Richard Bodley Scott
This year (1999) my sons and I have used Ottoman Turks in two 500 AP Doubles tournaments, at Clevedon and Berkeley, scoring 29 points in each competition and taking third place at Clevedon, fifth place at Berkeley.
Ottomans seem to be an effective competition army under the present version of the rules (V 2.1). They provide a unique combination of a cavalry & light horse army with a shock force of knights (S) (Serbian allies), and also a reasonable number of bowmen (S) (Janissaries). An added bonus is the availability of 1AP camp fortifications and cheap troops to defend them, freeing the rest of the army from the need to intercept all enemy attempting to get at the baggage. Although the army is short of bad terrain troops, this does not seem to matter as much under the present terrain system as hitherto. The Ottomans' only nemesis would appear to be Classical Indians or other such Bw (S) armies.
Following lessons learned at the Clevedon tournament, our army was organized as follows for Berkeley:
|
Ottomans 1386 AD to 1458 AD - 500 AP |
|
|
|
Command 1 |
16 E.Eq. = Demoralised on 5.5 |
|
|
C-in-C - The Sultan |
1 Reg Cv (S) |
|
|
Janissary archers |
8 Reg Bw (S) |
|
|
Voynuks |
4 Irr Bd (O) |
|
|
Azabs |
5 Irr Ps (O) |
|
|
Azabs |
1 Irr Ps (S) |
|
|
Camp Fortifications |
12 TF |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Command 2 |
16 E.Eq. = Demoralised on 6 |
|
|
SG - The Beylerbey of Anatolia |
1 Reg Cv (S) |
|
|
Qapukulu cavalry |
1 Reg Cv (S) |
|
|
Feudal sipahis |
1 Irr Cv (S) |
|
|
Feudal sipahis |
3 Irr Cv (O) |
|
|
Akinjis |
6 Irr LH (F) |
|
|
Yayas |
4 Irr Ax (O) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Command 3 |
16 E.Eq. = Demoralised on 6 |
|
|
SG - The Beylerbey of Rumelia |
1 Reg Cv (S) |
|
|
Feudal sipahis |
2 Irr Cv (S) |
|
|
Feudal sipahis |
3 Irr Cv (O) |
|
|
Akinjis |
4 Irr LH (F) |
|
|
Djanbazan |
6 Irr LH (S) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Command 4 |
17 E.Eq. = Demoralised on 6 |
|
|
Serbian ally general |
1 Irr Kn (S) |
|
|
Serbian vlastela |
7 Irr Kn (S) |
|
|
Serbian gusars |
2 Irr LH (O) |
|
|
Serbian archers |
8 Irr Ps (O) |
|
|
Serbian archers |
3 Irr Bw (I) |
|
The basic plan would be simple and aggressive. If invading we would place no terrain, if defending, only gentle hills. Unless constrained by enemy placed terrain, our fortified camp would be placed in the centre, defended by the voynuks and azabs. In front of the camp would be placed the Janissary archers, in reserve under the direct command of the Sultan. In front of these would be our Serbian subject allies, the knights deployed in a single line with psiloi behind, light horse behind these, and the Bw (I) kept safely in the rear. On each flank would be the Beylerbeys of Anatolia and Rumelia with their light horse and heavy cavalry. The Anatolian Yayas were also to be kept out of harm's way in the rear.
Against many foes, the plan would be to attack the enemy with the Serbian knights, the Beylerbeys securing the flanks, and the Janissaries being rushed to face their best match-up. In practice games we found that it was almost always possible for the enemy to arrange to face the Serbians with whichever part of his army he felt was best against them, and that it was not usually feasible for us to avoid this. However, this often led to our other troops defeating him elsewhere, while the Serbs could usually be held back from charging into dangerous enemy until they could be weakened by flank attacks.
Game 1
This was against historical opponents, Later Hungarians. The enemy placed two gentle hills, one of which was in the middle of the battlefield. We positioned our camp to the left of this hill's position, with the standard deployment as stated above. The enemy placed their own fortified camp opposite the central hill, with their infantry deployed in front, their massed knights to their left and their massed light horse on their far left. The armies were thus deployed offset, with our right wing facing their right wing.
As the invaders, we moved first, but our Serbian subjects proved unreliable. This did not, however, slow down their initial advance much, as the enemy sent out no skirmishers to slow them. The Anatolians advanced rapidly on our left. The Janissaries marched at full speed on to the central hill, to take up a position facing the enemy knights. The Rumelians held the gap between the hill and our base table edge, to prevent the Hungarian light horse outflanking us.
The enemy responded by wheeling their infantry to face our advance, keeping their right flank close to their camp fortifications to prevent outflanking. Not wishing to face our Janissaries with their knights, they decided to take the potentially dangerous step of moving their knights across the front of their infantry to attack our left wing - hopefully while the Serbs still dithered. Their left wing light horse moved forward rapidly to keep our right wing occupied.
Fortunately for the enemy the Serbs remained unreliable as the Hungarian knights rode across their front. Unfortunately for the Hungarians, however, their knights came too close to our left wing akinjis, which we had moved up to try to slow them down. Forgetting that the akinjis were (F), they left their knights in a position where the akinjis could hit them in the flank. Two elements of light horse hit their knights in the flank, and won the combat, destroying 3 elements of knights.
In the hope of revenge, the Hungarian C-in-C charged the akinjis in the flank, but failed to destroy them. His element was then mobbed by 3 elements of akinjis, and he too died. Next turn, his command became demoralised. Things looked black for the Hungarians, with 2 hours playing time still remaining, and the Serbs now having decided to join in on our side.
However, a remarkable defence on the Hungarian right wing by two generals and a demoralised element of knights brought our Anatolian command within an element of demoralisation, thus forcing us to withdraw them. All then turned on the Serbians, who charged into the Hungarian infantry - a mixture of pikes, spears and blades, the latter two with psiloi support. The Serbs also came within an element of demoralisation, but then suddenly broke through the Hungarian infantry in a wide swathe, demoralising the Hungarian army.
10-0 to us.
Game 2
This was against Early Russians - a vast horde of cavalry (O) and light horse (F) with a steady block of psiloi-supported spears (O), a few light infantry, and a small Polish ally contingent of knights and psiloi.
The enemy placed the maximum number of terrain pieces - a compulsory wood, three half-feature-equivalent areas of marsh and three of boggy ground. Most of the the terrain ended up on the left hand side of the table (from our viewpoint) or in the centre of the enemy deployment area.
Expecting the enemy to deploy their main force in the open area opposite our centre and right, we deployed our standard formation facing that part of the field. Unfortunately, the Russians deployed most of their forces amongst the terrain opposite our left, and sent a large cavalry and light horse flank march on our left.
We were able to occupy the terrain immediately in front of our left wing with the Janissaries, who were easily able to drive off the light horse, psiloi and auxilia (O) attempting to occupy it on behalf of the Russians. We were also able to deploy a suitably sized cavalry force to face off the enemy flank march. However, we were unable to make much headway in damaging the enemy, and we were unable to prevent the Serbs from charging impetuously into the massed Russian infantry after the latter emerged from a gap in the terrain with a strong supporting force of cavalry on their left.
The Serbs died, but the time limit arrived before much else could happen, so we ended up with a 4-6 defeat. In retrospect we did have the opportunity to redeploy the Serbs early in the game, but did not do so for fear that the Russian flank march might have been cunningly sent against our right flank rather than our left.
Game 3
This was against another Later Hungarian army, this time with their own Serbian allies. Both sides deployed in a tight formation from the table edge on our right. We deployed in our usual formation. The enemy deployed their Serbs in the centre of their formation, with infantry on each flank. They had a reserve command including their Szekeler LH (S) and the Royal Banderium Kn (S).
We wheeled our Serbs to the right to face their left wing infantry. The Janissaries moved forward and lined up to face their Serbian knights. The Anatolians and Djanbazan moved to face off their right wing foot and their reserve light horse, which had moved to attempt an outflanking manoeuvre on our left. The enemy were not keen on charging the Janissaries with their Serbs, and hung back.
In the end combat was only joined just before the time limit. A deadly light horse vs light horse combat resulted in a gap in the enemy line which allowed a flank attack resulting in the death of their Serbian general. Unfortunately the umpire had just called time, so the Hungarians did not have to test for demoralisation.
Result 5-5.
Game 4
This was against an Arab Conquest array. The Arabs placed two huge areas of dunes (well, they looked huge to us), one on each side of the battlefield, leaving an open area only in the centre. We decided that we must avoid the dunes and attempt to smash straight through the enemy centre. We therefore deployed in our usual formation, in the centre of the table, with Anatolians on the left, Rumelians on the right.
The enemy deployed a centre of warbands (S), some 2 ranks deep, some 4. On their right they had two huge bodies of cavalry (O). On their left, their Bedouin ally had a large body of light horse (O) in addition to his warbands.
Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Our Serbs advanced boldly into the valley of death, supported on their left flank by the Anatolian cavalry and light horse, on their right flank by the Djanbazan. The Rumelian cavalry moved to assist the Anatolians on the left against the massed Arab cavalry. The Janissaries remained in reserve to deal with any threat that might emerge from hiding in the dunes.
First to appear were a body of camelry (O) and auxilia (X) elephant-slayers from the dunes on our left. Fortunately we had placed 1 element of psiloi in front of this dune, which prevented the enemy from marching, and lack of PIPs resulted in them achieving nothing. However, the threat initially looked significant, so we moved half of the Janissaries to the left to fend them off.
Next to appear were a large body of bowmen (O) arrayed along the edge of the dune on our left, which shot into the flank of our Anatolian cavalry. Luckily they destroyed none of these, and our initial recoil took us out of range. We then diverted the Janissaries that had come over to the left to shoot at these Arab archers. The Janissaries having recoiled them into the dunes, and shot a couple of elements, the rest were deterred from advancing out of the dunes.
Meanwhile, battle was about to be joined in the centre. The Arabs, fearing that their warbands would be ridden down, had moved their cavalry in front of them to face the Serbs. We had moved our right wing Rumelian cavalry to assist the Anatolians on the left, leaving the Djanbazan to face off the enemy light horse and warbands on our right. Our Serbs charged into the mass of cavalry, assisted on their left by the Rumelian cavalry, while the Anatolian cavalry held back out of range of the Arab archers in the dunes. The Arab warbands, refusing to be left out, charged impetuously into the melee.
Unfortunately for the Arabs, their cavalry proved no match for Serbian knights and died in heaps. The Serbs proceeded to roll them up from the initial breakthrough in the centre.
Meanwhile, on our right, the Bedouin light horse (O) advanced, and a large body of camel scouts [LH (I)] emerged from the dunes on our flank, but not close enough to secure the flank of the LH (O). Never mind the risk, we thought, and charged the LH (O) in the flank with our akinjis, while blocking the group's sideways push back by advancing a LH (S) past the other end of their line. We pushed back the LH (O), destroying 3 elements, then lost 2 elements of akinjis next turn. (Omelettes and eggs). The remainder of the Janissary reserve had meantime moved up to secure the right flank of the Djanbazan. A general combat between our Djanbazan LH (S) and the Arab LH (O) next turn resulted in the death of their Bedouin ally general, on the same turn as their other two commands also became demoralised.
10-0 to us. According to our calculations, there were still 50 odd AP of enemy hidden in the dunes at the end.
Game 1
This was against a Romanian Frank army with Turkoman allies. We felt that we should have at least an even chance against these as we could match their frontage of knights (S) with our Serbs and Janissaries, with the latter having the advantage against knights (S) in close combat. We used our standard deployment, centred on the centre of the table. The Franks deployed with knights on their left and in the centre and Turkomans on their right.
Having seen their deployment, our plan was to meet their centre with the Serbs, move the Janissaries to face their left wing, and to attack their right wing with cavalry. The Franks were the invaders, however, and got to move first, rushing forward as fast as possible. As a result of this the Janissaries had not fully deployed when the opposing lines contacted. Although they had moved up to support the right of our Serbs, they were only deployed on a 2 element frontage, in four separate spaced lines! The enemy had placed all three of their knights (S) generals together, two of them facing the Janissaries.
Our Serbs charged into the Frankish centre, overlapping them at both ends of the line, but were thrown back. Their generals charged the Janissaries and threw sixes - first line of Janissaries destroyed. Their Turkomans fell back slowly in front of our cavalry.
Over the next few turns our Serbs were defeated by the Frankish centre, and the Frankish generals cut through two further lines of Janissaries. We fled the field.
A 0-10 defeat. However, as our opponents admitted, they had ridden their luck. They certainly had - it is not often that you will see knights carve through three successive lines of bowmen (S) without loss!
Game 2
Our miserable defeat in the first game had gained us a respite. Our second round opponents were Spartacus's Slave Revolt. A mere 125 element equivalents of rabble. All we needed to do was slaughter enough of them in the time limit.
As invaders, we placed a river on the right, to defend against a flank march on that side. The slaves placed large areas of rough going on each flank of the remaining table. We placed our fortification on the left, to hold off a flank march on that side. These precautions successfully deterred a flank march - if such had ever been intended. They deployed their imitation legionaries [blades (I)] five (yes five!) ranks deep in the centre, with German and Gallic warbands on their left, and filled both areas of rough going with limitless hordes of, well, hordes (S). We could foresee no useful role for the Janissaries, so planned to leave them at the back. We formed up our other troops as usual, the Serbs facing the middle of the gap in the terrain with Anatolians on their left and Rumelians on their right. The plan was to charge into the mass of blades in the centre, hoping to demoralise them before we were swallowed up.
Our light horse rushed forward to hold back the masses of hordes. A feint by akinjis on the far side of the river wasted a few enemy PIPs as they countered it, but achieved nothing concrete. The Serbs then charged into the middle of the enemy line, supported on each flank by our cavalry. In fairly short order they had demoralised the main enemy command, leaving only a few hordes to be killed to give us the victory.
10-0 to us, and not much glory. However, it should be noted that had we concentrated on killing the hordes instead of the massed blades in the centre, we probably would not have demoralised the enemy within the time limit.
Game 3
This was against New Kingdom Egyptians. Terrain played no significant part in the battle. The enemy deployed with their left wing comprising one command of massed chariots [Cv (S)] in front, a second command of spears (O) and blades (O) with some reserve chariots behind. Their right wing was a mixed command of spears (O), bowmen (O) and chariots, plus a number of auxilia (O) hidden in an oasis palm grove in the centre of the Egyptian deployment area. Our forces were arrayed as usual, centred on the centre of the table.
We decided to concentrate on destroying the Egyptian right wing, probably their largest command, and on delaying them on our right. Therefore the Anatolians and Serbs wheeled to attack the enemy right, while the Rumelian akinjis rushed forward to delay the enemy left wing chariots and the Djanbazan moved forward in the centre to prevent the enemy coming to the aid of their right wing. The Rumelian sipahis and Janissaries redeployed to face right with their right wing secured by the fortification. If the enemy chariots attacked them, they could be attacked in the flank by psiloi from the camp.
The Egyptian left wing chariots moved forward boldly, with their heavy infantry following behind. Their reserve chariots moved forward to face the Djanbazan in the centre. Their right wing held back.
In the centre the Djanbazan succeeded in outmanoeuvring the Egyptian reserve chariots, hitting them in the flank and killing two. The rest fell back. On our right the Egyptians drove our akinjis back to the camp, then moved forward their infantry to threaten the Janissaries. A frantic royal-tournament-type manoeuvre pulled the Janissaries and Rumelian sipahis further back out of reach.
Meanwhile, the Serbs and Anatolian sipahis reached and charged the Egyptian spears and bowmen. Despite some casualties, they soon broke these, demoralising the Egyptian right wing. A few more casualties on the reserve chariots were sufficient to complete the victory.
10-0 to us.
Game 4
Back amongst the contenders (almost), our fourth round opponents were Feudal Spanish with Andalusian allies.
The Spanish placed a large wood in the centre of their deployment area. Their forces were arrayed from their right (close to the table edge), cavalry (O) with light horse (O) behind, knights (S), spears (I) with psiloi (O) support and Andalusian light horse (O), reaching to just past the centre point of the table. Their light infantry remained secure behind their main line. Our forces were deployed more or less as usual, with the camp in the centre of the table, but with the Serbs deployed to the left of the camp instead of in front. The Anatolians and Rumelians were on left and right wings as usual.
Our plan was the same as against the Romanian Franks, to fight the enemy knights with the Serbs and Janissaries. We hoped it would work better this time. The Serbs were currently facing the enemy spears, so would need to be wheeled to their left. The Janissaries were in the centre, and we needed them to form up on the left of the Serbs, so they had a forced march ahead of them.
Fortunately this time we were invading, so got to move first. The Anatolian akinjis moved forward on our left to hold back the enemy knights to allow us time to redeploy. The Serbs wheeled to their left. The Janissaries, with the Sultan, moved 700p on each of the first two turns, to take up their new position on the left of the Serbs, and then expanded. The Djanbazan and Rumelian akinjis moved forward rapidly to confront the Andalusian light horse, who withdrew behind their infantry, whose flank was secured by auxilia (S) in the wood. The Anatolian cavalry moved up to take position on the left of the Janissaries and the Rumelian cavalry on the right of the Serbs.
When battle was joined, the two armies were lined up in a solid line from the left hand table edge (from our viewpoint) - Our cavalry (S) with supporting (O) vs their cavalry (O) with supporting (O), our Janissaries facing their knights, including the knight general of their cavalry, our Serbs facing some knights and some psiloi-supported spears, our Rumelian cavalry facing more spears.
The Spanish knights charging the Janissaries died to a man, including the general of the Spanish cavalry. Fortunately for them their next PIP score was high enough to prevent demoralisation. Our Serbs held their own against the knights but were massacred by the Spanish infantry when they charged. The Serbs broke in flight.
The following turn, a flank attack by the Janissaries killed the Spanish general in command of their knights, demoralising that command. There was now only one element of undemoralised knights on the field [the Spanish C-in-C], but the other troops were still eager for battle.
Unfortunately for the Spanish, their spears could not force any result against our right wing cavalry and light horse, but our cavalry and Janissaries were able to fairly easily defeat their right wing cavalry, while holding off their right wing light horse. The Spanish right wing broke.
9-1 to us. This time the match up of bowmen (S) vs knights (S) worked in our favour, as it should. We were, however, better deployed at the point of impact than in the first game, and with resolute opponents in both games, this was almost entirely due to our having the first turn in Game 4 and moving second in Game 1. Moral: Some army types, at least, benefit from being the invader.
We enjoyed our two outings with the Ottomans. The army allowed us to play aggressively and achieve decisive results within the time limit in six out of eight games. Indeed at Berkeley we finished every game with at least an hour to spare. Much more fun than being stopped by the time-limit.