Don't Throw a 1: AHPC 16 - Vienna 1683 - 15mm Ottoman Janissary's

Friday, 27 March 2026

AHPC 16 - Vienna 1683 - 15mm Ottoman Janissary's

!I'm still playing catch up on figures painted for the Challenge, these were originally posted, here, on the 15th March.! Ray

I'm carrying on with my Vienna 1683 shenanigans, but I've shrunk back down to 15mm once again.

For my army list I needed 4 units of the famous Janissary's of the Ottoman army. Two would be Musket armed and two would be Firelock armed.

The Siege of Vienna saw the elite Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire deployed as the main assault troops during the campaign led by Kara Mustafa Pasha. Renowned for their discipline and training, the Janissaries were originally formed through the devshirme system, in which Christian boys from the Balkans were recruited, converted to Islam, and trained for imperial service. During the siege they were heavily involved in the complex engineering work that characterised Ottoman warfare, digging mines and tunnels beneath Vienna’s fortifications in an attempt to collapse the walls, while also carrying out repeated infantry assaults when breaches appeared.

The siege reached its climax on 12 September 1683 during the Battle of Vienna, when a large relief force from the Holy League arrived to break the Ottoman encirclement. The allied army was led by John III Sobieski, whose forces launched a coordinated attack from the hills surrounding the city. The battle is particularly famous for Sobieski’s massive cavalry charge—often regarded as one of the largest in history—by the Polish Winged Hussars, which helped shatter the Ottoman lines. Despite the determination of the Janissaries defending the Ottoman camp, the army was forced into retreat. The defeat marked a major turning point, halting Ottoman expansion into Central Europe and beginning a gradual shift in the balance of power between the Ottoman Empire and the Christian states of Europe.

I've not named any of these units, but will call them by their coats colours.

The Green regt are armed with Firelocks

As are the Red regt

While the Blue are armed with Muskets

As are the Yellow regt

Usually with Beneath the Lily Banners foot regts are 18 figures, but for this specific scenario they are only 12's. I'll have to ask Barry, why he chose to make them that way?

The figures are all from Essex Miniatures, unfortunately in their Janissary Command pack, the standard bearer has a caste on flag, I really didn't want to paint the flags, so the figure went into the unloved pile and I bought some Janissary halberdiers and converted them into new standard bearers.

The flags are made by my good self, I found an image online, copied it over to Microsoft Paint, where I changed the colours around to suit. I have enough flags to paint another 17 units??? Gulp!

Points mean prizes, or do they?

Each unit had 12 figures, so its 24 points per unit.

4 x 24 makes 96 points!!

Ottoman Army under Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha

1st Line (Independent Commands)

Irregular Tribal Raw 12 figs

2nd Line indie command

Timariot Sipahis Blade, Lance Drilled 6 figs XXX

Timariot Sipahis Tribal, bow/carb drilled 6f XXX

Timariot Sipahis Blade, Lance Drilled 6 figs XXX

Timariot Sipahis Tribal, bow/carb drilled 6f XXX

(Already painted before the Challenge)