A wargaming trip to Bodrum castle

 

Slowly by slowly I´m on the track of the Knights of Saint John castles, after almost 30 years ago of visiting  Malta. Now I had to opportunity of visiting Bodrum castle in southern Turkey. 

Some information on the military activity of the site: 

During the years of 1402 up to 1452, the Knights Hospitaller built in two phases the Bodrum Castle. In fact the task belonged to the Knights of St. John who built it in order to guard that tip of Mediterranean and its northern access  from Turkish expansion, as the castle faced early threats from the Seljuk Turks. 

Between 1453 and 1480, Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror launched naval attacks and bombarded the castle. In 1480 his fleet caused damage to the English Tower and seafront walls, but the fortress held strong and was later reinforced using stone from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. 

As Suleiman the Magnificent’s forces conquered Rhodes, the Knights surrendered Bodrum Castle in 1522 as part of the peace terms and its fortification process continued. 

In 1773 during the Russo‑Turkish War (1768–1774), a Russian naval detachment under Admiral Elmanov bombarded the castle and landed troops (~1,000+), but the local Ottoman garrison repelled them.

The castle was heavily garrisoned  and later was used as a prison (from 1895), with the chapel converted into a mosque and a minaret added.

In May 1915, the French warship Duplex bombed Bodrum Castle, causing significant damage, forcing the evacuation of prisoners, and damaging the minaret and southern ramparts. 

 From 1915, Italian forces briefly controlled Bodrum and used the castle as headquarters before yielding it back to Turkish control in 1921 (via agreement after the War of Independence).

 

Exhibition Areas

1. Haluk Elbe Art Gallery

2. Cannon Exhibition Area

3. Gateway Tower

4. Amphora Depot Exhibition Area

5. Southern Observation Terrace

6. Turkish Bath

7. Chapel (Castle Mosque)

8. Anchor Exhibition Area

9. Stone Artifacts Exhibition Area

10. History of Underwater Archaeology

10. Amphora Exhibition

10. Serce Limani Glass Shipwreck Exhibition

11. Yassiada Shipwrecks Hall

12. Spanish Tower: Tektas Shipwreck Exhibition

13. German Tower: Bozukkale Archaic Shipwreck Exhibition

14. History of Bodrum Peninsula and Halicarnassus

15. Italian Tower: Early Bronze Age Necropolises Exhibition

16. French Tower: Musgebi Necropolis

16. French Tower: Pedesa Ancient City Exhibition

17. Halicarnassus Eastern Necropolis Exhibition

18. Carian Princess Hall

19. Late Bronze Age Shipwrecks Exhibition

20. English Tower: Knights of Saint Jean Exhibition

The castle stood initially in a small island that had to be connected to the main land making it into an artificial peninsula. 

The 1st phase of the Knights of Saint John build created most of the visible structures that can be seen today. 

Best explained here, as the previous text can only be understood by the large numbers of my Turkish followers (which in fact speak a language that is not easy for most of the european language speakers). 

The 2nd phase of construction by Knights of Saint John saw a secondary line of walls and two more more small towers (Carretto and Gatineau). 

As usual with Ottomans a minaret and Turkish bath was added. 

And this is virtually the looks of the castle today, an impeccable work of art and a place of respect for History as the Turks are very good at preserving their history, even if part of it comes from Greek, Roman or Christian origin. 

A bit of text for the later events. 

 

A minaret of the Ottoman period was destroyed by a French ship during the preparation of the Gallipoli campaign and later rebuilt to the actual state. 

The most important parts of the castle - excluding its walls, obviously! - are the towers, each of the Langues of Knights contributed with one. So each of the main nations has its own tower: there is a  Spanish, an Italian, a French, an English and a German tower. The one above is the Spanish tower.

Another view of the Spanish tower.

The steps leading to the Italian and French towers.

The French tower.

Another view of the French tower. Its topped over the harbor and exhibits the Müsgebi Necropolis and the ancient city of Pedasa.

The Italian tower, the tallest of them all, hosts the Early Bronze‑Age Necropolis hall and the Carian Princess burial displays

The English tower has some nice heraldry and foot soldiers equipment. 

There is a moat between the two layers of walls. 

Here you can see the two layers distinctively. 

                 

The English tower with its Knights armor and equipment. 

As you're exiting, you may be passing through the main gate complex, and you’ll likely see the insignia of the Grand Master Philibert de Naillac (served 1396–1421), who initiated the construction of Bodrum Castle in 1402, together with the insignia of the Knights of Saint John. 

Next: Guadalcanal, part 1.

Impetus rules, Mohacs 1526 in 20mm (Part 2), The Ottoman army

In this second part of the Mohacs battle of 1526 you can see the Ottoman army. Models are Zvezda, Italeri, Lucky Toys and StreletsR. As usual there are plenty of conversions, specially on the Sipahis. This project is still halfway but all types of Ottoman soldiers are already here.

Impetus rules, Mohacs 1526 in 20mm (Part 1), The Hungarian army

One of the pleasures I have is to visit battlefields and then to model the figures, terrain and material for it aiming at wargaming the campaign. This Mohacs battle is another of these cases. I´m making these two armies (next is the Ottoman) for some years by now, using mostly conversions from Zvezda, Miniart, RedBox and Caesar copies. I also used some of Takács Krisztián excellent figures and hopefully will continue to do so in the future as this kind of army is never finished.

Impetus Rules - Mohacs 1526, part 14 - One more Rumelian Sipahis stand in 20mm

One more stand of Rumelian Sipahis for the Ottomans. This time they all got basically the same equipment, pennants and painting for the sake of speed as I had other stuff on the table. 

 

The usage of the same colors on different figures is as quick way to produce these conversions and get a somewhat diverse look. 

The horses and figure´s body are Italeri. Some, like this one, got an Esci head from the Muzlim set with a Greenstuff turban. Plastic shields  were glued and lances were drilled in the hands after squashing slighlty these last ones in order to provide a better and easier drilling surface. 

Next: The Dieppe castle in 1942

Impetus Rules - Mohacs 1526, part 13 - More Rumelian and Anatolian Sipahis in 20mm

 

These Sipahis are made mostly from the Italeri boxes of Mongols and Saracens with a few add ons and cuts. 

There are also Zvezda (sand colored) Sipahis and a Agha and new plastic card shields. The lances are plastic broom sticks and many of the heads got new turbans made of Green Stuff. Some Sipahis also got Esci and StreletsR heads. When visiting the Istanbul military museum I got surprised with the amount of beautiful and very large paintings depicting the Mongol army of Genghis Khan not also in Anatolia but also in China which shows the proximity that the nowadays Turkish (the army at least) feels towards the Mongols. In fact the Italeri Mongol box shows horses and figures clad in equipment that is also the Ottoman Medieval and early Modern armies. I was thinking that the Lasso would have to be taken out from the Italeri Mongol horses but while reading more on the subject I found that even the Lasso was also used by the Ottoman Sipahis. So these Mongol figures are good enough for the barded Rumelian (Balcanic mostly) Sipahis. The Green Stuff turban was added because of the muzlim influence and is naturally not placed on the Mongol original figures as the Mongols are whether Shamanists or Buddhists. 

The Rumelian Sipahis. 

One Sihlatar (red  headdress, similar in shape to Janissaries)  was added to both groups of Sipahis. I´m not sure of this but maybe the elite Sihlatar were added to groups of Sipahis in order to influence them in military prowesses and make them more disciplined. In several cinematic researches the Sihlatar are never shown in large groups so maybe, just maybe, they can be portrayed like this. The Agha is the beautiful Zvezda figure. 

The Rumelian group was easy to paint due to the metal barded horses and armour of the cavalrymen. Mostly red and green was used in the details. Painting groups like this in the same colors makes the painting process much easier. Other groups have or will have different colors making a large Ottoman force a very colorful sight. 

The Anatolian Sipahis have both Mongol and Saracen Italeri figures together with a few Zvezda. 

Blue was used for most of the details but the more varied nature of non armored horses and men forces the use of some more colors. 

Next: Angolans for 1987-88 Cuito Canavale. 

Impetus Rules - Mohacs 1526, part 12 - Hungarian Hussars in 20mm

 

Some badly needed light cavalry for the Hungarians (CL Hungarians or Serbians)  is on the way to the shelves of Mohacs (in fact transparent plastic drewers). The models are metal and made in Hungary by Takács Krisztián. 

The models have five parts, horse, cavalryman body, head, lance and shield. The shields, heads and lances are different allowing plenty of variations. Two of the figures had flag poles and I was also given two beautiful Hungarian flags. The horses were glued with electric glue to the base for extra sturdiness. 

The Hussars were the most numerous cavalry in the Hungarian army and a few more stands have to be added. 

Next: a bunch of pine trees for the Ardennes. 

Impetus Rules - Mohacs 1526, part 11 - Revell conversions for Ottoman artillery in 20mm

 

RedBox or Mars are really hard to find these days so, in order to have some artillery for my XVI century Ottoman army, I made some conversions on the figures of the Revell box of the 30YW artillery. 

These consisted on large Greenstuff trousers and sashes on many of the figures as well as several of  the obvious turban and Fez. The Fez was made by simply cutting the brim of the hat all around . As there was plenty of Balcanic influence in Ottoman artillery I left some of the figures with the original trousers and wide hats making some cuts here and there for it to look with some contemporary images.  

Here you can see (?) the GreenStuff applied on the headdress but not on the trousers and sashes as these ones were a later decision. 

Next: The British Infantry in Metropolitan uniform for Gallipoli. 

Impetus Rules - Mohacs 1526, part 10 - A batch of Ottoman infantry from Lucky Toys in 20mm

Lucky Toys have a nice box of Ottomans mixing both infantry (less the Janissaries) and cavalry. The figures are some of the best I´ve seen in 20mm and their faces are true works of art (Lucky Toys is affiliated with Caesar somehow). The figures are best for the previous century and for the campaign that led to the fall of Constantinople but they fit reasonably well for the campaign of 1526. My Lucky Toys cavalry was made years ago already and the swords and maces were replaced by spears, a more proper weapon for the XVI century. 

 

These heavy infantry figures belong to the Kapi Kulu corps and will be placed close to the Janissaries. Most of the shields were bent with fire for more frontal protection. I thought about replacing the axes and swords with spears but maybe i´ll do it in a next batch I find. 

These Yayalar were some of the most common Ottoman infantry together with the Azab. The figures with the spear to the front got a plastic shield. 

Only one position for archers but even so a very nice figure.

These two command stands have a commander thats transpires Turkish from all pores and also an European looking figure that may be inspired in the Balkanic allies.  

Next: WWI Turkish

Impetus Rules - Mohacs 1526, part 9 - Ottoman Light Cavalry in 20mm

 

The Turcoman archers shoot at the Hungarian lines with their own  'Caracole' tactic while protecting the arrival of the Akinjis. In fact the only thing noticeable about this post is the position of the Turcoman archers inside the stands. 

By placing them by side on the stands they can simulate the 'Caracole' with a central stand shooting its arrows and the two others mostly recharging and getting ready to shoot again. 

The figures are all StreletsR and all of them are different which makes the group pretty lively. 

The Akinjis in fact are figures from the Muslim Cavalry box by StreletsR but, with a different painting, stressing red and green, they make reasonable Turkish Akinjis. Most of the horses came from Italeri as the original migrated to the Norman army at Hastings. 

Next: More Turkish for Mohacs 1526 or  Gallipoli 1915.

Impetus Rules - Mohacs 1526, part 8 - Hungarian Clipeati and Armati in 20mm

Extra Impetus Nº3 mentions 4 heavy infantry stands each of Clipeati and Armati for a sizeable Hungarian army of the Mohacs period. The problem here is that generally the Clipeati formed the shield wall from were the Armati, probably armed with pole weapons, would fight in a somewhat tight phalanx. The extra Impetus separates both types of heavy infantry but I prefer to use them together in the same stand. In the future, if I see my life in danger in a game or so, I can always divide the stands differently between Clipeati and Armati. 

The Clipeati and Armati figures really look nice together and you can deepen the Impetus spirit of nice big  stands that look like dioramas. 

The figures used are some very nice Caesar copies ordered from China through Aliexpress. For just some 3 euros you get 200 1/72 figures in a poly bag which is obviously a great value for what you pay. The plastic is harder than poly figures and holds the paint very well. The figures were copied from some of the figures of the two boxes of  Caesar XIII and XV century Medieval European Knights. I only used here the ones from the XV century as they are closer to the Hungarian heavy infantry of 1526, even if not a match as there were also some different helmets and pieces of equipment on those day´s Hungarian army. As pole weapons are necessary for the Armati many of the figures were converted as pikemen. In the above picture you can see the original figure (armed with sword or an halberd) sided with the converted one armed with a pike plastic made of a broom stick. Many of the halberdiers were left with its weapon as its a very probable weapon of the Armati. 

I left all Clipeati armed with swords just because they look as if they are somehow dealing with the shield. The shields were made of slightly curved plastic from 1Kg yogurt buckets. This is an highly simplified form of the shield as generally the heavy infantry Hungarian shield had a vertical boss all along. They were colored with photocopies (the ones red chequered or with the Hungarian coat of arms) or hand painted like the tri colored ones. 

The back of the shields were painted brown and were kept standing just with one piece of plastic. Not sure if one or two legs hold these pavesi type of shields but like this it became simpler. 

Another 4 stands of archers were also made in order to finish the 8 that are mentioned in the lists. The flag of this one came from the Russian XIX century Opolchenie. Not the happiest union as there aren't many orthodox people in Hungary.  

Next: Maybe a return to the nowadays Russo-Ukrainian war.