know how they looked on campaign during the first half of the sixteenth century. I have serious doubts as to how much of the "classic" janissary uniform would have been worn on campaign, included the famed "ak börk" or "bork" white caps, and how uniformed they would have been.

Further to this, having recently read a translation of Konstantin Mihailovic's account of the Ottoman army in the second half of the 15th century I thought it would be interesting to include his description of how the janissaries were organised in the post. Whether or not he was actually a janissary seems up for debate, he may have been some kind of Serbian auxiliary providing support to the janissary corps. Writing between 1490 and 1500 his chapter concerning the organisation of the Imperial court describes the janissaries as such:

"And at the court there are about four thousand Janissaries, and among them there is the following organisation. They have over them a senior hetman called an aga, a great lord. He receives ten gold pieces a day, and his steward, one gold piece a day. To each centurion they give a gold piece every two days, and to their stewards, a gold piece every four days. And all their sons who grow out of boyhood have a wage from the emperor. And no courtier who permits himself something will be punished by the honest ones by fine, but rather by death; they dare not however, punish any courtier publicly, but secretly, because of the other courtiers for they would revolt. And no Janissary nor any decurion of theirs dare ride a horse, save the hetman himself and the steward. And among them it is so arranged that some are archers who shoot bows, some are gunners who shoot mortars, others muskets, and still others, crossbows. And every day they must appear with their weapons before their hetmans. And he gives each one a gold piece per year for a bow, and in addition a tunic, a shirt, and large trousers made, as is their fashion, of three ells of cloth, and a shirt of eight ells. And this I myself distributed to them for two years from the imperial court."

This extract from Mihailovic's memoirs provides evidence that the janissaries might have been in some kind of uniform as they were provided with their clothing each year. The addition of these figures dressed in blue means that I can still field the various units in the collection as uniformed or they can be mixed to provide even more colourful units of janissaries. The last few photos below show these new figures mixed in with those completed a few years ago, dressed in green and red. 

Attacking Janissaries - the figures are converted Warfare Miniatures Janissaries.

28mm Janissaries with bows from Warfare Miniatures.

Early 16th Century Janissaries.

One of the officers  is wearing an animal skin carrying a halberd. Perhaps he is a "centurion" or "steward" as described by Konstantin Mihailovic.

Early 16th Century Janissaries.

A mix of Old Glory, Assault Group, Essex Miniatures and Warfare Miniatures Janissaries. The flags are also all from Warfare Miniatures.

Janissaries for the first half of the 16th century. Note how two of them are mounted. These must be the "hetman himself and the steward" as, according to Mihailovic, no other janissary "dare ride a horse"!

Thursday 1 February 2024

Szina, 1528


In January my friend Tom visited and we started the wargaming year with a big set piece battle. Last year all of the games Tom and I played involved fortifications in some way so we thought it would be good to have a change and game the follow on clash from our 2021 Tarcal scenario, https://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2021/08/tarcal-1527.html, the battle of Szina, 1528, which took place in modern day Slovakia. As this was a scenario from the civil war in the 1520s Kingdom of Hungary it also gave me the chance to field my newly completed voynuks as some of John Zápolya's eastern European mercenaries.

Szina, 1528

The Ottoman defeat of the Hungarian King, Louis II, at Mohacs in August 1526 led to civil war in Hungary. Louis II died without an heir and Ferdinand of Habsburg had a claim to the Hungarian crown, being Louis II's brother-in-law.  In December 1526 Ferdinand was elected by a faction of the Hungarian greater nobility and Catholic clergy. They hoped his family connections as a Habsburg would mean he could defend the kingdom against the Ottoman threat. Ferdinand's election ignored the fact that just a month previously much of the lesser nobility of Hungary had proclaimed John Zápolya, Voivode of Transylvania as their King.

On 27 September 1527 Ferdinand's army, commanded by Nicholas, Count of Salm, defeated Zápolya's smaller force at Tarcal (see the link to our refight of this above). Zápolya escaped the field returning to Transylvania. Here he raised an army of around 13,000 Transylvanian, Serbian and Polish troops and within 6 months was able to challenge Ferdinand's claim to the crown again. Zápolya advanced into Hungary being joined by perhaps as many as 2,000 Hungarian troops as he entered the kingdom. Initially things went well for him as his army pushed back the forces of one of Ferdinand's captains, Péter Perényi, and besieged the towns of Sárospatak and Sátoraljaújhely.

To combat Zápolya's invasion Johann von Katzianer, a veteran commander who had led much of Ferdinand's infantry at Tarcal, and Bálint Török, who had fought at Mohacs and Tarcal, headed towards the city of Kassa with an army of around 13,000 to 14,000 men. Their army was comprised Hungarian, Austrian and German troops including contingents of landsknecht. There was already discord in the ranks of John Zápolya's mercenary army as hostilities were breaking out between the Serbian and Polish troops. Despite this Zápolya advanced towards the Habsburg forces and the armies met at Szina, not far from Kassa, on 20 March 1528. 

Zápolya's army attacked but being comprised mainly of light cavalry it could do little to break the ranks of the disciplined landsknecht. It seems the most steadfast of his troops were the Polish infantry who put up a hard fight until their artillery was captured. This was the turning point of the battle being followed by a rout in which Zápolya himself was nearly captured. Around 300 of the Polish infantry were slain whilst several thousand of the other mercenaries were killed as the army broke and fled. The light horse of Bálint Török and Lajos Pekry pursued Zápolya's horsemen catching them on 25 March where they inflicted yet more casualties, effectively destroying the army. John Zápolya fled to Poland but Sigismund I, the Polish King, would not provide him with aid driving Zápolya into an alliance with the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman. A year later the Ottomans would strike back at the Habsburgs and besiege Vienna in September 1529.

A view of the table. On the left is the Habsburg army with the cavalry contingent at the top and the infantry in the fore. On the right is Zápolya's army with the Balkan cavalry on the bottom right and the mercenary infantry arrayed beyond the horsemen. 

A view down the line of Zápolya's army. The Polish infantry have deployed amongst the artillery in a defensive formation. 

Scenario

As with our previous refight of Tarcal it is hard to find much information on this battle in English. What details we did have we used to put together the following scenario. As always the game was played using an adapted version of Lion Rampant. Each player had a cavalry, infantry and artillery retinue.

The game was played out as a pitched battle with both forces deploying facing one another.

Victory

For the Habsburg forces to achieve victory they had to kill or rout John Zápolya. For Zápolya's army to achieve victory it had to rout or kill over half the points values of both the Habsburg cavalry and infantry retinues. If both of these objectives were achieved by the players in the same turn then the game would be considered a draw.

Activation Fails

Each turn each player took 5 cards from a deck. Any King, Queen or Jack cards from the 5 they took could be used to get a reroll on an activation fail for that turn for one of their retinues. At the end of the turn all unused cards were put in a discard pile. Once the deck ran out a fresh deck was used for the reroll cards.

As the discipline of the Habsburg troops was also a factor in their victory we also made it easier for the landsknecht arquebusiers to roll a "shoot" activation than is normally the case in our rules to represent this.

Artillery

This was a pitched battle in which the taking of Zápolya's artillery was a key moment. To represent this each player had a third retinue of 4 culverins. This retinue could attempt to activate at the start of each player's turn after which they could activate their other retinues. The artillery retinues did not have retinue leaders like a normal retinue.

Discord in the ranks

As Zápolya's mercenary army was suffering from discord in the ranks before the battle any unit in Zápolya's army that rolled a blunder result in an activation would shoot if missile armed or attack if melee armed the nearest friendly unit of a different type if this was possible rather than rolling on the blunder chart. For example a pavise infantry unit that rolled a blunder would not attack another pavise infantry unit within 4" of it but would attack a light cavalry unit 6" from it as the cavalry unit would be of a different type.

John Zápolya and his household guard are deployed behind the heavy guns and mercenary infantry.

Ferdinand of Habsburg's army under the command of Johann von Katzianer and Bálint Török. 

A view of the infantry contingent of the Habsburg army. The landsknecht and Hungarian infantry are deployed around the guns. Johann von Katzianer can be seen under the yellow Habsburg flag bearing the red saltire in the top right of the photo.

The Armies

We decided to dice to see who commanded which army in this game and the result was that Tom took command of the Habsburg forces whilst I took command of John Zápolya's mercenary army.

The Army of Ferdinand of Habsburg

The infantry under Johann von Katzianer

1 Unit of Foot Knights (Johann von Katzianer retinue leader)
4 Units of Landsknecht Pike
3 Units of Landsknecht Arquebusiers
1 Unit of Landsknecht Halberdiers
1 Unit of Pavise and Arquebus Infantry

The cavalry under Bálint Török 

1 Unit of Gendarmes (Bálint Török retinue leader)
2 Units of Gendarmes
2 Units of Hussars
2 Units of Hungarian Horse
1 Unit of Lancers

Artillery

4 Culverins

The Army of John Zápolya

The cavalry under John Zápolya

1 Unit of Gendarmes (John Zápolya retinue leader)
1 Unit of Gendarmes
2 Units of Hussars
5 Units of Balkan Cavalry

The mercenary infantry

1 Unit of Foot Knights (Polish Mercenary captain retinue leader)
3 Units of Pavise and Arquebus Infantry (The Polish infantry)
2 Units of Eastern Armoured infantry (The Serbian infantry)
1 Unit of Mercenary Shot
1 Unit of Levy Pike

Artillery

4 Culverins

The captions under the photos are a good way to follow the game but a brief write up also follows.

The battle commences with a long range artillery bombardment from the Habsburg army. Some of the gun crews in Zápolya's army take casualties.

Following the opening artillery salvos Johann von Katzianer orders a general advance of the Habsburg army.

Zápolya's mercenaries open fire on the advancing Hungarian and German horse.

Hungarian hussars and horse archers are joined by Imperial gendarmes for the attack.

An overview of the field as the Habsburg forces push forward.

The day started with the crack of cannon fire as Johann von Katzianer ordered his guns into action. Shots crashed into Zápolya's mercenary troops killing some of his artillery crews. As the guns opened fire the horns and drums of the Habsburg army sounded and a general advance on Zápolya's position began. The landsknecht marched grimly towards the rival Hungarian king's forces whilst the cavalry raced ahead to charge onto Zápolya's right flank.

Hungarian hussars and then Imperial gendarmes and lancers crashed into Zápolya's Serbian and Polish infantry. A series of fierce melees developed with both sides taking casualties. The mercenary infantry were driven back but Zápolya's lines held forcing the Habsburg cavalry to wheel about and regroup. There may have been ill discipline in Zápolya's army previously but in the heat of battle most of the troops held meaning Bálint Török and his cavalry were unable to sweep them away.

Battle is joined as a unit of hussars charges into a formation of Zápolya's Serbian mercenaries...

...the hussars are driven off by the Serbian infantry only for a unit of Imperial gendarmes to crash into them and send the Serbs fleeing from the field.

Zápolya's Polish mercenary infantry are the next to be engaged, charged by a detachment of Imperial lancers. The lancers are driven off but inflict high casualties on the infantry.

At the other end of the field Zápolya's mercenary cavalry, comprising mostly of Serbian and Transylvanian light horse, are yet to engage.

Zápolya's infantry and guns open fire on the advancing landsknecht causing terrible casualties.

Other than his own bodyguard John Zápolya has one unit of heavy horse. They charge into the advancing Habsburg infantry and a bloody hand to hand clash takes place...

...neither side shows any quarter and the horsemen are driven off.

In the centre of the field Johann von Katzianer's infantry advanced with caution against Zápolya's centre which was held by further detachments of mercenary infantry with Zápolya himself deployed behind them and surrounded by his mounted bodyguard of household men at arms. On Zápolya's left flank his mercenary cavalry, a motely assortment of Transylvanian and Serbian light horsemen, did not commit to the fight. Instead they watched the landsknecht pike and guns that Katzianer had deployed facing them. It was a stark comparison to the other end of the field with neither force being willing to make the first move.

Katzianer's infantry in the centre were met with devastating volleys of arquebus shot from Zápolya's mercenaries and grapeshot from his artillery. The landsknecht pike, advancing shoulder to shoulder, were killed in droves. This led a unit of heavy cavalry, that had joined Zápolya's army as he advanced into the kingdom, to break ranks and charge into the landsknecht. Having seen the landsknecht come under such heavy fire the charging men at arms thought they would be able to break them. The landsknecht held firm and drove Zápolya's men at arms back whilst a unit of Hungarian infantry fighting for the Habsburgs fired at close range into the disordered heavy cavalry sending them back in flight.

A view down the field. The Habsburg cavalry are continuing the attack on Zápolya's infantry.

Zápolya's infantry hold formation and the guns continue to fire...

...inflicting further casualties on the advancing landsknecht.

On Zápolya's right flank the Habsburg horse battle against his mercenary infantry.

The Habsburg infantry are reinforced by another artillery piece but they are suffering terribly as they attempt to break into the Polish infantry of Zápolya's army.

During a lull in the fighting Bálint Török reforms the cavalry in preparation for another attack...

...whilst John Zápolya remains sheltered behind his heavy guns and the pavises of the Polish mercenaries. 

Whilst there has been much bloodshed on Zápolya's right flank, on his left most of the cavalry are still yet to engage. Only the heavy cavalry and some hussars have been routed following a charge into the advancing landsknecht.  

Bálint Török leads his heavy cavalry into the infantry yet again. He is unhorsed in the melee, a blow to the morale of the Habsburg army.


Whilst Zápolya's left flank and the Habsburg right remained unengaged in the centre of the field it was now the turn of the landsknecht infantry to show ill discipline and many of them fled in the face of constant volleys of shot from Zápolya's mercenary infantry. The Habsburg attack on the centre had failed. As the landsknecht fled some of Zápolya's light cavalry finally joined the action riding out to chase them down.

 The fighting continued on Zápolya's right flank as Bálint Török led the Habsburg cavalry in further charges. The Polish mercenaries were pushed back and Zápolya's guns were over run but Zápolya's lines held. Bálint Török was brought down in an attack on the Polish mercenaries, a blow to the morale of the already exhausted cavalry. With the infantry routed and much of Zápolya's light horse remaining fresh the Habsburg cavalry sounded a retreat. For the Habsburg horse and Zápolya's Polish and Serbian infantry it had been a long and bloody fight. John Zápolya's army held the field and the remaining Habsburg commander, Johann von Katzianer, withdrew.

In this renewed attack on Zápolya's infantry all of his guns are captured and many of his Polish mercenaries slain...

...but the mercenary captains of Zápolya's army keep their men in formation and manage to drive the Habsburg cavalry off again.

The Habsburg cavalry attack stalls again. With the landsknecht infantry having sustained heavy losses in their attack on Zápolya's defensive formation and Zápolya's light horse contingent yet to really engage the Habsburgs retreat from the field.

 Another hard fought game. I think deployment was key in this one. To win Tom had to get to John Zápolya's unit and defeat it but Zápolya was positioned amidst a strong defensive formation of guns and pavise infantry which proved very difficult to break. The guns in Zápolya's army were effective when defending against the landsknecht at close range whilst those in the Habsburg army were firing at long range and achieved little. This had a big effect on the result.

I suppose this also shows that even in a chaotic game like Lion Rampant, or at least our amended version of it, if you follow some of the tried and tested defensive formations of history they can achieve results that would be expected. That being said there were moments when it did look like Tom's attack with the cavalry would prevail and sweep away my infantry. As we could play cards to counter activation fails this meant that the ill discipline rules for 
Zápolya's army didn't have an effect whilst, counter to history, it was the landsknecht infantry that suffered from terrible discipline in the game with a few of the units failing their morale and routing very quickly.

It was great to get so many different units on the table; landsknecht, gendarmes, hussars, balkan cavalry and eastern European infantry with pavises and heavy armour. This is definitely an area of gaming Tom and I will be revisiting and we are keen to get the Ottomans into another game later this year.

Friday 12 January 2024

Voynuks


For today's post we return to the 15th and 16th century Ottoman wars in the Balkans with a unit of voynuks. Voynuks were essentially Christian Ottoman subjects from states such as Serbia, Wallachia, Bulgaria and Macedonia who fought in Ottoman armies. As with many of the military units fielded by the Ottomans in this period there are a range of different descriptions of who these troops were, what their role was and how they were organised. A look at some of these descriptions may help to shed some light on the voynuks of the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

Ian Heath in his "Armies of the Middle Ages Volume 2" explains how Serbian armies of the Middle Ages were feudal in nature. Men were granted a pronija, a system of landholding inherited from the Byzantines, or a bashtina, an area of hereditary freehold land, the holder of such land being called a bashtinik or voynici. The holders of pronijas and bashtinas, made up the Serbian nobility, but many of the bashtiniks or voynici were simply well off peasants as oppose to wealthy nobles. As such in times of war the pronijars, holding the pronijas, would serve as heavy cavalry whilst the bashtiniks or voynici would serve as the infantry hence the name the Ottomans gave them of voynuks.

In his description of late medieval Ottoman military organisation Heath explains that in Ottoman usage the term voynuk meant an armoured Balkan Christian infantryman who provided military service for tax exemptions. He states troops under this name could be found in Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Herzegovinia, Macedonia, Serbia and Thessaly. Thought to have been established as a force in the Ottoman military in the late 14th century, Heath gives a date of 1376, they fell under the command of a voynuk bey, with unit captains being called ceri-bashis. By the 15th century the voynuks comprised an important part of Ottoman armies.

David Nicolle's Osprey books on the Armies of the Ottoman Turks 1300-1774 and The Janissaries provide further descriptions of voynuks. In the first book Nicolle states "Voyniks were Balkan Christians. They are first recorded as the infantry followers of Christian sipahis fighting for Murat I. They were expected to be armoured, unlike their yamak (apprentice) squires, and formed gönder (flag-staff) units. Among the most effective were the Vlachs of Thessaly who, after fighting for the Byzantine Despot of the Morea against the Sultan's Christian sipahis, played a leading role in Mehmet II's army which captured Istanbul in 1453. Voyniks remained important well into the 16th century, at which time more then one in ten Christian households had such military obligations. They were reduced to non-combatant, though still highly paid and skillful, pioneer duties in the 17th century".

Nicolle's later Osprey on the Janissaries states: "The history of the Voynuqs is even more varied. Essentially they were auxiliaries recruited from the Ottoman Empire's Balkan Christian vassals under a system inherited from Pre-Turkish times, though they do seem to have included Muslims from early on. Most were armoured cavalry, but again they included some footsoldiers. Their ranks were largely Slav Bulgarians and Serbs, as well as Vlach- or Rumanian-speakers. Like many Ottoman auxiliaries a Voynuq was supported by other households known as Gönder, a term probably stemming from the Greek word Kontarion or lance. The Voynuqs had their own Çeribaşı officers under overall command of the Voynuq Beyi, and were attended by Yamak servants or subordinates. Although the Voynuqs had no Ocak or corps structure they included a registered reserve which kept them up to strength.  By the 15th century some Voynuqs had additional duties such as looking after herds of cavalry horses in Bulgaria. The Dogancis ('hawkers') were similar to these Voynuqs and raised hawks for the Imperial Court. Elsewhere Vlach Christian nomads enjoyed special privileges in return for serving the Ottoman Empire as frontier Voynuqs , guides, guards and raiders. The autonomous Rumanian principality of Moldavia also supplied Voynuqs during the 16th century".

Unlike Heath, Nicolle states the voynuks were predominantly cavalry, to such an extent that in his book the "Cross and Crescent in the Balkans" the glossary defines Voynuq as "Balkan Christian auxiliary cavalry in Ottoman service". Nicolle's mention of some voynuks looking after the cavalry horses is interesting as Konstantin Mihailovic in his account of life as a janissary, although whether he was really a janissary or not is up for debate, states "There are also some other Christians. They will give nothing to any of them, nor is any wage paid them. They are called woyniczy. They belong to and serve the emperor, and lead the emperor's empty horses when necessary". So we have a range of different spellings of voynuk and explanations of who they were. It seems that at least some were infantry from Balkan territories under Ottoman rule and that they fought under officers called Çeribaşı/ceri-bashis with a voynuk bey being their overall commander.

Hungarian Combatants, escort to Maximilian I, Hans Burgkmair c.1516-1518.

Having, perhaps, established who these troops were the question of how to represent them on the tabletop arises. What did they look like? Both Old Glory and Warlord Games make specific voynuk miniatures in 28mm. The problem is that these miniatures are based on a single conjectural piece of artwork by Angus McBride in the Osprey Armies of the Ottoman Turks 1300-1774 that I have already quoted from above. The image is not included in this post but you can view it here: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/3b/dd/f0/3bddf0816536bc45fdb28288ca319c7e.jpg

Angus McBride presented a convincing image of what a voynuk might be dressed like, combining western European with Turkish and Byzantine fashions. The description of the image explains this, stating "Wallachian Voynik auxiliary, c1500. The military equipment of the Balkans under Ottoman domination soon added Turkish styles to previous Byzantine and western European fashions. This man's helmet is of Asiatic form. His armour is Italian, but old-fashioned, while his weapons and shield are typically eastern European." Whilst the sword, halberd and shield carried by the conjectural voynuk  are from various museum collections credited under the above description a Burgkmair woodcut is also referenced. I think this woodcut is the one included above. The Osprey voynuk is clearly in a coat based upon that of the second Hungarian on the left, although McBride did not give the voynuk the long sleeves that hang down the back of the man's coat in the woodcut.

Whilst this seems like an entirely plausible representation of a voynuk at the start of the 16th century having a whole unit of them all identically armoured and clothed seems very unlikely! In the old Warhammer Ancient Battles "Vlad the Impaler" supplement it suggested that the best way to represent voynuks was to mix the Old Glory voynuk miniatures with western halberdiers. This inspired me to have a go and do just that but using the Warlord Games voynuk miniatures. 

For this unit I have chosen miniatures from Front Rank's Wars of the Roses range, that can be suitably tweaked and given a Balkan flavour. Some of the armour these figures wear would be dated by the 1510s and 1520s but that works well, especially as the voynuk shown in the Osprey Ottoman Armies art was in old-fashioned Italian armour. The Front Rank figures have been mixed with the Warlord voynuks. The voynuk miniatures have also been converted as they look far too uniform otherwise. Redoubt Enterprises have a few 16th century eastern European sculpts in their old renaissance range. Some of these miniatures have been added to give a further eastern European feel to the unit. Finally The Assault Group's "Vlad Drakul" miniature has also been included as an officer. He really looks the part at the head of this armoured unit.

Changing the weaponry and adding Balkan shields to the figures really helps to give them an eastern European look. Fellow blogger Charlie, https://fullharness.blogspot.com/, kindly sent me some of his recently commissioned resin miniatures that can be seen here: https://fullharness.blogspot.com/2023/11/i-commissioned-some-miniatures.html. The glaive and partisan style polearms in this commission are fantastic and have been a real game changer when converting these miniatures. They suit the voynuk figures perfectly and add lots of variety to the unit.

Some photos of the voynuks can be seen below. The unit is very useful addition to the collection as the voynuks can be fielded in Ottoman armies or in Hungarian or Balkan forces opposing them. Included below is a photo of each of the eight bases that make up the unit so the detail can be seen. I am keen to add more to my Hungarian and Ottoman collections as these states fielded such a variety of colourful troop types in the 1500s and they are a lot of fun to collect, paint and attempt to research.

28mm voynuks.

Late 15th/early 16th century voynuks.

28mm voynuks - a mix of Warlord Games, Redoubt Enterprises, Front Rank and Assault Group figures, many of which have been converted.

These figures show a mix of eastern and western style armour.

Some of the figures are in Ottoman style helmets whilst others wear sallets.

One of the command bases with a voynuk captain or Çeribaşı in Italian harness and a trumpeter. The image of Christ on the cross on the captain's shield clearly identifies him as a Christian subject of the Ottomans.

The other command base with the Çeribaşı or ceri-bashis and his right hand man in late 15th century gothic harness.

The figure carrying the red shield on this base is a Front Rank man at arms. The figure has had the poleaxe replaced with a glaive and a shield, shield strap and plume of feathers added.

The charging figure on the left and the figure in green on the right both carry some of the excellent resin polearms from Charlie.

This base shows a mix of figures from Redoubt Enterprise and Warlord Games.

The final base with a drummer in the second rank.

A unit of 28mm voynuks, suitable for Ottoman armies or their eastern European opponents.

A view of the voynuks with some Balkan light cavalry.