Pike and Shot Tournament: Poles Vs Turks Summary

It's great to be fighting battles again!

I haven't done much of it in recent years, due to the lack of sufficient free hours to really work on these battles. But my resolution for 2011 is to change that, and put my 10,000 figures to as much use as possible! Which hopefully, in turn, will mean the regular posts that I originally set this blog up to accomodate.

Last Sunday's battle was my first with both these armies, which I assembled over the course of the past year. Neither army is completely finished, but they are ready enough to take the field. (In fact, I haven't done much fighting in the Pike and Shot era at all previously, so this tournament will be a great learning experience for me.)

I was definitely pleased with the look of both armies. They made for a really colorful display, and once I plug the gaps in their ranks that currently exist, I think both will be very formidable - hopefully both in look and deed.

The Turks had a great day. Pretty much everything fell into their lap, and indeed the only bad dice throw I can remember them getting was the one that killed Kazazian Beg. Everything else went their way - the Poles arrival was delayed long enough to allow them to take the village and relatively freely deploy for its defense. Their outflanking force showed up at just the right time to provide re-enforcements for the main battle, and if the Poles had arrived earlier, its arrival would have been perfect to hit the Poles in the flank as planned. The Turks even managed to string together a series of good throws in the final melee against the Winged Hussars.

The Poles on the other hand, had to struggle for everything they got. They arrived late. When they did arrive, the Zaporozhians found the going tough against a lone unit of Tartars - that should have been a comfortable match for the Zaporozhians. Their German allies played no meaningful role. And then the Winged Hussars had to make a hurried assault, with very limited support, against a formed-and-ready Turkish defense force.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army seems to be one that needs to take its time to accomplish things, and they just didn't have it in this fight. Had they been able to use their artillery to soften up the Turks for a few rounds before sending the Winged Hussars in, the result might have been quite different.

There will be other days however, and I'm sure this Polish army will have its share of glory in the future. Its second round clash against the Japanese will be do-or-die as far as this year's tournament is concerned though.

The Turks next assignment is against the Swedes, and we'll know more about them next week, after they take on the Muscovites in our New Year's Day (or the day after!) battle! For now though, the Turks are sitting comfortably at the top of the table.