More Polish-Lithuanian cossack cavalry

 This post sees a new unit of cossack cavalry joining my Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army. 

28mm figures from TAG, Foundry and Warlord.

“Gustavus then prizes one cossack banner that having had been assaulted and circled completely by the 4 Swedish cornets, yet despite having been in a tight corner, with such a valour in their midst was explaining itself with cold steel …” A comment on the Swedish King’s view following the Battle of Honingfelde/Trzciano 1629.

[UPDATE - Michal from the Kadrinazi blog makes an important note on this quote in the Comments section, so please check that out.] 

These 28mm figures are from a mixture of manufacturers.  The riders are from TAG, Warlord and Foundry, with the horses all coming from TAG.  The figures have had some minor conversions, to add carbines, and other equipment, mostly from TAG with some bits from the Warlord plastic cavalry set. 

In a previous post (here), where I covered the previous unit of cossacks that I completed, I gave a description of this type of cavalry, along with the figures, conversions and the nail art stickers used in constructing them.  

[UPDATE - Some of the links in the previous post no longer work.  The original place that I saw the nail sticker art used on figures is also here: https://www.anotherminiaturespainter.com/wargames/28mm-the-assault-group-polish-pancerni-cavalry/ .  I think Jose is an awesome painter and his wonderful Polish collection has been a real inspiration for me.]

I have now used these cossack cavalry in a few games.  Here are the factors that I have been using for games using Warlord’s ‘Pike & Shotte’ rules.

For those not familiar with ‘Pike & Shotte’ these factors translate as follows (all comparisons are with the typical ‘harquebusier’ cavalry of the period, that makes up the majority of Swedish cavalry in the tabletop battles I have fought):

• As Light Cavalry they move slightly faster.  They are also able go in to a ‘skirmish’ or open order formation that makes them a more difficult target for shooting, and allows them to evade from formed troops.
• They are slightly less hard hitting, and slightly more vulnerable, in melee. (I may look to vary this in future and have some units more comparable with the Swedish harquebusiers.)
• The ‘Marauder’ special rules means there is a no negative modifier for the distance from the general when orders are issued.  This allows them to operate in a more dispersed manner, that seems appropriate for these light troops.   

This combination of factors has seen the cossacks being most successful when either supporting the heavier Hussars, or operating on the flanks of the enemy formations.  They have been less successful when expected to take on frontally the Swedish cavalry. 

I’d be interested to hear about how other think the cossack cavalry should perform on the tabletop. 

In the next post I will be looking at some temporary defences supposedly used by the Swedish troops in the 1626-9 campaign against the Poles. 

Until next time!

Andy @ The Friends of General Haig.

Postscript. I wanted to share a snippet of information that is related to the Blogger platform, the service I use to deliver this blog, rather than related to hobbying.  Blogger does not get much love from its current owner (Google) and it can feel a bit limited in use.  It is even worse if you try and use Blogger with only a mobile iOS device. These limitations had grown much worse for me recently as I couldn’t make the Comments function work, either for my blog, or in other people’s blogs.  I found a fix today, almost by accident.  So here is my quick tip that works for me as of 29th May 2022.

First of all I use the Chrome ‘app’ / browser on my iOS devices to access Blogger.  In the past this has solved a lot of problems with Blogger; Google’s own browser working better with Google’s blogging platform.  The new tip is a cookie setting.  You need to go to iOS Settings and then look within the settings for Chrome.

From the screen snip above you can see that you need to switch on “Allow Cross-Website Tracking” which is in effect enabling third party cookies. This seems to fix the issue that I had been having with Comments in Blogger blogs, including my own.

I hope this helps someone else.  If anyone has any thoughts on this fix, or knows any other tips for using Blogger on a mobile device, then I’d love to hear them.

I have started looking in to Wordpress as an alternative for blogging but this fix has at least delayed my imminent switch! 

Croats and Cossacks

This blog post takes a look at my latest Thirty Years War Imperial units; Croat light horse.

My latest unit of Croats 

It is over a year since I finished my first unit of Croats (see here).  My latest units are a mixture of Warlord and The Assault Group (TAG) figures.  On this first unit the horses are all TAG and the rider are a mixture.  The flag is from Flags of War.

I now have three units of these light horse and so I've got enough Croat light horse for my Imperial force. These units will also see service as part of the new Polish army I am building for the war in Prussia during the 1620s.  The Polish 'Cossack' light cavalry had a very similar dress to the Imperial Croat light cavalry; not only were they all influenced by the Turkish and Hungarian models of dress favoured in Eastern Europe, but the term 'Croat' was used for all Imperial light horse whether their origin was Croatia, Hungary, Walachia, or Poland.  Indeed, some of the 'Croat' light horse at Lutzen were recorded as being Polish Cossacks.

The term Polish Cossack can be confusing in itself.  The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth referred to its own light cavalry as 'Cossacks', while 'Cossack' was also the term for the semi-independent people living in what is now the Ukraine and South Western Russia, who in this period typically fought on foot.  My Polish Cossacks will need a different cavalry standard, and also one or two men in mail armour and/or carrying a shield, just to add some Polish character to the units.

I've painted my Croat units with a mixture of colours representing their irregular nature and lack of uniform.  Based purely on wargamer’s fancy each unit has one predominate colour, that also matches the unit’s flag; in this case it is red.

The Croats are based on Warbases 2mm MDF 50mm by 60mm bases with a selection of static grasses on top of a mixture of sand, paint and PVA.

Here is the view of the Croats that a lot of my Swedish cavalry will be seeing - the sight of evading light horse, dashing out of harms way.

Here is a further unit of Croats that I finished a while ago.  These are themed in blue, and hopefully you can see the subtle shift in colours from the previous unit, while still presenting an irregular appearance. 

Another Flags of War cavalry cornet (cavalry unit flag) mounted on the ‘lance’ from the Warlord Pike and Shotte plastic cavalry box set.

These were fun units to paint.  I like painting cavalry, although doing the horses do slow me down. I like the poses of the riders with their variety of weapons and costumes.   They will be expected to do a fair amount of skirmishing and so I’ve made sure to have some of the figures with carbines. The spare carbines in the plastic Warlord Pike and Shotte cavalry box come in very handy here where the figure doesn’t come moulded with a carbine. 

I look forward to getting these new units on to the wargames table with my other Croats, and I’m sure my Swedish baggage is now extremely worried!  

My previous post on Croats for Lützen is here link.

Until next time!

Andy @ FoGH.