"28mm Bosnian light cavalry archers? " Topic

Hullo folks,

Well I've been bitten by the 28mm bug (despite promising myself I'd stick to 6mm! oh well) and planning to do some skirmish gaming (so just a small handful of figures). It's all Necromunda's fault.

I got the Perry mounted men at arms with a view to seeing what I could make them into. Did some research and got very interested in a small corner of the Venetian/Ottoman wars, late 15th century times – up in Friuli, north east italy, where there seem to have been some interesting cavalry skirmishes between condottieri and stradiots on the Venetian side and akinjis on the ottoman side.

Except – these akinjis, according to an essay I found, were probably Bosnians rather Turks proper.

I was wondering what options there are for what I suppose would be 'Balkan' cavalry archers?

I found this image which claims to be a 'Balkan cavalryman' and certainly looks cool (with the hat):

There might not be anything much out there (15th century and Balkan is pretty niche) but just checking …

Not sure as to options, but here's an article I found recently:

link

Old Glory has some potential models in their "Vlad the Impaler and Turkish Frontier" range.

The Assault Group has a Renaissance range that includes many models that may be appropriate including these guys:
link

Pretty much the Stadiotti & Bosnians are the same folks depending on who is paying gold today. I'd just use Stradiots with bows for the turks. Perry makes these as do Foundry.

The Foundry Casting Room Stradiots are particularily Turkish/Greek looking: link

The illustration in the original post is Ian Heath's "Balkan cavalryman" – see link

Another option from The Assault Group would be link

Aha! This is all very interesting. Thanks folks.

See also Ian Heath's source: 'Zyzymus fleeing on horse with some Turks' from William Caoursin's Obsidionis Rhodie Urbis Descriptio, 1496 printing.

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

>Pretty much the Stadiotti & Bosnians are the same folks

Akinci are definitely not Stradioti – and Stradioti saw themself as descendants of the Christians expulsed from Albania (and northern Greek) by the Ottomans, while the Bosnians usually are defined as those inhabitants who changed their religion to Islam.

Akinic, while many do live on the Balkan, often were of Turkish descent – the Ottomans settled their soldiers on their borders, creating military dynasties, a practice that was later mirrored by the Christians in that region. The relation between Akinci and the Ottoman army was more feudal in nature, based upon the right to raid and plunder their Christian neighbours (a right often also used when these neightbours paid tribute to the porte) in exchange for service when the main army went to war.

Akinci often operated in large units seperate from the army, especially when tasked with strategical objectives like devastating large areas in the Hinterland, often to lure out the defending army from fortified positions. At one of these occasions in 1532 a large unit of the Akincis was trapped and annihilated.
link

Imho the best – perhaps currently the only – source for 28mm Akinci are currently Old Glory.

'Akinci often operated in large units seperate from the army, especially when tasked with strategical objectives like devastating large areas in the Hinterland, often to lure out the defending army from fortified positions.'

This seems to have been what was going on in Friuli, certainly. Carlo da Montone was holed up in the fortress of Gradisca and according to the article used to conduct sallies to confront them. That's the kind of engagement I'm going to try and represent anyway.

While on that note: I've done the perry mounted men at arms as Condottieri lancers (managed to find, somewhere, some sources online that matched some of the options in the box to known condottieri armour etc). This way I've got some 28mm lancers should I need them for anything else.

Out of interest though, would lancers actually use their lances in a skirmish situation? If you were out on a sortie would you still use a fairly close formation? Against other cavalry?

Imho the best – perhaps currently the only – source for 28mm Akinci are currently Old Glory.

TAG also has Akinji:
link
link
and…
link
If we go by what Puster has told us probably more appropriate than the link in my previous post.

I did not mention the TAG because I deem them more suited for the late 16th and 17th century (their Ottoman range is imho more made to suit that era – more 2nd siege of Vienna then first). As pictorial sources are rare (Druzhina collects the real gems here) you can probably use them anyway without contradicting anything – though some of the helmets TAG use imho show not up before the later half of the 16th century.
As irregulars their equipment would change with personal fortune, however.

I just realized that the German Wikipedia-page on the Akinci is way more extensive (and imho better) then both the English or Turkish version. Has probably something to do with the lively debate with different perspectives.

I've also decided to crack out the bit of greenstuff I keep around just in case, and see if I can make the hat myself. We'll see how it goes … if I haven't got the skills, I'll pay the bills, as it were.