FoG:Renaissance Early Turkish Expansion 1494-1566 in The Southern League at Oxford, 2013
Hungarian vs Mamluk
Game 1 Hungarian vs Ottoman Turkish 1494
Second up in the three game series was another Middle eastern army - the Mamluks - commanded by another Don! Admittedly not "The" Don, but a Don non the less.
The lists for the Hungarian and Mamluk from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games in the Southern League Oxford roundcan be seen here in the FoGR Wiki.
Like the first game, the pre-set terrain meant that the table was slightly more cluttered than both sides would have preferred - however there was less close terrain, and so a little more room for their massed cavalry to manoeuvre.
The Hungarians adopted a similar battle plan to the first game, with both Gendarme units together with some Cavaliers aiming at a big gap in the terrain on the left, a flank march on the left hoping to arrive behind the Mamluk lines once they were committed against the Gendarmes, and this time the Szecklers on the right, considering which of the two avenues of attack they might choose either side of a rather irritating enclosed field. The Mamluks actually had a handful of infantry, most of whom were sat on top of a steep hill to the left of their main deployment, but they too were constrained by the obvious two or three gaps in the terrain as to how they could match up against the Hungarians.
With the Scecklers playing a waiting game as they pushed a lone unit of Light horse towards the Mamluks and awaited a decision from the bulk of the cavaly facing off against them as to how they would deploy, the Hungarians started by rushing forward the Gendarmes and their supporting Cavaliers and German Lancers.
The Hungarians had forgotten their baggage, but fortunately two playing cards (used to draw for the table choice) are exactly the same size as a standard FoGR baggage element, and in this game it meant that the Hungarians were subject to two Queens.
The exposed Hungarian light horse quickly found themselves almost surrounded by a swift Mamluk advance - almost certainly time for discretion to take precedence over valour!
Mirliton figures appearing here as Light Horse with Bow (only). Light horse are rather vulnerable to enemy shooting in FoGR, and you don't tend to see too many on the table. Lacking swords, this unit can't even go into combat against enemy light horse so they are forced to undertake their proper roles - delaying the enemy advance, and occasionally supporting the shooting of some of the proper units of bow armed Szeckler cavalry
The Hungarian cavaliers were keen to pin the Mamluks back into the corner - this would make the flank march more effective when it arrived, might draw some Mamluk cavalry out of the centre and also freed up the Gendarmes to swing round past the central wooded area and engage the Mamluks main concentration of cavalry.
The Mamluks had clearly not yet decided what to do about two units of fully armoured Gendarmes advancing down on them, as their only suggestion at this stage of the game was to throw out a delaying light horse unit. The Gendarmes however were more concerned as to whether they would actually fit through the gap between the wood and steep hill they were aiming at ..
The Hungarian light horse had fallen back, and the Szecklers had made a decision - the place of battle would be between the field and the central woodland, and they started to organise themselves into a coherent battle line as the Mamluks massed ominously in the distance
The Gendarmes were being slowed down by the Mamluk skirmishers, and as every moment that they were unengaged represented time lost for the Hungarians, one unit contracted into column and snuck past the rather surprised skirmishers and made a bee line for the rest of the Mamluk army
Masses of Mamluk cavalry were now steaming towards the Szecklers, and both sides were carefully sizing up the gap between the two terrain pieces, wondering how best to deploy into line in order to see if they could sneak an overlap against their opponents when the inevitable battle arrived.
The Szecklers thought they had spotted the opportunity - moving up their front line units so there was no room for the Mamluks to expand out in front of the wood if they engaged at this line of contact
Back on the other more well lit side of the battlefield, the Mamluk light horse suddenly found themselves coming under tremendous pressure from the Hungarian mounted formation, as the German lancers gave up on supporting the Cavaliers and instead swung round to move up and threaten the enemy skirmishers. From delaying the Hungarians, the light horse were now looking at being trapped, and perhaps routed back through their own lines!
The Cavaliers went in ! The flank march had not yet arrived, and the enemy had a general but the cavaliers enjoyed advantages in the initial combat, and in any case they had now done their main job of protecting the flank of the Gendarmes advance long enough for them to get into a place where they could cause trouble to the main Mamluk battleline
Facing off against the Szecklers, the Mamluks had quickly maneuvered themselves into a coherent battle line - one including an Elite unit of Emirs Guards, and one which was capable of throwing out a serious amount of arrows towards the Szeckler cavalry… who were somehow not yet in a formation where they could all charge home, with one unit still lagging a little behind and out of charge range
The massed Mamluk archery was deadly, knocking a base off of both of the Szeckler units - this changed the dynamic considerably, as a further base loss would render the Szecklers rather impotent even before they used their one key advantage, the light lance at impact which could prove decisive. Should they wait for the third unit of come up and all charge together - and expose themselves to two further rounds of shooting in the process - or do they go in piecemeal and hope that their advantage in Impact cancels out the weight of numbers of the Mamluks?
Well, there was only one choice really - the Szecklers charged home into the wall of Mamluks !
The initial rounds of combat were mixed - the central Mamluk unit lost cohesion and a base, but one of the Szecklers also lost a base, placing them dangerously close to routing. Would the Mamluk centre collapse of the Szeckler wing - and would the reserve Szeckler unit arrive in time to make a difference?
The cavaliers had had a real shocker, being broken in only a couple of turns of combat - and no sign of the flank march either. Suddenly the reserve German lancers found themselves in the front line of the Hungarians plan to protect the flanks of the Gendarmes..
The Szecklers meanwhile were the first team to suffer the loss of a unit, and the Mamluk cavalry steamed forwards in pursuit of the remnants, placing them neatly in the path of the Szeckler reserve…
The Mamluks light horse had somehow managed to wiggle out of the jaws of the trap they had found themselves in, aided in no small part by a series of "short" rolls by the Gendarmes every time they attempted to charge the irritating skirmishers - but this had not prevented the Gendarmes getting into contact with a unit of Mamluk cavalry, and the second Gendarme unit was bearing down on some rather nervous looking Mamluk pedestrians as well. The Gendarmes were well and truly in the thick of it.
The reserve Szecklers charged home, stepping forward into the central Mamluk unit in an attempt to maximise the number of bases fighting the already weakened unit, and restore the odds somewhat on this side of the battlefield.
The Germans were in a desperate situation. As Mamluk cavalry closed in on them, lightly armed and fast moving Mamluk infantry bounded down the rocky slopes of the steep hillside and appeared on their flank!
The Szecklers fight against the Mamluk cavalry continued unabated - the Mamluk General had taken advantage of being with a victorious unit and had moved across to bolster the morale of the previously DISR unit in the middle and it was now a slogging match, abeit one where the Mamluks enjoyed better quality and superiority in numbers.
The Hungarian Gendarmes now were quickly totting up the points - Cavaliers gone, German cavalry looking like they were doomed, and probably three units of Szecklers likely to add to the casualty roll, and still no sign of the flank march either - time for the Gendarmes to get busy and rack up some points, which in this case meant a degree of substantial overkill in their charge against the infantry!
Assailed on all sides, the German lancers quickly broke and fled…
The Szecklers were now also in dire straits - one unit down to only 2 bases and on the point of autobreaking, and also fragged for good measure!
Even the Gendarmes were finding it a real struggle to beat off a lone unit of Mamluk cavalry - things were going badly wrong for the Hungarian army at this point
The second Szeckler unit inevitably broke, despite their long and heroic resistance
Meanwhile, the other gendarmes had made short work of the Mamluk unarmoured medium foot bowmen (with no melee weapons) and were now well and truly stuck into their second course, the near-compulsary unit of generic middle eastern bow/swords armed average cavalry which every such army is saddled with. And the flank march had still not yet arrived..
With the bell already ringing for the end of the game, the Hungarians were on the brink of disaster - the last holdout was the lone Szeckler unit, grateful for time being called just before the Mamluks coudl charge them in the flank and wipe them out. The final flourish was a spectacular combination on mutual dice rolling by both sides, as first the Szecklers managed to lose the last round of combat, only to pass the resulting cohesion and base loss tests with aplomb - and then the Mamluk unit facing them killed off the Szeckler general (not with a 10 - those were the combat dice left over!), only for the Szecklers to respond with another spectacular roll to pass the final cohesion test and survive the game intact !
The Result is a dissapointing but not quite terminal 15-5.
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 Hungarian Commander
Well, yet again the Nobility provided the cutting edge of my armed forces,
and my faith in the power of God, Blue Blood and good parenting is
unshaken despite the the near defeat inflicted on the rest of my forces by
these desert dwelling Egyptian dervishes.
I will however have harsh words with the Treasury, as it seems the Szecklers lack of pay and provisions has resulted in a dimunition of their martial spirits to a degree which I feel is unacceptable - everyone should surely be simply grateful to fight in the command of such a Leader as I, as many in my retinue continue to tell me on a regular basis (usually just before that time in the year when I hand out grants of land and titles funnily enough..?)
And when those mercenaries arrive from wherever they have been on the world's most protracted flank march, I will also be seeking to have stiff words with them - the battle would surely have been very different had either the mercenary Szecklers performed better, or the mercenary Germans actually bothered to turn up.
Anyway, a victory for the nobility, a loss overall but we are still in the hunt...
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
You regard that shambles as a success? It is as if four of your five wits
went halting off, and now the whole man is governed with one! The Flank
March gambit is not compulsary - and in any case, last time when it worked
you combined the Szecklers and the flank march - how on earth was one unit
of 4 Average cavaliers going to buy enough time for a flank march -
similarly comprised of average troopers - to arrive and make merry hell
with the rear echelons of such a mobile opponent?
Furthermore the lack of foote in your force was a telling disadvantage here - you were unable to bring the battle to areas where the foote of the enemy could not intervene, and in the end you paid heavily for it
And finally, the Szecklers. It is surely not beyond the wit of man, even a man as not shaped for sportive tricks such as you, to keep three units in a solid line and take on the enemy all together? Yet somehow the Mamluk outmaneuvered you, and yes, a piecemeal charge is dooned to fail - there is no surprise but the one that your serial incompetence is still ongoing.
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
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Game 1 Hungarian vs Ottoman Turkish 1494
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