Ottoman Janissary Mehter Band

Last year I purchased this pack of By Fire And Sword Ottoman Janissary Mehter Band for the fun of adding it to the table top. It has no combat value and like many other unique sets I have, it is low on the painting list. Having caught up on some projects, I took a crack at it.

The figures themselves were quite clean and crisp. Very little cleaning up was needed to get these figures ready for priming. The plastic base that comes with the figures is adequate, but wanting all of my figures to maintain a magnetized standard, I opted to ditch that plastic base.

The website has a pretty set painted up and I at first tried to replicate this. One of the figures I received is not shown in that image and so after some research, I finally copied an image of a real Ottoman-Turkish Mehter Band. After reading up on the Ottoman army of this time period, the Sultan was not the only one with such a band. Regional governors were also known to raise such bands for special services. One can easily imagine a variety of costumes were possible in the various parts of the empire as well as transitioning between one governor to the next.

This was my first experience with this brand of figures. They appear to have quite a few figures for those looking for the Siege of Vienna and later. Some of the figures appear to lack enthusiasm on the movement and appear more posed than animated. Such designs are not right or wrong, just a matter of preference. Given the scarcity of figures for such exotic armies, one cannot be too discerning. I look forward to getting this piece on the table for a specific scenario soon.

Russo-Ottoman War 1806-1812 Debut Battle

After years of work by myself and another gamer who contributed to the Ottoman painting and the terrain, my Russians and Ottomans are now meeting to begin their war. Here we have the Russian center and right coming quickly onto the field in march column to get at the waiting Ottomans.

The Russian left has the Siberia grenadier regiment and Olonetz musketeer regiment escorting some cossacks. This flank will be making contact first as they show no fear of the Ottoman forces they are facing.

The Ottoman left has a cavalry brigade backing the army's heavy artillery. The battery has a dominating presence that the Russians will feel as early as turn 1.

The Ottoman center is a bit weaker, comprising of militia units and a foot battery with medium guns. The woods are going to be their real defense in slowing the Russian advance as a barrier.

The Ottoman center remains relatively quiet for the first few turns. Only the Ottoman artillery could make itself felt by hitting the fast moving Cossack cavalry who were screening the Russian advance. A few shots found their mark and the Cossacks decided not to move any closer to the guns.

The Russian left continues to march up, unconcerned with deploying for action this far out. Their fast marching didn't give the Ottoman right much time to perfect their ranges of the artillery.

The Russian center is moving a little slower. The foot battery is still limbered and the Russian player is contemplating just exactly how to move between the obstacles and appear right before the waiting Ottoman guns.

The 5th Jagers are attempting to slip around the church and get up and clear the woods. Backing them is the Russian horse artillery battery that is attempting counter-battery fire against the Ottoman heavy battery just opposite it.

Here the Ottoman right waits for the Russians. They considered coming out to meet the Russians head on but were no confident the odds would be in their favor. Those tall black plumes indicated grenadiers were coming.

On the Ottoman left, the squadrons of the Belarus Hussar regiment are looking to clash sabers with the Ottoman sipahis cavalry. Maybe they could not see all the Ottoman cavalry stacked up behind the guns?

The Ottoman cavalry struck first. Preferring to counter the superior quality of the Russian cavalry with numerical advantage, the chance move was to pay off with a victory over the hussars.

One of the Ottoman militia units has now come into musketry range of the lead grenadier battalion. The single disruption caused would prove to be entirely useless for the upcoming turn.

The Russian infantry moving up is a feigning gesture as they cannot initiate contact with the Ottoman cavalry. They are probably hoping the Ottomans will surge forward and smash themselves uselessly against squares. I would not oblige.

The Russian center is beginning to take hold as the foot battery came up and unlimbered in canister range of the Ottomans. Some Cossacks are positioning themselves for a quick strike at the Ottoman battery before them.

The Russian battery managed to force the Ottoman battery to limber up. As it turns out, the other Ottoman battery experienced the same dilemma and was forced to limber. Limbered guns cannot fire and now the Cossacks are feeling much braver.

And as expected, the Cossacks surge forward. As it turned out in the combat, the Cossack were clumsy and did as poorly as possible with the dice rolls and were thrown back. Lucky me as my guns are saved.

A couple of grenadier battalions charge into the Ottoman militia unit at the upper right. Some other Cossacks are coming up and looking at engaging the Ottoman cavalry.

The Russian grenadiers are now on contact. They will break the front battalion with ease and will advance to complete their break through of the Ottoman right.

The jagers form into line and continue to meander their way forward. Do the woods make them uneasy and so they don't rush in and clear them? Or is it all that Ottoman cavalry that has them concerned?

As mentioned above, the front Ottoman battalion collapsed immediately. This second one is facing the same scenario. The Ottoman infantry is inflicting a few disruptions upon the Russians with musketry, but rolling poorly in combat won't allow them to hold on.

And here is where I made a mistake. After just barely beating off the Cossacks in the previous combat, I somehow forgot to move this battery or unlimber it. Had I just umlimbered it and opened canister fire upon the infantry, it would have slowed the Russian onslaught. My mistake gave the Russian infantry the chance to eventually charge into the limbered guns and break it.

The Ottoman cavalry managed to destroy part of the hussars but the rest the remaining squadrons of the Belarus Hussars attacked and were repulsed from their charge. The Ottoman heavy battery is back in action once again.

My neglect allowed my battery to be hit by some Russian infantry. The Cossacks decide to be aggressive and go after the Ottoman cavalry.

So as it turned out, the jagers were perhaps concerned about the bulk of Ottoman cavalry waiting for them. The jagers successfully formed square and managed to throw back the first charge.

The hussars and Ottoman cavalry decide to go at it again. All the Ottoman cavalry here makes any victory by the hussars useless due to the numerical odds.

The overall view of the tactical situation. I am surprised the Russian players both opted to ignore the villages and not waste troops holding places that had no value to winning the scenario. Most players cannot avoid these black holes that suck up manpower that could be used elsewhere.

The extreme end of the Ottoman right is practically gone and now some Russian musketeers are attempting to engage and finish off the flank. An Ottoman cavalry unit eyes a chance to hit some surprised Russian troops.

The Cossack's luck was in play as they both managed to win decisively and break the Ottoman cavalry they charged. Just out of the camera's lens are two more Ottoman cavalry units they will now have to face off against.

The Russian foot artillery continues to blast away, unopposed. The Ottoman infantry partially in the woods is getting sprinkled with long range canister fire.

And here we say goodbye to what's pretending to be the Ottoman center. As it would turn out, the grenadiers held a near perfect success anytime they made contact. The Lasalle Rules for a Valiant rated unit against a Shaky unit is significant. On top of poor dice rolling, the grenadiers have the punch to break through about anything.

The Ottoman right has routed and now the Russians begin their wheel toward the center to wrap it up and call it a day.

Two Ottoman cavalry units remain but since their command has broken, they will flee the field and deprive the Cossacks of another taste of combat.

The jagers had pushed off the first Ottoman cavalry charge while in square and thought that they would have no more trouble. As soon as they changed back into line, the cavalry took advantage of the situation and hoped to obtain an easy victory.

And here we see a parting shot of the batteries attempting to duel it out. Some Ottoman cavalry attempted to snake around the village to hope for a dash at the Russian guns but the battle is lost. The Russians chose to get into close combat and not exchange fire with the Ottomans and it worked out well.

Ottoman Cavalry: Finally Completed

After a long break from posting and getting through a lot of painting and finishing up of projects, I got these last four Ottoman cavalry units ready for battle. I don't see the need to expand the army out any further.

This last brigade for Lasalle represents the completion of a long term project that is quite unlike any other Napoleonic army. The Ottomans have a lot of gaps in their uniform and organization records which in part plays a role in so few people being brave enough to go down this road. The colors here are quite different yet blend in the rainbow spectrum that is the Ottoman army.

One thing different with this brigade was to get away from white horses, which I've never cared for when painted most of the time. The flags are from Cotton Jim's and is somewhat better than some of their other lines.

More custom made lance pennants here. The black is somewhat odd for the time period but was from an actual Ottoman unit.

And the final unit. As hard as it is to find some detail to add to these units, they are a bit bland. Unlike the Europen nations that have buttons, uniform trim, plumes etc, all you have are various clothing colors. Fine enough for the table top! Now, back to western Europe.

Ottoman Limbers, Miners & Engineers

As I begin finishing up the Ottoman army for Lasalle, there are some odds and ends that needed to be done. One thing that held me up was the limbers for the Ottoman army. Next to nothing seems to be written about this with the exception of noting the Ottomans used European horses or oxen for pulling guns. Not having any oxen on hand, horses would have to work.

Knowing that little nugget of information was useful in determining that the Ottomans likely did not ride the draft animals. Since no one makes any figures to represent Ottoman limber drivers, all I could do was some conversions with the Old Glory artillerymen. The crewmen with the shafts used to lift the trail were modified and green stuff used to model a rope to the horse harness.

I think it worked out well. Museum Miniature horses and some old Minifigs limbers filled out the rest and best of all, these were odds and ends I had laying around already. I kept everything a painted wood/brown color, as I don't think the French reforms in using green were common from what little I have read.

Alternative Armies seems to be the only company making 15mm Ottoman figures suitable for sapper or engineers. The ones in red are miners and the blue are engineers. Oddly enough, I found a nice color plate of their uniform with absolutely no problem. It would appear these figures were designed for the siege of Vienna in the 15-1600's. I'll wager the uniform plate didn't change much and if anyone has contrary information, please let me know.

These figures are closer to true 15's than the Old Glory, but not too wildly different. The details on the figure are clear and no moulding lines cutting across the face or anything silly.

Auxiliary troop information on the Ottomans is hard to find. How they were organized or distributed doesn't seem to be accounted for around the time of the Russo-Turkish War. Given the influence of Russian and French on the Ottoman army, I think it highly likely that they were distributed into units and then collected when the need came.

Ottoman Turk Cavalry

So with moving behind me, I've had time to finish the basing and other details for the two cavalry brigades that are finished. Up first, is there "heavy cavalry brigade" as per Sam Mustafa's list for Lasalle. These are large units in the game and will probably be the most effective in the army.

What I'm using for the Household Cavalry as these two large armored units. There was some decent uniform information on these guys, but conflicting information as to whether the shields were bare metal or painted. As with all Ottoman troop information, you have bitz and pieces to put together.

For the Kapikulu Sipahis units in the brigade, there are numerous uniforms to use for the various regions these units were drawn from and the time period in particular. They are the equivalent to the Jannisaries and considered to be of better quality men. Some appear armored and some not. I went with both styles.

For the other brigade, we have the four regiments of Sipahis. It appears later in the Ottoman Empire's reforms, armor seems to drop off as weapons become more lethal. Various internet searches reveal some regional differences in head gear.

The Old Glory figures for this range are above average for the company. With that said, they did not appear to sculpt lance pennants even though they ought to be present. I used Mircosoft Excel to create the pennants, cut them out and glued them on to all of the lances. After they dried, I used a fine pair of scissors to cut the V shape off the end. Seemed to work well and adds a bit of needed detail.

I'm pleased with the way they turned out and the variance of colors to give the units character. There is one last Sipahis brigade to go and hopefully it will be completed in May.

I also decided to have one more militia unit painted up. This will bring the army up to four units of militia. The only good thing I can see about these guys is that being irregular, they can take advantage of rough terrain and use it as cover.

On uniform plates, it is hard to determine exactly what uniform regional units were given. I suspect it was a hasty affair in many cases and so they were haphazardly dressed in civilian clothes. In any case, the other three units are much more varied and this one is in a uniform found on a uniform plate. Just adds more color to the army.