Monday 1 June 2020

Ottoman Siege Guns



The next part of the Ottoman host has been completed. Here it is shown outside a beleaguered Venetian fortress during the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1499-1503. The Ottomans were famed for their early adoption of gunpowder artillery and some of the enormous bombards that they used, the most celebrated being in the 1453 Siege of Constantinople. Shown here are four new pieces flanked by two smaller field guns that have remained on their carriages which I finished a couple of months ago. To complement the guns there are also some new "mantlet and gabion" bases, http://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2016/08/mantiets-and-gabions.html, with Turks manning the ropes of the mantlets. 

All of the guns are by Old Glory except for the second largest on the red carriage which is a Redoubt Enterprises piece. For these large guns I have removed the wheels so they can be "emplaced" for siege or field works. On two of the bases the removed wheels can be seen lying close by. Accounts I have read of Ottoman set piece battles such as Mohacs also show that the guns were sometimes emplaced behind stakes and war wagons so the dug in nature of these suits them well. This was cetainly not something that was unique to the Ottomans as a previous post will explain: http://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2016/09/a-bombard.html. Of course many of the gun crew may have had experience in Western armies as well.

Leading on from this point I have tried to include quite a few non-Turks to reflect the fact the Ottomans regularly used foreign specialists for their guns. There are plenty of crewmen in turbans but also some in Eastern European style head gear. The crew figures are a mixture of converted Old Glory and Essex Miniatures. I thought about including some clearly Western European types, in Landsknecht attire for example, but this would "date" the bases quite specifically so I have gone for a more generic approach. This way I feel these guns can be used from the 1450s right up to 1600 at a pinch although later style guns could also be added to a battery for the later 16th century.

An Ottoman siege battery.

28mm Ottoman Turk gun battery.

A view from the great bombard.



Crew members are raising the mantlet. 


The Ottomans besiege a Venetian Fortress.


A view of the battery from above. Note the removed wooden wheels from the gun carriages.

The Janissary commander advises the Beylerbey on the assault.

The Ottoman Infantry mass ready for the assault.

You may notice the Camel train in the above photo. A great source of inspiration for this Ottoman army, which has been quite an undertaking, was the amazing detail from the woodcuts shown in "Landsknechts on Campaign", https://www.amazon.co.uk/Landsknechts-Campaign-Geisbergs-Woodcuts-Selections/dp/0998597740/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1RT40MC2TVEFO&dchild=1&keywords=landsknecht&qid=1590579634&sprefix=landskench%2Caps%2C145&sr=8-1. While the text is fairly limited the book is really about the details from the woodcuts, it's one of those books that you can look at over and over again and always find something new. Hans Sebald Beham's Siege of Vienna 1529 is included. It's a strange "bird's-eye view" of the siege that reminds me of a 16th Century "Where's Wally"! There are loads of little details of the Ottoman siege with Turks in boats, cooking in cauldrons, taking prisoners and engaging in skirmishes with Imperialist bands of horse. These bases of camels were inspired by the print,  I have included a detail from it below.

The Turks leading the camels are Old Glory figures while the camels are really old Wargames Foundry miniatures, in fact I think they were originally Citadel miniatures. The camel at the end of the train has not been converted but the other three have all been modified using green stuff. The ropes linking them all are made from fuse wire, as are the ropes on the mantlets. I was really please how these baggage camels turned out, I especially like the base with the Turk gesticulating to the reluctant camel in an attempt to get it to move!

Detail from Hans Sebald Beham's Siege of Vienna, 1529. The line of camels can be seen in the centre.

Ottoman camel train.

One of the camp followers is struggling to get the lead camel to move.

24 comments:

  1. These are marvellous. It's a period I don't know much about - can you recommend a good starting point for reading?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. Introductory books on Renaissance warfare often have a chapter or chapters on the Ottoman Expansion, Stephen Turnbulls "The Art of Renaissance Warfare" and Thomas Arnolds "The Renaissance at War" are good examples which have introductions to the Ottomans. For the actual look and composition of the armies I would recommend Ian Heaths "Armies of the Middle Ages Volume II", the Old Glory range clearly copies the images in this book, although this only goes up until 1500.

      There are lots of more specific books on 15th and 16th Century campaigns, it depends what area you are interested in, the Ottomans campaigned over a massive geographical area for a long period of time.

      Delete
  2. Great looking siege train Oli and wonderful basing. That camel train is excellent too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Peter. I really enjoyed putting the Camel train together, I am temnpted to do some more.

      Delete
  3. Splendid looking Artillery Oli...
    Years ago when I used to own an Ottoman army I had a stand of down trodden looking slaves positioned near the guns to represent the poor sods who had moved them into place...

    All the best. Aly

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Aly, someone has to move those massive guns into place!

      Delete
  4. Splendid array of Ottoman guns there! I wonder where my old Minifig Renaissance Ottoman army ended up?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks David, this is my second attempt at an Ottoman army in 28mm, the first lot got sold on ebay a decade or so ago.

      Delete
  5. Wow - that's cool! Love the siege guns and crews. Amazing images.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Dean, they were fun to work on.

      Delete
  6. Replies
    1. Cheers Willie, I would love to see some more pics of your Ottomans.

      Delete
  7. Splendid looking artillery! I guess you could do some landsknecht crew on separate bases that you could add or subtract, the Venetian fortress looks marvellous beyond the gun line!
    Best Iain

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Iain, I did think about extra bases that could be added in, that may be something I return to do.

      Delete
  8. The Ottopmans did love their Artillery; maybe they passed that love along to the Russians as well?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Peter. I have to admit I know pretty much nothing about the 16th Century Russians, although I quite like the TAG figures for them.

      Delete
  9. Damn. I now will have to get a camel train, its too nice not to have. Lovely siege guns by the way, well done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you - yes a camel train is key. I had to do one after looking at the Vienna image.

      Delete
  10. Excellent. Brilliant research and execution. Those wall wont stand long.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Stuart, yes those thin walls will be quickly broken down by the Ottoman guns!

      Delete
  11. beautiful artillery park, the icing on the Ottoman cake.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Ronin, there are quite a few units left to do for these Ottomans.

      Delete
  12. Fantastic Canon and Mantlets, You have inspired me to buy some for the start of my Ottoman army. I have one question. From some of the historical artwork on another of your posts, some cannons are flat on the ground - normally on the top of a hill which makes sense as in this case they would not need to have a trajectory.
    However, for those not on the top of of hill they seem to be angled to give some trajectory. Do you think that they build an artificial slope to mount the barrels on to give this trajectory?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am glad you liked the post.

      Yes all sorts of earthworks were built to aid bombardment of walls - sometimes the besiegers would even build huge artifical "hills" to over look the defenders defences and bombard them. As the 16th century went on these kind of fieldworks became a real specialism for military engineers.

      Delete