I am new to investigating the Ottoman army and would appreciate people's thoughts on which figures to use of Anatolian Sipahi for 1650 in 28mm.
I understand that there are two types of provincial Sipahi in the Ottoman army, the Rumeli Sipahi and the Anatolian Sipahi.
For the Rumeli Sipahi I plan to use the Ottoman Sipahi from the Assault Group. They are more European Style and are on non-barded horses which seem right for the 1650 period. (I also plan to use Assault Group barded Sipahi for the Kapikulu Sipahi).
For the Anatolian Sipahi, I have read that they are armed with a composite bow, a round shield and leather armor. So completely different to the Rumeli Sipahi.
My thoughts at the moment is that I could use some of the Assault Group Akinjis to represent these Anatolian Sipahi figures. They use the same horses as the Assault Group Sipahi. They also seem to be dressed and armed in the right manner. I would put them on movement trays to give a more close order formation.
As the Ottoman army of 1650 does not have Akinjis, it would not cause a problem there. Also, if I decide to use the Ottomans for a 16th century force to fight my Venetians, I could just move them to a skirmish movement tray and actually use them as Akinjis.
Do people think that this is a reasonable idea or am I way off here? If it is not a good idea, how do you think that I could represent the Anatolian Sipahi of 1650 in 28mm? I would be open to some very simple conversions, but that is not typically what I do and would prefer to buy and paint unconverted figures.
