Janissary Handguns?

With the 500 year anniversary of the Battle of Mohács looming what better time to add some more firepower to my collection of early 16th century janissaries. In a previous post, which you can read here: https://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2020/05/early-16th-century-janissaries.html, I discussed some of the issues encountered whilst trying to represent how these famed infantry may have looked in the early 16th century. When it comes to their gunpowder weapons it seems there are further issues as the janissaries in the early 16th century carried two different types of hand held firearm. Before we get to the figures I thought it would be interesting to have a look at how handguns were key to the Janissary corps in this period.

The Hungarian defeat at Mohács has always fascinated me and in my search for more information on the battle I recently read "The Battle of Mohács, 1526" which is an interdisciplinary study of the battle and the battlefield edited by Norbert Pap. Roughly speaking a third of the book did not really interest me, especially the section that deals with the overall landscape of the battlefield, a third was interesting but did not relate directly to the kind of thing we focus on as wargamers, whilst a third was packed full of fascinating details on the composition of the armies and the accounts of the battle. I would not recommend buying a copy as it is published by Brill and as such very expensive but if you can get a library copy I would highly recommend it. What also provided lots of useful information was "On the Verge of a New Era. The Armies of Europe at the Time of the Battle of Mohács" which can be downloaded for free from here: https://www.academia.edu/91840792/On_the_Verge_of_a_New_Era_The_Armies_of_Europe_at_the_Time_of_the_Battle_of_Moh%C3%A1cs.
Most of the information that follows has come from these two books.

Janissary Handguns

By the 1526 campaign that ended with the defeat of the Hungarian army at Mohács the Janissary corps of the Ottoman army had fully adopted firearms as part of their arsenal and were skilled in their use. The defeat of the Safavid's at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514 was largely due to the Ottoman artillery and their deployment of thousands of janissaries armed with gunpowder weapons. As the Ottoman household troops, or Kapikulu Corps, were extremely well organised surviving records provide a wealth of information as to how many gunpowder weapons were taken on particular campaigns. Pál Fodor in his chapter "The Military Organization and army of the Ottoman Empire (1500–1530)" from "On the Verge of a New Era. The Armies of Europe at the Time of the Battle of Mohács" states that for the 1522 siege of Rhodes the Janissaries took "1,000 long-barrelled handguns (with 1,000 stands and 150,000 balls), 4,500 short barrelled handguns (with 4,800,000 balls), powder horns for 2,160 short-barrelled and 1,008 long-barrelled handguns". For Mohács in 1526 the household took "4,000 handguns (only 1,000 of good quality), 60 long-barrelled handguns, 3,000,000 balls for handguns, 4,000 powder horns, 105.8 tonnes of gunpowder for cannons, 7.7 tonnes of gunpowder for matchlock guns, 30,000 field cannonballs". Clearly the Janissaries used a variety of firearms with the majority being smaller handguns whilst also using heavier long barrelled guns, some of which required stands to be fired from, probably to fit onto warwagons or to snipe at the walls during sieges. 

From the inventories listed above it is clear that the handguns used by the Janissary corps were standardised in some way. Norbert Pap, Pál Fodor, and Máté Kitanic's chapter on Ottoman Turkish Handguns in "The Battle of Mohács, 1526" explains that a central gunsmith's workshop was established by Bayezid II at the beginning of the 16th century with the help of western European craftsmen. Until the mid-16th century this workshop was at the Ottoman palace in Istanbul when it was then moved to a dedicated gun workshop that had its own harbour. The workshop supplied all of the Janissary corps guns, including those who garrisoned various fortresses throughout the empire. The two types of infantry guns were the shorter handgun or harci tüfek which had a barrel somewhere between 88-92cm long and the longer handgun or has tüfek which had a barrel 110-115cm long. The chapter on Ottoman Turkish Handguns states "According to the usual tactics, the task of the cavalry was to lure the enemy in front of the artillery and the janissaries in the centre by executing very precise manoeuvres. The field guns fired first, followed by the janissaries firing volleys, with the larger longer-barrelled handguns in the front rank, and then, as the enemy came closer, the smaller, shorter-barrelled guns from the rear ranks". There was also the larger metris tüfeği with a barrel around 130-160cm in length which could be used from warwagons or field positions. Unfortunately it seems very few of these handguns from the first half of the sixteenth century have survived with most of those now in Istanbul dating from the later 16th century through to the 18th century.

Whilst the records of the Kapikulu corps give us a very clear indication of the Ottoman commitment to gunpowder surviving accounts of the Battle of Mohács, both Christian and Muslim, give a similar indication of the importance they played in the battle. English translations of these accounts can be found in the chapter on Ottoman Turkish Handguns referred to above. Knowing they were heavily outnumbered by the Ottoman army the Hungarians attempted to attack the Sultan's force before it was fully deployed. Despite the unexpected nature of the Hungarian attack the Ottoman's still managed to execute their tactic of luring the Christian heavy cavalry into the range of their guns which wrought havoc on the heavily armoured horsemen. 

The contemporary Ottoman chronicler Kemalpaşazâde wrote: "The wicked king who appeared on the battlefield, clad from head to foot in steel, with the devilish and evil-natured wretches with him, whose rising dust clouds covered east and west and with the world conquering banner of the clear-minded pasha in his sights, he rushed straight to the centre of the invincible army, and, ignoring the shower of cannonballs and gun bullets, he charged with his cavalry, which poured like a torrent, unafraid. His whole mass rushed at once upon the janissaries... When he came close to the gun carriages, the handgunners, emitting a cloud of smoke, threw their bullets skywards as if it were hailing, and thus withered the flowers of the evil enemy's life...The shower of bullets, falling like hail on the enemy, against which neither helmet, nor armour, nor shield could serve as protection, tore the leaves and fruit from the tree of the evildoer's useless life; their fearful masses were scattered like a scattering of stubble, and the grain of their perishable life was let loose to the winds of destruction".

The campaign diary of 1526,which records the day to day events leading up to the battle stated: "The evildoer king and the rest of his desperate army attacked the felicitous ruler and the Anatolian army. Three or four times in all the Janissary corps, with gun fire, stopped, beat and drove back the despicable infidels. At last, by the grace of God the most high and the Prophet, and with the help of the hidden saints, the people of Islam, aroused and rallying their strength, turned back the wicked, and when they had no strength to attack again, they cut them down like dogs. It was a battle and slaughter so fierce that it cannot be described".

A slightly later account by Celâlzâde Mustafa Çelebi, the Tabakātü’l-Memâlik, from the late 1550s or early 1560s implies how well trained the janissary handgunners were, firing their guns in disciplined volleys which the charging Hungarians had to evade. This the Hungarians did successfully only to then be attacked from behind once they had ridden around the gun carriages: "Now the Muslims fired the zarbuzans (light or medium Ottoman guns), and the gunners fired their handguns row by row, filling the air with smoke and shaking the earth with thunder. The cries of the Muslims "Allahu Akbar!" and "Allah, Allah!" reached the highest sky, and the infidels, who were destined for hellfire, made the world noisy with their wonderful shouts. As soon as the damned infidels reached this place, they saw the gun carriages and the matchlockmen stood before them like a fort that could not be breached; they therefore, out of necessity, evaded the gun carriages, and at the sixth sub-provinces troops on the left of the pasha's sancak, near which the line of carriages ended, they rushed the Rumelian troops, the army retreating on two sides to give way to the miserable infidels. As soon as they had penetrated into the space between the battle line and the camp baggage, the warriors of faith took the miserable infidels from two sides in the back, and a very hard fight ensued".

İbrahim Peçevi's 17th century account of the battle tells a similar tale of how one of the Hungarian commanders, Pál Tomori, archbishop of Kalocsa, attempted to penetrate the Ottoman warwagons and guns "This damned infidel put a few thousand of the accursed enemy in line, and they were arrayed and came like a herd of swine, all wounded by arrows. There was no obstacle before them; heedless of the chained cannonballs of the zarbzens (light or medium Ottoman guns) standing before the battle-lines of the grand vizier, of his own soldiers fallen by gun bullets, and of the cadavers of the horses, he cut in front of the zarbzens, and at the end, perhaps where the ranks of the infantry were, he found at last a gap and a breach, through which he penetrated, and cut the army of Islam in two and separated them...". Peçevi's account also describes the difficulty the Hungarian King, Louis II, had in trying to break the lines of janissaries "From this side, the evildoer king himself attacked the Anatolian army with his troops but the latter relied on the battle line of janissaries. The janissary ghazis poured down upon them with their guns, and the followers and selected soldiers of the accursed fell into the dust of destruction at that place".

Christian sources from the Hungarian army paint an equally harrowing picture of the heavy cavalry's destruction in the face of the Ottoman firepower. The scholar and chronicler István Brodarics, who was present at the battle and managed to escape wrote "A true account of the battle of the Hungarians with the Turks at Mohács" in which he describes the Hungarian attack which pushed back the Ottoman cavalry, the sipahis, and how they were lured in front of the Ottoman guns "When the signal of battle was given, those who were in the front ranks bravely charged the enemy, firing all our guns, but to the slight detriment of the enemy. The battle was much fiercer than our numbers would indicate; more of the enemy fell than of our own, until at length, fighting with terrible violence, the enemy began to retreat, either to be worn down by our charge, or to draw us before the guns. And already András Báthori is flying to the king, that the enemy is turning back , that victory is ours, that it is our turn to advance, and that we should support our own men who are pursuing the routed enemy". 

Brodarics continues to describe how, when the king advanced the Ottomans opened fire with their guns causing some of the Hungarian cavalry to flee "So we ran through the trenches and bushes, but when we reached the place where the battle had been fought a little while before, you could see the bodies of many of our men lying strewn across the field, and of still more of the enemy, and some of them half dead and barely panting. Meanwhile, while our men were confronting the enemy and bravely taking up the fight, and the king's column was at the same time galloping forward as fast as armoured men can gallop, the right wing began to sway, and from this wing many were running, frightened, I think by the cannons which the enemy then began to fire for the first time, and this running and the thick impact of the cannon-balls, which were now flying round our heads, who were standing by the king's side, filled everyone with no little fear". The devastating impact of the guns of the heavy cavalry was reported in a letter from a Czech noble which stated "When the knights in armour arrived, the Turks fired with handguns a few more shots at them: they fired straight into the king's men, causing great damage".

Whilst these accounts illustrate how effective the Ottoman cannons and handguns were against the Hungarian cavalry it seems they played and equally decisive role in the destruction of the infantry once the cavalry had fled. It is sobering to think that as far as we know none of the infantry in the Hungarian army survived the battle. As the surviving cavalry attempted to escape a core of Czech and landsknecht infantry formed a square from which they effectively held off the surrounding Ottoman horsemen. This stalemate was resolved when the janissary handgunners were redeployed to fire into the square thus breaking the infantry who were then slaughtered. A couple of weeks after the battle, on 15 September 1526, the Venetian diplomate Agostino da Mula wrote "Although six or eight thousand Bohemians and landsknechts retreated in a square, and were not broken by the Turkish cavalry, a good banderium of handgunners attacked them and they were killed instantly, as were the others".

Early 16th century janissary handgunners.

28mm Janissary handgunners.

Early 16th century janissaries with handguns.

So from the above it is clear that the janissaries made very effective use of two types of handgun, three if you include the larger metris tüfeği which seemed to be something akin to the hook- or wall-guns that western European armies used from fixed positions. The question is how do we show these in 28mm? A few manufacturers make janissaries with firearms for the 17th century but I feel these always look out of place in an early 16th century army. The other issue is that while we have the approximate lengths of the two standardised infantry handguns that were used it is unclear exactly what they looked like.

Based on the above I decided to mix some old Essex Miniatures handgunners that carry quite short handguns with janissary figures from The Assault Group who I have armed with 28mm handguns and calivers also from The Assault Group. I had previously painted up a unit of twelve janissaries like this and whilst I wasn't keen on doing this again I couldn't think of an alternative. The Assault Group figures have all had the plumes from their caps, known as the "ak börk", removed as I feel this makes them more suitable for the battlefield instead of the parade ground. It would have been great to have had some teams using the larger metris tüfeği guns from stands but at present no manufacturers make anything that is really suitable. I suppose some of the warwagons, as shown below, have larger guns in them and for now these will have to stand in for the heavier guns.

So are these figures accurate? Probably not but at least they are clearly armed with shorter handguns which don't look like muskets. I would have liked to have more clearly demarcated between the two types of infantry handgun, the "harci tüfek" and the "has tüfek" and perhaps in the future if I find a suitable handgun miniature for the slightly longer "has tüfek" I will add some janissaries armed with these to the collection. The majority of the firearms were the shorter barrelled handguns and it is these that I have tried to represent with the figures available.

In the three photos above you can see the new miniatures in their uniformed blocks of twelve whilst the photos below show the new figures with the janissary archers, warwagons and Ottoman lighter guns or "zarbuzans/zarbzens" as the sources call them. Now I need to think of a way to attempt to do justice to the Battle of Mohács on the tabletop!

"Three or four times in all the Janissary corps, with gun fire, stopped, beat and drove back the despicable infidels"

"When the knights in armour arrived, the Turks fired with handguns a few more shots at them: they fired straight into the king's men, causing great damage"

28mm Ottoman janissaries and warwagons.

"Now the Muslims fired the zarbuzans, and the gunners fired their handguns row by row, filling the air with smoke and shaking the earth with thunder.

"As soon as the damned infidels reached this place, they saw the gun carriages and the matchlockmen stood before them like a fort that could not be breached"

The janissary handgunners and archers ready to rain arrows and shot on the enemy.

The fortified position of the Janissary corps.

Tudor characters and some more infantry

I am still working away at my mid-16th century collection, figures suitable for the "Rough Wooing" of the 1540s and for Henry VIII's French campaign to take and hold Boulogne in the same decade. The Assault Group do a fantastic range of figures for this period and it is from their Tudor English and Valois French ranges that the figures in today's post have come.

First up there are seven mounted figures, five of which are dressed in the splendid mid-16th century clothing of the nobility and two of which are armoured. These figures look like they could have come straight out of a Holbein portrait and one of them has! The figure on the right in the third photo below is meant to be Jean de Dinteville, Seigneur of Polisy, who was the French ambassador to Henry VIII's court in the 1530s. The figure is taken directly from the 1533 painting known as "The Ambassadors" by Hans Holbein the Younger. This is the painting that famously shows a skull as a memento mori that can only be properly seen if the painting is viewed at a certain angle. I decided to paint the figure in the same clothing as the Holbein painting and have included it in this post for comparison.

Seven Tudor command figures by The Assault Group.

Mid 16th century mounted command figures.

The figure on the viewer's right is meant to represent Jean de Dinteville, Seigneur of Polisy, French ambassador to Henry VIII's court in the 1530s and shown on the viewer's left in the Holbein painting below.

"The Ambassadors", 1533, Hans Holbein the Younger.

Three of the command figures.

Two of the commanders discuss the campaign.

Two figures in armour. The standard bearer is a converted reiter and a helmet has been added to the saddle of the captain on the grey horse.

Next up we have some individual figures on foot, three Tudor women and four men. Again these are by The Assault Group. One of the women is clearly from the nobility whilst the other two are dressed in more humble attire. Three of the men are dressed as gentlemen whilst the fourth is dressed more plainly and is wearing a jack. These are great miniatures and will add loads of character to battles and skirmishes on the table.

Three Tudor women.

Four Tudor gentlemen by The Assault Group.

Finally there are yet more figures to bolster the ranks of my 1540s English infantry. I have already painted up some other units of these (see https://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2025/10/mid-16th-century-tudor-billmen.html and https://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2017/11/1540s-tudor-english-rebased.html) so this is probably the last set. There are twenty four billmen armed with a variety of polearms and a dozen archers. All of the figures are by The Assault Group apart from the standard bearer who is an old Redoubt Enterprises miniature.

Now with all these figures for the 1540s I better start planning some games for them!

A unit of 1540s English billmen and archers.

Twenty four English billmen and a dozen archers.

 

Meiningen, June 1525

Last month my friend Tom visited for another game. We were both keen to get the German Peasant's War collection back on the table so we returned to the upheavals of Germany in 1525 to play a scenario based on the battle of Meiningen, which took place on Bielstein Hill and resulted in the destruction of the Bildhausen Band.

Meiningen, June 1525

On 12 April 1525,  with unrest spreading throughout Germany, a small band of three hundred peasants marched on the Cistercian monastery of Bildhausen. The peasants plundered the monastery before setting up a camp in the monastic grounds. By the start of May a farmer, named Hans Scharr, and a citizen of Münnerstadt, named Hans Schnabel, had been elected as the captains of the encamped "Bildhausen Band" and new recruits swelled the band's ranks. The Bildhausen peasants set about plundering nearby monastic and noble estates whilst recruits, weapons, gunpowder and other supplies were brought in from towns that had allied themselves with the Bildhausen Band's cause such as Würzburg, Schweinfurt, Münnerstadt and Meiningen. The Bildhausen Band also allied with Hermann VIII, Count of Henneberg-Aschach, who provided them with some artillery pieces.

The band had intended to march to Würzburg to join with the other peasant bands of Franconia but they changed direction when Landgrave Philip I of Hesse threatened the peasants that had risen in revolt around Meiningen. Reaching Mellrichstadt they learnt that Philip of Hesse had instead marched to Mühlhausen to deal with Thomas Müntzer's uprising and so the Bildhausen Band split with Scharr and Schnabel heading off to take part in the siege of Marienberg Fortress, which lay on the opposite bank of the Main River from Würzburg, whilst part of the band remained under the command of the band's mayor.

Thomas Müntzer's uprising was crushed at Frankenhausen on 15 May and Marienberg Fortress held against the Franconian peasant's siege. Müntzer was executed at Mühlhausen on 27 May and the victorious Princely army of Landgrave Philip I of Hesse and Duke George of Saxony moved to Schlotheim where they were joined by the forces of John the Steadfast, the Elector of Saxony, and Count William of Henneberg. A meeting was held between the assembled princes and from Schlotheim John the Steadfast and William of Henneberg led a force of around 4,000 cavalry and 8,000 landsknecht southwards to deal with the Franconian rebels.

As the army of the Elector John the Steadfast and William of Henneberg reached Walldorf, around 6km to the north of Meiningen, the townsfolk of Meiningen called on the aid of the Bildhausen Band encamped some 20km away at Mellrichstadt. By now the two captains, Hans Scharr and Hans Schnabel, had returned to the band which numbered around 7,000 peasants and had 17 light artillery pieces. On 3 June 1525 as the Bildhausen Band marched on Meiningen its advance guard came into contact with units of Count William of Henneberg's vanguard and a skirmish took place in which around forty peasants were killed. Hearing of this the mainward of the Bildhausen Band decided to entrench themselves and form a wagenburg on Bielstein Hill which lay just to the west of the town.

Before the band's entrenchments and wagenburg were complete the army of John the Steadfast and William of Henneberg was upon them. It seems that much of the infantry of the Princely army did not engage as in the ensuing battle the Bildhausen Band managed to hold off the Princely cavalry and artillery until evening killing some of their men at arms and their captain of artillery. The band itself took heavy casualties with over 240 slain and more wounded. As darkness fell Scharr and Schnabel ordered their forces to retreat into Meinigen with Schnabel wishing to leave the town that night. The captains did not flee and two days later, on 5 June, surrounded by the far stronger army of the Elector John the Steadfast and William of Henneberg the town was forced to surrender. Captains Scharr and Schnabel were handed over to the princely army as a condition that the other peasants and townsfolk would be spared.

The Bildhausen Band was dispersed and Scharr and Schnabel, along with the band's mayor, were executed on 3 July in Mellrichstadt.

The Bildhausen Band have not had time to fully entrench themselves on Bielstein Hill but they prepare their wagenburg and defensive positions as best they can. 

Peasants of the Bildhausen Band man the wagons in readiness for an attack.

The Bildhausen Band's camp atop Bielstein Hill.

Scenario

As always we used our modified Lion Rampant rules for this game. Each army was divided into three retinues, with each army having a retinue that comprised primarily of guns.

The game started with the Bildhausen Band deployed on Bielstein Hill having been caught off guard by the rapid deployment of the Princely army. The Bildhausen Band had some entrenchments but they did not work fully to the peasant's advantage due to the fact they had not had time to complete them (see the photo of the table below). The Bildhausen Band was deployed before the Princely artillery was placed on the table.

At the start of the game only the artillery retinue of the Princely army was deployed and the other two retinues of the Princely army would arrive as per the turn sequence below. The units could only enter via move activations. They could not charge or shoot when entering the table.

The trenches gave +1 armour to anyone in them and counted as rough terrain for combat. They took half a move to cross and the culverins could not be moved across them.

Turn sequence

The order in which the retinues acted changed each turn. Each retinue had a coloured dice. The 6 dice were placed in a bag. Each turn a dice was taken from the bag and the retinue whose dice was drawn would then act. This was done for all six retinues every turn. If a retinue was wiped out its dice was removed from the bag.

Victory

For the Princely army to win it had to kill or rout Hans Scharr and Hans Schnabel, however the entirety of the Princely forces had to have entered the table before a victory could be claimed. If Hans Scharr and Hans Schnabel were both killed and routed before all of the Princely units were deployed then the game would continue until this happened.

For the Bildhausen Band to win it had to halve each of the three Princely retinues.

A view of the table. The Bildhausen Band have not had time to complete their defensive position but have formed up on the left hand side of the photo. The Princely artillery can be seen deployed on the right with the walls of Meiningen in the background.

The Princely artillery hastily deploys outside the walls of Meiningen on the slopes of Bielstein Hill.

For a moment the Bildhausen Band faces the artillery train of John the Steadfast and William of Henneberg.

The Armies

For this game, keen to avenge the defeat of his peasant forces in our Leipheim game last year, https://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2025/03/and-lord-georg-fell-upon-peasants-with.html, Tom took command of the Bildhausen Band so I took command of the army of John the Steadfast and William of Henneberg.

The Bildhausen Band 

Hans Scharr's men

4 Units of Peasant Infantry (1 includes retinue leader Hans Scharr)

1 Unit of Peasant Shot and Crossbow

1 Artillery War Wagon

2 Infantry War Wagons

2 Hook Guns

Hans Schnabel's men

4 Units of Peasant Infantry (1 includes retinue leader Hans Scharr)

1 Unit of Peasant Shot and Crossbow

1 Artillery War Wagon 

2 Infantry War Wagons 

2 Hook Guns

The peasant guns

1 Radical Preacher (This unit includes the retinue leader)

4 Culverins 

The Princely Army of John the Steadfast and William of Henneberg

The Cavalry of William of Henneberg

3 Units of Men at Arms (1 unit includes the retinue leader)

2 Units of Lancers 

The troops of John the Steadfast

1 Unit of Men at Arms (which includes the retinue leader) 

2 Units of Mounted Crossbowmen 

1 Culverin

1 Unit of Landsknecht Pike

2 Units of Landsknecht shot

1 Hook Gun

The Princely artillery

1 Unit of Foot Knights (including the artillery captain who is the retinue leader)

4 Culverins

As always the best way to follow the action is to read the captions under the photos but a brief write up of this fierce engagement also follows.

As mounted crossbowmen from John the Steadfast's forces splash through the River Werra the Princely artillery open fire on the wagenburg of the Bildhausen Band.

The artillery is reinforced by an advance guard of landsknecht.

The guns of the Bildhausen Band return fire as the artillery duel commences.

Landsknecht arquebusiers from the Princely army are driven back by crossbowmen and arquebusiers from the Bildhausen Band.

As some of the peasants creep forward through the unfinished trenches the Princely guns fire on them.

Caught unawares by the speed of the Prince's attack Hans Scharr and Hans Schnabel ordered their peasant band to arrange the wagons as best they could and prepare for an attack. But John the Steadfast and William of Henneberg did not order their troops to attack immediately. Instead the Princely artillery began a bombardment to soften up the Bildhausen Band's position atop Bilestein Hill as their vanguard arrived.

The Bildhausen Band returned fire with their guns causing casualties to the crews of those of the Princes. At the same time Hans Schnabel sent troops on the peasant right flank into the unfinished trenches to skirmish with the landsknecht arquebusiers who were advancing on the wagenburg. The landsknecht were temporarily driven back. As this was happening the Bildhausen Band's wagons on the left flank of the peasant's position were smashed to pieces by the cannon fire. The men inside them tried to hold their positions but were forced to flee as they were sitting ducks for the Prince's guns.

Fearing a flank attack from John the Steadfast's mounted crossbowmen the guns and peasants on the Bildhausen Band's left flank reposition themselves.

The mounted crossbowmen suffer a few casualties but continue to press their attack.

During the artillery duel the three wagons that secure the Bildhausen Band's left flank have been shot to pieces by the Princely artillery that opposes them.

The Princely guns keep up their deadly bombardment.

John the Steadfast's mounted crossbowmen shoot their crossbows across the River Werra putting the Bildhausen Band's left flank under pressure.

As the bombardment of the wagenburg continued men at arms and mounted crossbowmen from the Princely vanguard skirted the walls of Meiningen and splashed through the waters of the River Werra in an attempt to flank the peasant position and avoid attacking their guns head on. The peasants under the command of the farmer, Hans Scharr, tried to use their hook gun and cannon to drive the attacking cavalry off. Some of the cavalry were slain but they pressed home their attack and, as the crossbowmen began to shoot at the peasants, the peasants began to give way.

As the cavalry attacked the peasant's left flank the fighting continued in the unfinished trenches. The landsknecht arquebusiers who had initially been driven back by the Bildhausen Band's own arquebusiers and crossbowmen led a renewed assault. This time the landsknecht did not retreat instead holding their ground as the peasants counter attacked.

Supported by their artillery landsknecht arquebusiers push an attack through the trenches. 

On the peasant's right flank the forces under Hans Schnabel advance and...

...skirmish with the landsknecht arquebusiers who were initially driven back.

The troops on the Bildhausen Band's right flank advance, under the command of Hans Schnabel. They are charged by Count William of Henneberg's lancers...

...Hans Schnabel's men are attacked before they can use their hook gun...

...but in the fighting that follows Henneberg's lancers are driven off and defeated.

More of the Princely army arrives and the vanguard is reinforced by a unit of landsknecht arquebusiers.

Seeing the landsknecht skirmishers advancing on their position, and with their wagons destroyed, the peasants holding the left flank charge into the trenches...

...and attempt to drive the landsknecht back in a fierce fight.

The first hand to hand fighting now took place as lancers from the vanguard of Count William of Henneberg charged the peasant's right flank in an attempt to drive Hans Schnabel's men from the trenches. The charge was so quick that the peasants were unable to use their hook gun on the attacking horsemen. The peasants did manage to finally drive them off after a series of short sharp clashes in which Hans Schnabel himself had to fight.

More and more troops from the Princely army were now arriving with extra arquebusiers joining the engagement. The peasants holding the beleaguered left flank were next to engage in hand to hand as they charged into the trenches atop Bielstein Hill and began a savage clash with the landsknecht arquebusiers who had been using the unfinished field works to cover their own attack. This was the beginning of a fierce prolonged clash as both sides fought bitterly to hold the position.

The Bildhausen Band's right flank is attacked by men at arms from the vanguard of Count William of Henneberg. 

Another Princely gun arrives and adds to the bombardment by targeting the peasants in the trenches.

The peasants respond with shots from their hook gun.

The fighting against the men at arms in the trenches continues and the men at arms are finally defeated.

At the same time the fierce battle in the trenches on the peasant left flank continues.

Yet more reinforcements arrive for the Princely army.

As the Princely army had refused to attack the peasant position head on and face the firepower of the remaining wagons the fighting now developed into two distinctive clashes on each flank of the wagenburg. On the Bildhausen Band's right flank some of Henneberg's men at arms were defeated as the peasants used the cover of the trenches to prevent the cavalry from sweeping them away whilst one of the Princely army's guns exchanged fire with a peasant's hook gun.

On the left flank of the Bildhausen Band the fighting in the trenches continued with both sides refusing to give any quarter. What the peasants fighting in the trenches didn't realise was that their fight to hold the left flank had now become futile as the cavalry attack along the River Werra had succeeded and the mounted crossbowmen were about to charge into the peasant camp and attack Hans Scharr.

One of the Bildhausen Band's leaders, the farmer Hans Scharr, is shot at by the mounted crossbowmen who have broken into the wagenburg.

There is chaos in the peasant camp as the left flank is rolled up by the Princely army.

The bloody fighting in the trenches between the landsknecht arquebusiers and peasants continues.

Some of the peasant wagons are still manned, having not been blasted by the Princely guns, and they fire into the attacking Princely army...

...accompanied by the peasant guns.

Having finally defeated the landsknecht arquebusiers and urged on by the words of their radical preacher the peasants holding the collapsing left flank attack the captain of the Princely artillery...

... the artillery captain drives the peasants back so the preacher himself engages in a one to one combat, hoping the power of the almighty will be with him as he was with David when David slew Goliath. The preacher is quickly slain.

As the mounted crossbowmen rode into the peasant's position a scene of chaos and carnage unfolded as peasants fled the camp in an attempt to reach the safety of Meiningen. The battle in the trenches on the peasant left flank reached its climax as, driven on by the words of their preacher, the peasants finally drove the landsknecht off and then charged the Captain of the Princely artillery. The artillery captain and his bodyguard drove the exhausted peasants back only for their radical preacher to attack him in a fit of eschatological rage. The two men duelled briefly but, though he may have been a man of God, the unarmoured preacher was doomed as the armoured and experienced captain quickly despatched him and sent him to meet his maker.

Some of the wagons and guns of the Bildhausen Band were still manned and as the Princely army attacked their troops were met with cannon fire and arquebus shot. Despite this heroic defence it was now clear that the peasant's right flank was also about to collapse. 

The Bildhausen Band's right flank is now collapsing and Hans Schnabel is driven back...

...in a series of fierce clashes with William of Henneberg's lancers.

The Band's left flank is destroyed...

...and the Princely forces charge into the peasant's defences.

Hans Scharr attempts to withdraw further into the camp, seeking the protection of the remaining peasant guns and wagons.

The fighting on the peasant's right continues as more men at arms join the fray.

Hans Schnabel and his men attempted to hold the Bildhausen Band's right but were subjected to repeated charges from the cavalry vanguard of William of Henneberg. The peasants fought on bitterly, killing all of the lancers that charged them and even managing to withstand repeated charges from Henneberg's men at arms. Eventually the pressure of the cavalry attack was too much and Hans Schnabel fled in a desperate attempt to reach the safety of Meiningen.

With the peasant's left flank having already completely collapsed Hans Scharr had retreated into the centre of the camp, hoping to continue his defence with the protection of the remaining manned wagons and guns. As the jaws of the two pronged Princely attack closed around the wagenburg Scharr too realised the game was up and fled for Meiningen. Sadly neither Schnabel or Schnarr knew that in two days they would both be handed over to the army of John the Steadfast and Count William of Henneberg to be executed a month later.

Sensing all is lost Hans Schnabel flees Bielstein Hill in an attempt to reach the temporary safety of the walls of Meiningen as...

...moments later the farmer Hans Scharr also flees the peasant's camp. The Bildhausen Band has been defeated.

This was a really fun and exciting game as the peasants heroically attempted to fight off the two pronged attack from the Princely army. It was only the second time we have fielded the peasants and they certainly performed better than in the Leipheim game. Although they inflicted casualties on lots of the units of the Princely army they didn't knock any of the three Princely retinues to under half strength.

As these games are so chaotic, it is hard to know if we need to make the peasants a little more resilient or if it is just the way that this game and Leipheim played out that led to the defeats. Historically the peasants did terribly in the field and historically the armies of the Swabian League or Princes refused to attack the wagenburgs head on. If force was used, as it often was, then the wagenburgs were normally bombarded first before any attack was launched as has happened in these two games. Perhaps we will make a few tweaks for the next German Peasant's War clash but it is definitely a theatre will we be revisiting as the clashes make for very different wargames to those we often play.