FoG Renaissance Early Renaissance - Last Charge of the Gendarmes in Roll_Call 2012
Early Ottoman Turkish vs Irish
Game 1 Early Ottoman Turkish vs Early Caroline Imperialist
Game 2 Early Ottoman Turkish vs Tatar
Game 3 Early Ottoman Turkish vs Irish
Game 4 Early Ottoman Turkish vs Caroline Imperialist
Marking no sort of departure from the norm whatsoever, the second day of Roll Call saw me sitting almost exactly in mid table.Uniquely though, this time my opponents was using the Irisharmy from Trade and Treachery
The lists for the Early Ottoman Turkish and Irish armies from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Roll_Call can be seen here in the FoGR Wiki.
See a video review of the strengths and weaknesses of the Irish army from Fernando and Philp
This time both armies wanted some terrain - the Irish to block out my mounted, and the Ottomans to create a killing zone for the as yet rather unconvincing Grand Battery of Artillery
The table was therefore narrowed to around 4 feet wide by a combination of hills, woods and fields. The Ottoman plan was relatively simple, and had the decided advantage over the previous game in that it actually existed. The idea was to sit back with the Artillery and Wall of Peasants, push forward and outflank the advancing Irish with mounted on the right and the good quality foot on the left. The Irish were just loads of pedestrians with sticks, so whatever their plan was it almost certainly involved ambling forwards and trying to poke someone with the pointy end of a stick
The Irish had a few light horse, but immediately the game started the Ottoman overweight right flank was bullying them backwards
The Ottomans had assembled a proper Napoleonic style Grand Battery supported by Janissaries on one side and fortifications on the other
Ready, Aim......
The right hand flank was soon swept clean of Irish light horse as they retreated backwards in the face of a strong Ottoman advance
The Irish horse were being scattered everywhere, like specks of toothpaste being explosively squeezed out of a tube which has just been accidentally trodden on by a Kazhakstanian Women weightlifter
On the opposite flank a spare unit of Sipahis was keeping the Irish Light Foot cautiously on top of a rough hill - ready to run them down if they dared to set foot in the open..
The Ottoman plan was to move up the Janissaries and arquebusiers past the woodlands, and start threatening (and shooting) the flank of the Irish as they advanced on the Wall of Peasants - but a lack of a 5th and 6th general in the Ottoman army list had somewhat delayed the execution of this plan..
The Irish were a jolly bunch of fellows, especially considering that their day was looking set to include such excellent interludes as "advancing into a hail of cannonballs", "watching nervously as enemy cavalry mass on your flank" interrupted by any periods of "being the overperforming plucky underdog in an international football tournament".
Led by their imposing general, the Sipahis made an early start on the process of outflanking the Irish.
This was encouraging. The Irish were clearly responding to the lightning maneuvers of the Ottomans, and instead of a jig they were now dancing to a bazuki tune. The Ottomans were calling all the shots - and the dissarray of responding to the flank threat was leaving the Irish foot in range of the Ottoman guns for longer than they wanted
Emboldened by the logjam they saw in front of them, a first Sipahi unit charged into whatt it believed was a MF unit. But which turned out to be an armoured HF unit. Rather different....
Some Balkan light horse were helping delay the Irish advance as the Ottoman artillery park barked out repeatedly
The Ottoman gunners were trying their best to be careful....
The Sipahis had discovered that armoured superior HF were no pushover, and more of the mounted Ottomans swiftly converged as they sought to do with weight of numbers what they struggled to do by trying to persuade their opponents through charm, persuasion, pleading and a rather spiffy powerpoint presentation that they were in fact a much less effective troop types than they actually were
The other flank was seeing some action, as the Ottomans sought to feed some mounted elements through behind the Janissaries and unleash them to cause consternation and mayhem in the middle of the table. The logjam on the Irish left was being repeated in Ottoman form on their left as well as the various units struggled all to fit in the narrow defile between the forest and hill
Two units of Sipahis are engaged with the Irish foot, bottling up reserves behind them. More Sipahis and light horse keep some MF Irish pinned down in the woods at the back of the table as the remainig Sipahis threaten the flanks of the Irish advancing down the centre. It looks like a plan that is working....
The undaunted Irish advance on the Wall of Peasants, supported by, erm, what looks like some Light Horse who appear to be thinking about going into a wood...?
Elswehere, the rather incompetent Ottoman logjam has allowed an almost entirely unmaneuverable Irish unit of 8 HF to bear down on half a dozen arquebusiers, with the Janissaries nowhere in sight. That is rather unfortunate...
The Sipahis are making really heavy going of running down just one of the 600-odd units of Irish foote - led by a general, and with more support than you can wave a scaffolding pole at, the Irish eventually condescend to pick up a marker after innumerable rounds of combat
Rules hint - Superior armoured HF blokes in units of 8 are rather hard to shift
And almost instantly swap it for a more dramatic one... that must be a good sign - at last!
Irish Warriors assault the Wall of Peasants! Both players flick furiously through the rulebook trying to work out what happens next in this most unlikley of combats
The rulebook prevails, as both sides discover that it is not possible to assault a fortification quite that quickly
Rules hint - Troops advancing towards a fortification must stop at 2 MU away before moving into combat. I guess this buys the defenders an extra round of shooting ?
On the flank the fighting gets rather confused as both sides are unable to conform and added to that the fight is taking place on the uneven terrain of the join at the middle of the table. The only things that are clear are that the Ottoman average arquebusiers are losing cohesion and the Janissaries are not even in combat
The arquebusiers survive a lot of casulaties with a great death roll - but drop 2 cohesion leves with a catastrophic morale roll, dropping from DISR to Broken in a single bound
The arquebusiers turn and rout as everyone else takes a step backwards and has a sharp intake of breath to try and work out what on earth happens next..
This is what happens next - the Irish axemen wade into the Sipahis, but the Janissaries maneuver to attack their flank. Will the Fragmented Sipahi's hold out long enough for the Janissary charge to go in?
On the other flank, the worlds most resilient unit of Irish foote has finallly broken - and is almost instantly run down in the pursuit by some rather exhausted and releived Sipahis. Half the Ottomans mounted arm, committed for almost the entire duration of the battle so far - and only one broken enemy unit to show for it.
The rest of the Sipahis crash forwards, careering into the Irish in front of them - but the travails of the protracted combat have left the Sipahi's somewhat exhausted, and most of the units had lost cohesion, bases or both. Would they have the impetus to continue their assault on the Irish lines?
Having pressed pause and then play, the Irish charge into the Wall of Peasants. Who roll fantastically well and repulse the initial attack with aplomb!
But the Sipahi's are not quite as good - they collapse before the Janissaries can do their thing, and the whole Ottoman left flank is now in tatters, destroyed by just one unit of Irish who they had been hoping to turn into a weak link in the Irish chain.
The cameraman swings right back to the other flank - and Irish unarmoured javelinmen have pushed forward out of the woods and are menacing some over-eager Sipahi's who have started to reaise that the sheer weight of numbers of the Irish army can counter the quality of the Ottomans, especially when one unit allows itself to get picked off alone
The Ottoman Sipahi have been left with very little choice - they take on the weakest link in the Irish army, little realising that they are actually Catalan Almughavars doing a bit of cash in hand work for the Irish army and standing in for real Irish infantry who have all gone to see the Womens Boxing at the Olympics. Things go badly for the Sipahi's..
Thats bad and getting worse...
The centre of the field is becoming a swirling maelstrom of combat, as a variety of eroded Sipahi units attempt manfully to hack down Irish warriors, proected in comprehensive armour.
But the Sipahi's are fast running out of energy, bases and cohesion. Even when taking on the backfillers in the Irish army, they begin to struggle ..
The Janissaries try to reclaim some pride on the left, charging into the rear of the Irish infantry as they pursue the destroyed Sipahis. Perhaps the tide is turning for the invincible Irish ?
But the middle is where the game will be decided - and the Sipahi's have almost run out of gas.... The countless hordes of Irish infantry are evrrywhere, and they are resilient - a devastating conbination for the far smaller units of Sipahis who have been dragged into a slogging match they cannot hope to win
Remember those light horse who were looking rather puzzled on the far side of a wood some time ago? Well, whilst everyone else has been knocking seven bells out of each other the light horse have been carefully picking their way through the woodlands, and have emerged, blinking and surprised, in the rear of the Ottoman army, with only the baggage as potential opponets !
They however may well be joined by a number of Irish infantry units in fairly short order - the Wall of Peasants is not doing especially well any more...
The Peasants break and run - and the entire Otoman line is starting to evaporate. A unit of archers who were trying to support the guns are pressed into service to try and delay what now seems inevitable defeat for the Ottomans by holding back the Irish horde..
The Irish capture their first unit of guns - disheartening the Azab bowmen and hastening defeat
The Ottoman baggage is gone!
The Irish are attempting to recreate their initial deployment formation, but this time they are doing it in the Ottoman deployment zone. The pedestrian Irish infantry have overrun and outmaneuvered the Ottomans!
The Janissaries who charged the flank of the Irish on the Ottoman left failed to capitalize on their initial assault, and are now being overwhelmed as Irish infantry assail them from every side
The Azabs in the middle only last moments as Irish infantry who are better than them in every dimension contemptuously sweep them away
The game is over,with the result a demoralising 23-2 defeat.
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition, or read on for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal
Post Match Summary from the Early Ottoman Turkish Commander
A' reet royal Irish roasting befell me boys this mornin', an' I hae no idea really how it went so wrong? The setup was good, and I had a plan which involved nowt but a de-fensive line and a bit of unopposed cavalry action to get doon the reet flank and lob over a cross for the big fella to nod into the net, but the Paddies were nay playin' tha' same game areet.
The Micks was tougher than a bag o' old football boots left in a St James' Park dressin' room in the period in WW2 in which football didnae tek place in England due to the woah. Ah am not shur-ah wot else ma boys could'ae done in the circumstances, as it all looked to be gannin areet ta me for a long time.
Perhaps me guns could'ae done a bit better like, but once them balls go a flying, there is no weah to know if they will hesset, or meesss. Its leek a shot from ootseed tha' area from a full back on a run from midfield, either a screeeamah inta' that' top corner, or its oot of tha' park.
Mebbeah tha' next game tha' guns will be areet, and mebbeah woah luck will turn?
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
You hopeless Geordie imbecile. This game was lost before it started, and you did not even realise. How many classic errors did you pile up into a motorway car crash of a battle plan? I struggle to count the failures you achieved, and that is you only achievement of this debacle.
How much terrain can any one man fit on a table when using a mostly mounted army? I think the correct answer should be a lot less than you managed here, and your steadfast lack of initiative meant that you have been facing an uphill battle to win the terrain rolls all weekend . And when the terrain fell, you still then managed to keep many of your best troops for fighting the enemy foot tucked out of the way on your left flank - when instead, even if you had left nothing there at all the pedestrian Irish could still be walking around that wood to try and outflank you even today many months later - no troops would have been better than hanging your men out to dry with no support.
If you had crammed everything on the right of the wood, it would have forced the Irish to move in front of your visually impressive yet militarily ineffective artillery park. Yes, the Irish infantry managed to move out of arc of your main weapon against them - that is when you were not masking the guns yourself with your half-hearted cavalry assault.
And what a shambles they were. Mistaking HF for MF, not reading the factors, going into combat piecemeal - how many errors can two units make in one turn? Your best troops spent all game fighting to beat one enemy unit, and in the meantime the Irish outmanoeuvred you everywhere, and even managed to gang up on your own cavalry with units of unarmoured MF javelinmen. What ignominy. If you are going to use mounted troops, make sure the terrain is there to use them properly, and steer clear of places where their advantages are neutralised
A catalogue of obvious and avoidable mistakes. I should write a book…
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
That's the end - so why not go back to the Match Reports Index and read some more reports?
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Game 1 Early Ottoman Turkish vs Early Caroline Imperialist
Game 2 Early Ottoman Turkish vs Tatar
Game 3 Early Ottoman Turkish vs Irish
Game 4 Early Ottoman Turkish vs Caroline Imperialist
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