Warlord Games have put together a new set of miniatures for the Ottoman Janissaries in their game of Pike & Shotte. The whole collection is metal and provides you with two units of twelve men with different weapons...

"The Janissary Corps was founded in 1383 by Sultan Murad I to provide him with well-disciplined and loyal troops for his expansionist campaigns.

They were recruited from Christian vassal states of the Ottoman Empire in Europe by the ‘devsirme’ system of taking young boys aged 6-14 years and converting them to Islam.

These children were indoctrinated and raised in an environment of harsh discipline and training, resulting in a fearsome fighting force."

The unit sounds like a really interesting one and if you'd like to learn more about their history you can follow the link above to the Warlord Games page where they discuss them in more detail.

The set comes with twenty four models that make up two types of Janissaries unit. The first of these, in red, are armed with sword and shield as you would have seen on the box. You also get command figures too to sit within the unit.

The other unit are armed with long range weapons, the arquebus, and are led by a single officer complete with mace. In this sense each boxed set gives you a ranged and melee option on the tabletop so multiple sets would allow for a lot of flexibility.

I have to say this is not an area of history I'm all that familiar with but it is certainly an interesting one around the time where black powder weapons were becoming more of a staple on the battlefield.

Would these be your army of choice?