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15mm Jurchen Jin Dynasty, 1115-1234AD
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The Jurchen Jin Dynasty have been made as the virtually eternal foes of our
popular 15mm Sung Chinese range. The Jin dynasty was founded in 1115AD, when,
with the help of the Sung Chinese, these Manchurian horse warriors rebelled
against their Khitan Liao masters and established their own empire. They soon
fell out with their erstwhile Sung Chinese allies, and campaigns for control of
Sung territory they had occupied during the revolt began in 1125AD and went on,
with varying intensity and constant changes of fortune, for over a century. The
Jin Dynasty was ultimately overthrown, after a long and hard fight, by the
Mongols in 1234.
Jurchen cavalry was very good and was described as fighting in mixed formations
with heavily protected lancers in the front rank, backed by lighter armed and
armoured horse archers -- some of these were unarmoured, others in the middle
ranks presumably lightly-armoured. For infantry they employed northern Chinese
and other peoples in light formations. There is also mention of a very heavily
armoured elite called the Iron Pagoda, which are often interpreted as cataphract
style cavalry. Some game systems allow these to be infantry, and if you choose
to follow that interpretation, you may wish to use the Polearm infantry from our
Sung Chinese range. (There was a great deal of overlap between the dress and
equipment of the Chinese and the Jurchen in this period.)
Please note that some of the mounted archer figures are one piece castings, with
the rider and the horse cast together (the ones shooting forward).
Models shown on this page were painted by Peter Kershaw.
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