Middle Hungarian

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Historical Overview Section

1308-1440 or, the list between Early Hungarian and Later Hungarian
This era of Hungarian history comes after the end of the period of rule of the Arpad Dynasties, and as Hungary was recovering from the shock of the Tatar invasions which decimated the country in the 13th Century. After a brief interregnum following the end of the Arpad line, the first Angevin king, Charles I of Hungary (King: 1308–1342) -asuccessfully restored the royal power by defeating many local barons and other rulers. In terms of wars and stuff, Charles led his armies against Voivode Basarab I the Wallachian Moldavian or Wallachian and defeated him. Rather boringly for a wargamer, he also conducted a mutual defense union with the Later Polish kingdom and Bohemia against the Habsburgs, but a rather cool combined attack by the Hungarians and Later Polish armies upon Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor and his ally the Habsburg Duke Albert II of Austria saw a crushing victory for Charles.

The second Hungarian king in the Angevin line, Louis I the Great (King: 1342–1382) was much better for gamers, and fought against the Golden Horde Tatars and Later Lithuanians, as well as extending his rule (as in kingdom, not tape measure) over territories to the Adriatic Sea, and occupied the Italian Condotta Kingdom of Naples several times, and was also succesful against Later Ottoman Turkish army at Batlle at Nicapoli in 1366. What Louis had in the "smiting his enemies" department however, he lacked in the "having male children" ones, and he died without heir, leading to a load of trouble - as you can imagine.

Eventually the country was stabilized only after years of anarchy when Sigismund (king: 1387–1437) a prince from the Luxembourg line succeeded to the throne by marrying Louis's daughter, Queen Mary. Sigismund had his hands full, as he also managed to become Holy Roman Emperor for four years from 1433 until 1437, King of Bohemia from 1419, of Lombardia from 1431, and of Germany from 1411 onwards. For wargamers the highlight however was when in 1396 Sigismund led the combined armies of Christendom against the Later Ottoman Turkish Empire, who had taken advantage of the temporary helplessness of Hungary to extend their dominion to the banks of the Danube. This Last Crusade, preached by Pope Boniface IX, was very popular in Hungary. The nobles flocked in thousands to the royal standard, and were reinforced by volunteers from nearly every part of Europe, the most important contingent being that of the French led by John the Fearless, son of Philip II, Duke of Burgundy. Sigismund set out with 90,000 men and a flotilla of 70 galleys. After capturing Vidin, he camped before the fortress of Nicopolis. Sultan Bayezid I raised the siege of Constantinople and, at the head of 140,000 men, completely defeated the Christian forces in the Battle of Nicopolis fought between 25 and 28 September 1396.

Using the army in FoG

  • This really is 12 good quality knights and a load of supporting cavalry and light horse - which are good enough to alsmot use as a Cavalry/LH outfit alone.
  • Dont bother with the average knights - it always sounds like a good idea, but you are far better going for an IC to help control the impetuous urges of the undrilled chaps rather than seeing your average ones lose heart and die.
  • Massed LF Bw can boost army size and help you occupy terrain, but with lots of mounted troops and a good generals dice, going for Agricultural terain and hoping for a billiard table may prove a better option than any foot at all!
  • The CRusade of Nicopolis option can make it a totally nutty all knight army if you dare.

UK Tournament Results with this army

User-contributed links about this army:

Cuman and Hungarian Soldiers in the Saint Ladislaus legend including:

Allies

  • Polish, Later . Date restrictions: None Book: Eternal Empire Page: 35 - Probably best as a unit of proper knights, and some Lithuanian LH. The mixed Kn/Cv formations probably need to be used in bigger numbers than just as this ally. The other way may be to take the Superior Crossbowmen as your mandatory cavalry - Superior shooting is always good.
  • Moldavian pr Wallachian - Moldavian or Wallachian . Date restrictions: None Book: Eternal Empire Page: 50 - Superior LH with Bw are always tasty, and are probably better than the Bw* cavalry option. A mass of foot bowmen might surprise someone if deployed late and on a flank



15mm Manufacturers supplying figures for this army

You can see some of the figures in the Ancients 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

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