The Kavkaz Campaign

Having updated and up graded my TURQUOISE (Turcowaz) and GREEN (Izumrud-Zeleniya) armies in recent days, methought of a campaign in which to pit these longtime adversaries. At the far eastern end of the sea the Turcowaz called Karadeniz, lay a rich land, independent and known especially for its wine-growing. Until recently this land had lived an autonomous existence, somewhat protected by its mountain ranges, but also by its fierce fighters and, probably most of all, by its neighbours' fears that its superb vinous beverages might, with too much external meddling, be lost to the world. Even the supposedly abstemious Turcowaz were inclined to a certain ... lenity ... in respect of the existence and consumption of the products of Kakheti. 

In recent times, however, the ambitious Romanovitchskiy Czars had become disinclined to suffer the existence of independent states upon their borders. The latest of the House, Nikolai the Bibulous, something of a connoisseur of the Kakheti reds, roses, and ambers, had long harboured the notion of including the region - and the whole of Abasgia, withal - within his realms. He caused to be assembled two columns, one to march from the sea port of Sakhumi; the other from the Ciskavkaz towns, Pyatigorsk and Nalchik. The objectives were to take Tiblisi, and seize control of the whole valley between the Kavkaz Mountains and the Ktsia Range. 

Naturally, the usually indolent Sultan was moved in response to reports from his myriads of spies to order the mobilisation of military forces to oppose any such move by the Czar. Once more, he relied upon the bellicosity of the troublesome Abdul Abulbul Ameer, to direct operations in the Abasgian territory. Dividing his large army in two, he assembled the one at Trebizond, the other at Kars. The objective: to conquer the whole of the Abasgian valley, seize Tiblisi, and drive the Czar's army back across the Kavkaz mountains.

Such is the rather sketchy outline of the proposed campaign. First off, the maps.

A rather distorted map of the region to be fought over

I drew the above map roughly, distorting the east-west dimensions rather, because I wanted to get Trabzon (Trebizond) and Tiblisi both in the picture. The Kavkaz Mountains form a rather narrower range than the counterpart in our real world. Trebizond and Kars lie at the northeastern fringes of the Settee Empire of Turcowaz; The coastal town, Sakhumi, and the Kavkaz mountains form the southern frontier of the Czarate of Izumrud-Zeleniya.  This map was designed as the template for the hex map below...

Campaign Map of Abasgia.

Strictly speaking, the wine-growing regions lie east of Tiblisi, but that town really provides the only route from the west to reach them. Readers might recognise the region as modelled upon Georgia (the Republic thereof) but heavily distorted. I think this will be a fairly simple sort of campaign, though I do intend a naval dimension, which I'll expand upon in due course. My thoughts in that direction indicate a logistic support by sea for both (convoys of freighters and tramp steamers), but also a small sea-borne Czarist column.  

The entire navy of Rhumbaba. On loan to the 
Zeleniyan armed forces, they might choose to 
fly a different flag...

I thought of the Czar borrowing from the Hellenican navy, but that is starting to look a bit too much of a stretch. They may instead 'hire' the tiny Rhumbaba navy (small cruiser, torpedo boats and a possible armed merchant) for troop transport, supply, and possible raids along the coast near Trebizond. The Turcowaz Navy might send a protected cruiser (Hamidiye or Mecidiye) by way of escort for seaborne supply to Trebizond and any other sea port they might take and occupy.

One of the Turcowaz protected cruisers

At the moment, I'm looking both sides sending two columns, all quite disparate in composition. The Turcowaz is planning (that's a way around justifying any changes I may make to the campaign!) - is 'planning' to send a 'regular' column up the coast from Trebizond to Batumi and Poti. It will comprise the regular infantry and cavalry Divisions, two artillery regiments (each 2 guns) and a machine gun battalion. The 'irregular' column begins its march from Kars - a powerful column of Bashi-Bazouks, foot and a few horse, supported by an artillery regiment and machine guns. To rein in the possible Bashi-Bazouk tendency to excesses of behaviour towards the people and infrastructure of the region, Abdul Abulbul Ameer is to command this column in person. His known ruthlessness, incandescent temper and sharp readiness of scimitar seemed as likely a curb as any upon the excesses of indiscipline... 

Turcowaz and Rhumbaba naval units, in more 
halcyon times, rendering passing honours...

The stronger of the two Zeleniyan columns is to advance down the coast road Zugdidi. It will comprise 2 infantry and a cavalry Division, an artillery regiment, and the Naval detachment of machineguns and naval artillery mounted on field carriages. A much smaller column will leave from Nalchik and cross the Kavkaz mountains not far to the south. It comprises a single Division each of infantry and cavalry and a regiment of artillery.  

The quick witted reader will observe that these columns in no way are within supporting distance. Nor are they. Perhaps some concert of action might be achieved once these forces enter the theatre of operations...

The method of activating the columns and naval units is likely to be a variant of Bob Cordery's card driven campaign system outlined and exemplified in his book The Portable Colonial Wargame.  At the moment, I'm imagining the sides to be allocated a colour (RED for Turcowaz, BLACK for Izumrud-Zeleniya) and to each column a suit.  We'll see how that goes.

I reckon that will do for this posting ...

To be continued...