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….
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