Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Medieval Adventures => Topic started by: Huron34 on 27 December 2024, 03:29:52 PM
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Hello everyone,
I'm going to introduce you to a project that has been close to my heart for many years.
It's about the battle of Lake Peipus, which put an end to the expantionist ideas of Christianity in Slavic countries.
Why did you wait so long?
I'm not a wargamer, but a miniaturist who likes to make dioramas (when his wife gives him the time and space), and the appearance of the manufacturer “Northern Crusades Miniatures” has been offering miniatures in action, in combat, etc. for a few years now, so the choice is starting to become interesting.
First of all, for those who are used to reading me, a bit of history. I'll keep it as short as possible.
This battle was the conclusion of a long campaign orchestrated by Prince-Bishop Hermann Von Buxhoeved of Tartu to halt the excursions of his Pagan neighbors. To this end, a “mini-croisade” was organized. In addition to his vassals, he invited Danes and Teutonics. The campaign was a long one, and after many twists and turns, it came to a conclusion on the shores of a frozen lake against the “Kievan-Russ” armies commanded by Alexander Nevsky. The Teutonics had strongly advised us to suspend the campaign in view of the winter.
The opposing forces:
The body of the Prince Bishop of Tartu:
300 vassal knight and sergeants, I have no information on the color of their coat of arms. If anyone has this information, I'm interested.
His knights are more or less well equipped.
Then 1000 Estonnian auxiliaries.
The Danes:
200 vassal knight and sergeants
Plus local auxiliaries
Les Teutoniques:
350 knight and sergents
Plus des auxiliaires Estoniens
Les forces Russes:
Deux Corps de cavalerie et un corps d'infanterie très bien équipés (Druzina). : 1000 guerriers
Milices de Novgorod : 2000 fantassins
Finno-Ugrain Tribesmen : 1400 guerriers
Archers à cheval : 600 cavaliers
Nous pouvons constater que les forces des croisés chrétiens sont dépassés en nombre.
Mais cela ne fait pas peur aux chevaliers teutonique qui ont l'habitude de se battre en infériorité.
Now let's put some preconceived ideas to rest.
The ice on the lake broke under the weight of the German knights, resulting in the loss of the Teutonic army: False!
Otherwise, if the ice had broken, it would have led to the loss of the Teutonic and Russian armies. At the edge of the lake, the ice may have broken, but nothing serious.
The 600 horsemen are Mongolian archers. I don't think so either.
But why?
The Mongols are the Russians' adversaries and have beaten them to the punch in many bloody battles.
The Mongols were a formidable army at the time, with well-organized cavalry and infantry corps (heavy and light units, scouts, etc.), engineering corps, war machines...
So I don't see the Mongol emperor sending just 600 light cavalry.
As far as I'm concerned, we're dealing with steppe tribes:
- Chernye Klobuki (in Russian), the black heads, allies of the Russians in many battles.
- Poloviets (in Russian), Kipchac, nomadic tribes who often fought with Russian principalities before allying themselves with the Russians.
- Cuman? Perhaps, yes. But less sure.
In any case, given their numbers, we're dealing with an alliance of different steppe tribes.
An army of Teutonic knights: Wrong!
The Teutonic knights are first and foremost the remnants of the order of sword-bearing knights.
This order was crushed at the Battle of Saule.
The Teutonic Order therefore asked the Pope to take it under his tutelage. Once this was accepted, the Teutonic Order was obliged to find knights, sergeants and ecclesiastics to replace the losses suffered by the order of sword-carrying knights in the provinces and fortresses.
This order became known as the Livonian Order.
Moreover, the number of knights was very low. Around a hundred for the campaign. Fewer at the time of battle.
So where does this figure of 300 knights and sergeants come from?
In times of conflict, the Teutonic Order calls on volunteers.
These are of two kinds:
- Con-freres, knights who join the order for the duration of a campaign or crusade, and on their death cede half their fortune to the Teutonic Order.
- Guests, Christian knights who take up the cross (it's less dangerous to fight in Europe than in the Holy Land).
The battle itself:
On the side of the crusaders:
- The Teutonic army holds the center, the Danes the left side and the body of Hermann von Tartu the right. The militia is in the rear.
On the Russian side:
- The militia is placed on at least 3 line on the brges of the lake, with in support back a Druzina to feet.
On the right side, Alexander’s brother with a "light" Druzina supported by the archers of the steppes.
On the left side Alexander and a "heavy" Druzina
They fight under their own banner (Saint George for the Germanic knights and Lady's Note for the others), but depend on the command of the Teutonic Knights.
the fight:
The charge of the Teutonic knights is sinking into the lines of the militia like a corner in wood.
Alexandre sends all his troops in the canteen to resist the shock.
It is then that the archers of the steppes intervene who strike the Danish troops from their arrows. The Danes, not being accustomed to this type of combat, reflux and flee by training the auxiliary militia of the crusaders.
From there it is the end for the crusader army.
The Russian cavalry encircles the crusades and their numbers massacre the Christians.
Nevertheless, it was not the end of the Teutonic because out of 400 dead knights, the figure is perhaps a little exaggerated by the chronicles of the time, only 20 Teutonic perished. But among the 20 how many were true knights of the order?
I will stop there for now. Ja will try to join plates of uniforms (my computer is capricious)
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
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ordre de Livonie
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First plates Teutonics, Livonians and allied, mercenary
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Russian, Alexander and heavy druzina, light cavalry, mercenary.
Russian shield wall
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Russiancavalry, milician and mercenary
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Black heads'tchornie kubluki), Kipchac (Poloviets), Cuman
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Mongols and assault on Kiev and Vladimir
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Russian and Poloviets
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Teutonics, Livonians, Con-frere (con-brother)
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Livonian cavalry allieds of Crusaders
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Kipchaks and Cuman
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Russian heavy cavalry
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Here are my sources. Now I'm waiting for my figures cast by ‘Studio Historia’.
I hope you have a pleasant evening
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That sounds like a really cool topic and project idea!
And thank you so much for all the links to such amazing images of medieval russian armour!!
I will be looking forward to updates with your minis :)
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I Hope lol
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Battle of lake Peipus
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Battle lac Peipus , russians archer and crosbow
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Peipus in 54mm
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Great so far!
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Good evening to all,
among the knights of Livonia where dependent on the territory of Livonia, we find as coat of arms (on the shields):
- red background with white star in the center
- red entirely
- black background with a white German cross in the center
- yellow background with a black German cross in its center
- shield split in two in the width direction: white at top/red at bottom
- yellow background with a black bull’s head in the center and pulling out his tongue (red)
- white background with a red chevron decorated with red cube/diamond placed on top
- yellow background with two black arrows crossing in its center.
That’s all for now.
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Hello,
I received my figures this weekend.
More than 30 models.
I'm going to start with the Russian infantry.
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The figures are very fine in the human anatomy.
They are full of detail.
This proves that the Northern Crusades Miniatures files are very accurate. The same goes for the printing by ‘Studio Historia’. Little or no retouching.
The resin is semi-rigid. It offers the quality of being slightly flexible, so very little breakage on more than 30 miniatures. The downside is that some very fine details are too flexible and therefore slightly twisted.
Nevertheless, in view of the quality of the engraving, I'm going to try to be as good as possible at painting.
Here are the first two. They represent the district militia (provincial levies no longer existed in Russia at that time). It was the towns that produced and equipped the inhabitants. District by district, according to the wealth of the merchants who paid for the militia's equipment). Here we have an archer, the youngest of whom were assigned to achers units, and an older man, the oldest of whom were equipped with pikes, shields and axes. The equipment worn was very light. A heavy coat to protect against the cold, or even a helmet and armour made of small iron plates. He could be equipped with a large leather rib or a fur cap.
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On the left are two militiamen in leather chaps. The 1st on the left is very well equipped in leather with a face protected by mesh and a helmet.
The second is more common. A mixture of leather and chain mail.
The other two on the right are both warriors, so the first can be part of both the militia and the Druzina on foot (a mix of armour and chain mail or leather). The second clearly belongs to the foot Druzina (armour and chain mail).
Northern Crusade Miniature offers a large number of warriors from the last two models.
But there are only single models for the other miniatures when they should represent the majority of troops, i.e. miniatures. Maybe more to come?
I forgot, there's also a heavily armed pikeman militiaman (first line of defence). But only 1. It's complicated to build up a line of defence. Here again, perhaps new miniatures will be added in the future.
Nevertheless, these 6 figures are of high quality.
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Good evening,
At the following link: ‘bibliodyssey.blogspot.com’ you will find ‘Baltic Heraldry’.
This will give you access to 24 coat of arms of medieval baltic knight:
LODE,
TISENHAUSEN,
ROPP,
BUXHOEWDEN,
MEYENDORF-VEXKUELL
PAHLEN-KOSKULLBREMEN,
UNGERN-STERNBERG,
WRANGEL,
LIEVEN,
ADERKAS,
ROSEN,
STACKELBERG,
LUEDINGHAUSSEN (WOlFF),
HAN,
ORGIES,
POLL,
FIRCKS,
MANTEUFFEL,
FOELKERSAM,
MAYDEL,
RUMMEL,
HOWEN.
The simplest are those that were available at the time.
Did they all take part in this battle?
They are known as the Knights of Livonia.
In Estonia, King Valdemar listed 141 lords. So far I haven't found the coat of arms of a single one!
Sorry
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I remember watching Alexander Nevskii early one Saturday morning when one of the two channels that existed for some reason showed such films as well as multiple different serials (Rocketman, Flash Gordon, Ray "Crash" Corrigan, others). May not have been historical, certainly was anti German propaganda, absolutely had a great soundtrack, most notably the battle on the ice segment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9wWedSZBfE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9wWedSZBfE)
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Very nice
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Good evening, gentlemen,
Thank you for the film. A bit retro.
Here is my first Russian pedestrian..: Druzina on foot (quality armour and yellow boots).
For the moment I still have to make the shield.
So easy to paint but be careful with the many details. It's easy to forget.
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A great warrior
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I went back and looked at all the photos from the books posted.
Love the pictures.
Excellent painting on the first figure posted.
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Good evening,
A few new items following my research.
The combat sequence is in the form of 3 crusader units divided into 3 groups.
Each group was wedge-shaped (triangle with the point in front), the front and sides were made up of knights and the centre and rear of sergeants.
The Teutonic unit consisted of a central group made up of Teutonic knights, the group on the right by Teutonic confreres and the group on the left by crusader knights allied to the Teutonics.The Danish unit on the left fled under the effect of the horse archers allied to the Russians.
The unit on the right, made up of the Bishop of Tartu and his knights, fled when they saw the Russian horsemen led by Alexander. The crusaders allied to the Bishop of Tartu had suffered some time earlier against the Russian knights;
This left only the ?Teutonic? unit.The Teutonics swept aside the curtain of Russian skirmishers in front of them (archers and various skirmishers). It was at this point that the knights really saw the Russian army they were up against.
The Teutonic knights had two choices:
1- stop the charge, but the cavalrymen will become entangled and totally disorganised in the face of the enemy
2- Continue the charge with the momentum of their horses and try to cross the Russian .
For their part, the Russians did not stand still;
Static cavalrymen cannot stand up to charging cavalrymen. They would be pulverised.
The Russian knights therefore counter-charged.
So it was really a cavalry battle that took place. Russians against Teutonics and allied crusaders. Hence the Russian accounts only mentioning the Teutonic knights as the enemy. The Russian infantry only arrived at the end of the battle.
A small number of Teutonic knights and allies were able to escape from the trap.
As a result, the Teutonic cavalry were overwhelmed by their numbers.
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Here are some Russian infantrymen. As a result of the above information, I will be able to make some.
Then my first horseman (missing the shield).
The figures are full of detail.
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Lovely stuff!