ADLG - Game Report 153

Ottoman Empire (267) vs Catalan Company (262)

Paul said he needed so additional practice with his Catalans before the Rome Championship. I think many of us would agree that he doesn’t need it, but who am I to turn down another game. I thought it would be nice to be semi-historical and field the Ottomans. These I inherited from Clive, and I recently finished refurbishing them so they were due an outing. Fingers crossed that they didn’t bring Clive’s dice with them.

I didn’t really want to get embroiled in a street fight or fighting in the brush with the Catalans and specifically their Almogavars. I therefor decided to use the Infantry to try and hold on the right and to dominate the enemy with bow fire. Meanwhile I intended to use the Ottoman cavalry to get in close again with bow fire to weaken the Catalans.

At first sight it seemed that Paul was wedded to his defensive terrain.

However, he did leave his brush and I started to put a small amount of effective fire down, but unfortunately much of the fire was wasted on enemy light troops and not the main line.

The bow fire from the Janissaries forced a couple of Almogavars to withdraw, but it wasn’t a huge return on the investment I was making in arrows! I didn’t need to worry about chasing the light infantry away as the Almogavars decided to charge themselves. The contact did not go well for me, and it has left me in a very precarious position. Perhaps, it wasn’t such a good idea for the Heavy Cavalry to evade?

The Almogavars in the village have decided to move forward and take part in the battle, now that a unit of heavy spearmen has been destroyed and the Janissaries at the end of the line are fading away rapidly. On the right the cavalry is trying to pick their way forward and in doing so looking or open flanks to engage.

On the right it has been difficult to find an exposed flank worth attacking, the Catalans adroit use of light troops in the rough of the brush to close down potential flanks was infuriating! In the centre the remaining cavalry are being left to try and trade space for time. Whereas on the left the writing is on the wall for the Janissaries; are they being haunted by Clive’s dice?

Outcome

A win for the Catalans by 15 to 26.

Lessons Learnt

I am still not sure, in retrospect, why I decided that the Heavy Cavalry should evade.

More practice with this army is needed, perhaps a different force mix?