FK&P AAR: Cossacks & Transylvanians versus Muscovites

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After the Cossacks got so badly hammered last time out against a Muscovite army, it was time to reinforce them with some Transylvanians: the Cossacks would provide the war wagons and foot, the Transylvanians some fairly decent cavalry.

The Muscovites were, again, mostly Sons of Boyars or Reiter cavalry supported by two small brigades of infantry.

View from behind the Muscovite line

Muscovites

Transylvanians & Cossacks

Muscovite Reiters

Elite Transylvanian Cavalry

As the battle began, both sides advanced forward smartly, with the terrain meaning that the game divided into three sectors: my left flank, the centre and my right flank.

On My Left

On my left, some scummy looking Border Guards had appeared in front of me: the perfect target for the Transylvanians!

Apparently not, as rather than running over them like a badly dressed speedbump, my horsemen got impaled on their pikes. This flank then turned into an uneasy stalemate as horse and foot units milled around charging each other with little effect. The battle would be decided elsewhere!

On the Right Flank

On my right flank, I had some Transylvanian Enlisted Light Cavalry supported by two Haiduk units sheltering in the woods.

The plan was to send the light cavalry forward to soften up the three units of Reiters coming towards me so that the Haiduks could wipe them out from safe amongst the trees.

This did not work: the light horse were swept away almost immediately, and then the Haiduks were charged from the flanks and front and, despite the bonuses for being in cover, were swept away as well. The final unit of Haiduks did hold out for some turns, but eventually succumbed, leaving my centre now vulnerable to flank attacks.

Meanwhile in the Centre…

Meanwhile in the centre, the main body of Muscovite Reiters steamed towards my line: a mixed line of raw Moloitsy short-pike-and-shot and tabor war wagons.

My tabor fired valiantly away with both their light guns and musketry, but because I only had two of them rather than my usual four, I couldn’t get the concentrated fire I needed to halt the enemy Reiters heading towards me.

The Moloitsy were charged and gave way, leaving the tabor as islands of resistance amongst a swirling sea of Muscovite horsemen.

By this stage, I was also getting very short of victory medals…

The End

As my right wing collapsed, the loss of one unit too many caused my army as a whole to collapse: the Muscovites had won the day!

This wasn’t a hammering, I hasten to add: the Muscovites had been losing units as well, but it the Cossacks and Transylvanians who crumbled first!

Another great game, through, even if the Muscovites are currently proving unstoppable!

FK&P AAR: Cossacks vs Muscovites

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Time to get my new Muscovites onto the tabletop and into action, with their opponents being the Zaphorogian Cossacks. Russians verses Ukrainians: who would have thought!

I played the Cossacks, daughter #1’s boyfriend, Kavan, played the Muscovites. The rules used were For King & Parliament with the Eastern Front adaptations taken from the Tales from a Wargaming Shed website.

This turned out to be a fast and furious battle with what seemed like an endless wave of Muscovite horse crashing onto the Cossack tabor and infantry.

Here a gallery of the set up so that you can see the two sides:

The battle opened with a brigade of Muscovite Reiters thundering forward on the Cossack right flank, held by a brigade of Moloitsy and Registered Cossacks. The cards were with Kavan, with a couple of consecutive “10’s” ensuring that he actually charged home on his first turn!

The rapid charge had, however, obviously exhausted his cavalrymen, as they bounced backwards from the Cossack infantry, losing one squadron in the process.

The Muscovites also advanced another brigade of Reiters on my left flank, but not as fast, so I sent my Tartar allies out to deal with them whilst I advanced the tabor forward and prepared to deploy.

I almost came a cropper at this point, as his Reiters were once again quick off the mark, and hit one of my tabor wagons before it had a chance to deploy. Fortunately, I managed to survive the charge, but there was definitely now a weak point in my line!

Even worse, my Tatar Nobles (the best troops I had) had obviously been bribed by the Muscovites, as they left the table, along with some of their horse archers, without achieving anything!

I was now in quite serious danger of being outflanked on the left!

Fortunately I had a reserve brigade of infantry that I could deploy to face this threat, and the battle became a series of Muscovite assault on a fortress of Cossack tabor. Again and again, the Reiters and elite National Cavalry charged home, and again and again the Cossack line held.

My artillery was overrun, two of the tabor wagons were overrun, my Registered Cossacks on the right were wavering, but still we held, and the relentless assaults were costing the Muscovites dearly.

Kavan also wasn’t helped by a run of bad cards, including what you can see in the last picture, above: an absolute dead-cert winning flank charge on the reserve unit holding my left flank foiled by a couple of Aces drawn in a row.

This gave me the chance to get the last remaining unit of Tatars in on his flank and, finally, the Muscovites had had enough and retreated. A very narrow escape for the Cossacks!

It had been a terrific game, with everything coming right down to the wire. I had lost half my army, but had just managed to hold on long enough to get the win. Roll on the next game!

FK&P AAR: Cossacks versus Moghuls

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Friend Bevan has recently acquired a 17th Century Moghul army, so naturally we had to get it onto the tabletop as quickly as possible.

The Moghuls’ first opponents would be my Zaphorogian Cossacks, and we’d use the “eastern front” version of For King & Parliament (in turn the ECW version of To The Strongest) that we have built up based on some core rule variants that you can find on the Tales from a Wargaming Shed blog.

The Moghuls

The Cossacks

My plan was to anchor my left flank on a patch of impassable ground, placing my artillery behind it so that they couldn’t be charged from the front (you can see this in the picture, above right). The left flank would be held by one foot brigade consisting of a sotnia of Registered Cossacks and two sotnias of Moloitsy.

Stretching out to the right from this point were the tabor war wagons, able to hold the centre of the field with sheer weight of fire. To their right were a second infantry brigade (same as the first one) and then, on the far right wing, the stars of the last battle, a brigade of Tatars: one squadron of noble lancer types, two clumps of horse archers.

The plan was, as I said, to anchor my left and centre, win on the right, and then sweep in and take his centre, battered from the fire of the tabor, from the flank.

Bevan’s plan, on the other hand, was to stay well clear of the killing field in the centre in front of my tabor, and advance strongly on the flanks. Hopefully his men there would win, and he’d decide what to do after that. Seems like quite a good plan to me!

The battle opened with the Cossacks being extremely reluctant to move forward at all. I managed to get the left wing into place, but only one tabor war wagon did what it was supposed to do. On my right wing, although the Cossack infantry were well up for a fight, the Tatars were not interested at all. This was slightly worrying: were my allies not quite so allied as I had thought? Had the Moghuls paid them off with more coin than I could afford?

The Moghuls trundled forward towards me.

Rather than spell out each phase of the battle in turn, let me give you an overview of what happened. In essence, Bevan’s plan worked perfectly.

On my left flank, my infantry, who should have been able to give a good account of themselves, especially as they were supported by the artillery and one end of the tabor line, crumbled under the weight of the Moghul attacks. One moment i had a left wing, the next I didn’t.

It was even worse of the right wing. The Tatars, the battle winners of my last two games, just refused to engage at all, and when they were attacked, just melted away. Definitely some dodgy politicking or bribery going on in the background!

Once my flanks were broken and driven it, Bevan’s Moghuls curled in on my flanks and the last of my victory medals soon disappeared. My tabor had hardly got to fight at all.

A nicely executed plan by the Moghuls and a well deserved victory. Here’s a chronological pictorial account of the game:

FK&P AAR: Swedish vs Cossacks

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Now that I had my Swedes all planned out, it was time to take them into action against my only other vaguely contemporaneous army, the Zaphorogian Cossacks.

This would be an interesting clash, as the two armies were very different: essentially a western pike & shot army (the Swedes) against an eastern pike & shot army (the Cossacks). Indeed, so different were the Cossacks that Bevan, my opponent, asked if he could use the Swedes (despite the dice initially saying otherwise) as he wasn’t sure how to fight with the Cossacks.

The Cossacks, therefore under my command, consisted of a brigade of four tabor war-wagon bases and some artillery; two brigades of Tatar cavalry, each consisting of two horse archer units and one heavier cavalry unit; and two brigades of infantry, each consisting of two Moloitsy units and one Registered Cossack units.

The Left Wing of the Cossacks

The Swedes, commanded by Bevan, were more like a conventional ECW army. They fielded two brigades of Reiters (like harquebusiers) , each with three squadrons; two brigades of pike, one consisting of three “Swedish” or pike-heavy battalia, the other consisting of four “German” standard battalia; and finally a battery of artillery and an orphan brigade of mixed cavalry consisting of a small unit of cuirassiers and another unit of standard Reiters.

The Reiters grouped together on the Swedish left wing

Despite having all the Tatar bowmen to seek out the opposition, the Cossacks were out-scouted and had to deploy first. The ground wasn’t ideal for war-wagons, with the only open space on my left, so that’s where they went along with a brigade of Tatar horse. The two infantry brigades went in the centre and centre right, with the final brigade of horse out on my right. I planned to hold the hedgerows on my right whilst the war wagons dealt with the Swedish left wing, and go from there!

The battlefield from the Cossack side. My CinC is obviously off to visit the church in the middle of the field!

The Swedes massed their cavalry on their left wing, and lined their infantry up next to them but stretching across the rest of the battlefield. That looked like an awful lot of cavalry facing my right, and I could immediately see that Bevan was intending to punch through my right hand cavalry brigade and then bring his horse round onto my flank. Gulp! I’d better win elsewhere rather quickly then!

The Battle Itself

The battle itself divided neatly into two halves: with action taking place on either side of but not along the road that ran up the centre of the field.

On the Cossack left flank, the tabor trundled forward with the Tatar horse easily keeping pace. Opposite them, the pike-heavy Swedish battalia advanced in a slightly ragged line, with the orphan brigade of cavalry behind them.

As the two sides got closer, the tabor turned and deployed ready for action, quickly opening fire with their light guns and muskets. One Swedish battalia was disordered by their fire, so the Tatar horse archers moved forward and double-disordered them with bowfire.

This was too good an opportunity to miss: the veteran Tatar Noble Lancers charged the disordered pike and smashed them from the table! Behind the pike were the Cuirassiers, but they were also dashed from the field by the rampaging Tatars. Unfortunately, the exhausted Nobles were then dispersed by the Reiters accompanying the cuirassiers, but they in turn were then routed by the horse archers following up their Noble comrades.

Meanwhile, one tabor was locked in combat with a battalia of pikemen. The action swayed back and forth, but the Swedish pike were too strong, and the tabor’s crew fled the field.

That was, however, the limit of Swedish success on this flank. Another battalia was hit in the flank and routed by horse archers, and as the battle on the other side of the field reached its climax, more Swedish infantry were about to be charged in the rear by the rampant Tatar horse: the combination of fortress-like tabor shooting any enemy that moved and the nimble Tatar horsemen proving a winnig combination.

It was, however, on the other flank that the battle was decided.

The Swedes wanted to push their horse forward en masse and just overwhelm the outnumbered Tatars in front of them. Unfortunately the cards did not smile on this endeavour, and their attack was first delayed and then delivered piecemeal.

This allowed the Tatars to focus their efforts on the front-runners and break two squadron of horse, but this initial success turned into a gradual retreat in the face of overwhelming numbers of Reiters and, as the battle ended, all three Tatar/Cossack units had been routed and the Swedish horse was preparing to lap around the right flank of the Cossack infantry.

The three Tatar/Cossack units had, however, effectively neutralised the initial Swedish plan of punching huge numbers of Reiters around the Cossack right flank meaning that, along with the successes on the left flank, the Cossacks had a real chance to win the battle with their infantry in the centre…provided they could do so before the Reiters eventually arrived.

The gallery below shows the cavalry action on the right of the Cossack position:

So the battle would be decided in the centre-right axis of the Swedish advance, where the good quality “Swedish” (pike-heavy) infantry moved forward against the Cossack foot: mostly raw infantry armed with long spears rather than pike.

The Cossacks lined the hedgerows near the crossroads and the Swedes advanced to contact. Cossack musket fire was largely ineffective, and they were soon forced to retreat away from the hedgerows in the face of a series of determined charges by the enemy pike.

I brought up reinforcements from the other flank, but so crowded was the nature of the fighting that I couldn’t find a way of extricating my disordered troops from the front line so that I could replace them with fresh. This, as I said, was due to the ferocity of the Swedish attack: continually pressing forward.

And then Lady Luck smiled upon the Cossacks: the Swedish Commanding General was cut down by Cossack musket fire as he led his infantry line forward!

In FK&P, your c-in-c is worth a lot (and I mean a lot) of victory medals, so this really tipped things in my favour. If I could break just two more Swedish units (across the battlefield, not just on this flank, so including all the action on the other flank, happening simultaneously with what I’m now describing) then the day would be mine.

The death of the swedish C-in-C

Unfortunately, Lady Luck is nothing if not even handed, and the very next turn the Cossack commanding general was first lightly wounded and then also killed, losing me an equal number of victory medals!

Death of the Cossack Commanding General

Both sides were now down to just two victory medals remaining: whoever next broke a unit would win the battle.

The initiative was with the Cossacks, so my line of Moloitsy and Registered Cossacks opened fire, bur failed to break the enemy. They returned fire…and this proved too much for one of my raw Moloitsy battalia. They broke and fled the field, taking the rest of my infantry with them.

Seeing their right flank broken and, indeed, with the survivors about to be cut down by rampaging Reiters, the victorious Tatar cavalry and tabor on the left flank remembered an important appointment elsewhere and also skedaddled. The day was with the Swedes!

Aftermath

It had been an epic game that, once again, came down to the final action.

All credit to Bevan for having a great plan and deployment: if his infantry hadn’t carried the day then his Reiters coming in from my right would have finished me off for sure.

FK&P AAR: Cossacks March Out Again

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Time for the Zaphorogian Cossacks to ride out again, this time with an away fixture at friend Bevan’s house.

It was an unusually shaped battlefield, and one criss-crossed by small streams and (impassable) lakes. There was also a chunk taken out of one corner, meaning any units deployed there ran the very real risk of falling off the end of the world!

After their first encounter ended in ignominious defeat, the Cossacks had re-organised their army: equipping their tabor wagons with light artillery and dropping the brigade of raw Cossack horse.

On this battlefield, therefore, I placed my up-armed tabor in the centre, infantry to the left and right of them, and a brigade of Tatars on the far right just in front of the edge of the world. That left me a brigade of horse in reserve just behind my tabor’s right flank.

As before, our opponents were the Lithuanian Polish, hereafter known as the Poles or the Polish. They had their infantry and artillery in the centre, with loads of really quite good horse on either wing.

The battle opened with the Poles advancing rapidly on either wing, and the game split into two halves.

On my right flank, my Tatars (one unit of veteran nobles and two units of light bowmen) took on four units of decent Polish cavalry. My lights were quickly sent fleeing from the field, but their veteran comrades managed to destroy two of the Polish horse units despite, at one stage, being hit in the flank.

Half the Poles who had been chasing my lights from the field then returned and, eventually routed my tired nobles, but I’d still effectively won that flank, certainly in terms of victory medals lost.

Meanwhile, on the other flank, waves of Polish horse, most of it rather decent, some of it the dread Winged Hussars, came forward and crashed onto the three Cossack foot units right at the end of my line.

[The Winged Hussars were being represented by only their bases as painting their leopard skins had caused a delay in production. This was quite unnerving…as the temptation was to visually dismiss the units that were actually the most deadly on the table!]

Time and time again the Polish cavalry crashed into one unit of Cossack Moloitsy militia: a unit that just refused to break. Two light units and two medium units of Polish cavalry were sent packing before, finally, the Moloitsy gave way, leading to a general crumbling of that flank.

So exciting was this passage of play that I don’t actually have many photos of it. Below, left is the first wave of Polish cavalry moving forward. Below, centre is the situation after the first wave of Polish cavalry has been repelled, with the black-base-Hussars moving forward in the background. Below, right is after the Hussars have finally shattered the Moloitsy infantry.

Meanwhile, the Polish infantry had also split into two halves. On my right centre, they advanced towards the Cossack foot brigade amongst the trees and rough ground in the bend of the river. A firefight broke out between the two infantry forces, with each of us eventually losing a unit.

On my left centre, after hanging back for some time, the other Polish infantry brigade came forward. They advanced towards the left hand tabor unit but so keen was Bevan to get them into action at the same time as his Hussars were wiping out my Moloitsy that he left their flank exposed.

No sooner seen then acted upon: one of my reserve cavalry units, Tatar lights, smashed into their flank and smashed them from the field. The Tatars went on to knock off a unit of enemy Tatar light horse (Taras Bulba anyone?) before retreating back to safety.

The climax of the battle was now upon us. Before my Cossack Moloitsy on the left broke and ran I had been comfortably ahead: nine victory medals verses the three that Bevan had left. Once my left flank had broken, I was down to three victory medals. Could Bevan now snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?

As his troops massed for further charges into my left flank, the battle was actually decided back on the right centre, where Bevan’s remaining infantry unit had retreated back from its firefight with some of my Registered Cossacks in order to re-group.

I followed up, also deploying my final reserve: a unit of poor quality mounted Cossacks. These managed to pin the retreating Polish Haiduks in place, giving my Registered Cossacks time to follow up and hit them in the flank. They crumbled, their victory coins were lost, and the battle was mine!

The gallery below shows the initial clash between infantry lines on the right center. The position after this initial clash, and then the climactic moment mounted and Registered Cossacks dashed the enemy Haiduks from the field:

So a first victory for my Cossacks, but a very hard fought contest won only by the narrowest of margins.

Again the Poles avoided frontally assaulting my tabor wagons, concentrating on trying to win the battle by killing all my other troops. In this game that actually worked in my favour a bit: my tabor were free to deploy their new light guns with significant effect and the terrain was such that my infantry could hold on for long enough before fleeing the field.

For me, I tried to avoid throwing my cavalry away. Admittedly the veteran Tatar noblemen played a blinder and did much better than they should have, but keeping the other cavalry brigade in reserve worked really well: I would only have lost them to the mass of enemy cavalry as it advanced forward, and this way I was able to shore up my line and then exploit the retreat of the enemy infantry when the time was right. For my next outing, I think I’ll add a unit of artillery to the roster, sacrificing some infantry Gallant Gentlemen to do so. After all, I can only use them if I’m attacking, and my infantry won’t charge enemy horse!

Here’s a pic of the table at the end of the game.

Cossacks Take To The Field (Briefly!)

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My first game of the year, so it was only right that the Cossacks finally take to the field with their opponents, the Polish/Lithuanians (hereafter known as the Poles/the Polish), provided by friend Bevan. So new to the table were both armies that the Poles hadn’t even been properly based yet.

The table was set up quite differently to our usual ECW terrain: no hedges and loads of irritating patches of rough or impassable ground.

We used the excellent eastern front modifications to For King & Parliament available on the Tales From A Wargames Shed blog.

View from the Polish side

The Poles arrived with a fearsome army: two units of Winged Hussars; four units of Pancerni horse; three units of Petyhorsy horse; three units of Tatar mounted bowmen; and four infantry Haiduk units.

Not properly based! Are the shades of the wargaming room to be thus polluted?

To oppose them, my brave Zaporogian Cossacks fielded four tabor war wagons; two brigades each of one unit of Registered Cossacks and two units of Moloitsy; and two Tatar warbands, one of two units of mounted bowmen, the other the same but with a unit of Tatar noble lancers as well.

Tabor in the centre, then the infantry, then the cavalry on the wings.

Here’s how the game went:

In summary, the Poles sent their cavalry forward on each wing. This proved too strong for my horse, who were mostly Tatar bowmen and reluctant Cossacks, leaving the end of my infantry/tabor line exposed.

My musket fire proved ineffective (I think it must have been raining) and although they did cause the Poles some damage, the Moloitsy infantry then began to crumble.

As the battle ended, the Poles were about to fall upon the Registered Cossacks whilst my tabor still sat in the centre watching what was going on!

Aftermath

An excellent game (despite the result!) and it was good to get back to gaming and give my latest army a baptism (of fire!).

Cossack Artillery

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Fanfare please: the last of the Cossacks roll off the production line!

Well, I have one more, unopened packet of Moloitsy, but even if I did want to paint them up, there’s no room in the two Really Useful boxes that I’m using to store the Cossacks in (it’s a bit like a tabor after all!) so who knows where I’d put them. Bored of painting Cossacks now, anyway: with 231 painted since 21st October, I feel I have more than done them justice.

Just working on my tan, Alexy

First up, in the photo above, is a Light Gun base to augment stationary infantry or tabor units. Figures and gun are from By Fire & Sword, and very nice they are too, if a trifle tall.

I do like how the Contrast paint has covered the torso of our sunbather with the ramrod: that’s just one coat of Darkoath Flesh over the grey undercoat. Loving Contrast paints very much!

Next up is a standard artillery base. Not quite such a good photo, though.

You can see that I have had to import some spare Peter Pig artillerymen as the original artillery pack only contained enough gunners for two crew per piece. I’ve painted the Piggy’s contribution in the same green both on the above and the next piece: I’m calling them non-Cossack mercenaries used to train or improve effectiveness!

I do like the pose of the chap in the red trousers on the left: the one with his foot up on the barrel and staring dreamily into space. You can’t quite see it in the pic, but in his other hand, the one by his waist, he’s holding what looks like a piece of paper. I like to think it’s a letter from that special little Cossack lady expressing her love and admiration…but it’s probably a Dear John or a bill!

Finally, here’s a little gallery of the single siege artillery base I’ve painted up.

This artillery set comes with not only it’s own resin gun emplacement, but also with a separate “slide-in” base for the gun and gunners so that you can also use them on their own, behind a tabor for example. Very nifty and much appreciated.

Again, not enough crewmen though, so I’ve added a Piggy mercenary and a couple of spare command figures (the standard bearer and the drummer) to make the scenic base a bit fuller.

So that’s the Cossacks done now (or as done as any wargames project ever can be) and it’s on to the next section of the lead mountain.

No sneak previews, but I think I’ll be moving forward through time to WW2…

Cossack Command

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I’m now just working through the last few bits and pieces for my Zaporogian Cossack army for the (unofficial) eastern European version of For King & Parliament.

Here’s the latest offering, once again showcasing the beautiful banners that come ready provided by the chaps from By Fire & Sword.

Cossack Cavalry

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It’s always nice to see who’s going to be first to get an entry into the new year’s Painting Challenge and, this year, it happens to be me: the extra bank holiday day giving me the chance to both start and finish a couple of units of Cossack cavalry.

These are more from the By Fire & Sword range, and very nice they are too. It was also such a relief to paint a “regular” unit (i.e. one where the figures are all the same) after the five units of Tatars that were my final entries into last year’s Challenge.

And that, of course, is one of the reasons that I have been able to finish them so quickly: less time switching between paints and poses. That and the fact that they have very little in terms of “webbing” or equipment.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering how I got the roan colour on the unit with the purple and yellow banner, it’s using GW Contrast Fireslayer Flesh with a Cygor Brown mane and tail. I think I should have given them white socks as well, but that can easily be fixed the next time I want a roan horse.

Only a few more Cossacks to go now…

More Cossacks/Tatars

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I’m still plugging away at my 15mm Cossacks-with-Tatar-allies: only two more units and then I have my 130 point army for FK&P, with another six or so units then clearing all the figures on my painting table.

After all, you’ve got to have enough figures to allow for a few changes and/or bigger battles!

First up today is my overall Cossack commander-in-chief. There’s the Hetman himself, his standard bearer with the usual very impressive flag, a mounted drummer and, finally, a little help from above in the shape of a dour looking orthodox priest.

Figures are, as usual, from the By Fire & Sword range, which I cannot recommend enough. Okay, so I still find the plastic horses a little fragile for my liking, but just the flags they provide with every unit make them a must-have. These are painted with GW Contrast paints.

Second up is another base of Tatar bowmen. I also like these a lot: the detail is very crisp and takes the Contrast paint very well. I’m trying to make them look different from the Cossacks by having most wearing light tan clothing - the Cossacks in general being more colourful - with the odd figure in Cossack blue (traded clothing presumably) or a reddy-brown, mixed-on-the-palette shade.

I should be able to finish the army off over Christmas (well, as much as any army is ever finished!) and then it’s on to their opponents: probably the Poles.

Cossack Command & Tatars

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Sorry for the lack of posts this week: been very busy in the real world!

Expect a flood of interesting content over the next couple of days but, to start, here’s a catch-up of some painting I’ve been doing.

First up are a couple of command bases for my 15mm Zaporogian Cossacks. Lovely figures from the By Fire & Sword range painted mostly with Contrast paints. I especially like the chap on the right with the pipe.

Alongside the two Colonels, I also painted a base’s worth of Tatar light horsemen. These are also from the By Fire & Sword range, and are also nice figures.

One thing: the riders are metal and the horses are plastic. There must be a good reason for this, and I didn’t notice that the figures felt top heavy, but the plastic is of the soft, bendy variety, so sometimes the horses are “set” at a funny angle and, unlike metal figures, can’t be straightened out. You have to slope the base when you mount it to get the horse as a whole to sit straight.

It also means that I am less confident of picking up the base by the two outside figures: I’m worried that the plastic won’t take the weight. I know I shouldn’t be picking up the base by the figures anyway, but sometimes in the heat of battle etc. I shall have to see how they manage on the tabletop.

More Moloitsy and some Tatars

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Another base of Cossack Moloitsy rolls off the production line. That makes four I have now, which is enough for the 150 point army I have planned. I do have one more base’s worth of figures to paint, however, so will probably end up with five in all.

As before, these are By Fire & Sword miniatures painted up using mostly GW Contrast paints, and mounted on a Warbases large vehicle base.

My Cossacks, not being of the Ukrainian sort, don’t have very good cavalry, so I’m going to add some Tatar allies to the army. I have bought enough to field what I need but, whilst wandering around Warfare this weekend just gone, I saw these chaps on sale for quite a reasonable price i.e. painted well enough for me to like them, priced at under double the raw lead.

Whilst I’m not sure that they are actually Tatars, they will do as Tatar bowmen…and I shall probably use them to indicate veteran bowmen as their distinctive headgear makes them look like they are more of a chosen unit than a random collection of warriors.

More Cossacks

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In between all the re-basing that I’ve been doing, I finally got around to picking up my brushes and finishing off another base of Cossack Moloitsy.

These are more of the excellent By Fire & Sword miniatures. I like the ones in blue, but am not so keen on their purple-clad neighbours, even if it does match their banner!

Talking of which, the chaps in blue gave me all sorts of problems with their banner. Not the one shown: that is attempt three, with the previous two ending up in the bin. Unusual, as I’ve found the provided banners really easy to deal with in the past. Must be clumsy hands from too much re-basing!

Anyway, one more base of Moloitsy to go, and then the officers and artillery…and the Tartar allies are already on order!

Cossack Moloitsy

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Regular visitors will know that I am building a Zaporozhian Cossack army for use with the eastern theatre version of For King & Parliament.

I’ve painted up the ‘regular’ Registered Cossack element of the army, and the tabor wagon armed wagon train, so now it was time to start on the Moloitsy: the mass of pretty rubbish musket and spear armed infantry that made up the majority of any Cossack force.

As the figures I’m using (from the Wargames Company’s By Fire & Sword range) come in sotnias of twelve men, and I’m using bib bases of twenty-four men, I’ve decided to paint the troops in twelves: effectively two sotnias per base.

This does, of course, mean that I’m going to have to come up with ten colour schemes for my five units rather than just five, so it’s lucky the GW Contrast Paint range is quite large!

I’m loving the banners that come with these figures: there do seem to be loads of different designs. Again, not sure if I’ll be able to do all ten sotnias with a different banner, but there won’t be much duplication.

So that’s two down and three to go!

Registered Cossacks

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Regular visitors will know that I am currently building a 17th Century Zaporozhian Cossack army using By Fire & Sword miniatures.

I’ve already built the Tabor (war wagons) so next task was to paint up the Registered Cossack element: the nearest Cossack equivalent to regular soldiers. The Registered Cossacks began life in 1572 and served as a significant element of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth’s army until the 18th Century.

I’ve only painted two bases of Registered Cossacks, as most of a Cossack force should be lesser quality Moloitsy. Here they are:

I’m learning more about the Zaporozhian Cossacks as I go along. These weren’t the “born in the saddle” elite light cavalry of the Don Cossack type, but infantry based chaps from the Dneiper River area of the Ukraine. First recorded in the early 1500s, they seem to have fought just about everyone in the area: either separately or as part of a Polish army.

They specialised in raiding into other people’s territory, especially that of the Ottoman empire. One legend has it that the Sultan Mehmed IV asked them to stop their raids by sending the following letter:

As the Sultan; son of Muhammad; brother of the sun and moon; grandson and viceroy of God; ruler of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Upper and Lower Egypt; emperor of emperors; sovereign of sovereigns; extraordinary knight, never defeated; steadfast guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ; trustee chosen by God Himself; the hope and comfort of Muslims; confounder and great defender of Christians – I command you, the Zaporogian Cossacks, to submit to me voluntarily and without any resistance, and to desist from troubling me with your attacks.

Needless to say, this didn’t go down too well with our Cossack friends, who replied with a letter so rude that I have been forecd to use asterisks for some of it!

Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!

O sultan, Turkish devil and damned devil's kith and kin, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are thou, that canst not slay a hedgehog with your naked arse? The devil shits, and your army eats. Thou shalt not, thou son of a whore, make subjects of Christian sons. We have no fear of your army; by land and by sea we will battle with thee. F*ck thy mother.

Thou Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-f*cker of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, pig of Armenia, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our dick. Pig's snout, mare's arse, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow. Screw thine own mother!

So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won't even be herding pigs for the Christians. Now we'll conclude, for we don't know the date and don't own a calendar; the moon's in the sky, the year with the Lord. The day's the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our arse!

This momentous event was commemorated in a huge painting by Russian artist Ilya Repin:

Some excellent ideas there for invective to throw at my opponents once the army takes to the tabletop!

The Cossack Tabor Rolls Up

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Tabor Commander

Finally finished the first four bases of Cossack Tabor: the war wagons that can serve either as fortifications or as a moving fort.

These figures are the first of the By Fire & Sword miniatures: a Polish figure manufacturer specialising in 17th Century eastern European wars. Friend Bevan is collecting Poles, so I went for the Zaporozhian Cossacks.

I thought these were going to be a bit like the Cossacks you see in Taras Bulba (i.e. masses of light cavalry) but actually these particular Cossacks had rubbish cavalry (substituting Tartars when they needed horse) and were specialists in infantry fighting from behind lines of war wagons. Ah well, you live and learn!

What with lockdown, lorry drivers, Brexit and an imminent second edition, By Fire & Sword miniatures are quite hard to get hold of in the UK. I started my collection by cleaning out the Entoyment Hobby & Wargames Centre online store. Entoyment are an excellent supplier who not only offered a slight discount but also posted my figures to me the very next day after I’d ordered them. Highly, highly recommended.

I don’t usually bother with an unboxing photo, but the By Fire & Sword packaging for their Cossack Tabor box set is absolutely lovely. Here’s a little gallery of the original outside packaging, the inside box, and what the box looks like when you open it. Lovely: really got me enthused to get painting.

The Build

The wagons come in several bits: the wagon body, an under-wagon frame that holds the wheels and provides the tongue/shaft, the horses (about half with saddle and rider, half with just a yoke), a few small cannon to mount at the corner of a wagon, and the wagon crew.

Putting the wagons together is fairly easy, although I did find that I had to drill out every wheel’s socket with a pin drill before being able to fix them. A pain, and certainly much more difficult than most wagon wheel attaching.

I chose not to attach the crews onto the wagons before painting, although I did attach all the riders to their mounts.

The Paint

Painting was fairly easy: I used GW Contrast Paints as usual but restricted myself to dark reds, dark greens and two 0r three blues for the Cossack crews.

This is how they turned out:

Overall I’m very happy with these, and looking forward to getting them onto the tabletop. I’ll be using them with an adaption of For King & Parliament, using a single base as the Tabor as a Fortification, and double bases as the Tabor as moving, deep war-wagons

Next up are the Registered Cossack infantry…