Last night was my inaugural outing for my Ottoman Turkish Army. Their opponents were Colin's Polish army circa 1650-80.
First mistake, by the 1650's the Turkish Army was no longer a very effective army, and military science had passed it by, the army was still using out dated muskets, and artillery and their commanders whilst brave, were very cautious.
So fielding no less than five guns, and a good proportion of musket armed Janissaries I set up facing a very mobile Polish army, with a fair amount of winged lancers.It is over 25 years since the Turkish army has deployed on a table, and my recollections of how to use them was pretty poor.
I do remember, as I had a Polish army once, was that the winged lancers were very good, and very hard to kill. More so in the Pike and Shotte rules.
Tactically I set up very ineptly, dice wise I was pants, and also the Turks couldnt hit a barn door if they were sat on the lock.Pike and Shotte is very unkind to the later Turks, and the number of dice allocated for firing is less than other more ordinary European troop types. Well that's my excuses sorted then.
Colin, on his blog Carry on up the Dale has a more detailed account, so I will concentrate on the eye candy. The Poles fielded quality light cavalry, ie the Cossacks, whilst I fielded Akinji who really are very poor, and more of a nuisance than anything else. I know that historically they were used to wear out the higher quality enemy cavalry, but mine just seemed to die very quickly.
Another mistake I made in the deployment was I set the Turks to close to the edge of the table, so that if they were forced to retire they simply disappeared forever. This army needs space to maneuver
[sorry American spell check] and I didnt give the Turks enough space.
This image shows Feudal Spahis facing Winged Hussars, thats 10 dice against 6 dice, and a save of 2+ for the knights.
How NOT to kill Polish Winged Hussars.
The Polish right wing commander even had the temerity to stand in front of one of my heavy guns, showing the contempt he felt for the Turkish artillery.
Following on from his success on his right wing, Colin decided to charge against my guns in the cente.Luckily he failed to charge home, and pulled up short of my medium guns. I managed to hit one hussar! in the subsequent volley. Luckily for me we ran out of time. I was heading off to Salute the next morning. For all my gripes the game was still very enjoyable, and once I've worked out how best to use my Turks I shall return.
