Friday, 1st July saw the much overdue playing of Mike W's 28mm Siege of Vienna game. It was staged at Mike N's venue and used Warlord Games Pike & Shotte rules, with some variants to keep the mechanisms simple and flowing.
On the allied Austrian / German/ Polish side (Hereafter referred to as the Western Allies), we had Mark, playing the Austrians and thus assuming that he had overall command and taking up a position on the right of the line.
This notion was not fully endorsed by Mat, who commanded the Polish Divisions in the centre. Ably assisting Mat was Phil, commander of the Polish 2nd Division.
On the left of the line was Dave playing a polyglot of German allies loosely known as the German (or Imperial) division.
Phil threw he cat amongst the pigeons by playing his black mark ⚫ on turn one against Mat's division. The resulting blunder sees Mat' two units of Cossacks leaving the field, they did not return for several turns much to everyone's amusement.
On the Ottoman side, we had Steve playing ad the Grand Vizier commanding the Janissaries & Sipahis of the Porte as well as the artillery.
He was backed up by Mike N, who as First Vizier had command of the Heavy & Feudal Sipahis.
Turkish and vassal light cavalry was under the command of Nigel whilst Infantry units were split between them in the absence of John who will be re-joining his command in week two.
The Western Allies plan was straight forward, a rapid advance straight forward! This was enacted as rapidly as possible but somewhat held-up as commanders struggled to get there orders out to their units in a timely manner.
Orders being subject to a Command test based on their commander's capability ratings.
Over a course of a few turns, Mat's Poles and Mark's Austrians were behind the pace. On the left Dave's Germans led by he Bavarian Cuirassiers made much better progress.
| Towards the rear of eth Ottoman lines there is much activity, Janissaries in the background and Sipahi Cavalry manoeuvring to their front |
On the Ottoman side, commanders scurried from their tents to join their units to put together a defensive plan.
Nigel's Light Cavalry were soon in the thick of it managing to give a good account of themselves alongside various Azab and Tufecku Infantry units.
End of week one and there's all to play for, Ottoman units are holding g up well but two Infantry and two cavalry units have been sent back to the box.
The Western Allies have four of five units with casualties and their opponents have two or three on the same situation.
As ever I'll leave much of rest of the report to the pictures, week #2 is due to be played July 8th.
| Polish Winged Hussars make contact with Ottoman Mamelukes, the Mamelukes held out for one turn but were destroyed in the following melee round! |
| General view of eth table from the Western Allies right flank, looking down the table to eth Ottoman Right |
Week Two saw a slight change in the Ottoman line-up, Nigel was unable to attend but his place was ably taken by John, who took command or the Ottoman Light Cavalry.
The Western Alliance continued to roll forwards, eliminating Ottoman units and pushing them quite quickly into their own half of the board. On the left flank the Bavarians continued to do well, but at the loss of one unit of Cuirassiers. Luckily within the German Division the Saxon Cuirassiers stepped up to replace them.
| On the right flank of eth Western Allies, Austrian Horse advance behind their Cuirassier comrades |
| Austrian Cuirassiers wheel to engage Hungarian Hussars to their left |
| Ottoman Guns finally come into play and start to bombard advancing Western forces |
| The grand sweep of the Western forces as they close with the Ottoman infantry's defensive lines in the centre of the board. The Polish Winged Hussar unit at the bottom of the picture has just been staggered by artillery fire |
| The rest of the line from above! |
| Ottoman Sipahi of the Porte advance out of their camp to engage with the approaching Austrian Juggernaut |
| Not so good photo of eth Ottoman Infantry's positions |
Time was called at the end of week two, The Western assault on the Ottoman lines was just starting, albeit that the infantry positions were being avoided as much as possible. On the Western left it was deemed that he German division would likely break through the Ottoman cavalry and levy lines, enabling them to flank the Janissary positions in the centre, on the right the Austrians had a much harder fight to overcome the four units of the Sipahi of eth Porte and a Janissary of eth Porte unit.
In the centre the Poles would have had to crash into eth Janissary lined up behind Chevaux de Fris, another tough ask but with cunning and bravery it would have been possible! But we'll never know for sure.
Thanks to all that played.