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.
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