Loading...
 

Cuman

Cuman

Navigation - HomePage - The Rise of Rome - Storm of Arrows - Immortal Fire - Legions Triumphant - Swords and Scimitars - Eternal Empire - Decline and Fall - Wolves from The Sea - Swifter Than Eagles

Historical Overview Section

The Cumans were a nomadic Turkic people who inhabited a shifting area north of the Black Sea known as Cumania (nooo, surely not??) along the Volga River. They eventually settled to the west of the Black Sea and played a role in the development of Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Moldavia, and Wallachia.

The first burst upon the world stage when they came into the grasslands of Eastern Europe in the 11th century, from where they launched attacks and raids on the Byzantine Empire, the Middle Hungarians and the Rus, but in typical medieval fashion they also worked with the Byzantines, and at the Battle of Levounion in 1091 a combined Komnenan Byzantine-Cuman force led by Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos crushed the Pechenegs, effectively removing them as a political entity from the map of Eastern Europe. However they were not loyal to the Byzantines, and allied with the Middle Bulgarians and Vlachs during the Vlach-Bulgar Rebellion and played a significant role in the rebellion's final victory over Byzantium and the restoration of the Middle Bulgarian dynasty's independence by 1185. They also gave a slapping to the Rus even when the latter were led by the Great Prince Vladimir Monomakh of Kiev in the 12th century (at the Battle of the Stugna River).

Things weren't all plain sailing however, and like most other peoples of medieval Eastern Europe, the wheels came off the Cuman politico-militarys non-industrial complex when they were unable to put up an effective resistance against the relentlessly advancing Mongols, being finally crushed in 1238, when a Cuman and Early Russian army was defeated near Astrakhan. Previously, in 1229, they had asked for asylum from king Béla IV the Early Hungarian, who in 1238 finally offered refuge to the remainder of the Cuman people. Béla hoped to use the new subjects as auxiliary troops against the Mongol Invasion, who were already threatening Hungary, but when the Mongols blitzkreiged the country the ungrateful Early Hungarians instead decided to blame their new residents (as spies), attacking the settled Cumans and forcing them from the country, although they were invited back once the Mongol Invasion threat had receeded.

Some Cumans joined the Tatar Golden Horde khanate, others remained east and south of the Carpathian Mountains and established a country named Cumania (I still don't believe this), in Moldavian or Wallachian territory. The Cuman influence in the region of Wallachia and Moldavia was so strong that the earliest Wallachian rulers bore Cuman names (Tihomir and Bassarab I).

Using the army in FoG

  • A textbook Armoured Shooty Cavalry core with masses of LH or less well protected cavalry leads you to adopt a fairly standard game plan of harassment with massed LH, and a well timed heavy cavalry punch to break through weak points in the enemy line. Only one choice of terrain - steppes - means you should go for the IC to give you a +4 on initiative and make sure you can play on your favoured open terrain.
  • The limited infantry contingent is likely to prove more of a liabililty than a benefit, although 6 4-point LH might allow you to sneak in a cheap unit to boost your break point somewhat if the 40-point LH blocks dont add up to 800 or 900.

UK Tournament Results with this army

User-contributed links about this army:

Cuman and Hungarian Soldiers in the Saint Ladislaus legend including:


Allies

  • Alan, Later : Dates: Any Swords and Scimitars page 23 : Can be fielded just as lots of Bw/Sw LH, with optional Armoured Cv (with Bw or Lance) to give it an edge. 1 unit of armoured lancers or shooty cavalry might be worth adding, as it gives you a possibility of fielding 22 armoured cavalry rather than just 16 in the Cuman list. Having one or 2 units of LH allied as well would do no lasting harm, giving you a slightly cheaper general to boot.

15mm Manufacturers supplying figures for this army

Realistically you may well be looking at using Gothic/Avar and/or Magyar and even Turkish mounted figures for this army, possibly supplemented by Skythian type horse archers. There are plenty of manufacturers with such ranges. Do also check Byzantine ranges, as Cumans appear as allied troops to Byzantines and so may be listed there also
You can see some of the figures in the Pecheneg Photo Gallery also on this site

Image Image Image Image

Core Troops


Which troops are absolutely needed for this army, and what are your thoughts on how to organise, paint and buy them.

Army Lists

Sample army lists for this army

Name of Army / Date

  • Using asterisks inthe edit mode creates a bulleted list in the actual site
  • This is a lot easier to do than easier than setting up tables
  • For FoG I suggest listing your army in order or march
  • with troop desctiptions on each line, for example
  • 4 HF Armoured Average Drilled Impact Foot Swordsmen
  • 8 LG Undrilled Unarmoured Poor Bowen
  • Dont forget to include your Generals !!!

Include any notes you want here, including comments on how to use - or play against - the army.

Remember to leave a line before you copy the above section as a template for your own list

eBay Listings

UK Bookstore




Created by admin. Last Modification: Tuesday 12 of November, 2019 19:00:13 GMT by admin. (Version 18)
Page Loads for The Wiki
View Traffic Stats for the Wiki

The graphical theme on this wiki is a clumsily tweaked version of the very nice Faulkner theme from Demus Design. The good bits come from them, anything iffy comes from madaxeman.com

Some of the material on this site comes from Wikipedia. It is reproduced in both edited and unedited forms under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Wikipedia Affiliate Button

Any content contributed to this site is also provided under the terms of this same license, and by providing content you are both agreeing to these terms and confirming that any content you provide is not covered by any other copyright or restriction. If you are an author or owner of content which you believe is being reproduced on this site without authorisation or in breach of existing copyright please contact the webmaster. As this site is open for public editing, www.madaxeman.com takes no responsibility for the accuracy of content herein.


About This Site & Privacy Information

Google Search