The other week I had some time on my hands and started surfing the Amazon prime lists for a good film. Up popped The Emperor of Paris...period drama, European, Napoleonic, Vincent Cassell... hmm....oh but what's this..."The Conquest of Siberia" - 18thC, nice costumes, Russians...Swedes...oooh I'm in!
A god awful film that seems to be hacked together rather than edited and whose plot meanders and twists more than the river they sail down, but which is based on two true events. One was the Russian expedition from Tobolsk up the river Irtysh towards the Tien Shan and the the Silk Road. They bumped into a Steppe Tribe - the Dzungar - and were promptly sent packing.
But the Russians took with them Swedish prisoners who had been sent to Siberia following the Battle of Poltava and the people of Tobolsk included some Baltic Germans including women. One of the Swedes and one of the German women eventually made it back to Sweden.
The film is awful and only worth watching (if that!) for the setting, the costumes and some of the battle scenes. But it did provide an inspiration. I've been discussing Kalmyk, Kazakh and other steppe tribes on a forum I'm a member of. I've also got some GNW Russians and Swedes but I've never gotten "into" them properly, probably because they are Wee Wolf Miniatures (ex Footsore, ex Musketeer) and now only available from the states. The are big robust figs, tall and chunky and so somewhat outsize compared to the excellent Ebor and Warfare ranges. Now however I didn't need lots of them (I have painted some myself, and have some painted by friends (Hi Paul) and some more from Ebay), and didn't even need more Swedes.
But what about the Dzungar? These were a remnant of one of the Mongol Hordes and dominated the central steppe covering north eastern Kazakhstan down into the Tarim basin. They are portrayed in the film as very mongol looking horse archers and heavy armoured lancers. This seems to be borne out by some cursory research I've done into the backstory to the film - The Bukhholtz Expedition. So which figs do I get to represent them?
Fireforge Mongol Cavalry!
Relatively inexpensive, well sculpted and similarly sized to those chunky Russians...perfect.
This will be a skirmish game pitching some Russians and some Swedish foot with Cossack Allies against the Dzungar. I will use Pikeman's Lament or possibly Donnybrook, keeping it small and playable solo on the kitchen table.
And so another lockdown project is born....hopefully the last.
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Oh...and I bought more Swedes...π€£
