The Crimean War was all about supporting the Ottoman Empire. Or superficially so. Fittingly, here is my Turkish Contingent for the conflict.
Apart from the Bashi-Bazouks all of my figures are from Minifigs. We start with the cavalry. Three squadrons of regulars.
Captain Nolan thought the Turks had over Westernised their cavalry. Thus, losing their edge.
Back in the day Turkish cavalry had been absolute terrors. The best way to deal with them was to wear lots of armour, get behind a barricade and shoot them down. I'm talking about Western cavalry there, not infantry. The latter did the same without the armour.
Nolan predicted the Russian cavalry would beat their Turkish counterparts. This they duly did. I'm minded to rate these lads as Trained or perhaps Raw Elite.
Now, to the infantry. Normally good enough troops. Musket armed. In the Crimea their morale sagged.
They were badly supplied even by the standards of the rest of the cold and often hungry Allied troops.
Worst of all they were treated as second class soldiers. If anyone wanted huts constructed or digging done they had the Turks do it. I have a memory of reading of their being made to pull transport carts for other Allied contingents.
Captain Godman thought they did fine behind entrenchments. He did not think they could be trusted to join an an assault. Unsurprising really.
Turkish Artillery could be very good, or very bad. Opinions vary. Of course our sources are not talking about the same batteries.
I have two Turkish Batteries. One will be Trained Elite and the other Raw. For added drama I won't determine which is which until their first fire. I'll use a dice.
I'd like to say that's my Crimean War Turks done. But, of course it isn't. I have another battalion, skirmishers, Lancers and a battery to do, Also a couple of Brigadiers.
All the same progress has been made.
Next week we will see the concluding part of Two Letters from Balaclava.
Fine units there OB and some nice snippets of info too:).
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve. I'd like to get my hands on a Turkish source-no luck so far.
ReplyDeleteSmashing looking units. Interesting to hear how you plan to rate them.
ReplyDeleteThanks Richard. I'm thinking about doing something unusual. Rating Turkish infantry as trained when on the defensive and Raw when attacking.
ReplyDeleteThey look good OB - our gaming mate Mark has a large 25/28mm Crimean collection, including Turks - his opinion of the British in this war is pretty low - I think he would be inclined to make the Turks more or less on a par with them - and have the French as better quality than both of the other allied nations!
ReplyDeleteThanks for that comment, it has set me thinking. So much so that I intend a new post on rating the combatants.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have read Mark's blog with interest. Often, I have consulted it for uniform details too. I particularly appreciated his digging down into to what really happened in the highlights of the war as presented to us.
Barry Hilton wrote a set of Crimean War rules called Four Empires. Not yet published. Barry does his research. His view was that all the combatants were of much the same standard. The French had the edge.
I'm going to stop now for fear of writing the post here! Thanks again for a thought provoking comment.