The Siege of Vienna 1529 - The Drawing of the Dark

 This book is a twist on the traditional historical novel, focusing on the Siege of Vienna in 1529. Tim Powers gives a fantasy spin on the story and creates a very readable one. A friend pointed me to his work when I did my usual Balkan anniversary post on social media.

After the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, Suleiman the Lawgiver was consolidating the conquest of Hungary. In September 1529, relatively too late in the campaign season, he arrived at Vienna. The sources are divided on his real intentions, but he arrived with over 100,000 tired men who had trudged through the autumn rain and mud to get there. Roughly 15,000–20,000 Austrian, German, and Spanish soldiers under Count Niklas von Salm defended the city. Despite repeated assaults, the defenders held firm. Poor weather, disease, and supply shortages weakened the Ottoman army, and Suleiman ordered a retreat on 14 October.

In this book, the author's main character is an Irish mercenary who is recruited in Venice to look after a pub attached to a famous brewery. They brew a legendary ale, which is nearly ready to drink. The employer owns the pub, but is also a sorcerer supporting the King of the West, against the King of the East, whose sorcerer is Ibrahim, the Ottoman Grand Vizier. There is a complex fantasy world that I won't spoil if you haven't read the book, but our hero is drawn into both this magical battle and the real one.

The 1529 siege is less well known than the more famous 1683 one, probably because the Ottomans were not as serious about it. The defenders were an interesting mix of troops, including Landsknechts, and there was no relieving army. However, Sulieman's artillery was bogged down in the mud and therefore had to rely on lighter guns and infantry assaults. 

If you're not a fan of fantasy, the book may irritate you. However, I enjoyed it as a clever blend of both genres.

Sieges are challenging to do on the tabletop, but Fire and Stone (Capstone Games), based on the 1683 siege, does an excellent job. The various sorties and skirmishes are very suitable for games of Pikeman's Lament.