My latest project has been completed, at least for now. The Persian army of the Napoleonic period was inspired by Lawrence Kelly's book Diplomacy and Murder in Tehran. I followed that up with a history of the South Caucasus and, finally, the most useful, Maziar Behrooz's Iran at War.
While Behrooz is essential reading for the history, the wargamer will find David Brown's booklet, The Persian Army of the Napoleonic Era, indispensable. It is available as a PDF download from Wargames Vault. This provides all the available details on the units and pictures that help with painting. We don't know everything, so some judgement is needed.
The Persian Army of the period fought against the Russians and the Ottomans, giving the wargamer a new opponent for these armies. The French and the British dabbled in the region and provided some support at different times. The army itself is interesting and colourful, with a mix of European-type units, traditional militia, and cavalry.
My current favourite ruleset for this period is Blucher, which enables large battles and doesn't require hundreds of figures. I went for 15mm because Irregular Miniatures do a decent range.
The project got a kick start when I noticed Mark Bevis was selling off his armies of the period. In 1994, Mark wrote a guide to Middle Eastern armies of the period that helped me get into the period at a time when there was very little written.
I bought some of his regular infantry and artillery and rebased them for Blucher.
Next up were the regular cavalry from the Irregular Miniatures range and Zamburak camel gunners. I will supplement these with some of my Ottoman figures of the period to represent tribal cavalry.
And finally, a unit of Russian deserters formed a guard unit known as the Great Warriors. Again from Irregular
The army first appeared on the tabletop against the Russians and performed very well.
Interesting, alternative to the usual European armies.
ReplyDeleteThis is great- can you say a bit more about which Irregular ranges you were using - Caucasus range perhaps?
ReplyDeleteConfusingly, the regulars are in the Indian Mutiny and early British colonial range. Caucausus range works for some irregulars.
ReplyDeleteThanks
DeleteGood stuff. I’m really taken with the Irregular Miniatures figure FIP8 “ Militia infantry with mace and shield”. Does David Brown’s book shed any light on the militia at all? FIP8 might look cool & interesting, but I would have thought they wouldn’t be very effective on the battlefield.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Geoff
No mention of the mace. He says typically matchlock, dagger or sabre. On clothing; 'Clothes would be a variety of colours; brown and mustard were common, while blue, grey, green, orange, white, black and red-pink were also shown. Morier said popular civilian Qajar era fashion was for darker colours whereas brighter was traditional during the Zand era.(18) Brown, dark olive, bottle-green and dark blue were noted for coats, along with trousers of red silk or blue cotton. Morier also said red was out of favour but this might have been a short-lived fashion.'
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