The Battle of Uzaktan Savas

Following on from the Rejects' last remote 18th century adventure (see here), we gathered for another evening of mid century conflict.  This time an encounter between Catherine the Great's Russians and the Sultan's Ottoman Turks.

Two opposing players (Jon for the Russians and Ray for the Ottomans) were given the size of forces available, the army lists and a map of the battlefield.  Their job was to construct their armes and deploy ahead of the game.

The map sent to Jon and Ray.  Brown hex are hills, green squares are wooded hexes, the grey square is a village.
The white boxes are the deployment zones.  The Russians will deploy in the northern zone.

The Objectives

Simply put, the aim of both armies is to force their opponent to retire.

If one side doesn't concede then I'll refer to my (still on trial) army countdown clock where one is taken away for each retreat and defeat in melee. Three is removed if the road junction with their table edge is captured; 1 each is added for controlling the central bridge and road junction.

The Armies
The Russians (Jonathan and Dan)
1st Infantry Brigade: 3 line, 1 grenadier and 2 heavy artillery.

2nd Infantry Brigade: 3 line and 2 medium artillery.

1st Cavalry Brigade: 1 hussar

2nd Cavalry Brigade: 1 cuirassier and 1 dragoon

Independent units: 1 jäger and 1 cossack

The Ottoman Turks (Ray, Lee and Steve)
1st Infantry Brigade:  3 Janissary, 1 levee, 2 medium and 1 heavy artillery

1st Cavalry Brigade:  2 Spahi

2nd Cavalry Brigade:  1 Akinji, 1 Grand Visierial Guard

3rd Cavalry Brigade:  2 Akinji

Independent units:  1 Azab skirmish infantry, 1 Seyman skirmish infantry

Deployment

The table with the armies deployed.  The Russians to the north.
It looks like Ray has gone for overwhelming the Russian eastern flank with all of the Ottoman cavalry.

The Battle

The Russians move quickly to turn their high ground into a bastion against which the Turks will break themselves.  At the same time, redeploying their dragoons and cuirassiers from west to east to try and counter the Turkish mounted threat.
The Ottomans advanced along the whole line.  Swinging their cavalry wide on their right flank while skirmishers moved swiftly through the woods to harass.  However, Russian jagers and cossacks moved to nullify any immediate danger.

The battle of manoeuvre continued as cannons opened up on the western flank and Seyman, Azabs and jagers fought a running firefight in the woods.

The Russians started gaining the ascendancy in the woods.  Meanwhile, the Turkish heavy cavalry hurled itself into the defending infantry and cavalry.

A spahi unit suffered losses from Russian musketry fire and refused to charge into the disciplined line of bayonets and volleys.
However, the other heavy cavalry of the Sultan launched itself against the Tsarina's dragoons and cuirassiers, who countercharged.

Meanwhile in the centre, jagers and cossacks started to make bloody work of the Azabs.

The Ottoman heavy horse routed the Russian cavalry but were unable to exploit the situation further.  However, the men from Muscovy won control of the woods as they annihilated the Azabs.

As I tend to do, I asked the players what they would do if this battle was in the context of a larger campaign.  The Russians quickly responded that they would withdraw... and so they did!

Victory to the Turks!

Afterthoughts
I enjoyed seeing how this battle unfolded.  It was interesting to see how the more oriental Ottoman forces would stand up to the more modern Russians.

I think that it would be fair to say that the Turks were lucky to pass so many morale checks with their irregular troops.  This was critical.  The Turks have quite a fearsome army but are very brittle and units could retire at the first hit.  That they didn't showed how favourably the dice gods smiled on the Turks.

Thank you to Ray and Jonathan for participating in the army creation and deployment.