Another amazing game last night. Three Russian assault columns were shattered against the Ottoman earthworks. Although breeching the earthworks in several locations the Major Morale was spent with many thousands of Russian casualties lining the battlefield. Ottoman casualties were minor, but several guns sections were eliminated along with some less than willing Derbants. Losing the guns will make it more difficult to repulse the next assault.
We used traditional Piquet with my tweaks for the period. We used the rule of ½ to even out impetus swings. Russians automatically won the first impetus, but only managed to beat my die roll by 1 impetus. Not a promising start, but their 12# guns managed to knock out an Ottoman heavy gun section on the first shot!
The game took 2 hours to complete, when the Russians ran out of morale chips and withdrew from their tenuous hold of the fortress.
Next week, more Russian reinforcements will arrive (some local Arnauts have defected to the Russians seeing the writing on the wall) and another assault is planned. The Ottomans will be weaker due to casualties, disease, and
fatigue. Ottomans have had to abandon some earthworks (Suicide Hill as the Russian drearily call it), to shorten their defensive lines as their forces have shrunk considerably. It will be a desperate affair for the ttomans next week.
Cheers!
Eric
(Once again I took lots of photos, I will try to post some to my website later.)
