Back To China

 

Above Imperial Guardsmen old style. From Old Glory 15mm. As is everything else you will see today.

Long ago I had a big box of Boxers. China don’t you know, and the Century of Shame. I didn’t do much with them. Mainly because I didn’t know if I was big battles or recreating 55 Days in Peking.  I did a fair bit of painting and that was it. An abandoned project.

TMWWBK has worked its magic. Behold the Kansu Braves. Originally raised as a provincial unit the Kansu lads were formidable. That was not unusual in China. Provincial troops often proved to have the edge over the centrally raised professionals. Often this was because they were defending their home province. Better motivation at a guess. Less prone to the vices of the Big City too.

Anyhow, the Kansu, mainly Moslem, were used to supress a Moslem Rebellion. Then they were called to the Capital to shore up the Dowager Empress. Once there they were enlisted into the Rear Guard of the Imperial Army. This meant pay, rations, training and Mauser rifles. 

European sources often called the Kansu Irregulars. Possibly because they didn’t know about their absorption into the Regular Army or maybe because they were newly arrived to Beijing.

How to rate them for TMWWBK? I’m going for Irregulars with modern rifles. if you have a better idea let me know.

Another Imperial unit here. Old style once more. I'm not sure how these fellows were armed. The actual figures have modern rifles but surely that is not the decider. If you happen to know do let me know.

Two of the new Imperial units here. These troops were Western trained and equipped, well motivated too. As you can see by the basing they are Regulars who can form close order and volley.

That's it for the moment. There will be more. Jingals and Tiger Men.  Mongols too. 

The Nine Years War in Ireland-Cavalry

Above, Fiach McHugh O'Byrne under his banner courtesy of David at Not By Appointment.  No doubt that's The Children of the Gael with him. Off to Carlow likely, as the song has it.

As far as I can deduce there were 5 types of cavalry in the Nine Years war in Ireland. Kick the time line back a bit and we might argue 7. Albeit, two of them were remarkably similar. Let’s do them first.

The Gentry of Gaelic Ireland and those of the English Border Riding Families came from a similar Clan Culture and fought in a similar fashion. 

They fought mounted, they skirmished and on opportunity charged home. Essentially, they were the archetypal raiders. Note the St. George's crosses, required to distinguish the English from the Irish. They must have looked pretty similar.

Stepping up a bit the Irish nobility fought in a similar fashion but with more armour. Mostly mail, but steel plate was about now and then. 

Never the complete set though apart from the Great Lords.  When Maguire of Fermanagh and O’Neill of Tyrone clashed, lances shattered on steel plate.

Likewise O’Neill’s armour saved him at Clontibret. His equally well protected opponent wasn’t so lucky, despatched with a dagger to the groin. In an effort to cope with the better armoured English Demi Lancers pistols were issued. To a favoured minority only.

All the same something was changing. There is evidence of Irish cavalry meeting English cavalry head on without hesitation. Hugh Dubh and his compatriots met Sir Henry Docwra and his at the charge. An Irish victory with Sir Henry Docwra laid up for over a month. Henry got off lucky, Hugh Dubh was over 60 when he struck the blow. A younger Hugh and Henry's rest would have been permanent.

When Maguire’s and St. Leger’s troop's fought both sides charged. That one was a draw. Both leaders dying subsequently of their wounds. Maguire of Petronel double shot and St. Leger of a spear head lodged in his forehead.

At Kinsale the Irish cavalry charged and got beat by an English counter charge. A decisive English victory.

To sum up it appears that the Irish “Mail Clads” were expected to engage closely when needed. The mounted gentry stuck to traditional methods.

The English too were rethinking their cavalry. Demi-Lancers were gradually being replaced by Petronels. I have read that the Demi-Lancers were deemed too slow compared to the Irish cavalry. 

I had thought there was only one occasion when English Demi-Lancers refused to charge, that being under Cosby at the Curlews. Dr Jim O'Neill identifies another, under Moses Hill at Aldfreck.  More resolute was Sir Griffin Markham who charged "Where no cavalry previously ever thought to " across badly broken ground. Griffin's charge failed but it saved the English Army at the Curlews.

The eponymous Petronels were lighter armoured than the Demi-Lancers The rider abandoned the lance relying on his sword for close work. With his steel back and breast and helmet he was still better armoured than the Irish Mail Clads. Presumably he could move faster than the Demi-Lancers too. If pelted with javelins he could shoot back.

A closer look at Fiach Mc Hugh above. Note his armour, good quality. Figures from Khurasan.

For our Nine Years War game to work we must capture all of the forgoing for our rules.  No small challenge.

The Nine Years War in Ireland- Basing

 

Back in January I reviewed my Outstanding Projects and resolved to complete them. 

This is the formal start of my Nine Years War Project. A long term interest. Basing may seem like an odd place to start. Especially as I’m writing a game for the period that is basing agnostic.

Why so then? Well, it is about how each side fought. The basing being a visual clue to English solidity and Irish mobility.  Of course the dichotomy is not that stark. Some troops on either side shared the same spatial imprint. Today I want to look at pike and shot.

The Irish overwhelmingly used the caliver, a light piece. The English used a mixture of calivers and muskets. The musket was heavy. In the English sliding scale of role allocation the strongest men carried the pike, the next strongest were musketeers. The smallest/weakest took a caliver. The caliver was light albeit with a shorter range than the musket.

Caliver qualification for the Irish had a different criteria. Could the aspirant hit the target? If so he was in. This perhaps partially lies  behind General Mountjoy’s observation that “If it came to hand strokes the Irish usually prevailed”. The Irish caliver men came in a range of strength and sizes.  The other factor being that a sizeable minority of the Irish Shot had formerly been skilled close fighters.

The Irish Army in the Nine years War was oriented to missilery rather than close fighting. Caliver men could constitute up to 80% of an Irish Force. The trick was to protect the calivers. More on that in a subsequent post.

Currently, I’m envisaging the Caliver men of both sides as occupying the same spatial imprint. Musketeers will be more solidly grouped. They were not as mobile. mobility, an essential of war in Ireland led to the English eventually abandoning the musket there.

Now, to the Pike. The English pike man was trained to fight in a slow moving solid formation. He was heavily armoured. Normally he and his comrades could simply roll over their Irish equivalents.

Why so? The Irish Pike Man was modelled on the Spanish (Pica Seca) light pike men. His purpose was to move quickly to interdict the English cavalry should they threaten the Irish caliver men.  That he could do. He was not intended for push of pike. If it came to that he fought at great disadvantage.

This project will conclude with the publication of a new set of rules for the Nine Years War. Omerta prevents me from saying more. I find myself working within a set framework.  This is both helpful and restrictive. Helpful because it focuses the mind. Restrictive because some options are no longer appropriate.

The challenge is to produce something both soundly historical and fun.

Here follows the result of the helpful element of the process.

For the English a Battalia (Composite Regiment) might consist of 18 pikemen and 8 musketeers accompanied by a 6 man detachment of caliver men.  The pike and musket aren’t very mobile  and will stick together. The calivers are mobile, hence their contemporary appellation “Loose Shot”. Thirty figures in all. Looking something like this.

CCC CCC

MMMM PPPPPPPPP MMMM

PPPPPPPPPP

Now the Irish Battalia. 18 calivers in 3 groups of 6 and 8 light pike men accompanied by 4 Horse. There is a lot of mobile firepower here and some swift moving protection. Once again we have 30 figures in all. Looking something like this.

CCCCCC CCCCCC CCCCCC

PPPPPPPPPP

HHHH

Immediately we can see the English Battalia wants to fight a close combat action while the Irish Battalia wants to fight a mobile fire power action. Both intend to play to their strengths.

Can we say more? Indeed we can. If our English Battalia is  “Brittainy Company" based we might call it “Seasoned”.  If it is formed of Conscript Companies we might call it “Raw”.

And the Irish Battalia? We should deem the 18 caliver men “Veteran” and their supporting Horsemen and Pike “Seasoned”.

Our Project takes shape. It reflects the Period. Next time we will look at other troop types and how they fought.

I'm aiming to have this one done and dusted by July. I hope you enjoy our various stopping points along the way.

Andalusian Warriors and Soldiers-El Cid

 

Today let’s consider the Andalusians. Those with more subject knowledge than I conclude the following. Above Slav Mercenaries.

The Andalusian nobility were well motivated and skilled warriors. Very well mounted and compared to Christian Hidalgo more lightly protected. More your swift javelin throwers who can hit and evade. Actually, many Hidalgos fought just like that. What gave them the edge and all agree they had it, was the Christian fondness for a decisive charge.

From this we might conclude that against Jinete of any kind the Andalusian nobles have a good chance of winning.

They might also ride down skirmishers or do something fast and clever to overrun missile men, formed or not.

Steady close formed foot could be reduced with missilery rather than immediately charged head on.

Unless numbers dictated otherwise Andalusian nobles shouldn’t expect too much if they met a Spanish cavalry charge head on.

This all makes sense to me. The lessons are easily absorbed.  Things to do, things to avoid.

Likewise, Andalusian Jinete are good light cavalry. Meeting their Christian or Berber equivalents on level terms. Form dictates function. Or, is function dictates form? Either way we are talking about good light cavalry.

Things take a turn for the worst when we consider the infantry of Al Andalus.  The skirmishers were not the best but they could and would skirmish. It was the close order infantry that everyone thought was markedly inferior. Their only edge was sartorial it seems. Man for man they seem to have been wealthier than their foes. Below Berber Warriors.

I don’t know why this disparity should have been so marked. It may be that the mounted element of the Andalusian Armies was descended from the professional soldiers of the original conquering Arab Army. Perhaps the infantry were comprised of the descendants those who arrived later or had converted for better conditions. I have a couple of books coming that may shed some light.

Whatever the cause, attempts were made to effect redress. The easiest was to employ steady mercenaries-expensive. The other was to adopt the crossbow. The Andalusians did both.

There was sound reasoning for the Papal Ban on the crossbow. It could kill better skilled and protected warriors from a relatively safe distance. In terms of the order of society promoted by Frankish Christianity the crossbow was a serious threat to the establishment. That was a world where Nobles Fought, Clerics Prayed and everyone else worked. Where would that World be if the peasants could kill the nobles before the nobles killed the peasants?

I’m going to give my Andalusians two crossbow units. They won’t have high morale but they will shoot hard.

The mercenaries could be Christian warriors, or Berbers or the Soldiers of the defunct Caliphate of Cordoba. The latter could be Slavs or Sub Saharan Africans who had been enlisted on the Mamluk model. All of the forgoing were capable fighters. Importantly, Christian knights could be and were hired to deliver the missing deadly charge.

Above, you see my Andalusians and their mercenaries so far.

More El Cid

 

Having returned to the Reconquista I find myself on a roll. Much had been done before the abandonment. Little was needed to complete new units.  There are re-enforcements for every faction.

Here are some Andalusian javelin men. Skirmishers or a second rank behind the spearmen.

Berbers from Donnington New Era and the very old Originals.

 

The new above, the old below. Berbers could be found on all sides.

 

The Andalusians get two new units of horse archers.

 

All from Forged in Battle.

 

As are these heavy cavalry.

These Andalusian slingers too.

Now to the Christians. 

 

They get some heavy cavalry. The elite of the Christian armies. Donnington New Era figures. The ones top of the page are Minifigs.  

Like the Berbers Christian soldiers fought for Andalusian and Berber armies. The Andalusians likewise for Christians and Berbers.

 

More Christian Jinetes. 

Some Basque javelin men from Minifigs.

Old Glory archers, perhaps Goths or some such. I think they will do for Spain.

In terms of rules I intend to co-opt Dan Mersey's Clerics and Heroes concept. 

El Cid Again

I had the beginnings of a Moorish Spain Project here a few years ago.  The tag was Tell Cid. Passible witty, if you got the reference. Perhaps puzzling otherwise. It stalled, the project that is.

Anyhow, now it is back courtesy of a War Hammer publication -El Cid. It is years old and I bought it from a lad in Germany. The El Cid book is great for inspiration and I’m pleased with it. Nice to get it from Germany and in a timely fashion too. Last week I got Brent Oman's Ancient and Medieval Battle Command from the USA. I also got Harman Murtagh's The Irish Jacobite Army. They arrived in the same post.

One of the many things I enjoy about the hobby is its international aspect. There was an international trade network in the Bronze Age too. Until the Collapse.

So where are we? I thought I should do a Billhooks/Lion Rampant size force for each of the contenders. A protracted rummage through the Lead Pile and its sibling the Box of Forgotten Projects produced the following:

The Black Guard of Yusuf Ibn Tashfin. These fellows will get a second unit and some archers. Donnington New Era figures, you have to drill the hands which sometimes works.

Christian Town Militia. A couple of Museum figures and the rest from Essex via Colonel Bill's. Note the flag of St. Pelagius.  There were two St. Pelagius, this one's the scholar. I like the simplicity of this unit.

Basque light cavalry from Baueda. I have a few of these and they aren't bad at all. Not very lively though.

Andalusian Cavalry from Donnington New Era. Nice enough, paw drilling necessary.

Berber cavalry with a jolly Berber flag. Also from the brand of the broken hand.  I like these.

Mercenary Caballeros from Baueda. Part of a job lot and sold as Sicilian Normans. I think they work for Spain. One can take a flag, I have yet to locate one.

Mercenary Crossbows from Museum. Much to like I think.

Andalusian Town Militia from Forged in Battle. Arabs, should you want some.  Forged in Battle are good. I have lots of their Arabs. I intend to add green stuff tassels to the larger shields suiting them for Spain.

That's it so far but the project is securely re-launched.

I'll put the next batch up when they are done. Handily, most units could fight on either side.