So back in February 2015 I thought that it would be quite fun to work through all thirty scenarios in One Hour Wargames in order and write a report for each. I'd use whatever rules tickled my fancy at the time along with whatever armies seemed appropriate. It started pretty well, but fizzled out about two-thirds of the way into the book.
Four years ago I managed to play the 23rd scenario. Yesterday I played the 24th!
Really this was an excuse to get my Nottomans on the table.
Scenario 24 in Bottleneck, and features a small blocking force holding a road where it passes between a wood and a swamp. The attacker must clear the road of enemy troops. The defender are outnumbered but have the advantage of a good defensive position, as well as some local light troops in the wood (which is otherwise impassable to other troops).
So let us head to the borders of the Russian and Nottoman empires in 1711, where a Russian rear-guard has been ordered to hold a strategic road in order to cover a tactical withdrawal by the rest of the army. The Nottomans are in pursuit, and have formed up to force their was down the road.
I decided to play this one using the Horse & Musket rules in the book, although I used the 5-hits variant with units rolling 1,2 or 3 dice to hit. A 4-6 scored a hit. Cover or other bonuses that halved hits instead allowed a saving throw of 4+ for each hit.
Here's the Russians. They have two units of line on the road, some cavalry covering their flank and a mob of skirmishers in the wood.
The Nottomans got four units of line, some skirmishers and two units of cavalry.
They massed their line to assault the bottleneck, although the skirmishers and one unit of line were tasked with trying to drive the skirmishers out of the woods.
Meanwhile, as always happens in this scenario, the Nottoman cavalry rode quickly around the right flank.
As the Nottomans formed up they came under ineffective fire from the Russian militia in the woods.
The Russian foot advanced into the bottleneck.
The Nottomans returned fire and a musketry duel commenced. The Nottomans couldn't make any impression on the enemy skirmishers, whilst their own line started to take hits.
Meanwhile the Russian cavalry also advanced, aiming to catch the Nottomans close to the swamp where they couldn't bring their numbers to bear.
The lead Nottoman unit was wavering now.The third foot unit had worked onto its flank and was preparing to engage the Russians, however.
Their combined firepower was too much for the lead Russian unit, which broke.
The Russian cavalry had fallen back and the Nottomans exploited the gap that had opened up to move onto its flank with their second cavalry unit. However their lead unit was badly shaken.
(The disparity in damage between the lead Nottoman unit and teh Russian cavalry is down to the altered combat system, which allows save-rolls instead of halving hits as in the original rules. In Cavalry vs Cavalry fights both sides take half casualties, which translates to saves on all hits. The Russians made all theirs. The Nottomans didn't. This makes the rules more unpredictable than normal.)
The Russian cavalry fell back in order to avoid being flanked.
The Russians reorganised their foot, moving the skirmishers up to support the surviving line infantry.
The Nottomans also reorganised, pulling their shaken unit back and feeding fresh infantry into the attack.
The fresh Nottoman cavalry went into the attack, but was also mauled by the Russians, who were still looking confident and fresh.
Meanwhile the lead Nottoman infantry unit broke under steady from from the Russians.
Followed by one of their cavalry units.
Nine turns in and the Russians still had a strong defensive position.
However their cavalry couldn't hold the flank forever; the Nottomans charged and routed them. But their surviving cavalry unit only had one hit left.
Another Nottoman foot unit ran as the Russian musketry intensified.
The Nottoman cavalry swung into the rear of the Russian foot ...
... but the skirmishers had anticipated this and a ragged volley scattered the enemy horse.
The Nottomans were down to two units and were running out of time. They did finally break the Russian line, however.
This left the Russians with just their skirmishers in the woods.
In order to win the Nottomans needed to ensure that there were no enemy units in the open within 2" of the road. So long as the skirmishers stayed in the woods they had won. But the Russians move second each turn. so the danger was always that the skirmishers could pop out on their last move free from enemy interference and foil the victory. Without enough units to block teh move the Nottomans would have to defeat the skirmishers with musketry.
And this they failed to do. To add insult to injury fire from the Russian skirmishers scattered the final Nottoman line unit.
The Nottoman skirmishers kept firing until the end, but could not inflict enough hits to eliminate the Russian skirmishers. On the last turn they would emerge and defy their enemy by blocking the road.
So this was a Russian victory. The star-player was the Russian cavalry that defied two-to-one odds long enough to prevent the Nottoman cavalry from being any kind of threat. It also has to be said that in the mid-game the Nottoman shooting was abysmal.
Still, the new army is blooded now, and I have managed another scenario on the list!
Follow the rest of the scenario refights HERE
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