Central Asian Turkish, 550AD to 1330AD

 Book 3, List 11

It will come as no surprise that this army grew out of a collection of LH used as allied contingents and such like for the Han and Patrician armies. It is a bunch of Essex, Irregular and unknown manufacturer Hunnic, Alan, Turkish, etc. horsemen for the LH with Essex and unknown figures for the V and similar types. When using the Uighur option with it's infantry contingent I also use the Essex spearmen and crossbowmen from the Han army plus some generic Ps bowmen figures of uncertain origin.

I started to use them as Central Asian Turks rather than any other nomad type army because I liked the look of the list, wanted an irregular army, but couldn't face an irregular infantry army, and the list covers a large time span allowing many historical match-ups. It also has a couple of interesting variations by allowing Central Asian City State allies on one hand and the Uighurs having a substantial infantry contingent , but only having LH(F), on the other. Other allies include Tibetans, Umayyid Arabs and Khitan-Liao, none of which I have ever used. Of these the Khitan-Liao offers the least to supplement the Turks whilst the Umayyid offers the possibility of an infantry contingent; however, the Uighurs probably do it better. The Tibetans, whilst only providing Kn(X) may be the best bet, especially as these can dismount as Sp(S) if required.

The basic Turkish variant of this list has all the obvious strengths of any army based on LH(S) and Cv(S) with the weakness of no killer troops, especially when fighting infantry. Remember the Cv(O) is an option if you think your Cv will need to be 2 deep. However, the Central Asian City State allies can provide a good number of Kn(F) which can remedy this, but of course then bring the usual command and control problems associated with Irr Kn and Irr generals. Although irregular, its troop types make it the next best thing to a regular army as they avoid most PIP penalties for movement and are very tough. As with most all mounted armies this has quite low numbers of elements, however, this is offset by the fact that they fight in 1 rank, are manoeuverable and has been mentioned are tough. Supporting infantry able to contest bad terrain is limited to 0 - 12 Irr Ps(O) or Bw(I) with another 8 Hd(O) available as filler.

The Uighur variation of the list offers an interesting alternative. Whilst it's LH drop from (S) to (F) it gains a very significant infantry force of Sp(I) and Bw(I)/Ps(O) - with the latter Ps able to provide support for the Sp. As you can still choose a Turkish allied contingent of another nation you can keep one command that has LH(S) for those areas where you need this resilience. However, a small Tibetan allied command, whilst expensive, is probably the best bet to use with the Uighurs.

Battles with the Turks, not surprisingly, usually revolve around manoeuvre for advantage and flanks often whilst delaying a significant portion of the oppositions force with screening LH. This means that the army is best suited for open terrain in the most part. The exception to this is when the opposition is likely to be so large that flanks will be very hard to come by. In these cases terrain that can channel them can be a good thing, however, as positioning is random this is a 2 edged strategy. In these cases the better option is probably the flank march and I've found it quite useful to have a smallish command of LH(S) led by a LH(S) general ready for this - mobile baggage with this command can reduce the chances of your opponent working out that there is a flank march until the game has begun. Bad terrain that your opponent can utilize is a problem for this army, it has next to no troops able to contest this in any strength. In these cases screening it off is the common option, possible assisted by a few suicide Ps to force your opponent to spend PIPs.

The Uighurs have different issues to address. Their stock LH is less resilient than the LH(S) of other Turks but more manoeuverable - so this is what you emphasize with this army's LH. Of course, as the LH is cheaper than normal you may have more to play with and possibly more Cv(S)/(O) as well. But the big difference is the infantry which can provide the rock around which the mounted troops operate. However, being Irr in an Irr army do not expect them to dash around, so initial deployment of them is vital. A bonus is that now Bw move at 100p they move as slowly as the Sp which relieves some of the PIP drain when moving the infantry when the Bw option is taken. As mentioned above always consider an allied Turkish command with the Uighurs as a bunch of LH(S) supported by a few Cv(S) can be relied on to hold a flank for a reasonable length of time.

gokturk.txt - is a 400AP Turkish army, 4 commands with City State ally.

uighur3command.txt - is a 400AP Uighur army, 3 commands lots of infantry.

uighur.txt - is a 400AP Uighur army, 4 commands with Turkish ally. Better than the above Uighur list.

gokturk500ap.txt - a 500AP army with a City State ally with Kn(F).

uighurforepsomdoubles.txt - a 500AP doubles army used at Epsom in 2001, Uighur with Tibetan allies.

uighur400apwithtibetans.txt - a 400AP version of the above.

uighur300ap.txt - a 300AP test army.

uighur400apwithturks.txt - a 400AP version with Turks instead of Tibetans, probably a good alternative as the LH(S) can surprise opponents.