Away from the lace, feathers and ribbons of the French, Spanish and Flemish troops of my late seventeenth century armies for the "Laarden Campaign" of 1688 skulk some dangerous characters. Charlatans, gamblers, villains (and villainesses), poisoners, propagandists, tulip speculators and ... yes, Tatars.
I've had these Tatar figures in the lead mountain for a few years. They're 'Wargames Foundry' horsemen in 28mm, from their Polish Renaissance range, and they make a lively addition to seventeenth century armies for central and eastern Europe.
Its frankly a stretch to seeing their tough wiry ponies on the vasty fields of France, but stranger things have perhaps happened. In the Fronde, writes Professor John Stoye in his fine book "Europe Unfolding 1648-1688", "[t]he Duke of Nemours...prepared to bring to France a force of 8,000 German mercenaries. The very names of their colonels - Hohenloe, Kinski and Furstenberg - suggest the soldiery raised in the Thirty Years War was simply moving from one terrain to another".
So maybe, among the central European forces collected for service in France, Germany and Flanders - alongside Swiss pikemen, German musketeers and Croatian Horse - there may just have been a small company of Tatars from the Hungarian and Polish plains, and possibly even places even further afield. And a "maybe" is good enough for me!
"Quick - stash away the good bottles of Champagne, and hide the chickens.
The Tatars are are coming!"
Unlikely? Admittedly yes, my fellow Challengers. Fanciful and ludicrous? Why yes, dear friends - of course it is! And, in my own defence, they're hardly a Horde. How much damage can a pair of rampaging, or scouting, Tatars do in the soft Flanders countryside of 1688?
Perhaps not much, but the Wargames Foundry casualty near the hooves of Tatar ponies might beg to differ.
Painting the Tatars was very different to the lace and feathers of the French regiments, and made me choose some plainer colours which didn't look too drab on the figures. As a contrast, I tried to make the base more lively by the addition of bright ground tufts, and I added some scarlet cuffs to the luckless Flemish, Spanish or German musketeer caught in the open.
I added a green-stuffed hat and feather (which is barely visible in the photos) alongside the musketeer. I should really get some of those cast in metal or resin one of these days!
I didn't paint many of these horsemen - you can, after all, have too much of a good thing when it comes to stretching alt-history. But even two Tatars on the wargames table might be enough for any Flemish, Spanish or Imperial army to be spooked into withdrawing their scouts and outpost sentries into their field fortifications!
Here's the very indulgent Collective Character Card for the "Devil's Horsemen", marked with a small Fleur-de-Lis to show the Tartars' recruitment to the French King's cause - at least this time.
And so to the points - a modest submission, this time, leading to 10 points for each 28mm horseman, and just 2 points for the prone musketeer. No Chamber of Challenge XI for this submission, so the total is a smooth 22 points.
*******
As for the potential of seeing Tatar ponies on the fields of France, if Ogedai Khan hadn't died when he did causing the recall of all the Mongol armies to determine and confirm his successor, after their victories in Hungary (and subsequent ventures into Austria and down the coast as far as modern Albania) it was said that there was no army in Europe to stop them conquering everything up to the Atlantic coast.
Tamsin
