1600 – Something: Stirring in the East

After the excitement of Spring and Summer 1604, Autumn was rather quiet. Bavaria managed to fumble its initiative roll and suffered a diplomatic embarrassment, while the Poles raised another army. The French indulged in a little diplomacy, while the Muscovites were having a few problems. Their defeated army from the previous move had been forced back into Latvia, which is not Muscovite territory, and they did not have the finances to replace the lost bases, so it was an army that was at half strength anyway. Fortunately, before this got even more complicated, they got a move card and decided to merge the defeated army from Estonia into the one that was the support army for the original fight. So the Latvian force moved to Novgorod and became a train unit.

Winter 1604 saw the massive expansion of the map, as seen above. Europe is the left-hand side, above, with all the pins stuck in it. Eurasia east of the Urals is to the right, with few pins, at least until we get to south-east Asia, which is a bit of an armed camp. Persia, India, and China are quite demilitarised at this point. We will see how long that lasts.

Still, the changes to the campaign rules were minimal, largely consisting of lists of countries and their provinces, their strategic aims, and the initial locations of military forces. The East has, of course, its own diplomatic table, and the scruffy bit of paper pinned in the middle of the board is the overlap table, consisting of the Persians and Ottomans (who happen to be at war). The rules do incorporate possible raids by early colonial forces – Portuguese, Dutch, and possibly English, but I have not quite worked out how to incorporate these fully. Hopefully, I will have an idea soon.

There are rules for various raiders and unruliness in some parts of the continent. The Circassians, Tartars, Cossacks, Mongols, Tibetans, and Jurchen are all capable of having civil wars or invading somewhere contiguous if they have a mind. They are not ‘active powers’, but I am hoping they will have a disruptive effect. Mongols are also available for hire by China and the Moguls.

Still, with now 22 active powers, the rolling and card turning took a little longer. The Spanish raised a garrison in the Netherlands, while the Cambodians raised a second army. Laos raised a garrison, and Korea raised an army. The Vietnamese got a move card, which was deferred to spring. In random events, the Ottoman Emperor died, while Farsistan was hit by plague. The unruliness roll revealed that there was some disturbance among the Mongols in the summer of 1605.

Moving on to Spring 1605, a lot of diplomacy erupted. Poland, Persia, and Siam all raised extra armies. The Muscovites moved back into Estonia while the Laotians invaded Luang Prabang. They failed their GOOS score and so have to face a scratch local force. There was no random event in the West, but in the East the Jurchen invaded. This was resolved as the Jiang invading Haixi. Three wargames, therefore, and I had managed to forget the Vietnamese.

Both Jurchen armies (I decided to start at the east end and work my way west) were card drawn. The Jiang got 5 cavalry and 7 light horse, while the Haixi got 4 cavalry and 8 light horse. The table was very simple, the steppe only broken by a road and a hill.

I confess that this wargame stretched my resources of Mongols. The Jiang are to the right, drawn from my Mongol hordes, while the Haixi have had to accumulate a scratch light cavalry force from various sources – Cossacks, Tartars, and even a few Serbo-Croat hussars (I suppose I could have used Ottomans instead). The Haixi cavalry formation nearest the camera is on top of the hill.

The Haixi had the better of the opening skirmishes. As you can see above, the light horse have inflicted some damage on their opposite numbers, so much so that the Jiang heavy cavalry has had to move forward to provide a shield for the shaken lights.

Unfortunately for the Haixi, their tempo dice deserted them, leaving the general unable to control the light cavalry anymore. The first problem is shown above; the central Haixi lights simply did not move out of the way of the Jiang heavies and were ridden down. You can see the remnants fleeing past the Haixi heavy cavalry to the left.

Things did not get much better for the Haixi. The command disruption from a poor morale roll meant that their left flank light cavalry were the next caught by Jiang cavalry, and you can see their destruction starting on the far side, although one base has fought off the Jiang. In the centre, the Jiang heavy cavalry has withdrawn slightly to get out of the Haixi horse-shoe death trap of light cavalry.

The Jiang managed to get much of their light cavalry into action again, while their right wing saw off the Haixi left. In the centre, an exasperated Haixi general has brought up the heavy cavalry, but the losses have, again, caused command disruption and everything is starting to look a little parlous.

Again, the dice gods were not kind to the Haixi. The Jiang light cavalry saw off another Haixi light base (fleeing left front), while the Jiang cavalry got the drop on the Haixi and have started to demolish the centre. At this point, perhaps mercifully, the morale roll gave the Haixi a rout result.

That was very interesting. I am really not used to these all-cavalry armies, and to have two, not quite mirror images, was fascinating. In the end, it all came down to the Haixi not managing to get enough tempo to continue the light cavalry battle. One thing I have discovered is that you need quite a lot of tempo to keep the light cavalry going, pulling shaken bases out of line, re-ordering recoiled bases, and so on. On the other hand, I have also discovered that getting the general involved in the skirmish is risky, and neither general did that this action.

I am not sure what the result of this battle will be. The Jiang have now conquered another province, but they are not quite players yet. I will bear it in mind, and of course, Nurhaci lives to fight another day.

1600 – Something: Estonia

Next up in the 1600 – Something battles is a game which is a little different, in that it does not include the Ottomans. Believably, it is the Swedes against the Muscovites. Those of you who have kept up with the narrative so far will know that the Danes, Poles, Swedes, and Muscovites have been, so to speak, winding each other up all campaign so far. Northern Europe has the highest density of armed forces on the map. The Danes, as has been recounted, have invaded Poland, and now the Swedes have attacked Muscovite forces in Estonia.

The Swedes have support from their own fleet, while the Muscovites have back-up from their second army. The forces are therefore both of 18 bases. Examination of the ‘Early Vasa’ DBR army list suggested that, basically, the forces were all either shot or cavalry. A basic force would have 6 cuirassiers and 6 shot, so the augmented force has 9 bases of each. The Muscovites have a more mixed force, of cavalry, Cossacks, two varieties of shot (streltsi and Cossack), and some Cossack spearmen. I suspect that the term ‘Cossack’ for all but the light horse is a bit of a misnomer, as these were urban forces, rather than the free-ranging runaways of the south.

The terrain rolling was interesting a productive. I got quite a lot of terrain for Eastern Europe, but no hills. Plenty of rough going, marshes, and a stream. In fact, I rolled a river and two streams, but had to rationalise. The Muscovite position, in particular, was a bit cramped, and that did cause problems.

The battlefield is shown above. The Swedes are to the left, infantry to the front and centre, cavalry on the wings, and in reserve. The Swedish plan was to attack with the shot, while the cavalry held the wings and deterred the Cossacks. To the right, the Muscovites deployed their infantry in the centre, with much of the cavalry on their right, the only means by which I could see to get them into reasonably open terrain. The Cossack horse are to the left, right, and centre, aiming to evade the Swedes and get to their baggage. This was probably a mistake on my part, but I could not see much future for them harassing the shot. They would (and, in part, did) just get blown away.

I made a few errors in the game setup, which affected both sides equally. I did not put enough baggage out for 1.5 armies on either side, and both sides should have had a least a sub-general, if not an extra d3 tempo roll. But neither side got these, although their camps grew magically after a couple of moves. The only effect was to slow the start of the game, really, as both sides struggled for tempo and were slow to get going.

After a few moves, the Swedish foot has got going. The Cossacks covering the Muscovite foot have been shaken and recoiled, while the Swedish shot is opening up on the Muscovites. In the left foreground, the Cossack left has crossed the stream but is being blocked by some cuirassiers.

There really is not a lot you can do with an attack by musketeers except get going and keep going, and that is exactly what the Swedes did, perhaps half a century before Ga-Pa tactics were invented. All the general can do is concentrate the firepower as much as possible and keep going, hoping for a lucky break.

The Swedes did get at least a partial lucky break. The streltsi by the rough going in the centre were put to flight by the firepower of a couple of Swedish bases. The Muscovites got an influx of tempo, and have started to move their cavalry around on the far side, and have also sent forward some more shot to patch up the centre. The general has also moved from the head of the reserve to the front line, opposing the Swedish general.

The infantry battle was pretty desperate, I have to admit. Above, the Muscovites have broken into different sections, and the Swedes, too, are getting a bit scattered. The Cossack spearmen are holding out easily against the Swedes, but the general and his base are driving them back. On the other hand, more Swedish foot are arriving. On the Swedish left, a base of cuirassiers has taken the opportunity to charge some Muscovite cavalry. This should have been easy, but in fact, despite the damage they inflicted, they landed up bounced. But the Muscovites could not exploit this, for reasons which will become apparent in the next picture.

Above, you can see some more Muscovite foot fleeing in various directions. There is also a Swedish base routing top left. This was the base being driven back in the last photograph, but the Swedish general survived the rout. He was parked with the next Swedish foot and drove back into the fray, this time routing the forward Muscovite foot and attached general. The Muscovite general did not survive, and their morale went to ‘fall back’, which they have just done.

Flushed with success, the Swedes followed up, although without much initial success except for further firefights. On their left flank, the cavalry charged again against the shaken Muscovite horse. They were bounced again. However, their colleagues then charged through the shaken base and routed their counterparts, who swept away a stray base that was too close. This was too much for the Muscovites, whose morale hit withdraw.

Well, that was a bit different, cavalry-heavy armies relying on their infantry for success. Swedish firepower did make the difference in this terrain, but I would not be so sure if the field was a bit more open and the cavalry could get in. The essential separator between the sides, however, was that the Swedish general survived, but the Muscovite one did not. The difference between rolling a 3 and a 6 on a die. The contingencies of history….

1600 – Something: The Empire Strikes Back

As my loyal reader may recall, a while ago in the campaign, the Persians invaded Mesopotamia and won an action against the local Ottoman forces. The Poles invaded Crimea and, again, beat off the Ottomans. As we have seen, in Spring 1604 the Ottoman counterattacked in both Crimea and were differently successful. So the next wargame was in Mesopotamia, where an Ottoman field army faced a Persian one.

The Ottomans, as I have noted, face a bit of a problem with the Persians. Firstly, with 5 cavalry, 3 light horse, 2 shot and 2 militia against 6 cavalry, 2 light horse, 3 shot and 1 militia, they are a bit outnumbered in all departments, especially where it counts in heavier cavalry and shot. Secondly, the terrain tends to favour cavalry armies, which they are, but not quite so much as the Persians and frankly, it feels like the militia are just to make up the numbers.

For the terrain, I rolled up two woods, a marsh, a stream and a hill. The hill is in the bottom left of the above picture, with the Ottoman camp on the top, and the infantry on its lower slopes. The sudden appearance of the camps (the Persians have one, too, lower right) suggests that phase two of the rebasing project, in this case, the reboxing part, has started. Rather than be buried under loads of terrain-filled box files, the camps and wagons and similar stuff are now in a slimline plastic box just underneath the generals. Out of sight is no longer out of mind, and I have thought for ages that I should require a camp for each army in these games. So here they are. I have some plans for developing this further, so stay tuned.

The major tactical problem for both sides was the stream. As the Ottomans were on the strategic offensive, it was really up to them to cross it, but the Persians needed to be able to stretch their cavalry’s hooves as well. The Ottomans decided to cross the water in two places, the infantry on the near side and the light cavalry and three bases of cavalry on the far side. The Persians aimed to deny the crossing to the Ottomans with their light cavalry on the far side, and the heavier cavalry massed on the near side, ready to charge anyone who foolishly crossed.

The opening exchanges were fairly neutral. The Ottomans have had a light horse bounced on the far side, and the initial attempt by the janissaries to cross the stream has retreated after the Persian general brought his cavalry into charge range. The Ottomans just about had the tempo to enforce the general rule that discretion is the better part of valour, but the janissaries were disordered by the effort.

A few moves later, and the Ottomans and Persians are both attempting to ford the stream. On the Ottoman left, the light horse (or most of them) has forced the Persian lights back and created the space for the spahi, under the eye of the general, to cross. The spahi are reorganising while the lights keep the enemy occupied. In the centre, the Persians spotted a gap between the two Ottoman wings and have moved to exploit it. The Ottoman reserves, more spahi, are arriving, hoping to manage to seal the opening, while the light horse who were removed from the skirmish have been ordered to assist. One of the Persian bases has failed the crossing, but the others are rallying.

A few moves later, and the Persian position is deteriorating. In the centre, the Ottoman reserve spahi have attempted a charge. One base succeeded (the Persians were still disordered, so not a group, and so could not be charged by a group). One base has been destroyed, while the other Ottoman base refused to go in. The Ottoman light horse is keeping the remaining Persians entertained, however. Meanwhile, the Ottoman spahi on the left have reorganised, while their light horse is being a nuisance on the Persian right and centre. Anticipating further trouble, the Persian general has moved the left wing across towards the centre, in the hope of getting to the Ottomans before they are properly organised.

It got a wee bit complicated. In the centre, the second Ottoman base charged, with support from the militia taking the remaining Persian spahi in flank. Despite the numbers, the Ottomans were bounced. On the Ottoman left, however, the remaining Persian spahi attacked and was more or less surrounded and finished off, while the rest of the wing disposed of one of the Persian light horse and forced the other one back. The movement of the Persian left to the centre meant that the Ottoman infantry could now cross the stream safely, which they have just done. Persian morale sank rather at this point, and everyone fell back.

With a bit of a juggle and a goodly number of tempo points, the Ottomans managed to gang up on the leftmost base of the remaining Persian cavalry, and eliminated it by a combination of a frontal charge, the general, and a disorganised flank attack across the stream. Persian morale actually improved at this, however, and I wondered if, now the Ottoman cavalry was even more disorganised, victory, or at least a draw, could still be snatched.

It was not to be, however. The Ottoman general and his cavalry continued their charge across the field, and were about to take the disrodered and shaken Persian spahi base in flank, when the Ottoman light cavalry shot at it again and routed it. At this, the Persian general, after some thought, decided that the day was lost and started to withdraw. The morale dice at the end of the turn were not at all kind, however, and his army dissolved into a rout.

This was a tough action for both sides. Someone had to risk crossing the stream and exposing themselves to a charge while disordered. The Ottomans managed it in the confined space between the wood and the stream, where the Persian cavalry could not really get at them. The Persian lights never got the tempo they needed to really cause trouble on the disordered troops as they crossed. In the centre, the Persians got across, but were then rocked back by the Ottoman cavalry reserve, light horse and militia. It all went downhill from there, rather.

Strategically, the Ottomans finally have a win, and the threat to the eastern edge of the empire is blunted, at least for now. This might leave them free to counter the Poles in Crimea and the Austrians invading Hungary. I suspect my Ottoman troops might be demanding overtime soon!

The End of the Year Show

Well, the end of the year has crept up on me, all unexpected. Actually, it has been rather hidden by the madness that we call ‘Christmas’ here at chez Polemarch. Not just the usual pagan ‘eat and drink and be merry’ stuff that the rest of the world indulges in, for the Estimable Mrs P. gets an awful lot of work to do in what used to be called ‘Advent’ but is now, apparently, Christmas.

Anyway, grumbling and humbuggery aside, it is probably time to review the year’s wargaming, of which I am pleased to say, there has been a reasonable amount. I can report the encouraging total of 38 wargames played. Two of these were ancients, and the rest were across a number of campaigns: Toungoo, A Very Mogul Civil war, the War of Stuart Succession and, latterly, 1600 – Something.

There were only a couple of games in Burma, as that campaign was winding up at the end of last year. The Very Mogul Civil War yielded eight games and finished with a round of murder and possible assassination rather than a decisive field action. The introduction of subversion rules made diplomatic activities a lot more, um, interesting.

The War of Stuart Succession was a very interesting and rather amusing campaign, set in a fictional world with several possible claimants to Elizabeth Tudor’s crown. In the end, a rather unexpected winner emerged, which seems to have vindicated, at least in my mind, the way the campaign rules worked. The innovation here was the God On Our Side (GOOS) roll, which players made when entering new areas to see if they were welcomed as conquering heroes or had the local armed forces called out against them. The Scots were a bit unlucky in this; Arbella Stuart was rather lucky. Still, despite grabbing control of the Channel early in the campaign, I doubt many people foresaw Isabella of Austria being the ultimate winner. Twelve wargames resulted from this campaign, a rather pleasing number. It also included a naval encounter, as mentioned, which required some rules to be created, fast.

The next campaign was one I had had in mind for ages. As I remarked at the outset, nearly 30 years ago, I ran a play-by-email game called 1618 – Something, which covered the whole of the Eurasian landmass. This ground to a halt in complexity and a lack of orders from some players, but I had spent quite a lot of time amassing the toys for various armies from across that part of the globe. So I created the map (in a different style, this time) of Europe west of the Urals (or thereabouts), and set off, using the WSuS campaign rules, slightly modified to accommodate some budgeting. Not that most early modern rulers knew, or particularly cared, what their budget was, but it does add some restrictions as to what they can do.

To date, the campaign, which started in Spring 1600, has reached 1604. There have been 13 games in the sequence so far, with another one in the pending file, which, doubtless, will happen fairly soon. The campaign so far has proved to be fascinating, with a good number of twists and turns and, most importantly for me as a solo wargamer, lots of decision points. The variety of armies is also a bonus, from Tartars and Persians to full-blown pike and shot armies. There is a lot going on.

As I have hinted, there is also an expansion planned for this campaign, spreading east to India, China and Japan, with, hopefully, a side issue of Indonesia. I have yet to work out the full details, or, indeed, finish the map. I have discovered that the European map needs a bit of adjustment, and my knowledge of the political geography of Mongolia in the early Seventeenth Century is woefully lacking. The Estimable Mrs P is concerned that it might bog down, but I am hopeful that the current system can handle it, even if I might have to abandon scrawled bits of paper for a spreadsheet for some of the administration.

In other developments, the ancients collection has all gone to its new homes. I say ‘all’, but that is not quite true. I have discovered a number of civilians in my ‘camps’ box, which I will have to consider the future of. After all, I cannot really have my ECW camps full of Greek generals in bronze armour, can I? I’ll have to sort them out. Similarly, the 15 mm Peter Laing collection has found its way (eventually) to Australia, where I hope they are settling in.

The rebasing project has, remarkably, been completed. This has led to a modest order to Irregular (in their new guide as 2 and 6 mm) to use up some of the odd bases, and round out one or two of the armies whose infantry quotas were a bit low. They will have to be painted, and their compatriots will have to be repainted, I guess, but it is really a fairly modest total, about 30 strips in all. I can only apologise to the manufacturer for buying one strip of this and one of that….

The project has now moved into phase two, which is reducing the footprint of the current collection. The Aztecs have a new home in a 2-tier box, while some of the others are now in much flatter containers. The taller plastic boxes are the destination of the terrain collection, but I’ve still not worked out what to do with the 20 mm scale buildings.

In other news, I did a podcast, which was about my book. The podcast is still available here. It is about an hour long, and various friends and acquaintances have listened to it, some while decorating. One or two expressed a desire to print out some WW2 ship counters from the internet and give wargaming a try. I’m not sure they ever did.

I started the year resolved to try to have more wargames, and I think I succeeded in that. Not only that, but all but two were campaign games, which seems to suggest that these held (and continue to hold) my interest. I managed 38 games in 2025, as opposed to 24 in 2024. The trend is in the right direction, and, a relatively small quantity of painting aside, hopefully I can get even more boots on the ground (or bases on the felt) in 2026.