Ottomans for the Great Northern War

If you’ve an interest in the Great Northern War your focus eventually lights upon the Sublime Porte and Ottoman involvement.  The Ottomans had been fighting with Russia forever.  Or, if you prefer, Russia as heir to Byzantium had fought the Ottomans at every opportunity.  Let’s just say their relations were adversarial.

After the disastrous Swedish defeat at Poltava King Carl took refuge with the Sultan.  At one point a composite army of anti-Tsar Poles, exile Swedes and Ottomans came together.  An interesting array by any measure.

Anyhow, I determined upon creating a suitable Turkish force.  I should say Ottoman force, for many of the Sultan’s soldiers were not Turks at all.  In our period the Ottomans were increasingly fielding large numbers of fire arms infantry.  

The famous Janissaries had good quality muskets and may well have used volley fire as a tactic.  Whether they did or not they were much better marksmen than most Western European infantry.  They were also decidedly handy in close combat having  a martial repertoire that went way beyond “Club your Musket”.  I thought two units of these terrors would do one with flintlock and one with matchlock.  I wanted them to have a practical campaigning look rather than full and fancy dress.

The Ottomans also had less professional musket armed infantry.  Many of these came from the Balkans.  They seem to have fought in a looser order, perhaps more akin to the practice of the standard European Dragoon. Some of them were experienced troops and some were not.  Motivation varied.  All were willing to have a distance fire fight. Anything else depended on circumstances.  I thought three of these units would add to the fun.

Naturally enough, I wanted a wagon larger for my sturdy troops to resolutely defend.  My less than sturdy ones could cower behind it too. Obviously, it was a must have.  My wagons are a work in progress that will appear when I’m satisfied with them.

On to the toys. Everything you can see here comes from Old Glory’s 7YW 15mm Ottoman range, namely their “European Sekans” bag.  They are, in my opinion, lovely figures although your brush will have to work hard to create a sense of variety.  The command figures add a bit of life to the single pose figure I used for the Janissaries.  The Balkan figures have two, quite similar, poses.

The aim is to have a force for Talon and Claw that will be a third to a half comprised of musket armed infantry units.

Right click and select view for bigger versions of the pic's above.

That’s it for now-pass the Sherbet, Inshallah.