I could suggest several very good books on early 17th century wars involving Russia, but most of them would be in Polish and a few in Russian. Western historical research is in general very sparse when it comes to XVI and XVII century east european warfare (and a lot of what is ut there is particlaly based on some worthless USSR-era soviet historians).Miletus wrote:I'm going to have to find some good reading material on the subject
Lack of info on Persian history and warfare is another kettle of fish, but Ardaeshir can tell you more in that respect.
And yes- we definitlaly plan to have several versions of the Russian army, depending on the year. While the general troop types did not change in a drastic manner in this period, the political situation id. So for example:
1) The early army of tsar Shuyski opposing the Dimitriad impostors will be mostly Pomyestna Cavalry and Streltsy. No cossacks, no tatars and just a limited amount of levies. This is because its a pure "civil war" (aka "time of Troubles") central Muscovite army (and government) in essence. Its based on traditional court&noble forces, but lacks any widespread support. Don Cossacks, Severians and many outlying regions are very openly hostle twoards it, hence no troops from these areas.
2) Shuisky's 1609-1610 force will feature large amounts of western-style mercenary forces (mostly germans and some swedes) - reiters, pike&shot, dragoons.
3) 1611-1618 is going to represent the "later civil war" army - with numerous cavalry, streltsy but also numerous foot levies.
4) The 1619-1650 will represent the post civil war (and post polish war) armies of the Romanovs. From this point larger amounts of Tatars, Cossacks and again mercenary pike&shot and reiter forces will appear.
A separate side will be the "Russian Dimitriad Impostor" armies. These alongside traditional russian troops will have access to huge amounts of cossacks and polish mercenary cavalry.
