Avanpost 28mm Conquest of Siberia range.

[Armstrong47]

Good news.

Very good news,the figures should take 7-14 days to arrive in the UK.
I checked on FB earlier,the Siberian Cavalry haven't made it to Germany just yet,so fingers crossed it won't be too long.

[cuprum]

If the information on the buildings of the Siberian peoples is still relevant, I can help.
The territory of Western Siberia was inhabited by the Siberian Tatars, successful conquerors in the past, to whom the local tribes - the Khanty and Mansi - were subordinate. The Tatars had their own log fortified cities and villages, which, due to the sparseness and forest cover of the region, had a small population (about 50-150 people). The Tatars were Muslims, the Khanty and Mansi were pagan shamanists.
When building log houses, the Tatars imitated the shape of the yurt.







Tatars who continued their nomadic lifestyle lived in yurts, but since the territories were mostly forest, there could not be many such nomads.

The forest peoples of the Khanty and Mansi lived in tents. This is something like an Indian wigwam, covered with skins or tree bark. Their villages were also small.



And this is what the capital of the Siberian Khanate looked like - the city of Isker (or Siberia). I think you can easily see the Khan’s palace and mosque in the picture:



The small fortresses of the Siberian Khanate presented quite a big problem for Ermak’s troops, since they did not have significant artillery. However, the forts built by the Cossacks were no less a problem for the Tatars to take.



Cossack fort

[Armstrong47]

Cuprum,
That's amazing,just the sort of info I was looking for,thank you very much.

[cuprum]

I can offer you my figures on the theme of Ermak’s campaign. There are even authentic banners for the Cossacks.
There are no problems with payment and delivery to the UK)))



http://siberia-miniatures.ru/index.php?cPath=41_39_86

http://siberia-miniatures.ru/index.php?cPath=62_218_206

And a small video for inspiration - the music video "Siberia" with footage from the TV series "Ermak":

[Armstrong47]

Hi Cuprum,
Just sent an order in for the boat and the Cossack command group.

[cuprum]

Yes, thank you.
If you have any questions about this period, do not hesitate to ask. I became quite immersed in the topic while I was working on creating this line of figures.

[Armstrong47]

Yes, thank you.
If you have any questions about this period, do not hesitate to ask. I became quite immersed in the topic while I was working on creating this line of figures.

Thank you very much Mikhail,your knowledge and resources of all things Russian is without comparison.
What I really want are books that I can buy for delivery to the UK with pictures of the combatants, buildings,terrain etc,the text doesn't need to be in English,just some pretty pictures of Cossacks,Tartars, streltsy, indigenous Siberian tribes etc.

[cuprum]

You know, it's not so simple... All this information is there, but it is scattered. These are either academic publications, where there are only rather boring black and white drawings of ancient objects and images, or these are magazine articles, where there are illustrations on a topic that interests you - but these are just a few printed sheets among a large amount of unnecessary information.
And the few books that I know of have long been sold out and can only be found on the secondary market and are often quite expensive.
I can offer you scans of illustrations of those books and articles that I have, for some of your specific tasks. Construction of a terrain or painting of figures...



Solovyov A.I. - “Weapons and armor. Siberian weapons: from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages” // Novosibirsk: INFOLIO-press. 2003. 224 p. ISBN 5-89590-035-6



Bobrov L.A., Khudyakov Yu.S. - "Armament and tactics of the nomads of Central Asia and Southern Siberia in the era of the late Middle Ages and early modern times (XV - first half of the XVIII century.") // St. Petersburg: Philol. Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. 2008. 784 p. ISBN 978-5-8465-0633-6 (“Historia Militaris”).



Bobrov L.A., Borisenko A.Yu., Khudyakov Yu.S. - "Russian warriors on the southern borders of Siberia at the end of the 16th - 17th centuries" //
Novosibirsk: Novos. state univ., 2012. - 128 p.

[Armstrong47]

You know, it's not so simple... All this information is there, but it is scattered. These are either academic publications, where there are only rather boring black and white drawings of ancient objects and images, or these are magazine articles, where there are illustrations on a topic that interests you - but these are just a few printed sheets among a large amount of unnecessary information.
And the few books that I know of have long been sold out and can only be found on the secondary market and are often quite expensive.
I can offer you scans of illustrations of those books and articles that I have, for some of your specific tasks. Construction of a terrain or painting of figures...



Solovyov A.I. - “Weapons and armor. Siberian weapons: from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages” // Novosibirsk: INFOLIO-press. 2003. 224 p. ISBN 5-89590-035-6



Bobrov L.A., Khudyakov Yu.S. - "Armament and tactics of the nomads of Central Asia and Southern Siberia in the era of the late Middle Ages and early modern times (XV - first half of the XVIII century.") // St. Petersburg: Philol. Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. 2008. 784 p. ISBN 978-5-8465-0633-6 (“Historia Militaris”).



Bobrov L.A., Borisenko A.Yu., Khudyakov Yu.S. - "Russian warriors on the southern borders of Siberia at the end of the 16th - 17th centuries" //
Novosibirsk: Novos. state univ., 2012. - 128 p.

Thank you Aga n,Mikhail,for your very kind offer of assistance.
One thing I'm wondering about are the soldiers that were periodically sent from Russia to support the expedition.
Would they have been Streltsy?
If so,how would they have been uniformed?
Most of the Streltsy uniform info I have refers to the Moscow Streltsy of the later Seventeenth century,which I'm guessing would not be an accurate representation of the soldiers sent to support the Cossacks.
I'd be interested in what rules would be suitable.
I'm thinking about games that are very similar in style to the French-Indian War of the mid 18th Century,only with earlier weapons and more cavalry,so would a suitably amended set of rules for the French - Indian Wars be usable?
Or would a set of rules based on small scale cattle raids,such as Flags of War's "Under a Reiver Moon",be more suitable?

[cuprum]

The first detachment of 840 people was formed on the private initiative of the merchants the Stroganov brothers, at whose expense the expedition was formed and equipped. Initially, the purpose of the expedition was to prevent raids by the Tatars and Siberian tribes on the lands of merchants.

The core of the detachment was 500 Volga Cossacks, led by atamans such as Ermak Timofeevich, Ivan Koltso, Matvey Meshcheryak, Nikita Pan, Bogdan Bryazga, Yakov Mikhailov. In addition to them, the Tatars took part in the campaign - Russian subjects, as well as captured Germans and Litvins (at that time the Livonian War was going on), who expressed their desire to enter the service of the Stroganov merchants. The army was loaded onto 80 strugs (large Cossack boats). There were practically no roads in Siberia and it was possible to move only along the huge number of rivers there.
After the expedition turned out to be unexpectedly successful - the Cossacks managed to defeat the army of the Siberian ruler, Khan Kuchum, and capture the capital, Ermak sent messengers to the Russian Tsar, offering him the conquered Siberian lands (in exchange for forgiving the desertion of this detachment of Cossacks from the Russian army during the Livonian war).
Ivan the Terrible forgave the Cossacks and sent a detachment of 500 Streltsy, led by Prince Ivan Bolkhovsky, to help them. The Stroganov merchants were also ordered to gather 50 volunteers from their own people at their own expense to help the Cossacks.

Cossacks and Streltsy during this period were no different from each other in appearance. The only thing is that the capital’s Streltsy received centrally from the state fabric for sewing caftans and, accordingly, the fabric issued in one batch most likely had the same color for the majority. But at the same time, uniformity of color was not prescribed at this moment, so complete uniformity was not unambiguous. The predominant colors of caftans in that period were red, blue, green, other colors were much less common (lilac, blue, pink, white). On a hike, for reasons of economy, hiking kaftans made of cheap gray or brown fabric could be used. Caftans were trimmed with silver or gold, or cloth braid. Long shirts in white, red or blue were worn under the caftan. Sashes (belts) were made of multi-colored silk, often mixed with gold and silver. Soldiers wore boots made of red and yellow leather, but sometimes they could be green, blue, azure, white, or flesh-colored.
The leaders' clothes were made of expensive patterned fabrics and richly decorated.

If in the European theater of war the use of armor quickly faded away, then during the war against nomads and forest peoples, Russian troops continued to use armor for quite a long time, since the enemy was abundantly armed with bows and used them very skillfully. When conquering Siberia, the Russians often used local captured armor, since the delivery of supplies from Central Russia was fraught with great difficulties.

[cuprum]

This is what the Russian army looked like in the European theater of war. In Siberia, much more armor was used (mainly chain mail and bakhterets).
The famous "berdysh" - axes-halberds, were just in their infancy and were quite small and rare at that moment. Muskets were not used, and the shooters used arquebuses of the Russian or European type (according to some information, the Stroganov merchants supplied the Cossacks with Spanish arquebuses).

[cuprum]

As for the rules... You need to look at what battles you want to play. If these are skirmishes in the forest, then you can use the rules for war with the Indians. If these are major field battles or an assault on a fortress, then the Tatar heavy cavalry and other Khan’s permanent military contingents can already participate. In addition, the Cossacks often acted in battle on boats, maneuvering along the river and firing salvos at the enemy, landing troops if necessary. Cossacks in general during that period were excellent sailors, often carrying out pirate raids on the Turkish coast, capturing merchant ships at sea. And they preferred to go to war by boat. The Tatars, in turn, once blocked the river with a metal chain in order to deprive the Cossacks of such a maneuver...
So you will have to somehow combine all this)))


Historically accurate reconstruction of the Cossack chieftain (Ermak).


Bakhterets is one of the most common types of Russian armor during this period.


One of the banners of Ermak's detachment.

[Armstrong47]

That's absolutely fantastic, Cuprum.
Thank you so much. Have you ever thought of writing a book/Wargamers Guide about Yermak and his expedition?

[cuprum]

Oh no. It's just a hobby. Too much work - too little time 

[bluewillow]

I play more deluge era, but you could try Impetus Baroque, they work well for deluge period.

Cheers
Matt