While having a day off for a holiday I went ahead and played the battle of Prilep from the First Balkan War. This is battle is both I found manageable for solo gaming from a size standpoint. It also has set objectives for both side so one person can game it and not feel they are leaning to much in one sides favor. Again I used German figures for Serbs and French for Ottoman.
For a report of the previous game you can look here. The previous time I played the game I skimped on terrain areas as I did not lay out all the villages. I don’t have many buildings yet so took this as alright but after playing the first game I figured out no villages means that the Serbian Army has to cross a lot of open ground to get at the two objectives and the Ottoman forces who are in rifle pits. Perhaps a little uneven. I therefore put out tiles to represent villages as on the map. The village block line of sight and are worth cover for fire. Further, I read the set up again and realized that two regiments I had come in for the Serbian forces during the first night turn actually come in on the first turn. That is much better for the Serbian army.
This time with more infantry from the start of the game the Serbian forces were able to move and try and attack Prilep from multiple sides. Also the infantry regiment coming from the hills in front tried to move down the hill using the village as cover. Poor rolls were not making for the fast movement. The Ottoman 43rd infantry regiment moved out of the rifle pits and over the first two turns just beat the Serbian infantry regiment to the village. This was one of the most important factors of the game as the Ottomans held the village for the whole game and even when bypassed were able to fire on Serbian units.
With Prilep in the background both sides raced to the village tile for cover.
By turn 4 both sides had multiple units roll high for fire and go low on ammo. This would also be key to the game. The plan of using the Ottoman Cavalry Brigade as fast response speed bump to stop wide flanking attacks was not as effective as last game as they were caught out in the open and destroyed right away by a Serbian Infantry Regiment. They did not really slow the Serbians down. Further, this left two gun batteries exposed and the poor Ottoman movement made them hard to move.
White Dice representing low on ammo units both sides go low early.
In the distance the pasha has led the troops to the village and the riflemen move to fill the void
Night turns were also more important in this game as both sides had to move away some out of range but also got back to fully supply no longer being low on ammo. Also both sides recovered some lost stands. Turn 5 though saw the immediate action of new Serbian Infantry regiments coming at Prilep and inflicting losses on the flank destroying one fleeing artillery stand who could not get out of range. This seemed real also I was forced to try and move Ottoman reserves around more than the first game. By moving the 43rd Infantry Regiment out to a village I left a whole in the area around Prilep and had trouble moving my rifle regiment into the space.
The 43rd regiment that had beat the Serbian regiment to the village was untouched had reduced the Serbian to half strength and made them fall back during the night turn. The Serbian regiment had gotten a stand back and had marched with another new unit to force out the Ottomans. While Prilep was being attacked from a new direction by fresh Serbian troops again the low on ammo rolls hit for both sides.
Serbian infantry sweep around and take the rifle pits with the bayonet after both sides are low on ammo.
The night turn came again for another round of resupply and replacements. The Serbian forces had taken two regiments one mauled on the first day of battle and a second and sent them towards the second objective on the other side of the board. The attack at Prilep had forced the Ottomans to move all but a raw unit away from this sight so the artillery and infantry units now attacking had the upper hand if they could reach it in time.
A common event was rolling and go low on ammo. Yes, both sides inflicted horrible damage on each other around Prilep on turn 10 but as both sides had multiple units low on ammo they were then largely useless for the rest of the game. On the first half of the last turn the Raw Redif unit failed to stop the Serbian infantry from entering the second village objective and was disordered by fire in the process. Further, the low on ammo units defending Prilep failed to stop a fresh infantry unit from entering Prilep though they were redeploying by the Pasha.
Low on ammo units of Kara Pasha’s V Corp are all around Prilep on the last turn.
With the low roll for the redif not being able to move the game was set to be at least a draw. The Ottoman’s could have tried to assault the loan unit in Prilep but being low on ammo and of lesser quality it was doubtful they could win I did not play it out and just considered it a Serbian Victory. It did take all 12 turns though so the Ottomans in one regard were victorious by causing the Serbs to stay there and fight for 3 days.
The game was fun and came down to the last turn. The night turns really came into effect this time as each side went low on ammo and got resupplied during both the first and second night turns. They also rebuilt some of their forces with good rolls during the night turns. Turns 10 and 11 saw both sides blast away from close range with lots of low on ammo units and roll low and do no damage. This was important as I think one side or the other would have destroyed the other but in the end neither did so it ended going to the last turn. Was it a good idea to do forward defense for the first 4 turns it felt good. Even by turn 6 perhaps but after that the regiment in the village had been largely bypassed and with poor movement was not a real help.
Serbian Victory but still they had 4 Infantry Regiments destroyed. The Ottoman V Corp lost 3 Infantry Regiments, 1 Cavalry Brigade and an Artillery Battery. The Serbian’s being larger that is 16,000 troops lost vs around 9,800 Ottomans. This is a challenging battle to play I think and you have to move around and attack at multiple points to win it seems. I am sure I will revisit this scenario again in the future.
morale roll 