I’ve just about finished my Boxers and Chinese Imperials
for TMWWBK, just a couple of Jingals to base.
Here’s the penultimate unit, Tiger Men from Blue Moon, they
are very good figures and a pleasure to paint.
Although all the Tiger Men models I’ve ever seen carry only
a sword and shield in practice fire arms were part of their kit. Sometimes they were fired through a slot in
the shield.
Tiger Men, contrary to what we might assume, were high
grade skirmishers rather than do or die assault troops. Their function, often supported by Jingals
was to disrupt the enemy.
One of the things they trained for was dealing with
cavalry. In this drill the Tiger Men
broke into small units and formed tight defensive circles crouching (below
sabre reach) and covering each other with their shields.
When the cavalry broke up to surround them,
presumably slashing ineffectively, the Tiger men would suddenly leap up yelling
and thrusting their garishly painted shields at the horses’ eyes while cutting at the
riders. The idea being the startled
cuddies would shy away and unbalance their riders thus rendering them more vulnerable to attack.
I have not come across any such encounter between Tiger Men
and European cavalry but it’s a nice story so I thought I'd share it.
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