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!