A tabletop gaming blog, with a vague bias towards Central/Eastern Europe and the Early Modern period.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

What's "Tatars", precious?

Well, I'm glad you asked! The Tatars are an ethnic group found in various parts of Eastern Europe through Central Asia. They are the descendants of Genghis Khan's nomad armies, and in 17th-century Europe the Crimean Tatars were still a military force to be reckoned with, fighting mostly as skirmishing horse archers. They fought sometimes as mercenaries (as did other smaller Tatar enclaves elsewhere in Europe), or as raiders seeking loot and slaves, but they would also take to the field en masse under their Khan for major set-piece battles, usually aiding the underdog so as to preserve the regional balance of power.

I would suggest that you do not  boil 'em, mash'em, or stick 'em in a stew.




These Tatars are constructed from Wargames Factory bits... mostly the Celtic Cavalry kit, but Persian Infantry heads and archer arms, and War of Spanish Succession spears. Oh, and one Perry Zouave head for variety. I tried to keep them pretty generic... I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to use these for the original Mongal invaders of the Medieval Era. Maybe just in the back ranks?

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks! It's probably the simplest conversion I've done here, which is good for me, because my eventual goal is to have 120(!) of these guys...

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