Ottoman v Ming Chinese

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Paul K
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Ottoman v Ming Chinese

Post by Paul K »

The dice decided the players, armies, choice of table edge for deployment and first move. The rolling resulted in Tim and Tony taking the Ottomans and Chris and I the Chinese. Chris also won the roll for choice of table edge, second deployment and first move. So it was first blood to our Chinese without any contact with the enemy!
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The terrain layout was already set before I arrived slightly late at the club and consisted of open ground punctuated by a large number of multi-hex areas of woodland. The most tactically significant of which was a spine of woodland 2 or 3 hexes wide which stretched almost from one table edge to the other with only a 2 hex wide area of open ground in the middle. The deployment zones of both armies were effectively divided in two which would hinder the ability of the wings of both opposing armies to support each other.
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Our Chinese deployed with all our mounted and dismounted missile troops deployed on our right wing facing Tony’s Ottoman cavalry. On the other wing my very numerous Chinese halberdier and heavy infantry units faced a line of Azab archers supported by Ottoman spear and Janissary halberdier units.
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Chris was determined to out-shoot Tony’s bow armed cavalry and so advanced his Chinese crossbow units in a continuous line with all the Chinese cavalry following up behind. After a failed attempt to out-flank this slowly advancing line, Tony had little choice but to engage his cavalry in a rather uneven shooting match. Meanwhile on the other side of the woodland my Chinese infantry soon had its advance halted by good shooting from Tim’s Azab archers. My Chinese halberdiers were easily disrupted and forced to recoil, thus preventing my attempt to capture the open ground between the two large areas of woodland.
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Within a couple of rounds of combat it became obvious that my Chinese infantry were struggling on our left through lack of missile troops, whilst on the right Tony’s Ottoman cavalry were trying to hold against too many Chinese missile troops. The manoeuvrability of the Ottoman cavalry was restricted by the woodland but it would take time to pin them down. In the meantime, my attempts to engage Tim’s infantry head-on in hand-to-hand combat was constantly frustrated by the Azab bowmen. My infantry losses soon mounted and Tim effectively blocked the open hexes separating my infantry from Chris’s Chinese cavalry.
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By the time the cavalry shooting match drew to a close with Chris shooting and disrupting the Akinci light cavalry before finishing them of with a charge from the Chinese medium cavalry, my Chinese infantry was almost defeated. The ‘A’ class Ottoman Quapikulu cavalry plus a general had delivered most of the damage and when they disrupted my last unit of Chinese armoured infantry and a general I thought we were done! However, just sometimes the dice can come to one’s aid and a double 6 in the next round of combat saved their bacon. The Ottoman heavy cavalry followed-up my recoiling infantry into woodland hexes where they would fight as if disrupted.
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This lucky break bought Chris much needed time in which to take on and defeat some of Tim’s infantry including the Janissary units. This in turn cleared the way for the two Chinese heavy cavalry units to finally navigate the 2 hex gap between the woods and come to my aid. These heavy units had so far had a very easy game so far with there mounts having little to do but eat grass! Tim’s Janissaries were eventually defeated in the woods but his Ottoman spear units and Azab archers accompanied by two generals were still ready and waiting to take on the Chinese cavalry.
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With both armies now whittled down to barely a third of their original strength, in what had turned into a long 2 and a half our game, the end came very swiftly. The Chinese heavy cavalry unit accompanied by a general charged and engaged 2 Ottoman spear units accompanied by the last 2 remaining Ottoman generals. The resulting hand-to-hand combat resulted in both the Ottoman units recoiling disrupted. This effectively meant that they were both doomed and just awaiting a certain execution in the last and final round of combat – game over!
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Game Analysis

To call this game a close would be a massive understatement and so I suppose an extremely marginal Chinese victory would be a fairer description. The wooded terrain hampered both sides and extended the game time as neither side could manouvouyre fast enough to deliver a final game winning blow. In the end slightly more luck with the dice at key points delivered a result for the Chinese, but this game could have just as easily gone to the Ottomans.
Kind regards
Paul

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