Some of you might recall, in the Spring 1606 turn, the Venetians were a bit irritated by an Austrian incursion into their territory and requested that the Ottomans do something about it. This was, shall we say, for diplomatic reasons, the Venetians having trading ties with the Ottomans and, perhaps more importantly, no army of their own. As the Austrians have been wandering around the Balkans at will for a while, the Ottomans agreed, but action was delayed while the Emperor recovered from illness.
The time has now come for the reckoning, and so an Ottoman army of five cavalry bases, three light horse, two janissaries and two militia took on an Austrian army of four shot, two pike, two light horse and four cavalry. While the diplomatic context might be complicated, the military one is a lot simpler than of late.
The terrain gods were kind to the defenders, in this case the Austrians. They got a stream dividing the field, a hill on their right (with cavalry on it, above), a field to hide musketeers in, and plenty of rough ground to divide up the enemy attacks. The Ottoman plan was to keep the Austrian infantry occupied in the centre, try to worm around the Austrian right with the light horse, and smash the Austrian left with the cavalry. The Austrians, noting their deficiency in light horse, pulled the baggage right up behind the infantry line.
The action proceeded rather slowly, due to a lack of will to move by the Austrians and a lack of tempo points for the Ottomans. Nevertheless, the Ottoman light horse on their left are in action, and suffering slightly from the Austrian musketeers in the field. The Ottoman infantry have moved up in the centre, but are nowhere near ready yet. The Ottoman right, under the general, is in position, slightly outside charge range of the Austrians. Given the situation, the Austrians are in the process of moving a cavalry base over from the hill on their right to the left flank.
I am giving the wind rules another go. In this action, the wind is light and blowing from the south-west, that is, the nearside left-hand corner. The smoke from the Austrian muskets has not dispersed but is drifting gently between the wings of the armies on that side. I am also trialling weather rules, again following my naval rules. In this case, the weather was ‘fair’. I am not quite sure of the time scale for the moves of the battle, but I am thinking about 15 minutes per move, so I will roll for the wind and weather to change every 8 moves, or 4 hours. That sounds like it might be about right. Mind you, it does mean that I have to count moves as well.
A few moves later and the Ottoman foot is nearly in position. On the Austrian right, the single base of light horse is taking on three bases of Ottoman lights and winning, albeit with some musket support. On the near side, the Ottoman general gambled and moved into charge range of the Austrians, hoping to be able to charge next move. Unfortunately, he lost the tempo and was counter-charged by the cuirassiers. The Ottomans are being driven back, and the general himself has been lost. Oops. That was not part of the plan.
The cavalry of the front line of the Ottoman right has been routed, and the Ottoman army has been forced to fall back. On the far side you can see that the Austrian light cavalry is still prevailing against the Ottoman light. Indeed, they have routed one base. In the centre, the infantry is in disarray. On the Austrian left, the general has managed to pull back both of his bases which charged. To protect them while they rally, the base transferred from the Austrian right has charged in, but it has been bounced and is now in deep trouble against a base of sipahis. On the other hand, the Austrian light cavalry on this flank, which hitherto has achieved very little, is not taking potshots at the Ottoman militia in the centre.
The end came in various guises. On the up-side for the Ottomans, they have stabilised their left by pummelling the Austrian light horse a bit. The Janissaries have come into action in the centre and are winning the firefight, at least at the moment. On the downside, Austrian firepower shook the militia, and the light horse finished the job (on a lucky dice roll), and now the militia are fleeing. On the Ottoman right, nearest the camera, the rallied cuirassiers have charged again and wrecked the Ottoman cavalry. The third base was too close to the front line and has been swept away.
With the general lost alongside eight bases, Ottoman morale went to -6. A good dice roll did not help an irrecoverable position, and the army routed.
So, the Austrian incursion into the Balkans has survived with fairly minimal losses. The Ottomans, however, have lost their main European army. The battle before last, of course, they were on the defensive against the Persians and won, at least relatively. Cavalry-based armies attacking defensive positions seem to be at a disadvantage, but the key factor here was the timing of the cavalry charge by the Austrian left. If the Ottomans had won the tempo, we could be looking at a very different outcome. But part of the issue was the terrain, which prevented the Ottomans from bringing their cavalry advantage to bear.
The other factor was some very good Austrian combat dice rolling, especially from the right wing light cavalry and the left wing cavalry when it was needed. The other factor was the Austrian reserve cavalry, which switched from the right to the left wing and then sacrificed itself to allow the rest of the cavalry to recover.
The wind and weather had only a minimal effect on the action, which was a good thing, but now I need to make a rather better move counter, wind and weather tracker thing. That should, I hope, be straightforward. The next action sees the Spanish attempt to take Paris, I think.
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