The dice delivered the Ottoman army into Tony’s capable hands and the Chinese to Tim and Myself to command. The terrain was flat mostly flat a few small hills but was punctuated by a good number of small areas of woodland. The points count for both armies was 250 each with 4 commanders.
There was no significant terrain features which would give advantage to any army deployed on either table edge, but the control and use of the various areas of woodland would prove to be a key feature of the game.
Tim and I won the dice roll for second deployment. Tony’s Ottoman cavalry were deployed on his far left and in response Tim deployed the bulk of the Chinese cavalry to face them but we kept the Chinese heavy cavalry behind our centre so that they could hopefully be used to engage the Ottoman ‘A’ class heavy cavalry unit which was deployed behind the central line of Ottoman infantry.
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Our battle plan was to keep the bow armed Ottoman Akinci and Sipahis cavalry occupied and engaged fighting our cavalry while our crossbow and halberdier units defeated the Ottoman infantry in the centre. We advanced our Chinese infantry line, but instead of advancing to meet us. Tony deployed his Azabs and Janissary infantry between and behind 2 areas of woodland. This gave us control of two thirds of the field but Tony now held a strong defensive position which we had little choice but to assault.
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The Chinese crossbow units were equipped with pavisses which should have given them an advantage in their shooting match with the Janissary hand-gunners and azab archers. However, the azabs held and our attack on both areas of woodland which was defended by Ottoman spear units also repulsed our attacks.
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The cavalry battle on Tim’s wing was always going to be challenging for the Chinese, but when 2 units of Chinese halberdiers occupied the adjacent area of woodland, this did help to restrict the movement options for the Ottomans and buy us more time in which to defeat the Ottoman infantry.
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My assault on the wood at the opposite end of the Ottoman line went extremely badly. The Janissary hand-gunners shot very well and the Chinese halberdiers and cavalry were recoiled disrupted. This left a general and his armoured infantry exposed as their initial success was soon followed by their destruction. Again, the Ottoman shooters performed well in the centre causing 2 Chinese crossbow units to flee disrupted.
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By this stage of the game our Chinese battle plan was already in tatters. However, we still had 2 units of heavy cavalry and a unit of armoured infantry which had not yet been committed in the centre. And, with the Ottoman commanders located towards both wings there was still a chance of breaking through in the centre before our cavalry were overcome on our right wing. I said to Tim, ‘lets just do it’ and we committed 2 generals and the best units we had left into the central attack. One unit of Janissaries proved to be a real pain, shot very well and held. After 2 very punishing rounds of hand-to-hand combat for both sides the combat dice had delivered our best units into vulnerable positions.
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The Quapakulu heavy cavalry were finally committed along with a general and this brought our central attack to a stop. The Ottoman cavalry were now beginning to turn our flank as the Chinese cavalry which had put up one hell of a fight had finally crumbled. Tim and I studied the table and surveyed the few options available to our depleted force. We gave the win to Tony’s Ottomans.
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Game Analysis
Put very simply, our Chinese were out-shot and out-fought throughout the game. When we needed a little luck with the dice it simply didn’t happen. Tony used the terrain tactically throughout the game and gave his Ottomans a sound positional advantage to deliver the win.
