By Fire and Sword Battle Report - Muscovy vs Ottoman Empire.

 Hi again,

Apologies for the lack of posts on the blog lately, it's been a busy time. Indeed, this game was actually played over a week ago so the details are fairly hazy. That said, it was actually one of the better games of By Fire and Sword that I've played. I used the new Prince Boriatinski's Pomiestna Cavalry Regiment skirmish list while Nathan used the European Skirmish Force - our first time with both lists. I think Boriatinski's regiment is interesting, allowing more elite and Dvorian troops than the regular Muscovite skirmish list. Losing poor tactical discipline is also worth the extra cost of the list in my opinion. I was two FSP above Nathan's list (9 to 7, from memory) and suffered a cowardly commander (two command points for my commander to order a charge, amongst other things) and I believe fatigue (three markers placed by commander that once removed due to failed morale tests, results in -1 morale across the board). My reconnaissance advantage got me a decisive moment that I never ended up using!

Deployment. Russian troops focus on their right while the Ottomans stick to the centre.

The Russian right. Elite Dvorians, Skirmish Boyars and regular boyars here.

In the early turns the Muscovites make it to the central objective first. The lone boyar squadron on the left punched above its weight, breaking a unit of Sipahi. With the lance sipahi in the Ottoman Empire centre at risk of total encirclement should the gonullu on their left falter, we thought we were in for a quick game!

The Muscovite encirclement was looking good...

...however around turn 4 the Ottoman's get their act together. The formerly broken Sipahi had rallied and managed to drive off the dangerously exposed boyars of the Muscovite left. The lance sipahi weren't even needed and the gonullu held, saved by the inability of the Muscovites to muster enough troops to charge.

Here's where it turned. Over turn five and six the lance sipahi, unengaged up to that point, turned 180 degrees in turn five and charged in turn 6 along with the gonullu. The muscovite centre shattered.

Turn 6 was decisive. The Muscovites had held onto the approaches but the lances of the sipahi and taken back the central hill and the Ottoman's won by 2 points. Victory snatched at the last moment! By chance or by design, Nathan keeping his lances until the last moment proved decisive. I simply had no unit that could fight those guys toe to toe, and my command difficulties due to my cowardly commander meant I couldn't get enough squadrons to mass attack them. A great game that really demonstrated that you lose nothing by playing By Fire and Sword at the smaller skirmish level.