Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Pike & Shotte

Mike's Turks v. SteveJ's Poles

The Poles had 2 cavalry and 1 large infantry division deploying them with the cavalry in the centre and infantry on their left.  The Turks had 2 infantry & 2 cavalry divisions deployed with infnatry in the centre & cavalry on their right and in reserves behind the centre.

Pic taken from behind Polish right.

The Turks move cavalry I infantry to the right to leave a gap for the reserve to fill.  The Poles make a steady advance.

The Winged Hussars & Pancerni charge destroying the Turkeci front line.  But the second line held and artillery fire disordered one Pancerni leaving the other exposed.  Meanwhile, the Janisaries blundered forward on the Turkish left & the Sipahis moved behind the ridge on the far right to get out of musket range.

The Winged Hussars are pinned down by musket fire while their supports were destroyed by the Gonullu.  The Ratjars on their right have ridden down half the Janisaries but the rest are holding on while their artillery pound away.

On the far left, the mercenary German infantry had got a triple move and moved up to shoot at the Sipahis.  The Sipahis charged.  Two musketeer units on the far left failed to hedgehog & got ridden down.  the flank then turned into a fire fight between the Sipahis' pistols & the surviving musketeers.  
In the centre the Winged Hussars have pulled back, but all surviving units in the division have been shaken by musket & pistol fire and the division is broken.
On the right the Janisaries are still holding out.

The far flank is still stalemated.
The Polish centre has been broken allowing the Gonullu to turn on their right.
But the Turkish artillery & Janisaries have broken the Ratjars so the Polish army is broken.

The Polish error was to allow their biggest division to be pinned down by a smaller cavalry division.   The Turks were able to concentrate 2 divisions on 1 in the centre for a decisive local win.  On their left, the Turkish artillery gave the Janisaries just enough help for them to win too.

The battle took about 1 1/2 hours - a fun fast game.




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