The dice gave Tony and Chris the Ottomans and Tim and I the Romano British. The terrain had already been laid out with six small areas of woodland scattered across the central area of the table and a road meandering across from one table edge to the other.
- IMG_1965s.JPG (71.87 KiB) Viewed 2785 times
The army compositions, both of circ. 250 points were selected to make for an interesting scenario where the mobile missile armed Ottoman cavalry consisting of 4 units of Sipahis, 3 units of akinci and a single unit of ‘A’ class Quapikulu would be pitted against a more mixed but quite mobile Romano British force. With 2 units of chariots, 2 units of horse archers and 3 units of medium non-missile cavalry, the Brits with the assistance of seven fast moving warrior hordes could use the wooded terrain to good effect. The Ottomans also had 7 units of missile armed infantry against the Brits 3 units of archers. However, with 4 units of ‘B’ class spears, the aforementioned hordes and a unit of Ballista gave the Brits a distinct advantage in hand-to-hand combat if they could make contact with their more slippery opponents. Both units had 4 generals.
- IMG_1966s.JPG (73.17 KiB) Viewed 2785 times
After deployment, which saw the mounted units of both sides facing each other, an early British advance saw the Ottoman cavalry with the exception of the Quapikulu quickly switch behind their infantry across to the opposite wing. Tim and I advanced to swallow as much ground as we could in order to cut the movement options for the Ottoman cavalry. This gave Tim the task of defending the gaps between areas of woodland with British hordes – not and easy ask.
- IMG_1967s.JPG (62.81 KiB) Viewed 2785 times
- IMG_1968s.JPG (69.42 KiB) Viewed 2785 times
Our British plan was to advance our infantry through the middle of the field capturing a central 3 hex area of woodland before launching our chariots and medium cavalry against the Ottoman infantry of their left wing. We aimed to catch the Quapikulu in or near the central wood, but we needed to capture it first. This turned into a far more difficult task than it should have been as some very stubborn Ottoman spear units simply refused to budge.
- IMG_1970s.JPG (74.07 KiB) Viewed 2785 times
With our central infantry making little or no progress the Ottoman cavalry were able to severely punish Tim’s warriors with bow shooting eventually forcing them back and between the small areas of woodland. We had little choice but to attack with our chariots and horse archers of our left wing and all went well here until Tony committed his unit of Quapakulu to support his Jannisary infantry. The Quapikulu destroyed a unit of British chariots and a general. What followed was a fairly even struggle with no side able to break the other. Still we failed to capture the central woodland through which we could send our infantry.
- IMG_1973s.JPG (62.73 KiB) Viewed 2785 times
With the commitment of another British general and 2 units of cavalry we finally eliminated the Quapikulu heavy cavalry and its accompanying general. Our British infantry finally pushed through the wood in the centre and the Ottoman general in charge of the Ottoman infantry of their right was pushed back disrupted with his unit causing major command and control problems.
- IMG_1974s.JPG (70.56 KiB) Viewed 2785 times
Tim and I, after much punishment and struggle finally had the opportunity to turn the game in our favour. We had only one round of combat before the Ottoman cavalry would arrive from the opposite wing to support their now struggling right wing and centre. The dice would either play ball or not! Err, unfortunately not, we lost the general and the unit of cavalry that had followed-up the disrupted Ottoman general. In the next Ottoman tactical move their cavalry arrived!
- IMG_1975s.JPG (51.07 KiB) Viewed 2785 times
Tim and I studied the game and the relative positions. We had 2 generals left compared with the Ottomans 3. We had severely mauled and pushed back the Ottoman infantry into the open ground behind the central wood. Unfortunately, however, our belatedly victorious infantry would soon be shot to pieces by the 6 remaining units of Ottoman missile armed cavalry descending upon them. Reluctantly we had to give the win to Chris and Tony. Well done chaps.
- IMG_1979s.JPG (73.86 KiB) Viewed 2785 times
Game analysis
The terrain did provide plenty of opportunities for our Brits to get into hand-to-hand contact with our mostly missile armed Ottoman opponents which we failed to capitalise on. Instead, we sacrificed to many of our own more limited number of missile troops in the middle stages of the game. In the end this was the key difference at the conclusion of the game when both armies had lost about the same number of units, but all the advantages of greater mobility, shooting and unit position lay with Chris and Tony’s Ottomans.
