Cossacks

One of the more colourful units I wanted to build for the Great Northern War were Cossacks. If you have read my previous posts you will already be aware that I like to produce units that have multiple uses, value for money I like to think, others might just say I am a tight Yorkshireman.

Cossacks are a good example of this. Traditional irregular auxiliaries of Russia, these can also be used as Polish irregular Cossacks or Ukrainian Cossacks. When you consider that Poles and Ukrainians fought on both sides at different points of the war then you start to see how useful a unit or two of these might be.

I picked up some of the fantastic Wargames Foundry Cossacks, sculpted by Mark Copplestone, from ebay at a very good price (you see value for money again) and this might mean I now have enough for 2 units. I do love Mark Copplestone figures, they are full of character and really suit my painting style, fun to paint too.

The above and below give examples of Cossack clothing, being irregular of course they wore whatever they fancied but there were probably some dominant colours, browns and greys with brighter reds and blues where the Cossack was able to afford it (Or loot it!) Fighting often against the Turk there was probably plenty of opportunity to loot some fancy cloth.