Review of Osprey Men-at-Arms No. 491: Armies of the Volga Bulgars and Khanate of Kazan

Authors:  Viacheslav Shpakovsky & David Nicolle.
Title:  Men-at-Arms No. 491 - Armies of the Volga Bulgars and Khanate of Kazan, 9th-16th Centuries.
Publisher:  Osprey Publishing.
Copyright:  2013.
Price:  $17.95.

Overview:
This is a good summary of the armies of the Volga Bulgars and the Khanate of Kazan from the 9th to 16th centuries.  It was interesting to learn about the Islamic states that existed in Russia during the middle ages.

There's are whole new figure range possibilities a company could come up with if people got interested in wargaming medieval Russia and central Asia.  The problem is where would the interest come from.  I didn't even know about the different Khanates and principalities existing in medieval Russia along the Volga river.  Or the different Finnish tribes that inhabited the forests of Siberia.  All of this is new to me.  The section on Ivan the Terrible's siege and the fall of Kazan was also interesting.  

I do have a Mongol army that that's only been used twice.  I wondered what I could do with it if I have a Muslim opponent from central Asia like the Volga Bulgars.  They put up a fight with the Mongols, but 80% of the population was wiped out in retaliation.  The successor state became the Khanate of Kazan.

Like I said earlier, I'm fascinated by the different states and tribes that existed along the Volga River and its tributaries.  But trying to find 28mm metal figure ranges to compliment by 28mm Mongols will be hard it in deed.

Never the less, recommended.