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…..
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