"Khurasan previews 18mm Qajar Persians" Topic

Put it this way if Khurasan Qajars were the same size as Battle Honors Revolutionary French then they would mix fine with my Qajars.

Hiya

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Mr Naginata asks

Looking forward to the booklet/book David! How are things going with it? You had mentioned an enemies and allies section. Besides the Russians, British, and Ottoman Empire as adversaries, who else will be covered in this section?

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I'm probably averaging two hours a day on the book, some of that is internet trawling for obscure pics – like a colour representation of the siege of Herat in the 1830s, which went through an auction house to a museum, but I can't find a decent size version of it to check details.

The enemies section also includes a large part on Georgia (including the minor states) a smaller section on the Caucasus / Avar / Kurdish Khanates, a section on central Asian states, a bit on Afghanistan and a brief section on Wahabists and Babi. And a 'Civil War' section.

I'm presently working through the Khanates, but with 20-30 of them I can't really do a potted history of each and stay sane – so this will be a general overview of their military (which are mostly structured similar to pre-European influenced Iran) and any useful military data I can scrape up.

I need to ensure I wrap up the 'enemies' section in reasonable time to push toward finishing the project, it's easy to get distracted and chase details down rabbit holes.

I'm also experimenting with graphics to build presentable battle-maps.

Then I need to edit the lot and tidy up footnoting.

Regards

David F Brown

Thanks for the info, David! I'm very much looking forward to the book when it is completed. I've seen interesting old phtographs from the late 19th/early 20th century of warriors from the Caucasus (particularly Georgia) in full mail shirts and helmets, armed with swords, kindjal daggers, bucklers, and muskets.

Yeah likewise Naginita and they look like the real deal rather than fancy dress aristos.

Keep us posted Dsvid.

Are these these the Georgian chaps you're on about?

If so, is this how their cavalry would have been dressed? I'm thinking that The Assault Group's Polish Pancerni might make a good basis for conversions in 28mm.

Hiya, there are a lot of pics of such men, but not many (and I think no photos) showing them riding. But you'd guess anbody who owned a horse would also have the resources to own armour.

Some of the mail coats seem to show a split at front, which can be a modification for riding – the nearby Circassians were certainly armoured riders well into the 19thC.

Those Polish chaps look a great match, not much conversion needed there.

David F Brown

Cheers, David. I know next to nothing about the period (I think the air of mystery was a huge factor in pledging to Kawe's kickstarter, aside from the beautiful miniatures). My worry was that I'd get some of these, then find out that those photos were of some specific group who fought on foot. Having done more image searches, based on your point about Circassians, it seems that they could well make a good multi-use unit.

I'm looking forward to the release of your book.

Hiya

Here are some of my draft bits on armoured fighters.

David B

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Georgian section
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Khevsur Highlanders
The Khevsur highlanders were famous for wearing mail armour and looking mediaeval. Pictures of these men have been provided, without other evidence these men presumably provided both foot and mounted troops as they appeared to have done in earlier times. Some photos of men show mail coats split at front which can be a modification for riding.

The warriors are shown with muskets, swords, shields and less frequently bows. The highlanders were independent-minded and dismissive of the nobility but strongly loyal to the king.

Khevsur lands include the modern Migmakhevi, Shatili, Arkhoti and Aragvi valleys, along with the related Pshavi they were historically considered descendants of Crusaders due to their armour and wearing crosses or icons – perhaps also on their standards. The Crusader link is discounted by modern scholars. The lands were home to a distinctive local form of martial arts which included armed and unarmed combat and archery. The men were historically engaged as royal bodyguards.

300 Aragvian Martyrs
As part of the Georgian forces opposing Aga Mohammed Khan, Prince Vakhtang led a force raised from the mountains including a body of 300 Argavians. The men fought at both the Battle of Krstini and in the doomed defence of Tiflis thereafter.

The Aragvian highlanders had pledged to fight to the death in defence of their King which they did in a famous last stand at the city, thus giving Heraclius time to assess the lost situation and escape. An oath to fight to the death might suggest the men were serving as a previously constituted bodyguard formation. The men were presumably armoured as was traditional for Khevsurs.

Von Klaproth describes the Georgian ‘Aragwi' tribe as ancient lawless highlanders who kill Russians on sight, not for plunder but because they are enemies. Their other occupation was as panther hunters selling the skins in Tiflis.

The 300 became revered national heroes and were canonised as ‘holy martyrs' by the Georgian Orthodox Church in 2008. The modern sculpture in their honour depicts them with swords and small round shields decorated with crosses.

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Circassians
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Circassians of the Adyghe or Kabardian sub-groups are likely to be enemies of Russian expansion and allies or enemies of Georgians – or like other peoples of the Caucasus appear as fighters for the small Khanates of the area.

George Montieth thought their only effective troops were the noble cavalry and their retainers, whom he estimated as theoretically 25,000 strong. Infantry were supplied by serfs who were possibly originally slaves.

Julius Von Klaproth in 1807-08 describes five classes in Circassian society; princes, nobles, freedmen, freedmen of new nobles and vassals with the last group divided further into agricultural and menial servants. He describes the warriors as fastidiously cleaning their weapons and armour. Their mail armour was worn over padding (white or red shirts being popular) and was reportedly pistol proof albeit some skillful Cossacks had learnt the trick of getting their lance up and under the armour. Other clothing mentioned included red boots, waist coats, jackets with cartridge pockets on chest and generally embroidered.

An equipment list with some names in the local language was: the sword and dagger they are never without, musket and pistols, mail coat – affeh, small helmet – kip'ha, larger helmet – tasch, gauntlets – aschteld, brassets (ie vambrace or other arm-armour) – abchumbuch. We are told explicitly that shields were not used.

Bows and quivers of arrows would be worn when riding out in state or visiting, which suggests the archaic weaponry was considered part of traditional formal dress and not necessarily for serious combat.

Lt Col John Johnson in 1817 meets Circassians accompanying the Russian General Yermoloff in the Caucasus – one dons his armour on horseback for Johnson to sketch, which sadly appears to not have been published.

Another observation of Circassians, by Thomas Alcock in 1828-29, suggests that Cossacks were no match for them in combat

‘The Circassian … is frequently equipped with a complete set of armour, defying balls or sabre – an active horse, and above all a brave independent spirit'

[Their dress is] ‘…particularly elegant … a full frock coat with cartouches at the breast, a belt round the waist, in which is a large two-edged knife (a dreadful weapon) and trousers frequently of the same colour as the coat.'

I finally tracked down a solid reference to Qajar rocket batteries, in action in the 1830s (albeit used in a siege rather than a field battle). I have some pics from an 1850s manual that looked theoretical rather than actually put to use.

David F Brown

Thank you for all the info on the Circassians, David. It's very helpful

When are we going to see these for sale ?

Indeed. I'm definitely looking forward to this book.

Hi David, how are things developing with the book?

Hiya

I finished a first draft of the text yesterday. Yay. Now to go back and fill in the odd gaps and see if I still believe stuff I wrote at the start of the process.

And then build maps, fix pics and layout and edit. And then edit some more. Review the section order, referencing and edit.

I ended up putting in a section on the Joassamy Pirates, Wahabbists and the Imam of Muskat, even though they are on the fringe of things.

So it should end at about 160-170 pages. The final number is a bit uncertain as I sometimes use two or more similar pics of a topic to show different interpretations.

Even yesterday I found a new pic that changes something by squaring with a guess I made at one point, so I need to review a section on pre-European 'guard' infantry.

Hunting down pics to their original source is proving a task, the rate of recycling in the 19th C is really surprising. Either the actual image, subject matter, or the arrangement of tableaux are used over again.

By way of example I yesterday thought I had tracked down a clutch of pictures to an 1819-20 original, to only this morning find about a fifth of them are from an 1812 book.

One bit of trivia I had to include was at battle vs the Afghans where the Persians ran out of canister ammo – so they loaded guns with bags of copper coins that seemed to work OK.

Regards

David F Brown

I have found similar reuse of European illustrations of Ottomans – reused for hundreds of years, usually without any attribution.

Druzhina
Illustrations of Ottoman Costume & Soldiers by Europeans

Just completed the second draft, all the copy, maps, charts, referencing etc, indeed everything done except editing and proofing.

162 pages, ok that includes front and back cover.

I had to re-learn Photoshop tricks to build battle maps which took a lot longer than expected – and I still couldn't remember some techniques. The maps look good on screen, I'll now make up a PDF and hard copy to grind through the proofing.

regards

David F Brown

When do you think this book will be published? I look forward to eventually reading it.

Hi there

I'm into the third draft, but the project went backwards by about two weeks. In a good way.

I thought I'd read everything available to me on the topic but I stumbled onto 3 more books.

One book had some useful trivia including a contemporary picture of a Russian deserter (looking pretty much like any other sarbaz), one book was written by an Italian artillery mercenary officer who served in the theatre; and critically the third book was translation of a Persian history up to 1811/12 that included their version of some events to pair with European accounts.

Things to crop up include, what looks like the one-off use of experimental two-gun, perhaps two-man zamburaks against he Wahhabists, a short-lived unit of Russian deserter artillery, a merchant retailing Congreve rockets to the Shah and some battle details for Kurds in 1796-98 and the Ottoman incursion of 1806. The sections on Muskat and Wahhabists now have much better data on military organisation.

I din't previously know about the Wahhabist's body-guard unit of fanatic armoured men on armoured horses.

I don't want to work on this book beyond the end of November, at the latest, two more solid days of editing will finish this draft before I hand it to the proof reader.

Then I need to tidy up some of the picture presentation and layout which will land at 168 pages (including covers).

Regards

David F Brown

Hi David, that is good news, how are you planning on publishing this, will it be a booklet available as pdf or through a traditional publisher?

Hi there

Third draft finished and ready for proof reading.

I'll publish this as a PDF book, probably via Wargames Vault.

Regards

David F Brown

Very excited to hear that David!

Great news, David. I'm looking forward to its release

Might there be a Print on Demand option?

OK I'll look at Print on Demand too, I see that Wargames Vault offers such a thing, the cost-print quality trade off looks ugly.

I might have to do a test order of one myself to see if the final product is of a quality I want to offer, the book contains 655 pictures and 12 maps so print crispness is required.

(I even found some time on the weekend to work on sculpts for some 15-18mm irregular troops, no idea where that project might end.)

David F Brown

Hello! Any more news?

hiya

It's off my desk. The proof reader said they will finish it on Saturday, having hoped to do complete it earlier this week…

I sculpted up five 15-18mm irregular Qajar infantry and some odds and ends (including a mounted man and a kneeling zamburak camel and gun) which will get back from the mould-master today.

David F Brown

Nice! Is there still a plan for PDF and/or POD?

Hiya

Yes, I'll offer a POD option as well.

The doc is set up to be viewed on screen, a hard copy does a few weird things like make the column gutters look skinny. I don't think I can do much about that at this stage. Maybe it's just my tired eyes.

David F Brown

Looking forward to reading this!

When do you think the book will be available (meant to ask a few days ago)?

When do you think the book will be available (meant to ask a few days ago)?

Hi there. I was rather hoping it would be done by the end of last week.

Final proofing is taking longer than I'd hoped, for reasons out of my hands, and I have had to change how this will be completed.

My new deadline is to have it wrapped up by the end of this week. This time of year I'd rather be beach fishing than typing.

David F Brown

Finished (… no work of art is ever finished, just abandoned) yesterday, and it's now working its way through the retailer.

With any luck it will be available as a PDF in the next few days. Once that flies I'll have to work on some technical mods to get the base document to work as POD.

regards

David F Brown

I was browsing through the preview. Well done David! I especially like the period imagery. Eagerly awaiting the print version.

Hi there,

Thanks everybody for the encouragement and interest in this project.

The PDF version of the book is ready.

link

Regards

David F Brown

Brilliant David, thanks for putting this together, I picked up a copy and also posted your link to my gaming group. I really look forward to reading it.

link

Hiya, I see that I offered to post up some info on the Battle of Topra Kale.

Above is a map summary of my reconstruction. (which runs to 2.5 pages of text)

Regards

David F Brown

Impressive book! Do you know when the POD might be available?

Hiya,

The technical issues with the hard copy appear sorted, the printer is in the process of making up and sending me a proof copy to sign off on.

So however long a that takes. I guess a few weeks for it to come half way round the world.

David F Brown

Has anybody actually bought and painted any of the figures yet?

Hiya

Hard copy Print-on-demand is now available.

link

Took longer to clear the printers than I expected, then again I've not done this before via a retailer.

Regards

David B