A Sunday Summer Morn

A Koenig Krieg Battle Report between the Austrians and the Ottomans

It was almost midday when the enemy began to deploy on the field of battle. Pasha Topal Osman, victor of 1st Kirkuk, scourge of the Georgians and now warming himself in the midday sun close to the Serbian border. A silver jeweled flask sparkled in the summer sun as a servant poured the Pasha another glass of the bright red nectar of the gods. The Pasha had never been a true believer of the Wahabite prophet and often indulged in strong liquor. Today was no exception and the quixotic mixture was most welcomed on this gloriously warm day.

Just then a messenger arrived to report the deployment of the enemy Reichsarmee he had believed was operating in the area. "So strange" he thought, that those odd German people's of the Rhine should be so far South". But then the Pasha's scouts had stated it was the case, so it must be. 

"Your most serene excellency," intoned the silver tongued messenger, "the Austrian army under Von Braun has deployed to our front. " Ah" thought the Pasha absently patting the dancing girl on his knee, as he listened to the messenger's remarks on the enemy dispositions. Suddenly his mind whirled into action as the realisation finally dawned, "Ahmed did you say Austrian army?" "Yes your excellency, Lion of the East and scourge of the Georgians, that is what I said, replied Ahmed." 

Shoving the dancing girl of his knee, Topal Osman arose in a fit of temper. "Why are the Austrians to my front", he whined. What happened to the Reichs army? Why am I always the last to know! What happened to my glorious scout screen that was supposed" he paused for emphasis, "to have been giving me the latest and most up to date reports!"

The battle had not even begun and the Pasha was already looking for scapegoats, this was going to be a very interesting battle mused the messenger, silently relishing the Pashas discomforture. After all it was not his head that would roll, being the favourite nephew of the Grand Vizier and he did so hate the Pasha!

At that moment the roar of Austrian Heavy guns filled the air, the battle had unceremoniously begun!

Yes Foggy (Von Braun) had duped me (Topal Pasha). All along he had decided to bring an Austrian force to crush my army of infidels. The rumours of the Reichs army being deployed, was a ruse, designed to draw out my army, knowing I would have taken a different list to face Austrians. Curse his cunning and my gullability!

We played a Fields of Fury mission with my Suvarileri Brigade on the far right, facing off against his Austrian Hussars. Next was a band of Camel riders, looking to come to grips with his Austrian Croats. Next to this was deployed my Jannissary brigade and supporting Abus Battery. These brave warriors were to attack their opposites, a full brigade of Bavarian infantry and a gun battery, in the closed fields and orchards to the front of a village.

Deployed on the hill were 2 Brigades of Sekhans, some 6 Ortas in all, whose job it was tasked to keep the Austrian and Hungarian brigades and heavy battery engaged. I left a regiment of Spahis in their rear just to encourage them to stick around and not flee, (as so often happens with class 4 infantry). Protecting my vulnerable flank was another Spahis regiment. The Spahis were outnumbered by their opposites, composed of a brigade of Austrian Dragoons and a regiment of Grenzer Hussars.

Well they say the best laid plans do oft go astray! And so it was with mine! Not only had Foggy cunningly lulled me into thinking I was facing a Reichsarmee, in the first turn his Class 1 General beat my Class 2 General on every single initiative roll. Thus, forcing me to act before any of his own units.

So I pushed the Suvarileri Brigade up a far as I could against the Austrian Hussars on my far right, began marching my Jannissary brigade forward to crush the Bavarians and backing off with the Spahis a little, on my far left.

Foggy managed to maneuvre forward with his Hussars, past my Cavalry brigade and right on top of the Camels. On my far left his Dragoons and Grenzer screen dashed forward in the hope of quickly crushing that flank. Things were not going well and it was only the first turn.

Luckily his Heavy battery and 2 Austrian Brigade batteries caused no great damage on my Sekhans. In the charge phase I managed to extricate the Camels but his Hussars were still in range of the Abus battery which did a measly 1 hit during defensive fire before it was torn apart by the hussars.

Turn 2 saw the Sekhans stand stoically in the face of overwhelming bombardments as the Austrian centre crept forward, hoping to weaken my center before having to attack. Luckily for the Ottomans not a single battery scored a hit.

However my Jannissary brigade was feeling very vulnerable with Austrian Hussars on my flank and my own Suvarlieri cavalry unable to catch them this turn. Tradgically the entire Jannisary attack bogged down as I turned Ortas to face the new threat and even the 11 dice against the Hussars, needing 5+ with 5 hits scored, was not enough to deter these brave madmen, clearly ordered to buy the Austrian left flank time with their lives.  

Turn 3 was a turn around for the Ottomans. A regiment of Austrian Dragoons and the Grenzer regiment were pushed back by the Spahis. The Austrian Hussars were annihilated and the opportunity to catch out the Austrian Croats operating near the Orchard cheered me no end, that is until I bungled the whole thing and once again the Pasha, a Class 2 General could not win a single Charge initiative. Needless to say the Croats fled behind the safety of the Bavarians and I was left with cavalry dangerously close to the Bavarian brigade.  

By Turn 4 the Jannissaries had renewed their march against the Bavarians although the Ortas were very strung out now and could not bring the full weight of their fire to bare on the Austrian battalions that had blocked their advance. The Jannissary Battalion that did manage to get close enough did cause severe damage on the Austrians,inflicting 5 hits in a single round of fire. The Austrians however, were causing lots of casualties in return and the Croats and Bavarian artillery were chipping away with accurate fire. 

It was at this time that the Pasha finally started to win all the intiatives, (about time!) Class 2 Generals are very expensive in 1000 points and they need to be working for you all the time, in order to make up for the loss of points that could have been spent on extra troops. Although the Sekhan had endured another turn of bombardment, the Austrian's were now within march and fire range. Providing the Pasha kept winning initiative for me the Sekhans would be in a position to give the Austrian center hell! 

Both Sekhan brigades launched off the hill and into musketry range of the Austrian Brigades. The Spahis Reserve supported the Sekhan's with an attack of their own and forced 1 Austrian battalion to flee and sabered the crew of their supporting light battery, only to suffer horrendous casualties from the the 2nd line of Austrians. Meanwhile on my left flank the Austrian Dragoons and Grenzers had rallied and were beginning to apply pressure of their own on the Spahis regiment protecting the Ottoman left flank.  

Turn 5 saw the Ottoman General relishing the power of command. I won the first initiatives and opened up with everything all across the line. The Hungarian Light Battery was destroyed from fire, and 1 Hungarian and 1 Austrian Battalion were devastated by a withering fire from the Sekhans, each losing 4 figures.

It was then that everything turned to hell, once more! The Austrian return fire was just as devastating and the Jannisaries and Sekhans and Suvarileri cavalry were dropping left, right and centre. Not to mention when the Austrian Heavy Battery opened up with cannister, a Sekhan Ortas fled in sheer panic. The croats were having a ball under the protection of the wall and Orchard, 3 Ottoman cavalry saddles were left empty after the Croat harrassing fire.

While on my left flank Foggy (Von Braun) had finally been able to bring to bare his cavalry dominance in this sector. I was flanked on both sides. My Spahis had no other option but to perform a voluntary retreat. I was safe from panicking the rest of the army, but such a move would only give the Austrian cavalry a chance to move deeper round my left flank. Nonetheless it was either that or lose the regiment. Frustrated by the order the Spahis fled back 12 inches. 

Turn 6, I began to get desperate and threw the Suvarileri Brigade against the Bavarians in the enclosed fields. A Battalion of infantry was sabered and so to was the Bavarian Light Battery that had been blasting away at the Jannissaries so effectively. However the Cavalry Brigade was looking decidedly more worse for ware, than the Bavarian Brigade.

A Battalion of Jannissaries was destroyed from fire and the other battalions, so strung out, finally arrived, but too late to support the front Ortas. In the centre the low morale of the Sekhans was beginning to have an effect and the first Ortas withered away under fire.

A few bungled shooting rolls and the Sekhans were now in trouble. I missed the Heavy Battery and caused only 1 hit on one of the Hungarian Battalions despite rolling 9 dice! The only ray of light was the Spahis which were charged by a Dragoon regiment, defeated the Dragoons and then completely annihilated them in the exploitation, (as my Spahis went uncontrolled). At the time I felt this was a lucky break, as the Austrian Dragoon Brigade was now permanently broken. However my cavalry regiment was so far away that it was never going to get back into the battle in time and that was if it actually rallied, which it finally managed to do in the last turn of the game. The flank was now very open and Foggy's favourite maneuvre "the swinging gate" was about to occur.

Turn 7 was the beginning of the end. My Sekhans were suffering, but there were enough to probably break at least 1 brigade of Hungarians and if the Jannissaries were performing to par, maybe the Austrian Brigade as well. I had lost my Cavalry Brigadier in a fruitless charge against the Bavarians in the last turn and so leaderless, the cavalry milled around while the Bavarians and Croats poured a murderous fire upon them. 1 Regiment broke and the other was so shaken by fire that they left the field.

Unfortuanately, with a regiment of Austrian Dragoons now in my rear zone I doubted I was going to survive long enough to cause that level of damage. I was right, the Dragoons charged a very weakend Sekhan Ortas, which was stoically held their ground, only to have the cavalry break the bayonets(not that hard vs Oriental infantry) hack them apart, kill the brigadier and then gleefully, with whoops of joy and blodlust, crash into the rear of 2 Sekhan Ortas annihilating them. The Janissaries had lost a second Ortas routed and were down to just 1 Ortas left.

At this stage, I knew I had every brigade broken and was going to fail army morale automatically next turn. The Austrians had only lost 1 out of their 4 brigades and so I was gong to have to pull a miracle out of my hat. I had just the men I needed for such a miracle - the last Ortas of the Jannissary Brigade.

The last Jannissary Ortas was fresh and I was sure if I charged the weakend Austrian Brigade enough of it would fall beneath my jezzails and swords to break this brigade going some way to ensureing that the austrians have a 50% chance of failing their army morale test. I was unconcerned about the centre anymore as any Sekhan Ortas still fighting, would be destroyed by the Dragoons and Grenzers and Hungarian brigade with supporting Heavy Battery.

Turn 8 saw the last 2 Sekhan Ortas being mopped up along with the Camel Skirmishes. My attack with the Jannisaries was hampered by the Pasha having another of his panic attacks and allowing the enemy General to dominate the initiative rolls. So the Jannissaries charged an Austrian Battalion down to 3 morale (and that included the army General attached) which naturaly held its ground and proceeded to inflict such a galling fire on my Ortas that 5 figures were stripped away as well as the Brigadier killed. In the melee the Jannissaries bumbled the dice roll rolling a 2 to the Austrian 6 and that was that! The remnants of the Ottomans were swept up in the pursuit (not that there were many left of them) and Topal Osman Pasha swore it was treachery and sabotage and all wonder of malodorous and treacherous reasons why he had gone and lost an entire army! 

So Von Braun won the battle 8-2 using the Battle Points System, which is an absolute flogging! And now Topal Osman is plotting his revenge. Both Foggy and I have played 3 games with myself running the Ottomans and he the Austrians. On the other 2 occassions I won, but the games were very close, so this was a real embarrassing loss which more than overbalanced the previous victories. So until next time Her Fogg!!!!!

I am happy to announce that I will be selling Games Workshop from now on.

 At present all orders will be special orders which will take about 10 working days.

All Games Workshop is 20% off RRP.

After a few debacles with ordering Flames of War, I am now happy to announce with full authority, that I will be stocking Flames of War.

At this stage I am only doing special orders which will take around 10 working days to arrive as I only order every second week or sometimes only every third week. If I have the products in stock then you will almost certainly get them within 2-3 working days.

All FOW Orders are 10% off RRP, no matter how small the order.

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