As my loyal reader might recall, the Muscovites have been trying, without result, to expand a bit. They have, to that end, lost two battles against the Swedes, both as a result, essentially, of losing a general. Losing a general, under the rules, means that you lose half your tempo points in a bid, and, of course, the general’s bonus tempo point and any bonus he might give to a base to which he is attached. In short, losing a general is painful.
The situation on the southern Baltic coast is complicated. The Muscovites attempted again to invade Estonia in Spring 1605 and failed. They got another move card in the summer but cannot try to cross the same boundary again, so, somewhat denuded by the Swedes, elected to invade Courland. They failed, almost inevitably, their GOOS roll, and so a German Minor States army attempted to block them.
The Courlanders drew 4 cavalry, 1 mounted arquebusier, 3 pike, and 4 shot bases (as they are not a standing army, they drew a random list). The Muscovites, as we know, consist of 6 cavalry, 2 Cossack light horse, 1 pike, and 3 shot. I did wonder whether the Danes (who control the Baltic Sea) or the Swedes would support the plucky Courlanders. Careful examination of the map revealed that the Swedes were too far away, but a dice roll showed that the Danes landed a force to assist. This comprised 3 cavalry, 2 shot, and 1 pike bases.
The picture shows the deployment. The Danes are to the left foreground, the Courlanders on the far side of the stream. Under the rules, they are not allowed to deploy interspersed, and, as allies, roll separate tempo dice and cannot exchange tempo. As an allied contingent, the Danes roll 1d3 for their tempo.
The campaign has thrown up an interesting tactical scenario, of course. The Muscovites are inferior in numbers, but are attacking. After some consideration, I decided, as Muscovite commander, to go after the Danes, knock them out, and then turn the flank of the Courlanders. The plan was to use 4 bases of cavalry and the cossacks to defeat the Danish horse, while masking their foot with my own and holding the stream bank with that foot and the reserve horse.
Above, you can see the plans developing, or rather, in the case of the Courlanders, not. The tempo dice ensured that most of their army remained in place; only the plucky general leading the blue-coats forward was doing anything. The Danes advanced, but ran into problems with the Cossack screen, which you can see in the foreground.
There was a bit of jiggery pokery with the Danish cavalry, the cossacks and the Muscovite cavalry supporting them. The Danes could not charge the cavalry because they were not allowed to charge troops that were screened. But they did not wish to charge the cossacks, because then they would be toast if counter-charged by the Muscovite cavalry. The solution was to advance into the cossacks and try to force themback, which was only slightly successful. The Danes then pulled their cavalry back to avoid being charged. The Muscovite cavalry, of course, could charge the Danes through the Cossack screen, as they are on the same side.
Eventually, the Muscovite charge went home, with mixed results. One base has swept away some Danish musketeers, while another Danish cavalry, in the foreground, has been severely shaken and will shortly rout. However, the two central Danish cavalry bases have stood firm. On the other hand, the sharp-eyed among you will have noted the absence of the Danish general, who was shot down by the cossacks before the charge went in. The Muscovite general survived being recoiled and shaken, by the way. You can also see that the Courlanders have woken up a bit and sent their reserve cavalry to assist the Danes.
Both sides had a bit of a breather to regroup, the Muscovites pulling their cavalry, which was not pursuing Danish bases back and reconstituting the Cossack screen. The Courlanders managed to start their army towards the stream, but were hampered by another unfortunate result. The strelsti base on the extreme right of the picture shot down their general.
As more Courlanders crossed the stream, the Muscovite cavalry charged again, this time managing, eventually, to rout the rest of the Danish horse. This led to the collapse of Danish morale and the rout of the rest of the army (not that there was much left). However, the Muscovite cavalry ran out of control, one base rallying at the table edge and the general’s base not doing so until two moves off the table. So now the Muscovites were leaderless as well. You can also see in the picture that the Courland mounted arquebusiers are keeping a strelsti base shaken.
Both sides were suffering from a tempo point drought, of course. As the Courlanders attempted to rally on the Muscovite side of the stream, they were met with a hail of fire from the cossacks. On the far right of the picture, the blue-coated foot have crossed the stream, routed the streltsi base there, and got charged by the Muscovite reserve cavalry. The musketeers have fled, while the pike miraculously survived. This result caused a fall in Muscovite morale, which is why the Cossacks are not engaged at the moment.
The end of the game was not far off. The Muscovites were far too scattered to achieve anything until the general returned, and the Courlanders were struggling to do much after crossing the stream. Their mounted arquebusiers did, eventually, advance and rout the streltsi opposite them. The blue-coated pike and their opponents are both trying to rally, but otherwise, there was not much else to do.
At this point, I decided that it was nightfall. The Courlanders would withdraw across the stream and regroup, the Muscovites would recover their general in 3 turns, and have to do something similar. The battle was declared a draw.
As a wargame, it was interesting. The tactical puzzle the campaign threw up was a smaller force attacking a larger one. The Muscovites made a good call, I think, in targeting the Danes, much as the Poles had targeted the Tartars in a previous game. However, the defeat of the Danish contingent left the Muscovites scattered and vulnerable; if the Courlanders had still had a general extant, they would probably have paid for that, as the Courland cavalry could have certainly mopped up a few Muscovite bases.
Strategically, aside from the Danes having to pay for a new expeditionary force and the Muscovites still not having found a way to expand, not much has changed. At least the Muscovites did not lose again.
On the other hand, the next action is a Bavarian army against a supported Austrian one, a similar situation, but the Austrians are a coherent force.
