Handgunners with pavises - finished unit

I completed the handgunners from the Perry plastic Mercenaries set. They are Hungarian handgunners with pavises.

HYW - Battle report

We played our biggest WAB battle ever with my friends during our holiday. The battle was a random battle from the Hundred Years War with 3700 point armies! It was an “all into it chaos battle” because the figures were very mixed (Swiss mercenaries in the English army and some crusader era figures in both armies).

Preobrazhensky guard regiment - finished unit

As I said in the introduction my other favorite period is the Great Northern War. I really like Peter the Great and his age therefore I am painting his army for the GNW project in 1/72. One of my friends has a Swedish army as enemy against me. For my Russian army I have completed 3 infantry regiments, a dismounted and a mounted dragoon regiment and a field artillery battery. We use the Foundry – Napoleon rule for playing the period. OK, I know this rule refers to another period but I think it can also represent the GNW because the main tactics were the same as in the age of Napoleon. On the other hand the Foundry – Napoleon is an excellent wargaming rule!

  

The pikemen of King Matthias - finished unit

King Mathias's army had more infantry units than the earlier Hungarian armies. Most of the infantrymen in this army were heavy infantrymen. The heavy infantry fought in combined formation: the pavisers and the halbreiders defended the crossbowmen and the handgunners. They had defensive fighting strategies.

15th century Hungarian army project - historical background

In the future I want to take a big influence on the historical background of my projects, units and figures.

At first I want to give some information about the historical background of my 15^th century Hungarian project because it is not a popular period in historical wargaming.

Sigismund (Hungarian king and later the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire) died in 1437 and thereafter an anarchy started in Hungary. The barons had very big influence in ruling the country and the royal power decreased. The Kingdom of Hungary was in big danger at this time because in its southern neighborhood the Ottoman Empire acted very aggressively against Europe. The population of Hungary was about only 3-4 million in these times but its territory was at least four times bigger than today in the 21th century. On the contrary, the Ottoman Empire was much bigger and it's population was about 20 million! The revenues of the Sultan were ten times bigger than the Hungarian king's.

The Kingdom of Hungary in the 15th century

Baronial banderium - finished unit

Later on my plan is to prepare a post after every unit I finish. This is the first one:

The baronial troops played a very important role of the 15th century Hungarian armies. That is why at first I painted one for my Hungarian army of this period. These banderial troops mainly contained heavy cavalry/mounted man-at-arms and they were well trained soldiers who fought as mercenaries for a baron.

Baronial troops preparing for battle - Picture on the altar of the Dome of Kassa

My older works

As an introduction I want to present some photos of my figures I have painted recently.

Fireforge Games foot sergeants as 14th century Hungarian regular infantry

Fireforge Games crossbowmen

Welcome!

Welcome on my first blog ever! I am 17 years old. I started to make plastic models 8 years ago and I have been painting figures for six years. In the last four years I have been playing historical wargaming. My favourite periods are the middle ages, the 15th century/reinaissance and the Great Northern war. I have painted up several armies for these periods such as the army of Peter the Great, 100 years war English army and currently I am working on a 15th century Hungarian army. In addition I have a lot of other figures for different periods and from different nations. In the future you can see figures, battle reports and projects in connection with these periods and subjects.

My English is not perfect so please excuse me for any mistakes!

Der Hauptmann