Some more new recruits and a good read

With the weather being rather adverse last week Steve and I didn't meet up for our usual game.  However, I did manage to get some 'brush' time to finish off two small units of Janissaries, the first installment of what I hope will be a large force of Ottomans.  The figures came from ebay and are some vintage castings from Hinchliffe.  As with my Muscovites I will add in some TAG and Warlord command figures as I go along.   After stripping the figures back, the paint went on quite easily and although some modern figures are thought to have more animation, I prefer these 'old style' castings.

Steve and I have decided that for our Eastern Renaissance armies, the single weapon units will be 12, 18 or 24 strong, whilst the combined units (eg Soldatski) will be 16, 24 or 32 strong.  As the individual orta seem to have been quite small (although there were  over 100 of them according to the Osprey volume on them), the 12 figure unit was chosen, though they can be combined with others to make larger formations.

The colour scheme is based on the illustration from the front cover of the Osprey volume

I have also managed to finish a book I started reading over Christmas, 

The book covers the period from 1618-1918 and is an excellent read.  Most of the books I have read on the Napoleonic period (with the exception of Gunther Rothenberg and John Gill) tend to portray the Austrian army as hopelessly outclassed and being bundled from one defeat to another.  Bassett gives the reader an Austrian perspective which resets the balance.  It is not a quick read, over 500 pages, but it is well worth it.  My mint paperback copy came from a National Trust secondhand book shop for the princely sum of £3.