Battle report - Ottoman Janissaries vs Scots Covenanters

John’s Ottoman Janissaries
vs
Colin’s Scots Covenanters

John has spent the last four months working in secret (mostly) on producing a huge Turkish horde with which to invade most of the Balkans and recreate the vast Ottoman Empire of the 16th and 17th Centuries. John was inspired by the splendid range of Ottomans as well as the huge heavy guns and other interesting figures produced for Trent Miniatures through Skytrex.

See the whole range of Skytrex Ottomans here

Turkish armies of the period centred around a significant amount of heavy artillery, often chained together and dug into defensive positions. To this end, John fielded eight heavy guns and two light, along with six cavalry regiments and four tough units of Janissaries, the crack infantry of the Porte. This (he hoped!) would be enough to frighten off Colin’s Scotsmen, who’d gamely turned up outnumbered, but determined not to be outclassed. A strictly historical matchup this wasn’t, but a cracking game was had nonetheless!

The whole point of this exercise was for John to test his new Ottoman army out prior to heading down to his wargaming club in Worcester the following Saturday, where his friends dreaded Polish Commonwealth army awaited him.

Adopting a defensive, shooting heavy strategy, John was hoping that he could develop some tactics to counter the inevitable attack he would face at the weekend.

Realising that his only hope was to get stuck in, Colin advanced boldly (‘charged blindly’ might be a more accurate choice of words!) with his pikemen, fighting the good fight against the Janissaries. With the Command Value of Ottoman infantry being a mighty 7, many of the Janissaries managed to find something to do other than engaging, meaning it was left to the infantry in John’s centre and the Turkish cavalry to do the heavy lifting. 

With the game coming to an end it was clear that victory belonged to the Turks, despite a valiant effort by Colin.

The weekend trip to Worcester saw John defeat not one, but two Polish armies (another player having helpfully brought their own!). Despite lacking his expected numerical advantage, John was able with the assistance of a friend (David) to weather the storm of deadly Winged Hussars and come out victorious.

I’m sure that this isn’t the last that we’ll see of Johns Ottomans and can’t wait to see what further additions he makes to the force as time goes by, for those who can't wait though here are a few more pictures of the armies in action…

 More ranges from Trent Miniatures available from Skytrex here