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.
No comments:
Post a Comment