Scourge of Princes

 I have long convinced myself that I need a decent set of Renaissance battle rules. A cursory glance at my rules bookshelf will tell you that this is nonsense, but what can I say? I'm a wargame butterfly. And yes, I will almost certainly buy the Pike and Shotte supplement on the Ottomans at Partisan on Sunday. I have been hooked on this period ever since being introduced to it by the sadly recently departed George Gush. His book and rules dominated my gaming for a long time.

Into my mythical void comes Scourge of Princes by Sam Mustafa and John Holly. It covers the whole period from Machiavelli to Cromwell. My first reaction was that it looks like Blucher, but it also has features from his other rules, particularly Maurice. I am a fan of Sam's rules and have many of them. Some I even play regularly, particularly Blucher. So, despite the price, even the PDF isn't cheap, I went all in. In fairness, you don't have to buy blind. Sam's introductory YouTube videos are excellent; there are free downloads of a chapter, QRS, scenario and army lists. And no expensive cards to buy.

For this price (£37 for a printed copy), you get 118 pages, Osprey size, in colour. The Amazon print binding isn't ideal for rules, but after a few games, you won't have to refer to it often. There is limited 'eye-candy' padding, and as ever with Sam's rules, they are a model of clarity and layout. Unlike others I could name, there is very little need to go backwards and forwards to find an explanation. The language is concise, supported by clear diagrams. 

Sam usually names his rules after a key general in the period. He didn't this time because he felt there were too many. Of course, he is completely wrong about this. He should have named it after Suleiman the Magnificent (Lawgiver)! The Magnificent would be a great name for a set of rules, even if his Dad, Selim I, arguably did more to expand the empire. However, a ruleset titled The Grim doesn't quite have the same marketing vibe!😂

There is a free download of the basics, which reassures you that no rebasing is required. Although not explicit, it is based on 28mm, but you can use any scale, and there is a section on how to play smaller games than 6' x 4'. We used 15mm figures at full scale, and it worked fine. The core rules are 30 pages, clearly sequenced, followed by advanced rules, an open architecture to create your own army lists (the main ones are available for free download), and a campaign system. There is even an index, hurray!

I won't give a detailed account of the rules, as the YouTube videos do a better job than I could. It's an IGO-UGO system based on Momentum (MO), which you dice for each turn. You get one MO for most units, unless you roll one on the dice. This sounds fine until you realise that most moves require two MOs or more. The exception is when you place your commander within earshot (4") of a unit when it requires only one MO. This is not as random a command mechanism as, say, TtS, and is intended to allow you to concentrate your effort where it is most needed. The downside is that half your army stands still every turn. This is what happens in Maurice, which is why I don't play it often. In our trial game, it was less of an issue as the game developed, because you are likely to be defending somewhere on the battlefield. MO is required only for movement, not for shooting. It can be argued that this reflects the reality of command-and-control in the period, but I can see it irritating some players at my clubs. The earshot distance is quite short given the size of the units, and I might consider tweaking it or adding just a bit more MO. 

Movement distances are quite long (12" for cavalry and 8" for infantry), which means the armies get stuck in quickly, assuming you can move the units. The shooting and combat rules are simply elegant. Blucher players will be at home with them, split into skirmish and volley fire. Skirmishing is more likely to slow up command than inflict casualties, which is sound. There are only a few plus factors which make for quick play. The combat system is a little more complex, but again is not bogged down by too many special rules and factors. As you complete a full turn with each unit (move and shoot or charge), it means you can soften up a target before charging in. This is as it should be. The downside of the long movement distances is that shooting infantry doesn't get a round off before cavalry charges in, and there is no defensive fire before combat. It is presumably factored into the combat factors.

There are advanced rules for brigades in the later period and adjunct commanders, which might help with the MO issues. There are rules for field works, commanded shot, war wagons, caracole and others. I had a few issues with the Ottoman army lists, no change there, but the open architecture allows you to tweak them to your own historical view.

For the trial game, we played Ottomans v  Holy Roman Empire in 15mm at full scale. I would recommend the latest edition of the Prime and Load podcast for a discussion on the Holy Roman Empire. Although I am not convinced about the USA analogy. I still think Voltaire got it right: "the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire."

We should have used the points system as the Ottomans were a bit outgunned, but it was a good trial. I am also off to Serbia next week, so a battle there was appropriate.

The Ottoman left wing charged across the table, while the rest of the army stood still. My opponent did the same on his left, unhindered by my daudling Tatars and segbans! Even my elite Kapikulu cavalry bounced off the cuirassiers. The Imperial left broke through my right centre, and what was left of the Ottoman army was flanked on both sides. Back to Constantinople and come again for me.

I will be playing more of these rules.

The Wolf Cub

This is the first in David Pilling's Soldier of Fortune series. I enjoyed the second, The Heretic, so I thought I would go back for this one. It covers the life of an English mercenary during the reign of Henry V.

Our hero, John Page, is the bastard son of minor gentry in England. He gets into a fight with his cousin, who wants the manor, and kills him. He flees with the intention of joining the English army in Normandy. However, he is captured and then joins a band of outlaws in Sussex, taking part in their raids on local manors. He escapes that life and eventually arrives in Normandy.

This is the post-Agincourt campaign, in which Henry V is still seeking the French throne. This involves a long, drawn-out campaign to capture and hold Normandy, culminating in the epic Siege of Rouen (1418-19). Our hero catches the king's eye for his valour in a previous siege and for his flattering poems about the siege. He is captured and tortured by a French baron, but is awarded the landholding when he escapes and captures it. Holding it is another challenge. 

While I enjoyed The Heretic, yet another Hundred Years' War tale didn't quite catch my imagination like the Hussite Wars. In fairness, the author has made an effort to pitch a different story, not least by making our hero a man-at-arms rather than the ubiquitous archer. The poetry is historical, although we know little about the real poet, John Page. The outlaws in Sussex were real as well.

I couldn't quite grasp what was different about the writing style until I realised he was writing in the first person. There is nothing wrong with this, although it means you cannot describe events happening in another room or reveal the secret thoughts of other characters. It can make the story one-dimensional, and that is a problem here. Just OK for me, but I might return to the series if he heads off somewhere interesting after the Hussite Wars.

Some of my 15mm figures of the period.

Venice and the Slavs

 This book by Larry Wolff has been sitting on my to-read shelf for a while. It is largely a cultural history of Venice's relationship with its Dalmatian territories, with the military aspects only occasionally referenced. However, it is important context and a subject rarely covered in other studies. The hardback copy comes at a staggering price, but the paperback price is reasonable, and I picked up a secondhand copy of this 2002 book.

Venice controlled most of the Dalmatian coastline in modern Croatia and Montenegro, initially as bases for their commercial and galley fleets, but later expanding into the hinterland. They rarely went much further than the mountains that tower over the coastline. They separated the inhabitants into the 'civilised' coastal Dalmatians and the inland Morlacchi. These were mostly Slavs and Orthodox, compared to the largely Catholic population on the coast. Described by them as 'a race of ferocious men, unreasonable, without humanity, capable of any misdeed.' The boundaries shifted as a result of warfare, mostly against the Ottomans, but even today, Italian influence is evident. I was sitting in a cafe in Trogir a couple of years ago, patiently explaining to an American couple that the reason why the town looked Italian was that it had been for centuries.

The author uses a variety of sources for this study, mostly Venetians or other Western travellers to the region. They all come with their own bias, which the author draws out fairly. Much of the book examines the challenges the Venetians faced in managing their Slavic populations. Like many colonial empires, they claimed a civilising mission, claiming the inhabitants sought the protection of Venice. As the author puts it, 'to construct a culturally convenient vision of the Venetian empire'.

Their military qualities were recognised, as sailors and soldiers. The Morlacchi were less frequently recruited, but they were when needs must, such as during the War of the Austrian Succession. There were even covert efforts by foreign powers to recruit them. Agents of Frederick the Great were executed for doing just that. The arrival of the Russian fleet in 1770 was viewed as a significant threat, as Orlov stirred up revolt in Greece (the Ionian Islands were a Venetian possession) during the wars against the Ottomans. One-fifth of the population in Venetian Dalmatia was Orthodox, and there were examples of Morlacchi bands travelling south to join the Russians.

Colonial governors, Provveditori Generali, came and went, often with different policies and views of the population. Several argued the Morlacchi could be useful 'with constant discipline'. By the late 18th century, the need for reform had been recognised, although it was too late by then, as Napoleon arrived at the end of the century. With him came the premier Marshal, Marmont, who did reform the territories and created an Illyrian ideology for Dalmatia as a means of breaking away from the Venetian past. There had been revolts on several of the islands. In 1793, a revolt on Korcula over new taxes was regarded as the most serious.

If you are interested in the region, this is worth reading, although it can be hard going in places and probably not for the general reader. 

Some of my generic 28mm Orthodox warriors of the period.

Shamrock, Crown and Crescent

My bedtime reading has got marginally less disturbing with Gerard Ronan's biography of the 19th-century mercenary, Eugene (Hassan Bey) O'Reilly (1828-1873).

I have been researching quite a few soldiers of fortune for my current book, but Eugene O'Reilly really does deserve the author's description of a 'remarkable life'. There were a number of British officers who served in the Ottoman army during the 19th century. Baker Pasha was an outstanding example, but few had such a varied route and subsequent career as Eugene O'Reilly.

He was born into a middle-class Dublin Catholic family of lawyers, and that appeared to be his career until he dropped out of university by refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. The Oath required any person taking public or church office to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church. The Act was modified in 1829 to enable Catholics to hold public office, but that was not enough for O'Reilly, who, as a teenager, was involved in radical Irish politics. He was part of the Young Ireland delegation to the new provisional government in Paris that had been formed following the abdication of King Louis Philippe in February 1848. He became famous as the organiser of the ‘Blanchardstown Affair’—a shambles of a paramilitary operation aimed at taking the police barracks at Blanchardstown in Ireland, which had to be abandoned when most of the promised volunteers failed to turn up.

His father's influence got him released from prison, but he had to leave Ireland. He served as a cavalry officer in the Hungarian and Sardinian armies during their wars of independence. In 1851, he returned to England and enlisted in the 10th Hussars, although the British army refused to recognise his Sardinian rank and he was forced to enlist as a private. 

In 1853, O’Reilly went to Turkey armed with a recommendation from the British Home Secretary, Lord Palmerston, a friend of his father's. The Ottomans were offering a one-rank step-up, which, given his Sardinian rank, made him a bimbashi (major). His exploits commanding Bashi-Bazouks against the Russians were widely reported. The source material for this book largely comes from newspaper articles. This led to his being commissioned by the British to raise a similar regiment during the Crimean War.

After the war, he served in several Ottoman civil and military roles, mainly in Syria, as directed by the Ottoman foreign minister and later Grand Vizier, Fuad Pasha. With his career going nowhere, he conspired with two Egyptian princes and foreign investors to raise a Bedouin rebellion in the Hauran desert (spanning the present-day borders of Syria and Jordan). The rebellion did not go well, and he was lucky not to be executed. Either way, his Ottoman career was at an end, and he became a railway consultant. He died of cholera in Fez in 1873, pursuing a railway project in Morocco.

This is a cracking tale about a character long since forgotten, even though he was infamous in his lifetime. Highly recommended.

For some reason that I have forgotten, I sold my 15mm Crimean armies. But here are some slightly later 28mm Ottoman cavalry.

Perth Museum

 I was working in Dundee last week and took the opportunity to visit the redeveloped Perth Museum on the way home. The museum opened in 2024 after a £27 million redevelopment project. The centrepiece is the Stone of Destiny, also known as the Stone of Scone, one of Scotland and the UK’s most significant historical objects. Returning to Perthshire for the first time in over 700 years, having previously been at Westminster Abbey, and briefly at Edinburgh Castle, when the UK government agreed to its return to Scotland. It returns to London for coronations.

The stone in Perth is an oblong block of red sandstone that was used in the coronation of Scottish monarchs until the 13th century, when it was seized by Edward I during the First War of Scottish Independence and taken to England. Thereafter, it was used in the coronation of English and later British monarchs. You can't take photos inside the exhibition, but the story is explained in a couple of short videos, with support from knowledgeable staff.

There is an alternative story that says this is not the real stone; rather, the monks at Scone, knowing that Edward was coming for it, hid the real stone and substituted this lump of sandstone. They knew that if they simply hid the stone, Edward would be none too gentle in extracting it. There is some evidence that Edward knew he was being duped, as searchers returned later to hunt for the hidden version. I remain a sceptic that this is the real stone, but in many ways it doesn't matter. It is the idea behind the stone that is important.

The museum has other exhibits that make a visit worthwhile. This was the final week of a special exhibition showcasing the final letters of Mary Queen of Scots.

For military history, there are exhibits on Cromwell's invasion and the Perthshire Volunteers during the Napoleonic Wars.

Dundee also has plenty to see, including the Discovery, HMS Warrior, McManus Museum and Broughty Castle. The biggest redevelopment along the waterfront is the V&A Museum. Not an obvious trip for anyone interested in military history, but it does have an interesting display of Jacobite memorabilia, and some models from the Carron Ironworks, famous for the carronade.

I also made my first visit to Claypotts Castle, on the outskirts of Dundee. This is a fortified house in remarkably good condition. Its most famous owner was John Graham of Claverhouse, who died leading the victorious Jacobites at the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689. Better known as Bluidy Clavers or Bonnie Dundee, depending on which side of the Jacobite line you stand.

If Russia Wins

 This is a 2028 scenario book written by Carlo Masala, which I read for my day job writing a defence analysis for a European think tank. However, it is also a credible scenario for modern warfare and wargamers.

The book is set in March 2028. It assumes that the USA has sold out Ukraine and forced it into a land-for-peace deal with Russia. Zelensky loses the subsequent election, Ukraine descends into chaos, and Putin stands down as Russian president. The West is trying to work out if this signals a new direction in Russian foreign policy, or another Putin puppet.

In Brussels, NATO is split, with the US focusing on the Pacific and European nations unwilling to increase defence expenditure to levels required to seriously deter Russian expansionism. In Moscow, they have learned the lessons from the optimistic 'Special Military Operation' analysis and have adopted the 1936 Rhineland model to target Russian-speaking areas outside the Russian border. In effect, this means just take action, tell everyone your objectives are limited, and rely on a weak reaction.

On this basis, Russian troops capture the Estonian town of Narva and the island of Hiiumaa in the Baltic Sea. Europe’s slow rearmament and its compromised military and intelligence capabilities are now clear for its enemies to exploit. Does Article 5 of NATO apply? What will the alliance decide? Will they risk nuclear war?

The author takes the reader through the various meetings that take place to decide on a reaction. The Russians use hybrid warfare to distract NATO from Estonia. A defence contracor is killed in Germany and bombs go off at Faslane. The Chinese helped by capturing an island in the South China Sea. The bottom line is that the USA is not going to risk WW3 over a small town in Estonia. They are supported by Hungary and other of Putin's useful idiots in Europe. So they effectively do nothing.

If this sounds fanciful, last week the Russian Duma passed a law letting Putin deploy troops anywhere on Earth to 'protect Russian citizens'. The author argues that the only way to prevent this scenario is to ensure Moscow believes NATO will respond to a regional escalation.

This is a short, very readable book with a well-argued scenario. Not a cheery prospect, but one we ought to take seriously.

Some of my modern Russians in 20mm, in a game of Corps Commander.

Farewell to Salonika

 Modern Thessaloniki (commonly called Salonika in English) is the second-largest city in Greece and the administrative capital of Greek Macedonia. Today, it is a typical Greek city, but it was not always so. In 1430, the city was captured by the Ottomans, who would hold it for nearly 500 years, establishing it as an important port city (known in Turkish as Selânik) that played a key role in the empire. Probably its most famous son was Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the modern republic of Türkiye, born in the city in 1881.

In the early 16th century, nearly 20,000 Sephardic Jews immigrated to Greece from the Iberian Peninsula following their expulsion from Spain. The city became a magnet for Jews fleeing persecution, and by 1900, they constituted half the city's population. The only city in Europe where the Jews were a majority of the total population.

This is the backdrop to Leon Sciaky's memoir, Farewell to Salonika. It has been in my reading pile for a while, and covers the period around the turn of the century in the run-up to WW1. His family were prosperous Jewish grain merchants, with farms in the countryside. Their farm workers were Bulgarians, they traded with Turks, and the streets included Greeks and just about every nationality in the Balkans and beyond. His memoir vividly describes his upbringing in this thriving multi-cultural city, if somewhat chaotic as well.

The memoir largely covers his childhood, with vivid descriptions of daily life and the community he lived in. While the different peoples retained their language and customs, they generally got on and supported each other. However, by the end of the 19th century, society was coming under pressure from natural disasters like drought and the rise of nationalism. The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO) was formed in Salonika in 1893 and would develop into one of the fiercest terrorist/liberation organisations in the region. Salonika was the scene of various attacks, including the blowing up of the Ottoman bank and the sinking of the French steamer Guadalquivir. They also dynamited the gas and water mains. Leon describes these events and their impact on the city and its community. He also describes more peaceful developments, such as railways, trams, and street lighting, as well as just everyday events. 

Sadly, most of the old city is long gone. Mostly during the Great Fire in 1917, when Salonika was an Allied base for the Macedonian campaign. The population is almost entirely Greek, after the Jews were murdered during the Holocaust in World War II, and the Turks left after the Balkan Wars and the later population exchanges. The White Tower is probably the best-known remaining feature of the earlier period. The tourist is reminded that the city was founded by the Macedonians, with a massive statue of Alexander the Great on the promenade. The city was named after Thessalonike, his half-sister.  There is also an excellent army museum.

This is a personal and cultural memoir, which only touches on the military events. For a full history of this fascinating city, I would recommend Mark Mazower's Salonika, City of Ghosts.

The White Tower

I am 6'-2", standing in front of the statue to give an idea of how big it is.

Inside the military museum.