Monday, August 3, 2020

Tsar versus Sultan - A border incident.

Hookah Farm - seen from the south
Hookah Chitlik (Farm) seen from the south, behind 
Turcowaz forces.

Far to the north of Medifluvia, far beyond Sakhdad, Tenveh, Lake Fordor-Sedan - even beyond Trebizond and almost as far as Alania - was sketched, in the year 1875, the nebulous northern fringes of the Settee Empire of Turcowaz. A troublesome region, this Hyperborean territory lies far distant not only from Bosphoran Ionople, but equally so from Moscovgorod, and even farther from the Tsar's favorite residence in Sankt Peterburg. Making this trouble, across this border, the local Zelenian governor, Count Nicholai Pavlovitch Ignatiev, far from idling his hours and his command in the usual sybarite debaucheries associated with distant, ill-supervised, and semi-forgotten garrisons, entertained himself by frequent cross-border forays, clashes with the local Turcowaz forces, and raids upon the unfortunate subjects of the Sultan.
Hookah Farm, seen from the north, behind Zelenian forces.


The Sultan, ordinarily somnolent to the point of comatosity, could, now and then, be aroused to choleric outbursts and, therefrom, effective decisions. In the wake of one particularly destructive (and profitable) raid by the Zelenians, the Sultan recalled a certain turbulent subject, sneering, bellicose and violent, Abdul Ameer, disgraced for assorted breaches of the peace in the capital, who might after all contribute more to the well being of the Empire the farther he was from its capital. So Abdul Ameer found himself some months later, in the fortified frontier town of Alkalkalaki, listening to a gabbled and garbled report from some peasant or other complaining of the burning down of the pile of sticks he called a home by the loathed and feared Tsarist raiders.  

The following action is taken from the classic scenario from H.G. Wells's Magnum Opus, Little Wars: the Battle of Hook's Farm. The action between the border forces of Turcowaz (TURQUOISE) and Izumrud-Zelenia (EMERALD-GREEN) took place at an equally bucolic location, Hookah Ciftlik. In the diagram, substitute Taverna for 'Cottage', Ylerif Mosque for the Church, and Hassan the Hermit's Hovel, for 'Hovel'.




This scenario was adapted for a gridded table, as suggested in Bob Cordery's book, Developing the Portable Wargame, except that I adapted for my own 10x10 board, and included the re-entrant in the ridgeline near Hassan's hovel. As it transpired, the forces engaged were exactly similar, as follows:

1 Commander (Abdul Ameer and Count N.P. Ignatiev respectively) @ 6SP
6 Infantry units, rifle-armed, @4SP = 24SP
3 Cavalry units @ 3SP = 9SP (I've just discovered a typo in my book!)
2 Artillery units @ 2SP = 4SP
Totalling: 11 units and 1 commander; 43SPs

Turcowaz on their start line.

I used my dice system for determining initiative and activation. To determine initiative for each pair of moves, one blue (Turcowaz) and one green (Izumrud-Zelenia) were rolled, the high score going first. Whose turn it was then rolled a die to determine how many units were activated. The 'median' of the number of units as 6, a roll of 1,2 allowed 5 units to act; 3,6 allowed 6; and 5,6 allowed 7. 
In the event, the Turcowaz seized the early initiative ('won' the initiative roll), though, owing to a low activation roll ( a '2') advanced in a rather piecemeal fashion.  
The battle narrative is rather quickly told. The Turcowaz moving up slowly, the Zelenians themselves wrested the initiative and occupied the ridgeline about Hookah Chiftlik. A protracted firefight developed there, as Zelenians penetrated the woods on the western end of the ridge, and elements of Turcowaz infantry pushed through the scrub near the hovel.

Despite heavy losses, the Turcowaz got rather the better of the firefight and pushed back the Zelenians right off the feature, to a line alongside the Taverna. Elements reached the hovel and even the walls of the  Ylerif Mosque. Only a single unit remained cling onto its position at the wooded west end of the ridge. Meanwhile, a Zelenian cavalry unit attempting a wide flanking sweep east of the mosque, was met, and seen off, by waiting Turcowaz horse.

This appeared to be the turning point of the action. The Zelenian expeditionary force mounted a strong, coordinated attack all along the line, that gradually swept the Turcowaz infantry out of Hookah Farm, off the ridgeline, and into the plain beyond. For a space a couple of units clung on to their patch of scrubland, but a flanking attack forced at least one of them out. With the Zelenians advancing just about all along the line, the Turcowaz fell below their 'exhaustion point'.  

Counterattacks out of the the question, the Turcowaz clung on, its left-flank cavalry unit even dealing shrewd blows against Zelenian light horse that sought to drive them off and open a flank. The Turcowaz cavalry seemed to have a slight ascendancy over the Zelenian in this battle!

That was enough to discourage further Zelenian advances. They, too, had reached their exhaustion point, just one or two turns after the Turcowaz army. The battle was over.

Both sides claimed the victory, of course, but both had some reason for satisfaction. From a tactical point of view, the Zelenians has driven the Turcowaz quite back to their start line - even beyond in places. But there was no doubt that the Turcowaz had set a term on Zelenian raiding expeditions for this year. 



The Turcowaz uncoordinated early moves...




Turcowaz reach the Hookah Farm and the hovel...



...but Zelenian infantry seize the ridge west of the farm.

Firefights develop all along the ridge line.





Who holds Hookah Farm?



Turcowaz establish an ascendancy, and carries the farm.

Turcowaz elements reach the Ylerif mosque.

Waiting Turcowaz horse sees off a sweeping flank move by Zelenian light horse..

General view.  Turcowaz 'owns' the Hookah farm line ... for now.




Zelenian infantry gather for a counter-blow.

Zelenian counter-attack under way.  Already Hookah Farm has been abandoned.

Zelenian advances sweep the Turcowaz from the ridge line.

A rather depleted Zelenian foot unit strikes a Turcowaz unit in flank - enough to drive it out.


Turcowaz remaining hold on the ridge line, the two units in the thin cover, both threatened from a flank.



There's no recovering the lost high ground now!



Though the Turcowaz by now have exhausted their strength, a cavalry clash on the their left goes in their favour...

End of the action.  The Zelenian offensive has also tun out of steam. Both sides laid claim to victory.

It has been quite a while since my last posting. I had played a few games, and the armies in this battle had just recently been painted, but motivation for posting seemed to be wanting. And then I caught a chill that developed into a chest cold and morphed into pneumonia. I haven't fully recovered yet, though feel perkier today than I have done for a goodish while. So I still have a couple of battles to report and possibly another article on WW2 OOBs.

28 comments:

  1. Nice game! Hope you recover quickly.

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  2. That is a nice looking game. I hope you feel better soon.

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    1. The game was fun to play. Thanks for your encouragement!

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    1. Thanks. So long as I don't do anything stupid, I reckon I might be on the mend.

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  4. Hi Archduke- A very nice game there resulting in a Draw. I had Pneumonia several years ago now and it did take some time to fully recover- take it easy and rest a lot. Cheers. KEV.

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    1. Yep: the rest notion seems to be sound advice! Got knocked about rather more than I thought at the time.

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  5. A fun looking game and always good to get newly painted troops on to the tabletop.

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    1. Yeah, that 'had to be'. Having just finished my Zelenians, it seemed a good time to play out a scenario I had never before tried.

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  6. Always good to see a little visited period being gamed. Get well soon Ion.

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    1. Thanks, Howard. The whole concept is taking on a 'Diplomacy' (at one time one of my favourite board games) feel...

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  7. Archduke Piccolo,

    Sorry to read that you have been unwell, and may I send you best wishes for a full recovery.

    I read your battle report with great interest and enjoyment, and your re-imagining of the famous ‘Battle of Hook’s Farm’ is outstanding! I hope to mention this blog post on my blog later this week.

    All the best,

    Bob

    PS. You found a typo? Sorry about that. I seem to find a new one every time I look at my books ... and that is after having at least two other people check each book before it is published.

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    1. Hi Bob -
      Thanks for your comment on the game, and for your best wishes.

      The typo is an odd one that had until yesterday escaped my notice on several previous readings. Page 109 of 'Developing the Portable Wargame': "Three Cavalry Units @ 3 SPs each = 6 SPs". Should be 9 SPs, of course... Even playing the game with the correct SPs didn't alert me to the error.

      The problem I have with editing, as experienced on this blog, I'll find far more errors AFTER I've published than I did before...

      Cheers,
      Ion

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  8. Hope you're on the mend Archduke - that report was a great read! I like the two armies and the backstory. Take care.

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    1. Cheers, Maudlin. I had to have some kind of background to the action - especially to 'explain' the very limited size of my GREEN army (all up, 8 infantry units, 4 cavalry and 2 artillery) compared with my RED army (say - over 40 infantry, 9 cavalry, 5-6 artillery and 4 Gatlings).

      I'll take better care from now: it was carelessness got me into trouble...
      Cheers -

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  9. What is the board - the other side of your current one ?

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    1. Hi Jacko -
      No, the board is one of my other ones, a 10x10 4" square grid (that 'hex-gridded' high ground is deceptive!). I'm trying to remember if you and I have ever played a game on it other than when covered with one of my war games blankets...

      This is one of my early games played on it...
      http://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com/2017/08/still-more-about-grids-and-play-test.html
      Cheers,
      Ion

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  10. I am glad to hear that you are on the mends. I had noticed that you had not posted in a while.

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    1. Thanks for noticing! But in fact I was just ... lazy ... before the lurgy caught up with me. I did (still) have a small backlog of articles to write up, continuations of ongoing projects.

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  11. Hiya Ion, a very nice looking game. Sorry to hear you have been poorly, pneumonia is no joke. Look after yourself.
    Regards,
    Paul.

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    1. Cheers, Paul. Will do. The game wasn't the prettiest, but was interesting to play out.

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  12. Sorry to read of your illness. Pneumonia will knock it out of you.

    Inspiring game background. The sort of thing that is in the back of my mind.

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  13. Nothing like a return to the table to indicate the start of a recovery. Heal well!

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    1. Actually, I played this before I got crook. Just took a while to get it written up.

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  14. A lively action.
    Plenty or recordings of the exploits of Abdul Abulbul Ameer. Peter Skellern for instance

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    1. Yes - my Abdul Ameer was kinda modelled upon that hero! I did think maybe a certain Ivan Skavinski-Skavar might feature on the side of Izumrud-Zelenia...

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