Ottomans in FoG

Second half of our club FoG competition started yesterday. The first half was limited to pre-Feudal armies and now we have shifted to the later forces.

My choice not surprisingly is firmly in the Balkans with an Ottoman army and Serbian allies. My hope is that the Serbs will give the army a bit a punch that will complement the flexibility of the Ottomans.

Best laid plans and all that. My opponent fielded a Plantagenet army with wall to wall longbowmen, knights and some spearmen. My Serbian nobles charged up to his knights with all the elan they were famed for. And you guessed it, the commander got killed and they all ran away!

However, the Ottomans are made of sterner stuff. The Janissaries formed up with support from Voynuks and Ilyars and punched their way through his longbowmen. The Timarots kept their head and knocked out his lighter cavlary and then a unit of knights and the infidels were routed. 19-6 to the Ottomans in FoG terms.

So a good recovery from disaster and a lesson to me and my bias towards mounted armies that infantry are important, particularly superior types with the shooting and fighting expertise of the Jannisaries.