1600 – Something: Crimea Again

 After the excitement of the Summer 1603 turn, it was perhaps inevitable that things would quieten down a bit. In the Autumn, the Spanish tried to raise resistance in France and failed, while Bavaria tried to reconcile with its own internal problems and also failed. The Muscovites, nervously eyeing the Swedish advance around the Baltic, raised a second army, based in Novgorod, while the Ottomans managed to raise two, one in Anatolia and one in Bulgaria. The French, still smarting from their frontier defeats, added an artillery train to the army in Burgundy, while the Danes moved theirs to Pomerelia, to support the weakened army there, which also gained reinforcements. Poland engaged in a round of diplomacy, while also suffering a corruption scandal which robbed the treasury of 2 d.

The Winter brought more rounds of diplomacy, and some deferred moves (if a move card is drawn in winter, the move is deferred to Spring). In England, another army was raised, although to what purpose is unclear. The random event was a mutiny. A bit of dice rolling established that the Spanish army in Savoy was the culprit, and the army dispersed. This left the Spanish position on the eastern borders of France severely weakened.

The advantage the Spanish have, of course, is vast quantities of money. They therefore fired 12 d into northern Italy and raised a new army. In Spring 1604, they also drew a move card and managed to rush the newly raised force into Savoy. There, they made a critical roll on the GOOS dice and were welcomed with open arms. Savoy has now applied to join the Spanish family of nations. The French reverted to attempting to subvert Spain’s internal stability, with some success. Further east, the Austrians, noting Ottoman weakness, moved an army into Ottoman Hungary, while the Muscovites, using their winter move as well as spring, moved into Estonia. The Danes attempted, without success, to subvert Poland internally, while the Poles raised an artillery train for their army in Little Poland and moved both to Greater Poland.

Meanwhile, the Ottomans were also using their two moves. The first saw them return to the Crimea, to challenge the now unsupported Polish army there, while the other advanced into Mesopotamia, to sort out the Persian invaders. So, two battles were on the books. The Estimable Mrs P. inquired whether I was going to run them simultaneously (I do have two tables, after all), but I do not have sufficient Ottomans for the task.

The first action to be resolved was the Ottoman counter-attack into the Crimea. This was a straightforward encounter between two field armies. The Ottomans have 5 spahi, 3 light horse, 2 janissary shot and 2 militia, while the Poles muster 3 winged hussars, 3 pancerni, 3 light horse, and 3 shot. I did not roll a great deal of terrain for this one: a road, which everyone ignored, a river, which was in a corner of the table, and a couple of pieces of marsh and rough going.

The picture above shows the setup. The Ottomans are to the left, the Poles to the right. The Polish plan was to use their cavalry advantage to attempt to outflank the Ottoman infantry, and, if possible, one or both of their cavalry wings. The Ottomans were to try to get their infantry into the Polish foot, where their extra numbers might give them an advantage. They have kept a spahi base back, hoping to provoke the Poles into a charge and then pick off some of the charging bases with the reserve.

The light cavalry clashed quite early on, with the Poles gaining an advantage. The Ottoman foot has started to advance, while so have the pancerni on the right front of the picture. Both the Polish cavalry wings have moved out from their initial positions in the hope of getting a flank attack in.

A sudden dearth of Polish tempo points left the pancerni advancing in charge range of the Ottoman right, so charge they did. One Ottoman base has routed, while the other will shortly follow. However, the Ottoman general has brought up the reserves to save the day. In the centre, the Polish light cavalry has defeated the Ottomans, while the Ottoman infantry continues its advance.

It was here that things went a little pear-shaped for the Ottomans. The reserves, even under the direct orders of the general and on the flank of the victorious pancerni, refused to charge. Nice idea, shame about the execution. On the other hand, Ottoman dice rolling in these last combats was poor.

Still, the Ottoman right was now routed, and the Poles were even starting to rally their charging pancerni. The Ottomans had started to waver somewhat, which added to their difficulties, while the Poles were starting to anticipate victory. Even the winged hussars were thinking of advancing, rather than just hanging around on the right and looking menacing.

The Ottoman general got his flank charge in, eventually, sweeping away the isolated pancerni on the Polish left, as seen in the left foreground above. The Polish foot and light horse, however, were starting to close in on the Ottoman infantry, which was starting to look a little isolated. Action was required.

Both sides had a sudden burst of tempo. The Ottomans galvanised their light horse to go to the rescue of the foot, while their left flank cavalry advanced to protect the infantry from the winged hussars. The general even managed to rally his cavalry from the charge, as you can see in the foreground. The Poles, however, kept the upper hand. One of the rallied left wing pancerni faced off the general and his cavalry, while the other rode down some light horse (from behind). In the centre, the firefight started, while the Polish light horse got the best of their foes. Finally, the other element of Polish cossacks kept the general and his cavalry under attack, preventing them from rallying.

The loss of the light horse base and a bad morale throw meant it was too much for the Ottomans, and they decided to withdraw. They had, I feel, been rather unlucky. The Polish plan was not for the pancerni to make an all-out charge on their left, and they could have lost most of it to the Ottoman general if the latter had not refused the charge. That would have at least evened things up.

Strategically, the Ottomans have been repelled from the Crimea again, which will look bad internationally. On the other hand, the European army is still intact and may soon have its hands full dealing with the Austrian encroachment. Meanwhile, in Mesopotamia…..

1600 – Something: Poles and Danes

The second action of the Summer 1603 was based around the Danish invasion of Poland. The Danes, in command of the Baltic, landed in Pomerelia, This was the result of long-standing Muscovite diplomacy in setting everyone on their borders against each other. The Danes had moved inland, and local Polish forces rallied against them.

Being local forces, the Poles were drawn randomly. This gave me a slight headache, as I drew 5 bases of winged hussars. Firstly, as local forces, I was doubtful that nearly half the army would consist of hussars, and secondly, I only have 4 bases. Another draw was called for, which turned up an army of 3 winged hussars, 2 pancerni, 4 light horse, and 3 shot, which felt a bit more realistic. The Danes, being a field army, had 5 cuirassiers, 1 mounted arquebusier, 2 pike, and 4 shot. I suspected that this might be an interesting mix of armies for the action, the Polish advantage in cavalry offset by the fact that a lot of them were light horse, and the Danish advantage in foot being narrowed by the quantities of Polish shot.

The terrain was a bit tricky, as well. Aside from the road, the Danes got the interesting bits, which also gave them a slight deployment problem.

Above, the Danes are to the left, their rearmost infantry regiment on the top of a hill, the foremost on the lower slopes. Their real problem is the wood, which has left their left wing cuirassiers looking a bit isolated. The Poles deployed with the winged hussars nearest the camera, covered by some light horse, and the pancerni on the other wing. The shot were in the centre, also with light horse.

The plan for the Danes was to stand generally on the defensive and let the enemy come to them, especially the foot up a hill, where I reckoned they would be able to stand against the Polish horse. The Poles aimed to get their foot into action against the Danish front regiment, where they reckoned a firepower advantage would tell. Despite the appearances, I did not think the Polish cavalry advantage was that great, so I needed the light horse to create some disorder, or preferably attrition, before the heavies could go in.

Sort of predictably, the wings turned into a very cagey affair, with neither side willing to commit or move into charge range. Given the evenness of the cavalry match-up, this seemed fair enough, and the light horse on both wings was engaged to try to create an advantage. In the centre, the Polish shot have closed in and are starting a musketry duel with the front Danish regiment.

A few moves later, and the situation on the Danish right, nearest the camera, is largely unchanged. On their left, however, the Polish light horse have succeeded, against the odds, in routing one of the cuirassier bases. The other is being withdrawn to the centre to avoid further losses. In the centre, the Danes have abandoned their defensive posture and attacked the Polish forces down the hill, with some success, although not decisively as yet.

It started to get a wee bit complicated. The Danish foot started to rout their foes, while the Polish general, sensing an opportunity, started to position a base of hussars to take them in flank. Seeing the risk, the Danes started their second regiment moving up. Meanwhile, the victorious Polish right has started to turn in towards the centre in the hope of further discomforting the Danish foot.

The above is a shot from above and behind the Danish rear. More of the Polish foot has been routed in the top left. The base of hussars we noticed last shot has charged the victorious Danish foot in flank and routed them (the Danish general survived), except for the left-hand shot base, which was charged and routed by the Polish right-wing pancerni. On the Danish right, both sides are still watching each other closely, while the light horse duel.

While great swathes of both armies flee, the battle developed around the second Danish foot regiment. The remaining Polish shot, now led by the general, attacked, not entirely successfully. Meanwhile, the Danish left wing cavalry, now in the centre, charged one of the pancerni bases pursuing some Danish shot and routed it. On the Polish left, things are still a bit static, while the Polish right-wing light horse trots around seeking a target.

Eventually, getting a bit desperate, the Polish left, although outnumbered, charged. One base of cuirassiers was routed, while the second base of hussars was repelled. As seen. The infantry fight was resolved by the Danish general turning a base of pikes onto the flank of the Poles, routing them, and also getting the general. Ouch.

Both sides were required to make morale rolls, however. The Poles were 10 points down and rolled for a withdrawal. The Danes were also 10 points down and rolled a withdrawal. Scattered and exhausted, both forces drew apart.

I suspect I made a few mistakes with both sides in this game. The Pole relied too much, as it turned out, on their shot. These did well but were never going to take out 6 bases of Danish infantry. They could also have made better use of their pancerni, once it was freed from their right. It was unnecessary to have both bases charge the lone Danish shot base they routed, and it left them vulnerable behind Danish lines. The final charge of the hussars could have gone better, but did, ultimately, I suppose, get them the draw.

The Danes were perhaps a bit too cautious. They probably did not need to deploy their left wing beyond the woods, although I was concerned about being outflanked. This was a correct worry, as they were, but it was not a serious as I thought it might be. They were also probably too slow to move the second regiment of foot up, which might have led to the unnecessary loss of the first regiment. Things to ponder, tactically, anyway.

Strategically, the draw means that the Danes are clinging to a toehold on the north coast of Poland, but the remains of the army desperately need reinforcements. The Polish field armies are, of course, currently employed in the Crimea, so it is quite a long march to restore the position in the north. We shall see what happens next….

1600 – Something: It Is All a Bit Crim..

In spite of multiple distractions, both wargaming-related (rebasing and pondering AI) and non (I do have a bit of a life which is not wargaming, you know), the 1600 Something campaign has now reached the Summer of 1603, and things have been hotting up.

Winter 1602 saw various nations raise more forces. The French replaced the army lost to mutiny in Champagne, while the Palatine raised a garrison in the United Provinces. The Austrians raised a second army in Bohemia, and the Danes a garrison in Jutland. The whole of northern Europe was beginning to resemble an armed camp. Along the way, the French critical initiative roll indicated that an advantageous diplomatic marriage had been enacted, which added 5% to their currently paltry GOOS score. On the other hand, the random event was a leader dying, who turned out to be the Spanish King. He was replaced by another monarch, with a new initiative roll (17), which made Spain a joint equal in initiative. The Poles got a move card, which they deferred until the spring.

Spring 1603 saw the French attempt some internal subversion in Spain, which failed. Palatine and Denmark were still busily raising forces, in both cases trains, because they cannot fit any more armies into their territories. The Poles got another move card, and so managed to move an army to the Crimea, with a supporting army in Little Poland. They made their GOOS roll with the Tartars there to boot.

By the Summer of 1603 turn things were getting a little complex. Austria tried some diplomacy, which backfired as a rebellion started in Bohemia. Even though the rebels got Bavarian support, they were outnumbered by Austrian forces, and a peace was negotiated. The Danes, being in control of the Baltic, moved an army to Pomeralia, invading Poland. The Poles, meanwhile, had subverted Sweden into attacking Muscovy, and the Swedes moved into Ingria. The English fumbled their initiative roll and suffered a diplomatic embarrassment, losing 5% from their GOOS score. And, finally, the Ottomans moved their army into Crimea, summoning the Tartars to their aid.

Given that the Poles had already made their GOOS roll with the Tartars, only half a Tartar army rallied to their overlords. The Polish army in the Crimea already had support, so it was 18 bases of Poles against 12 Ottoman and 6 Tartar bases. The Tartars were a card drawn army, of 3 light horse, 2 mounted arquebusiers, and a spahi. The DBR army lists have the segbans as dragoons, but given the Steppe nature of the operational area, I really do not believe that. Mounted arquebusiers seem to fit the bill better.

The Poles had 4 lancers, 5 pancerni, 4 shot, and 4 light horse, while the Ottomans had 5 cavalry, 3 light horse, 2 janissaries, and 2 militia bases. The Estimable Mrs P politely asked whether I had enough soldiers for the task, and I did, just about, borrowing some Mongol horse archers to stand in for Tartars.

In the picture above, the Poles are to the left. The Tartars are on the right, nearest the camera, while the Ottomans are on the far side with the cavalry deployed in depth because of the slightly cramped nature of the terrain. The Polish light horse and Pancerni, in their centre, are actually on a hill, while off to the left is another base of Pancerni and the Polish sub-general.

The Polish plan was to hold the hill, keeping the Pancerni on it ready to charge down it at any passing foe. The hussars were kept back on the left to pummel anyone who came close, while the shot were to hold the line of the stream, inconveniencing anyone who came close. The Ottoman plan was for the Tartars to cross the stream and deal with the Polish shot, while the cavalry advanced and deployed in more space, and the foot advanced to assault the hill.

The Ottoman plan went a little awry from the start. The Polish light horse, even though outnumbered, gave a good account of itself, and the Tartar horse archers were diverted to prevent the flank of the Ottoman army (their foot) from being exposed. Meanwhile, the Tartar mounted arquebusiers are crossing the stream while the Ottomans are failing to deploy due to lack of tempo points and the need to manage the light horse.

The way the ally system works is that the Tartars get 1D3 tempo points and the Ottomans get 1D6, while the Poles, being a unified army, get 1.5 d6. The Ottomans and Tartars cannot trade tempo points and have to make their own bids. This, on occasion, left the Tartars a bit short, and so their horse archers were picked off by some manoeuvring Polish Pancerni.

You can see some of the horse archers fleeing stage right, while the remaining base will not last much longer. On the near side, the Polish shot has caused some havoc among the mounted arquebusiers. On the other hand, the Ottomans have got their janissaries moving, although their cavalry is still not deployed.

As is normal for cavalry battles, quite a lot happened in a short time. On the Polish right, nearest the camera, the mounted arquebusiers have been seen off by the pancerni, while the rest of the pancerni, across the stream, have routed the rest of the Tartars, and have now turned across to flank the main Ottoman army.

In the centre, the advancing janissaries have forced the Polish light cavalry back, while suffering some disruption themselves. On the far side, the winged hussars have charged and destroyed not only the first line of spahi, but also the second. The nearest base has smashed into some light horse, while the next along has careered into the remaining Ottoman spahis, now with the general (who survived the initial onslaught).

In the next round of combat, the Ottoman light horse went down to the onslaught of the hussars, and the pancerni hit the flank of both the Ottoman militia and the janissaries, routing another 3 bases. This was far too much for the Ottomans, and the army fled.

That was a good game, and fun, with loads of cavalry hurtling about. The Ottoman tempo dice rolling was poor, and they never got their cavalry properly deployed, while the Poles always had sufficient for their needs. The only flaw for them was that the infantry consistently refused to cross the stream until near the end of the game.

In campaign turns, another defeat for the Ottomans and the rout of their army seems to indicate that the Empire is open for the picking. However, as the situation in the north has suddenly become serious, I am not sure the Poles can exploit it. Perhaps the Austrians, lurking on their border with the Empire, might take advantage.

1600-Something: The Advent of the Persians

Those few of you who have been following the 1600 Something campaign may have noted that the Ottoman Empire is coming under significant pressure. They are at war with Poland, and lost their northern army to the Wallachians. That loss sparked a round of diplomatic activity that led to a rebellion in Rumelia, which local forces managed to suppress. Then the Autumn 1602 move also gave them a Persian invasion of Mesopotamia. And this is where we have arrived: the Persians have invaded, and a local Ottoman force is blocking their way.

I have recently mused on the composition of the Persian army, and you can see it below. It consists of 6 cavalry, 3 shot, 1 militia, and 2 light horse bases. I picked these from my North Africa and Arab states collection, and I think it works, and is particularly helpful because they are all on sand coloured bases, which makes for easy recognition. The local Ottomans had 4 cavalry, 2 light horse, 4 militia, and 2 shot bases. Quite badly outnumbered in both cavalry and shot, I thought, but that is what you get from a random selection. It is, after all, part of the point.

The Ottomans, to the right, were in a sort of defensive posture. The shot and a militia base were on the hill on the far side; the rest of the militia deployed behind the hill to stop any outflanking efforts. The light horse was deployed up front, and the cavalry in two groups behind. The plan was to hold the hill and hit the Ottomans on the counter-attack with the cavalry.

With a distinct advantage in both cavalry and shot, the Persians went for a straightforward attack, with the infantry going up the hill and the cavalry in the valley. It should be said at the outset that the Ottomans had some of the worst combat dice in this game that I have seen for a while. I do not think that the outcome really reflected their deployment or capabilities; it was one of those battles that should have turned out differently, but did not.

It got underway innocuously enough, with the Persians executing their plans. The foot is advancing up the hill, attempting to shoot up the Ottomans on the top of it. The light horse is clashing in the centre, with the Persians driving their light cavalry forward to give room for their cavalry to advance. The Ottomans, due to a bit of a lack of tempo points, are sitting back a bit at the moment, and letting the enemy come to them, although they have shifted a base of militia from behind the hill to the top of it to face to onrushing Persians.

The crunch point is approaching in the picture above. The Persian fire has disrupted one base of militia on the hill, while the Ottoman light cavalry has suffered as well. The Ottoman general is bringing up some spahi to try to even things out, but he really needs to start rescuing what he can of the light cavalry.

Crunch was more like a bang, really. The Persian infantry attacked on the hill, and despite the advantage of the slope, the Ottoman infantry failed at every turn. You can see three of the four bases fleeing already, and the fourth hanging on by its cuticles, now downhill of the enemy. The Ottoman general saved one of his bases of light horse, but the Persian cavalry got to the other, and you can see it routing as well on the centre right.

In the foreground, in some better news for the Ottomans, their cavalry got the drop on the advancing Persians and charged. One Persian base has been routed (front left) while the other has resisted stoutly and, if the combat continues, it might go badly for the Ottomans if they get bounced. I told you the Ottoman combat dice were poor.

This, however, did not get the opportunity to happen. Both sides had to make a morale roll, and the Persians passed their rather easily. The base count for the Ottomans, however, was 4, which meant that their morale was a fragile 4 itself, and a poor roll dropped it to 2, a withdraw result. They clearly had had enough, and so the Persians were declared the victors.

That was an interesting action, I thought. I am still not used to cavalry-heavy armies, even though both of these had fairly substantial infantry components. The interaction of infantry and cavalry is interesting, too. Without pikes, I am a bit reluctant to expose the foot to mounted charges, so tend to hide them away in terrain. Thus, the Ottomans were up a hill. I seem to be in a bit of a defensive mindset, however, and possibly the Ottomans should have attacked down the hill at the oncoming Persians, which would have given them the advantage in the combat. On the other hand, they had already lost a base in the firefight, and I do not think the Ottomans had the tempo points to go for it.

Again, in the cavalry action, the Ottomans were a bit unlucky in the light cavalry combat, ending up with a shaken base, which they could not retrieve in time. On the other hand, they got the drop on the Persian spahi on the Ottoman left, but the day was rather summed up by the combat draw of the second base in its first round. Charges are supposed to sweep away the enemy, not get bogged down like that.

Still, it was a good game and not without its interesting points. Strategically, the Ottomans have now lost Mesopotamia, and the Empire is very open to invasion from the east. Even more worryingly for them, the Austrians are massing in Imperial Hungary, and the Poles in Little Poland. Still, they do have loads of money, and the rebellion is quashed. The next turn is Winter 1602, and we shall see what comes of that.

How Far Will You Go?

A long time ago, I wrote a piece on this blog entitled ‘World Wargaming’, in which, as I recall, I mused on how, as wargamers, we concentrate on those bits of the world which we find interesting, have information about the forces and wars, and can find toy soldiers for. This is all fair enough, I think, but it does beg a few questions about the scope of wargaming and also, how we (or I, in this case) might implement a wider context for our games.

As you might imagine, if you have been paying attention, this matter has been rather brought back into focus by the 1600-Something campaign. One of the things that the scope of that activity yields is an increased awareness of those forces in the world that did not make headlines, and which usually get ignored. This includes local forces, most famously the English Trained Bands, but most early modern political entities, I imagine, could not manage without them. It also includes political entities which are not much in the consciousness, such as Moldova, North African states, assorted nomadic tribes, and other players who had become minor by the time of the campaign, such as Mongols, Tibetans, and so on. There are also forces, the lack of which indicates a lacuna in our (or at least my) knowledge, such as the bulk of Africa and South America.

As I am considering extending the scope of the campaign to the rest of Asia, some of the problems have been highlighted. For example, at present, I am setting up for an Ottoman against Persian wargame. So far as I recall, I have never put Persians on the early modern wargame table and, at least in 6 mm, I am not aware of any Persian figures, at least specifically. And here we arrive at the second problem alongside ignorance: lack of figures.

Now, I have, as you may recall, used Aztecs already as Siberian tribesmen. It is hard to criticize, because few people know what they looked like anyway, and there are, as far as I know, no suitable figures. I also think that in a solo campaign, in particular, you cannot afford to get bogged down worrying about the specifics of figures and their suitability. As someone said to me once, ‘stop worrying and get the toys out’, or words to that effect.

As I have gone through the rebasing of my Far East and South East Asians, I have discovered some of the compromises I made in the past. Chinese troops crop up in a variety of places, particularly their shot and archers of various sorts. As it happens, my Ming infantry are a bit thin on the ground, but the same figures turn up in the Vietnamese and Koreans (at least), so I do feel justified in beefing up the Ming using them.

But how far can I go? If I need some extra archers, are my Wars of the Roses longbowmen suitable? If they are, is it just because they are 6 mm figures, and therefore, as someone once sneered to me, ‘interchangeable’? If not, then is one bow-armed figure much like another? What do we mean by ‘a historically accurate figure’ anyway?

For the Persians, I am, of course, refusing to be deflected. While I would usually mine the Ottomans for suitable figures, that is not really an option this time, as that is who they are fighting. So I have generated the army using North Africans. This might, of course, be a massive dose of colonial hubris. But, on the other hand, better to be represented than not, I suppose. The troop types are roughly commensurate – eastern-style cavalry (spahi), militia, and some shot. The shot gave me a few problems, admittedly, and eventually I delved into my early Renaissance collection for some WotR Baccus handgunners, who had already been painted and based for Grenadines in the Reconquista campaign. I have no idea of the state of Persian missile troops in 1602, and the specific mechanism of firing is less clear on these figures than on Peter’s more recent ECW figures. They will, in my view, do.

I suppose a lot of this comes down to how much, as a wargamer, I will let myself get away with. My ECW armies, particularly the infantry, stand proxy happily for most European states of the time. While the purist might object that I should, at least, change the flags, and they are probably right, that would, in my view, be rather gilding the lily, as next week they will probably be representing another nation’s armed forces. In a game with another human entity, I suppose there might be more objections, but surely the game is the thing, rather than the exact representation of an army whose numbers, let alone clothing or anything else, we cannot really know.

The final problem I have with my expansion, which is still the subject of some head scratching, is the map. I have my European map, printed on A3 paper, which is working nicely. I am moderately familiar with Europe. Moving into Asia, however, poses challenges, such as the wastes of Siberia and the vastness of China, let alone my lack of knowledge of the nations of South-East Asia. I am also wondering whether to try to print it all on another sheet of A3, or to have two separate maps with the respective edges having the same provinces at the join. I can foresee some problems with that, however, as missing invasions or opportunities along the join would be annoying.

As you may be able to deduce from the above, my rebasing project is moving on. The South-East Asians are drying from having their bases glued, and the last major quantity of figures, the early Renaissance ones, are started, or at least the first batch are. There are a few more odds and ends I have not quite decided about, such as dragoons (who do double duty as forlorn hopes) and some Indian and Tibetan militia, who look like they need extra figures. But, angsting about figures and maps apart, progress is being made. But how far would you go repurposing figures?

1600 Something: Ottoman Civil War

Autumn 1602 was quite busy. Firstly, France had to repair the damage to her armies sustained in the spring and summer. This cost 16 d, also known as the rest of the treasury. The Austrians, French, and Danes also drew move cards, while the Poles and Swedes drew ‘raise’ cards. The Ottomans got diplomacy, which I’ll come to in a moment, and the Muscovites subvert.

For the Poles, an army was raised in Lithuania to help guard against the Ottomans. The Swedes, running out of space as well as money, raised a train in Gotland. The Danes moved their fleet into the Baltic, presumably to forestall Swedish activity. Muscovite diplomacy aimed at causing trouble between Denmark and Sweden, and was successful, but not so far as bringing the two sides to war.

The French move was into Luxembourg, which was really the only frontier open to them, having tried the rest this year already. This required a GOOS roll, which, given recent defeats, I expected the French to fail, and I was wondering whether the Spanish garrison of the Netherlands, or the Dutch, would come to Luxembourg’s aid. I rolled the GOOS dice, and boggled slightly at the result – a fumble. A roll on the fumble table indicated a mutiny. The army, seeing what had happened to their colleagues further south, had evidently decided to spend the winter at home by the fire. It disbanded, counting as yet another defeat for the French.

I also rolled a random event, which turned up as an external invasion. The dice decided that the Persians were invading the Ottoman Empire, just to keep them on their toes, evidently. However, Ottoman diplomacy was ongoing, although it did not achieve very much, except to highlight faction in the Ottoman court, presumably in the light of the embarrassing defeat in Wallachia. The Ottoman internal diplomacy score dropped to one, which meant a civil war. A few dice rolls indicated that the good people of Rumelia were literally up in arms.

As the newly re-raised Ottoman army was in Bulgaria, there were only local forces to oppose the rebels, so both sides were card drawn. The government forces got 3 spahi, 3 light horse, 5 shot, and a militia unit. Evidently, the garrison of Constantinople had been drawn upon. The rebels got 3 spahi, 5 light horse, 1 shot, and 3 militia.

The government forces are to the left in the picture above. The janissaries are on a hill on the far side, with one base refused to guard against sneaky cavalry attacks. The light horse is on their right, next to the militia skulking in the field. The spahis are between two hills, wondering how it is all going to turn out. The rebels, to the right, have deployed their considerable light horse forces up front, aiming to face off the government infantry and win the cavalry battle. They put a lot on the light cavalry, but did not really, I felt, have much choice.

As you might imagine, the light horse clashed, although it took a while because the rebels, in particular, were short of tempo. You can see above that both sides have taken some damage. However, what you cannot see is the rebel general, because he was with the light horse who were recoiled by the command gun, and was a casualty. Oops. You can also see that the government cavalry has started to move across the battlefield.

The cavalry confrontation was a cautious affair, with the government general unwilling to risk a charge on the rebel light horse and find himself countered by the rebel heavies. On the other hand, even with his tempo advantage, the rebel light horse was still fighting. The rebels were, of course, having command and control troubles, but have got their spahis moving up in support of the light horse. Their problem, really, is a lack of tempo points to control the light cavalry battle.

Eventually, the government cavalry got into position. This was really a question of tempo advantage as the rebels were finding it hard to both move and order their forces. The government spahis crashed into their opponents. Two bases won, while the central one was bounced and is now fighting at a massive disadvantage. In the light cavalry fight, the government forces are gaining the upper hand, slowly, as you can see in the foreground above.

The final positions are above. The government spahis are pursuing their opponents on the right, while their colleagues flee to the left. The government light horse has routed one of the rebels, fleeing in the bottom right. The rebel casualties had mounted to 2 light horse, 2 spahis, and the general, and, on a poor morale roll, this was too much for them and they routed.

I am still getting used to these more cavalry-heavy wargames. The rules, even if I say so myself, seem to work quite nicely, even for these encounters which they were not really designed for.

The problem for the rebels was, of course, their unfortunate loss of the general early on. He was trying to get something happening, but ordering his light horse into action personally. That, unfortunately, put him in the firing line, and he was unlucky to be shot down. The rebels never really recovered their poise or coordination after that, but they continued to give the government a hard fight until they collapsed.

In campaign terms, the result of this game is pretty well ‘as you were’. The Ottoman government has survived to fight another day, which is, of course, the net wargame. This involves a Persian invasion of the Ottoman Empire, so it will, again, be local forces for the latter. On the other hand, ti will be a formal Persian force. I just have not written the army list for it yet. I do not think I’ve ever had such an army on the table, but I figured it was basically a spahi and light horse force, and could be covered by the resources I have to hand. I hope….

1600 – Something: Dining at the Savoy

The second wargame in the Summer 1602 move was due to the Spanish invasion of Savoy. There were good reasons for the sudden breach of a neutral state’s sovereignty, mainly that the French had, as you may recall, just been repulsed from Franche-Comte, and the Spanish really needed to open a route from Milan to Franche-Comte and the north (the Spanish Road, of course).

To the end of grabbing Savoy, the Spanish deployed the army of Milan, supported by their victorious army from Franche-Comte and the navy in the Western Mediterranean. This gave, according to the current rules, one 12-base army and two 6-base supports, for 24 bases in all. Hm. Twice the size I am used to.

Inevitably, the Spanish failed their GOOS roll, and so the Savoyards mustered a 12-base army against them. The French made an initiative roll and sent support, in the shape of 2 armies, Burgundy and Languedoc. So the Franco-Savoyard force also consisted of 24 bases. Hm. Big battle, at least by my standards.

I confess I nearly chickened out. In previous campaigns, the first army contributed 6 bases, the second 3, and subsequent support 1 each. Thus, the maximum number of bases on the table would probably be about 24 a side. I think I might reinstate that rule, but for this wargame, rather than redraw the army lists, I stuck with the 24 base a side scenario. Still, no one in the campaign has started to deploy trains or siege trains yet, which would add another 6 bases to an army, albeit that 2 of them must be artillery. It is only a matter of time.

The Spanish had, in total, 6 demi-lancers, 8 pike, 8 shot and 2 light horse, with 2 generals and a united command. The Savoyards had 6 cavalry, 3 pike, 2 shot and a base of dragoons (these were randomly drawn), while the French had 4 cavalry, 4 shot, 3 pike and a light horse. The allies had separate dice for their tempo rolls, while the Spanish had 2 dice for the whole lot. The allies also had to deploy their armies separately, and could not ‘trade’ tempo.

The initial deployments are above, the Spanish to the left. As a Spanish commander, I was concerned about the allied cavalry and so refused both wings of cavalry. The near side ones are on a hill, commanded by the sub-general. I was also bothered by the Allied cavalry in the centre. While I had a heartening number of pike, the idea of enemy cavalry running amok among my infantry was not too pleasant. The Spanish plan was to let the enemy come to them; after all, we are deep in Savoy, and it is theirs to lose. I also hoped, strategically, to rout the Savoyard army, thus removing any opposition in the territory.

The allies, with their preponderance of cavalry, were up for the attack. The wings would go in, the infantry would move forward, and the Spanish invaders would be ground to a pulp. The idea was that the cavalry on the wings would charge forward, while the infantry, outnumbered but undaunted, would attack supported by the two central wings of horse.

The Allied plan was implemented fairly smoothly. The light troops clashed, and the Spanish were eventually forced back. On the far side, the Savoyard right is moving up to face their Spanish foe, while on the near side, the French Millers have discovered they are outnumbered and that the enemy is up a hill. Neither side is prepared to advance or charge. In the centre, the French infantry are showing elan and closing in, while the slightly delayed Savoyard centre and left have finally got moving. The no-trading tempo rule worked in that it prevented the French and Savoy armies from coordinating particularly well.

Things went, we might say, ‘crash’ in several areas of the field more or less at the same time. On the far side, the Spanish lancers got the drop on the Savoyard right and routed two bases, while they were bounced with the other. In the centre, the Savoyard right has taken the chance to charge some Spanish foot, but has been held. The French right, too, had a go but was rebuffed, while the French infantry went in and were counterattacked by the Spanish, causing the loss of two infantry bases. The stand-off on the Spanish right, nearest the camera, continues, although as a result of a poor morale throw, the French have just fallen back.

Things became ever more complicated, and both sides had to start watching their rear from rogue but victorious cavalry. On the far side, the remaining Spanish lancers have either rallied or been routed, leaving a Savoyard cavalry base in the rear of the Spanish army, and the rallying Spanish bases in the rear of the Savoyard. The Spanish have detached their light horse to deal with their problem, while the Savoyards have turned their remaining horse around to tackle theirs. In the centre, the Savoyards have lost the base of cavalry that charged due to it being flanked by some pike, while the rest of the infantry are getting into the start of a big fight. On the near side, the French cavalry has got moving again, albeit cautiously.

The above shows the end of the action. On the far side, the Spanish and remaining Savoyard horse are facing off against each other, just out of charge range. The Savoyard infantry is making some progress against the Spanish; however, they have taken losses. The remaining French cavalry attacked again and, despite some success, was routed. The French infantry is seeing some success in forcing back the Spanish. On the near side, the Spanish lancers finally charged, downhill, outnumbering the Millers and, after a struggle, prevailed.

However, the loss of the cavalry caused the French army to rout, and the cumulative casualties for the Savoyards meant their morale slumped to withdraw. In fact, they were lucky that they did not get a rout result on their morale throw.

That was a good game, I thought. The Spanish advantage of a cohesive command probably gave them the edge, although I should have pushed the allied infantry harder into the combat, and probably kept the allied cavalry on the wings where they could have been more useful. Strategically, the Spanish Road is now secure, and the French government is going to have an expensive autumn repairing the damage to its armies. I will also have to work out whether resistance in Savoy continues. At the moment, I am inclined to think not, but the dice might have other ideas….

1600 – Something: Wallachia Defensive

The Summer 1602 move became kind of interesting (to me, anyway; I’m not sure anyone else is really interested in these posts and this campaign). In the west, Spain got a move card and decided that the best way to secure the Spanish Road was to invade Savoy. They had a fleet and the army in Franche-Comte to support, but failed their GOOS roll, and so a Savoyard army opposed them. Not only that, but the French, smarting from their defeat in Spring, added two supporting armies to the resistance. I had to think about this a bit, but fortunately, my notes indicated that the defeated French army was the one in Champagne, not the other two. So a 24-base a side wargame was in the offing.

In the east, too, things were hotting up. The Muscovites made their initiative roll and drew a subvert card. A bit of perusing the diplomatic table suggested that detaching Poland from its friendly neutrality to the Ottomans was a good idea, and they had a 55% chance of doing so. The roll was made, and the Muscovite diplomats had scored a critical success! A bit more head-scratching ensued, and the Ottomans declared war on Poland.

There was just one snag for the Ottomans in the opening of the war. The Poles sent their army south, no problem. The Ottomans sent theirs north, into Wallachia. They failed their GOOS roll, and the Wallachians decided to resist. So now I have a wargame between the Wallachians on the defensive and the invading Ottomans, who are not really interested in invading Wallachia per se, but rather in attacking Poland.

The standard Ottoman army under the rules and army lists is 5 Cv, 3 LH, 2 Sh (Janissary), and 2 militia bases. The Wallachians, being an uncontrolled army, got a card pick which gave them 3 Cv, 4 LH, and 5 Bw bases. An interesting match-up, I thought.

The opening deployments are above. You’ll notice that the Ottoman infantry is deployed in a stream. This was a simple mistake on my part – it was treated as a road during the whole game. I made a mistake, but at least it was a consistent one. Anyway, the Wallachians are to the left, with their bows on a hill. The Ottoman plan was to move the central infantry and their cavalry up quickly (using the road, which was not) to engage the Wallachians, while the column of cavalry on the far side looped around the wood to take the Wallachians in flank.

A few moves in, and the light cavalry is engaged on both wings. In the foreground, the Wallachian lights are under pressure, and the Ottoman foot and cavalry are moving up. On the far side, however, the Wallachians have scored a minor success against the heavier Ottoman cavalry and forced them back a bit. At the time, I did not think much about this; they would soon recover.

A few moves later on again, and the Ottoman infantry have deployed against the Wallachians on the hill, while the Ottoman light cavalry, having gained a temporary advantage over their opponents, strayed a bit close to the massed Wallachian bows and have been forced back. The central Ottoman cavalry has deployed on the forward slope of the central hill, guarding against any naughty flank attacks from the Wallachian cavalry.

On the far side, however, a very strange situation has arisen. After their initial success, the left flank Wallachian lights have followed up with some remarkable combat rolls. The opposing spahi are now, in fact, only one bad roll away from breaking. Initially, they were recoiled, which meant that the front element went to the back of the column. No problem, really. Then the front element was recoiled and shaken. Problem: Shaken bases cannot pass through each other, so the whole column recoiled and was shaken. Then they were recoiled again, which meant that they are teetering on the edge, doubly shaken and recoiled.

The Wallachian’s luck held. Their light cavalry on their left made another recoil roll, and the Ottoman heavies fled. The Wallachians now turned across the Ottoman rear, while the Ottoman general frantically redeployed horse archers to deal with them. You can see one of the said horse archer bases fleeing above. Meanwhile, the Ottoman foot approached the hill and was met with devastating bow fire. Not only that, but the Wallachian general saw an opportunity and launched one base of his noble cavalry at the infantry flank. The first time, in fact, the cavalry refused to charge, but the second time they went home, and the Ottoman infantry collapsed.

That was, of course, too much for the Ottoman army, who routed. It has to be said that the real difference between the two was a very hot combat dice for the Wallachians. Those left flank light horse were truly devastating. The two bases routed four Ottoman cavalry bases. I have never seen such a successful skirmish in my games, I confess.

Aside from my errors, that was a remarkable game. The mistake over the stream did not really matter, as it benefited both sides. The Ottomans got their foot into the game quickly along it, while the Wallachians charged across it at the end, so it balanced out. The Wallachian infantry was solid on their hill, and had reserves so they could have defended it from a flank attack. But the day belonged to those Wallachian light cavalry, who doubtless will become the subject of song and poem.

Strategically, this means that the Ottoman army, which routed, will have dispersed. Thus, the Ottomans are trying to fight a war without any armed forces, which should be interesting. The Poles, on the other hand, have to decide whether to settle down in Little Poland supporting the Wallachians, in case the Ottomans return, or whether to take the offensive, move through Wallachia themselves (hopefully unopposed, but you never know) and attack the now wide open spaces of the Empire.

Still, the next action is in Western Europe, with two armies that are rather larger than I am used to dealing with. I will let you know how I get on in due course.

Campaigns and AI and Stuff…

There has been a bit of pondering around the blogs I follow about the implications for AI. Heretical Gaming picked up on a post from the Battlefields and Warriors blog, both about how well or otherwise AI generates scenarios for particular periods and gaming styles. Having read the posts and subjected the generated scenarios to a little consideration (but not too much, real life keeps intervening and I’ve only got so many brain-cells), I suppose the answer is ‘All right, but not particularly brilliantly’. Or, in school terms, B-, could do better (possibly).

My pondering was interrupted by, of all organizations, The Bank of England, warning that AI companies were going the way of the dot.com bubble, which we all knew and loved from the early noughties. I have heard this from other sources as well, that basically the bosses for these companies will walk away from the collapse with millions of dollars in their pockets, while the suddenly redundant staff do not even get their final month’s paycheck. Welcome to the world of capitalism.

Mind you, that is not to say that AI is not with us to stay. A number of companies, I believe, operate almost exclusively online to this day and seem to turn in a dime or two, even as they avoid paying taxes on the same. The dot.com thing was a bubble, but the idea of online business remains. That suggests that the AI bubble might pop, but AI itself will remain, albeit a bit chastened.

On the other hand, I do fear there is something of a moral panic setting in about AI. It is a pain, as I know from my former colleagues who are still wage slaves in Higher Education, but it still can be outmaneuvered. I am still waiting for the first AI product that can detect the use of AI in an undergraduate essay, as well. These things often become a battle of wits and resources, as warfare often does.

Still, attempting to head back into the area of wargaming, I also read a piece by theologian Janet Soskice this week (for reasons which have nothing at all to do with wargaming, but bear with me). In Chapter 8 of her The Kindness of God: Metaphor, gender, and religious language (OUP, Oxford, 2008), she discusses Bakhtin’s discussion of the novels of Dostoevsky. Bakhtin argues that Dostoevsky created a new form of novel where the characters are not voiceless slaves of the author, but stand up to him, disagree with him, and even rebel against him. This is remarkably like characters in Biblical texts where various Israelites argue with God (starting with Abraham, but perhaps most notably Job). The point here is that the characters are not objects but subjects, that is, they are quite capable of doing their own thing.

I was reflecting then (ah, some wargaming content) on my recent campaigns, from the Very Mogul Civil War, the War of Stuart Succession, and, most recently, the ongoing 1600 – Something campaign in Europe. In all of these, the outcomes and moves were determined by dice and cards – initiative rolls, card draws to determine moves, GOOS rolls for reactions, and so on, let alone the randomness engendered by the wargames of the ensuing encounters. This gives, in my totally unbiased view, of course, a rather rich background to what was going on and the narrative trajectory of the campaigns.

So, the questions posed are, I suppose, twofold. Would an AI be able to come up with something like the back story to any of these campaigns, and would it be able to create a viable next move in the game?

I am not about to rush off and pose the question to a passing AI bot thing. They have, after all, been raiding my blog for training content for the last month or so (although that seems to have suddenly stopped, or are they just terminally bored by my deathless prose?). I have a vague idea as to how these LLM pseudo-AIs work, and I doubt if they would do a very good job unless I fed in the campaign rules and the diplomatic table, as well as perhaps the army lists and means of generating the random armies.

That seems to add up to a significant quantity of data to be input to an AI in order for it to generate the next move in my campaign. A LLM, after all, has to start from somewhere. I doubt if one would come up with the idea of wargaming a fictitious struggle for the crown at the end of the Tudor period anyway. That idea came from my reading of the history and some of the options available to the various parties. Now, an AI bot could do that, but most of the histories finish with what the outcome was, historically.

I suppose the result of this is that while I could load the campaign into an AI and get the next move, I may as well keep going with my dice, cards, and so on. It also keeps me off the computer screen and gets my imagination wondering as to how something came about, or what to do with an unexpected move.

And that brings us back to Dostoevsky, I suppose. As the WsuS indicated, sometimes in a campaign, the characters do the unexpected. Who imagined when I started off that the Spanish would win the throne after an English army mutinied because they did not like the ally of the main contender? The characters, with only vague sketches of their natures, certainly felt like they were running the show. An AI might have managed it, but I am not entirely sure how, nor whether it could have come up with a convincing reason why it happened. Maybe it could; as I said, I’m not about to rush off and try.

As with the dot.com bubble, and, indeed, with the moral panic about the ‘Google generation’, I imagine that the frenzy about AI will slowly settle down. It already has its uses, as online companies did in the noughties, but I suspect that too many people who are prophesying doom for the human race as a result, as well as some of the overenthusiastic commentators, have simply been reading too much bad science fiction.

1600 – Something: And So To Bedouin

We have now arrived at Summer 1602, and this time I managed to remember to roll the random event. This rolled up another raid (5 of spades this time, as opposed to the 2 last time). The dice spoke, and it turned out that Bedouin tribesmen were raiding the Ottoman province of Egypt. You might think that I fixed the roll to get the troops I’ve just rebased, but actually, I was honest. The Bedouin against a local Ottoman defence force, it was (there is no Ottoman army about).

Both forces being local, I not only had to draw up army lists, but also randomise them. After a bit of scraping around my list of lists and the DBR army list books, I came up with some likely candidates, and the cards drawn gave reasonable forces for both sides, I thought, not that I am an expert on this warfare, you understand. The Bedouin got 6 camels (count as cavalry), 2 light horse, 1 light camel (count as light horse) and 3 tribal foot. The Ottomans got 5 cavalry, 3 light horse, 1 janissary shot (turned out to be archers, actually, but the effect is the same) and 3 militia bases.

For a desert area, I rolled up quite a lot of terrain. I might have adjusted it, but I suppose that there is really no point in raiding an empty desert. You need to go where the stuff is, and, in all probability, you have plenty of sand at home.

Above, you can see the Ottomans deployed to the left. Their foot, nearest the camera, is on a hill, with the cavalry to their left, and some light horse holding the flank. The Bedouin, on the right, have their foot also on a hill. The terrain means that their heavy camels have been split in two, one between the two built-up areas, and the other on the far side.

The Ottoman plan was to get the foot into the enclosures in front of them and fight the cavalry action in the space to its left. The Bedouin plan was also to fight in the open space, but with camels coming from both front and flank. There was also a side order of the tribal foot on the hill joining in, assaulting the Ottoman infantry.

Inevitably, the action started with a clash of light troops. Of this, although the forces were equally balanced, the Ottomans had the better of the exchanges. Above, you can see the Bedouin light camels fleeing by the mosque, while the shaken light cavalry skulks behind the left wing heavy camels. In the centre, the Ottomans have, rather audaciously, charged the central camels while outnumbered, and, although they have caused some damage, they have been bounced. Still under the control of the general, these now shaken spahis began a long retreat to the hill behind the infantry.

The shaken Ottoman cavalry made it back to the hill, covered by light horse, their colleagues from the reserve, and fire from the janissaries in the field. This caused the Bedouin sufficient cause for concern that they delayed their advance to exploit the initial victory. Meanwhile, on the Ottoman right, the rest of the camels have ridden down their light horse. One base is fleeing, and another has taken to the shrubbery in disorder. On the other hand, the remaining Bedouin light horse has rallied, while one of the heavy camels has been disrupted by heavy fire from the janissaries.

One of the hallmarks of the game was poor tempo dice roll on both sides, from time to time, and some really poor (as well as quite good) Ottoman combat dice. Having re-read that sentence, I suppose that fortunes were fairly evenly balanced, and that what happened next was due to a general’s ineptitude, or my incompetence. See what you think.

The above is the setup for the disaster. The central Bedouin camels are advancing past the field, under fire but so far unperturbed. The Bedouin right flank cavalry, having seen off the Ottoman light horse, has turned across into the gap between the village and the rough ground. Meanwhile, the previously shaken Ottoman cavalry is moving against the Bedouin tribesmen on their hill. The Bedouin, incidentally, have suffered from a tempo drought and have not got their rallied light horse moving again.

The crunch, when it came, was a significant one. The Ottoman light horse you can see on the extreme left of the shot managed to disrupt the Bedouin camels in the centre, which moved into charge range of the Ottoman cavalry on the hill, who duly obliged, as seen, and the charge alone shook the Bedouin. Meanwhile, on the Ottoman left, the cavalry and Bedouin tribal foot were refusing to charge each other.

The problem was, for the Bedouin, that their front camels had the second line behind them. Thus, as the front line crumbled, they recoiled and turned to flee, which meant they swept away the second line camels with them.

Another problem was that the Bedouin general was also in the firing line, and inevitably, he was lost in the rout. With the earlier light camels lost, and four bases of heavy camels plus the generals, the Bedouin suddenly were at 0 morale, and rolled down to -4. They routed.

That was an interesting and actually quite slow wargame. Both sides were rather cagey in the opening moves, and that really continued. Neither wanted to commit their foot in the open with the hordes of mounted around, and the light forces eventually cancelled each other out. You can see that the Bedouin managed to reactivate their light horse in the picture above, but too late to play any part in the debacle in the centre.

It is rather good in the campaign, having these, as it were, low-stakes actions going on. The worst that could happen is that the raided state could lose the income from the province for a year or so, so in campaign terms, they are not that significant. Nor do the local forces involved gain or lose GOOS as a consequence of the action. But you do get some variety, and it was good to get the Bedouin and Ottomans out. The latter have probably not been on the table for years. Perhaps it takes a sprawling campaign to make it happen.