Great Northern War - the Moldavia

I am enjoying this, not only have I salvaged 40 figures from the lead graveyard, but I am discovering interesting aspects of Eastern warfare of the early 18^th century.

From a Russian source there will be a need to modify the Moldavian list.

From Arthur’s blog:

Moldavia it’s army in 1711 consisted of:

- Gospodar’s own guard, 60 harmash

- palace guard of 10 coys (100 each) of sekban enlisted from Balkan Slavs

- 4 foot enlisted “German” (west-European styled) regiments of 1 000 each

- 4 foot enlisted regiments of Ukranian (Zaporozskiy) Cossacks of 1 000 each

- 20 mounted enlisted choragwies of kolorachy from Moldavians

- 4 mounted enlisted choragwies of lipkany (Lithuanian Tartars)

- 2 mounted enlisted choragwies of beshly (Muslims, also acted as a police force for Muslims)

- provincial feudal levy, 1 000 of mounted kolorashy from each of 19 provinces

- 8 000 of the foot levy – doroban

- municipal militia (4-5 coys = buluk or beluk per a town, in the capital city Yassy – 10 coys)

- private coys of the nobles-boyars (usually called hinsary=hussars)

The German and Ukranian regiments most likely would be mixed pike and firearm as they would be expected to fight the cavalry hordes of Tartars. Choragwies are “banners” or squadrons of cavalry.

My calculations would give near equal strength of foot and mounted reaching possibly a total of 40,000 troops, so proportions remain unchanged, but there are “trained” among the numbers.

Of the remaining elements four have been rebased to make three elements of mercenaries, two Germans and one Ukranian and one artillery piece has been added. 

Great Northern War – the Moldavian

This is funny. After posting the proposed list for the Moldavian, I stumble across a Russian source with numbers and type of troops for the Pruth Campaign. Brilliant.

The proposed list will need some modification, but the first draft will serve me for the test game set for tomorrow.

Photo one is a close up of the painted infantry figures.

Photo two is of the completed command according to my first proposed list.

Tomorrow, the Russians and Ottomans will be played out as a big battle. This will serve to review the Horse and Musket variant I wrote last year and revise where necessary while adding some features from the Civil War set recently completed.

Cheers, 

Great Northern War – the Moldavian

For the upcoming Russian vs Ottoman Turk match I decided to cobble a Moldavian command consisting of light horse and loose order infantry from my box of extras, these are mostly Pandour infantry and Cossack cavalry.  

Photo 1 is before the transformation and 2 the after. Amazing what you can do with some body putty; plumage, cloaks and fur caps and anything else that will give them the part.   

Photo 1

Photo 2

As the Humberside list for the Moldavian ends with the 30 years’ war, an appropriate list will have to be created. .

52a Moldavian, 1550-1648.

1x3Cv, 2x2LH, 1x2LH or Art, 2xWWg or 1x4Pi+1x3Kn, 1x4Pk, 1x4Sh, 1x3Bw/2Ps, 1x3Sh/2Ps, 2x3Aux.

Making an army list post-1648 we have to keep in mind both Moldavia and Wallachia were part of the Ottoman Empire. Moldavia rebelled in time to assist Peter the Great and would likely be able to field the bare essentials.

Armoured cavalry were on the decline among the Ottomans and the Kn would most likely not survive into the 18^th century and I have doubts about WWg operating on the battlefield opposed by Ottoman gunners. Archers are most likely replaced by infantry with firearms. Ratio of mounted to foot would remain about the same, so a tentative list might look as such:

Moldavian/Wallachian (suggested for 1710)

1x3Cv,

3x2LH,

1x2LH or Art,

1x3Bd,

2x3Sh,

2x3Sh/2Ps,

2x3Aux or 3Dr.

Cheers,