Finnish horse

 My Swedish list for Dirschau contains one unit of Finnish horse, of the sort that would go on to gain fame in the Thirty Years War as Hakkapeliitta / Hackapelit / Hackapelite / Hackapell / Haccapelit / Haccapelite. This unit has six TAG hackapells and two converted Warlord plastics. I painted them with a pretty restricted, earthy palette to really lean into the perception of them as backwoods ruffians, and also, all their horses are brown to represent the finnhorse breed, as opposed to how I normally have some black or grey mixed in for variety.

Renaissance Occultism Skirmish Ruleset Concept

 Years ago, I bought a tabletop RPG that uses Tarot cards as its primary resolution mechanic. This inspired me to buy a deck of them, and also to start reading about their history. I was delighted to learn that their documented origins (if not the cartomancy traditions that grew up around them) go back to the Italian Wars, a period that already interested me for other reasons.

One thing lead to another, and I started to brainstorm ideas for a Renaissance-era wargame that could incorporate some of the more esoteric aspects of the era's culture. I have now written enough rules for it that I've started to playtest, although it will be some time yet before it is worth sharing.

The current notion is that every warband has a core of four "initiates", inspired by the court cards of the Tarot, who practice, to varying degrees of success, some form of ritual magic. Each warband has a "King", representing a true renaissance man who is either the leader or the chief patron of the occult circle; a "Queen" of high intellectual or spiritual achievement; a "Knight" with fearsome physical prowess; and a "Page" that is a novice type character with room to improve. Reinforced by hirelings and the occasional summoned spirit, they battle other small groups of occultists over the wealth of esoteric texts, alchemical formulae, and ceremonial objects that have accumulated in and about the Italian Peninsula as a result of various historical currents of the final century of the medieval era.

Here are some examples of how I might represent these initiates with miniatures from my Italian Wars project (plus a few from other projects), from left to right in the order described above, followed by a spirit and a couple sample hirelings:

For my own solo playtesting convenience, they are roughly color-coded, but I probably wouldn't do that for the "real thing".

Generally speaking, D12s are used for "mundane" actions and Tarot cards for magical effects. I anticipate the games themselves being fairly quick (am playtesting on a 2ft by 2ft area), with much of the enjoyment coming from the campaign system (probably also Tarot-driven) that links them.

More Renaissance Characters

 Here's some more, these are all Assault Group (except the mace and mace hand are from Perry plastics).

Still messing around with rules stuff on a conceptual, pre-playtesting level, but I think I'm starting to close in on some gameable ideas...

Russian force for Pikeman's Lament

Probably not optimal from either a tactical or a historical-accuracy perspective, but I finally have completed a full 24-pt force for Pikeman's Lament. Here is an assortment of group photos of varying quality:

(Well, almost completed. A couple units need flags, and the general is actually a Cossack mini because I somehow forgot to get any Muscovite commanders)

More Muscovite Cavalry

These are the "Boyar's Sons", the lower grade of feudal cavalry. On of them is a converted Gripping Beast plastic that I'm not entirely happy with, the others are TAG metals.

Dvoriane (Muscovite elite cavalry)

The next phase of my Muscovite project is cavalry. Primarily this will be feudal noble cavalry, though I may convert some new-style reiters as well. The feudal cavalry is divided into the heavier Dvoriane (in this post) and the lighter Boyar's Sons (forthcoming). This batch is unconverted TAG minis.

Blue Streltsy

So the good news is, I have finished painting all of my current Ottoman models. The bad news is, my table is currently set up for Christmas so I am unable to take an army photo until 2019, by which point I might just decide to wait until I've acquired and painted the necessary light cavalry.

But anyway: here are some more streltsy, the core of the Muscovite army I am also building for Pikeman's Lament. Streltsy have a special place in my heart, because one of them was the first historical model I ever painted. My first unit of them has already appeared on this blog, as well as a WIP shot of this unit's command figs.

Janissary swordsmen

And here's the last Ottoman stuff for the time being, a batch of Aggressive Forlorn Hope.

more Ottoman cavalry (regular Sipahis)

Last night I painted up my first historical unit in over half a year! These Sipahis differ from my previous batch by having hand weapons (instead of lances) and no barding. All are unconverted TAG.

Except for a few straggler janissary minis, this completes my current stash of Ottoman miniatures. I do still intend to add light cavalry (besli/akinci types) at some point to round out the force, unsure if these will be TAG metals, or converted Gripping Beat plastics, or a mix...

Ottoman commanders

The two red-turban guys are sultans from Warlord (or technically, two versions of the same sultan), and the ulema (religious scholar/judge) is a TAG freebie.

Once again, no conversions. Hmmm, gotta fix that soon...

Ottoman Tufekci dragoons

These are tufekci, an Ottoman shot unit developed along Western lines. They could fight as dragoons or as line infantry, but I didn't have the right minis for the latter, so dragoons it is. TAG minis, no conversions.

first Ottoman cavalry (elite Sipahis)

As mentioned in my previous post, an Ottoman army without cavalry isn't worthy of the name. So here's my first unit of cavalry. All TAG minis, some horse armor added with greenstuff.

Ottoman Infantry Group Pic

So, this is pretty much as far as I'll be going with Ottoman Infantry, at least so long as Pikeman's Lament is my preferred system.

Clockwise from top left:

Azabs with Spears/Polearms - Raw Pike (3 pts) or Clansmen (3 pts)

Azabs with Bows - Raw Shot (3 pts)

Wallachian Voynuks - 2x Aggressive Forlorn Hope (6 pts each) or Veteran Pike (6 pts)

Azabs with Muskets - Shot (4 pts)

Janissaries - Elite Shot (6 pts)

Segban - Raw Shot (3 pts) or 2x Commanded Shot (2 pts each)

For a total of 28-36 available points, though realistically I am unlikely to field an Ottoman force without cavalry; that would feel wrong. So I will get started on those horse guys next...

Azabs Aplenty

Just finished converting a whole mess of Gripping Beast Arab Infantry into Azabs, the next step up from the sad-sack Segban. Some of these are conversions you've seen before, others are TAG Metals, and some are newer converted plastics.

Who Invited the Bishops?

So, The Assault Group provides special freebie miniatures if your order exceeds a certain price threshold, and if you forget to specify which you would prefer, they just send one that seems appropriate given the other contents of your order. Since I mostly use TAG for Cossacks and Muscovites, it makes sense that I would mostly end up getting Orthodox priests. So here they are.

I decided to do some minor converting just to avoid having identical quadruplets. I just googled "russian orthodox priest" to get a sense of how the outfit might vary, I have no idea what the history or theology is behind the hat colors or whatever. The beard extensions and hat flaps are greenstuff. The staff is a plastic Persian spear bit with a blob of gs on the end, and the ikon is the end of a wooden coffee stirrer.

(the title of this post is a line from The Death of Stalin, which I recommend if you like Armando Ianucci's brand of grim satire).

Janissaries

Got some TAG janissaries painted up, to use as Veteran Shot (or potentially Forlorn Hope) in Pikeman's Lament. Good models, no conversions. Probably ought to hit the faces with another wash to bring out the mustaches.

Streltsy Command WiP

A couple weeks ago I got my Ottoman and Muscovite army deals from The Assault Group, and I've been getting them ready to paint. The vast majority of them only require basing and a bit of cleaning, but there were four Soldat Pike that I really had no use for, so I converted them to Streltsy.

The Standard Bearer and Sergeant were just given appropriate weapons (and a greenstuff tassel on the halberd). The Musician uses a drum and left arm from the Wargames Factory (now Warlord-produced) WSS sprue, and bits of wire for drumsticks. The Officer had his arm repositioned and a bunch of greenstuff fur added, and I think his sword is from a plastic Celt box (can't remember which company).

First game of Pikeman's Lament

Unfortunately, I was too busy making sure we got the rules more-or-less right to take pictures or put together a proper report. But my opponent managed to get a nice picture at the end of the first turn.

I played the Cossack/Tatar side, and lost pretty handily. Commanded Shot aren't much good out in the open...