Grand Campaign AAR.
Country: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. (Courland is a vassal)
Difficulty / A.I aggressivness: Normal / Normal (I like play like this 90% of the time)
Start Year: 1492.
Armies: 5 Armies, 10k, 39k, 27k, 55k, 10k. At least 50% of all of those combined is cavalry.
October 1492 - 1495. The Commonwealth builds up an alliance with possible Turkish targets. Between those three years, Spain, Moldavia & Venice joins the Polish alliance.
Both Hungary and Austria refuse on countless occasions despite many gifts from the Polish diplomats and the Polish King. They are almost as hostile towards me as Turkey is themselves!
However, I have no time to 'dilly dally' or pander to them, I'll leave them to taste the sour fruits of their foolish decisions later - alone.
No matter, they'll be swallowed up by themselves. In 1493, Jan Olbracht rises to the Polish throne.
The Turks themselves are in an alliance with Sweden, Scotland and have the Wallachians as vassals.
October 1496 . Declared war on Turkey after a Crimean tatar raiding force crossed into Polish territory ravaging and pillaging land, almost all the way to Kiev.
The demand and a flat refusal of a suitable punishment by the Turks to the subserviant Tatars by an envoy from Poland causes wide spread anger especially within the King's personal circle and the Sejm.
The Sejm votes on a declaration of war on the Turks after a few dozen shots of vodka, raising their swords high and cursing the Turks with almost every colourful expletive found in the Polish language and then some.
Sweden / Scotland immediately declare war on me in support of Turkey. Moldavia / Spain and Venice keep to their signatures and declare war on Turkey.
I send envoys to Sweden immediately asking for a white peace. It is accepted. I knew they weren't in the mood for a fight.
Jan 1497. A huge Turkish army crosses into Moldavian territory and wipes out a Moldavian army sent out to defend against them, hoping in vain for a quick Polish response / re-inforcements. After mopping up the Moldavians the Turks settle down to a quiet siege on the Moldavian capital, Galatz. Or so they think .. A 45k Polish army attacks them whilst they least expect it (most comprised of infantry and perhaps 40 pieces of artillery / 7k cavalry), slaughtering the Turks and forcing the survivors to surrender or die.
Jan / Feb / March. Three Turkish armies are defeated during the course of these months. The Poles handle themselves well against the mostly cavalry orientated Turkish armies during this stage of the war. However, their losses are significant. There are many heavily injured and nearly 30% dead.
April 1497. A second Polish army of over 50,000 men (mostly infantry) attacks, assaults and captures Bujak just to the east of Moldavia. Venice in the mean time attacks the Turks further on in the west, however they are unable to deal with the effectively.
The Turks are not fooled and continue sending 90% of their forces against their most imporant invading enemy.. (me). This is a tactic that will work as after a while the Venetians will almost completley give up an offensive war against the Turks causing an uneasy stalemate along their respective borders.
Spain sends a huge fleet into the western Black sea annihilating roving Turkish fleets on several occasions, however they do not land an expeditionary force.
May, June 1497. The Poles lose 2 major battles against re-inforced Turkish forces in Silistra. This is due to the Turks superior numerical advantage in cavalry. I made a mistake of holding 90% of the Polish cavalry in central Poland (why cause it attrition when we're mostly assaulting cities?) and even now I refused to send them in to help.
The Turkish cavalry may have been the deciding factor in these 2 battles, however on both occasions their infantry was slaughtered. In one battle, losing ALL of their infantry formations before the Poles were forced to withdraw to mass, concentrated Turkish cavalry charges.
I also thank Venice for ceasing active operations against Turkey so that they could concentrate all on me front. Cheers! Bastards.
August 1497. Fought a defensive battle against a Turkish force who's cavalry advantage was almost 3x larger, however again, most of their infantry was cut to pieces by the Poles before they were forced to withdraw with heavy casualties. The Turks are slowly getting the upperhand in this war.
Nov - December 1497. Battles degenerate into small 3-10k skirmishes with quickly moving opposing enemy cavalry forces and caught Polish infantry units being assaulted by the Turkish / Tatar cavalry. The Turkish alliance cavalry usually getting the upper hand in the end after receiving serious losses.
Two smaller Polish infantry armies caught in the empty wastelands of Moldavia are slaughtered to a man.
The Turks assault Galatz yet again. A small Moldavian army lays siege to Silistra just to the east. In mid November a small 4k force of Polish infantry attacks 15k Turks at the walls of Galatz and forces them to flee. Galatz is relieved again.
The city has sustained major damage throughout the last year however.
Jan 1498. Two smaller Polish armies are cut to pieces and forced to flee against relieving Turkish armies hell bent on taking Galatz and reducing Moldavia into a puppet country just like neighbouring Wallacia further to the south.
Feb 1498. The Poles again, already overstreched, come to the aid of the battle scarred city and again manage to surprise the Turks forcing them to flee for the 3rd or 4th time in this war. Ismail is assaulted by the Turks to try and re-capture their territory (Bujak), held by a small Polish garrison.
March 1498. The Poles send in a relieving force against a 5x larger Turkish army assaulting Ismail. The Polish horse (Hussars weren't invented yet, nor the Polish style of conducing battle using their infantry only as fire support as yet) ) charges and cuts to pieces the Turkish infantry. By the end of the day not one Turkish infantry soldier is left standing on the field of battle.
The Poles, extremely exhausted after battling such an overwhelming force are forced to retreat in an orderly way back to Moldavia after the Turks charge with their horse. The Turks must be getting low on manpower now, they have had horrid infantry disasters in their battles, however they've always managed to win them in the end due to their cavalry superiority. (makes a note for later aar part ) The Poles lose 60% of their forces dead and wounded however. Still, due to this action, Ismail is not re-captured by the Turks. This, in the end doesn't make any difference.
April 1498. Both the Poles and Turks are exhausted after this exceptionally bloody war.
A status quo is signed with the Polish alliance. The Poles may been unable to win the war, but they've certainly showed the Turks that they will not tolerate border raids on their territories! It took a lot of lives to put the point across though
End of Part 1.
Sapura
PS. In actuality both the Poles and the Turks fought many times, historically, due to their vassals incursions and raids within their own territories.
The Polish cossacks used to raid deep into the Black Sea staging surprise (and successful) assaults on cities across the water. The Crimean Tatars used to raid Polish souther borders, especially into Podolia killing, maiming, raping and taking 'jassyr' or human slaves.
Country: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. (Courland is a vassal)
Difficulty / A.I aggressivness: Normal / Normal (I like play like this 90% of the time)
Start Year: 1492.
Armies: 5 Armies, 10k, 39k, 27k, 55k, 10k. At least 50% of all of those combined is cavalry.
October 1492 - 1495. The Commonwealth builds up an alliance with possible Turkish targets. Between those three years, Spain, Moldavia & Venice joins the Polish alliance.
Both Hungary and Austria refuse on countless occasions despite many gifts from the Polish diplomats and the Polish King. They are almost as hostile towards me as Turkey is themselves!
However, I have no time to 'dilly dally' or pander to them, I'll leave them to taste the sour fruits of their foolish decisions later - alone.
No matter, they'll be swallowed up by themselves. In 1493, Jan Olbracht rises to the Polish throne.
The Turks themselves are in an alliance with Sweden, Scotland and have the Wallachians as vassals.
October 1496 . Declared war on Turkey after a Crimean tatar raiding force crossed into Polish territory ravaging and pillaging land, almost all the way to Kiev.
The demand and a flat refusal of a suitable punishment by the Turks to the subserviant Tatars by an envoy from Poland causes wide spread anger especially within the King's personal circle and the Sejm.
The Sejm votes on a declaration of war on the Turks after a few dozen shots of vodka, raising their swords high and cursing the Turks with almost every colourful expletive found in the Polish language and then some.
Sweden / Scotland immediately declare war on me in support of Turkey. Moldavia / Spain and Venice keep to their signatures and declare war on Turkey.
I send envoys to Sweden immediately asking for a white peace. It is accepted. I knew they weren't in the mood for a fight.
Jan 1497. A huge Turkish army crosses into Moldavian territory and wipes out a Moldavian army sent out to defend against them, hoping in vain for a quick Polish response / re-inforcements. After mopping up the Moldavians the Turks settle down to a quiet siege on the Moldavian capital, Galatz. Or so they think .. A 45k Polish army attacks them whilst they least expect it (most comprised of infantry and perhaps 40 pieces of artillery / 7k cavalry), slaughtering the Turks and forcing the survivors to surrender or die.
Jan / Feb / March. Three Turkish armies are defeated during the course of these months. The Poles handle themselves well against the mostly cavalry orientated Turkish armies during this stage of the war. However, their losses are significant. There are many heavily injured and nearly 30% dead.
April 1497. A second Polish army of over 50,000 men (mostly infantry) attacks, assaults and captures Bujak just to the east of Moldavia. Venice in the mean time attacks the Turks further on in the west, however they are unable to deal with the effectively.
The Turks are not fooled and continue sending 90% of their forces against their most imporant invading enemy.. (me). This is a tactic that will work as after a while the Venetians will almost completley give up an offensive war against the Turks causing an uneasy stalemate along their respective borders.
Spain sends a huge fleet into the western Black sea annihilating roving Turkish fleets on several occasions, however they do not land an expeditionary force.
May, June 1497. The Poles lose 2 major battles against re-inforced Turkish forces in Silistra. This is due to the Turks superior numerical advantage in cavalry. I made a mistake of holding 90% of the Polish cavalry in central Poland (why cause it attrition when we're mostly assaulting cities?) and even now I refused to send them in to help.
The Turkish cavalry may have been the deciding factor in these 2 battles, however on both occasions their infantry was slaughtered. In one battle, losing ALL of their infantry formations before the Poles were forced to withdraw to mass, concentrated Turkish cavalry charges.
I also thank Venice for ceasing active operations against Turkey so that they could concentrate all on me front. Cheers! Bastards.
August 1497. Fought a defensive battle against a Turkish force who's cavalry advantage was almost 3x larger, however again, most of their infantry was cut to pieces by the Poles before they were forced to withdraw with heavy casualties. The Turks are slowly getting the upperhand in this war.
Nov - December 1497. Battles degenerate into small 3-10k skirmishes with quickly moving opposing enemy cavalry forces and caught Polish infantry units being assaulted by the Turkish / Tatar cavalry. The Turkish alliance cavalry usually getting the upper hand in the end after receiving serious losses.
Two smaller Polish infantry armies caught in the empty wastelands of Moldavia are slaughtered to a man.
The Turks assault Galatz yet again. A small Moldavian army lays siege to Silistra just to the east. In mid November a small 4k force of Polish infantry attacks 15k Turks at the walls of Galatz and forces them to flee. Galatz is relieved again.
The city has sustained major damage throughout the last year however.
Jan 1498. Two smaller Polish armies are cut to pieces and forced to flee against relieving Turkish armies hell bent on taking Galatz and reducing Moldavia into a puppet country just like neighbouring Wallacia further to the south.
Feb 1498. The Poles again, already overstreched, come to the aid of the battle scarred city and again manage to surprise the Turks forcing them to flee for the 3rd or 4th time in this war. Ismail is assaulted by the Turks to try and re-capture their territory (Bujak), held by a small Polish garrison.
March 1498. The Poles send in a relieving force against a 5x larger Turkish army assaulting Ismail. The Polish horse (Hussars weren't invented yet, nor the Polish style of conducing battle using their infantry only as fire support as yet) ) charges and cuts to pieces the Turkish infantry. By the end of the day not one Turkish infantry soldier is left standing on the field of battle.
The Poles, extremely exhausted after battling such an overwhelming force are forced to retreat in an orderly way back to Moldavia after the Turks charge with their horse. The Turks must be getting low on manpower now, they have had horrid infantry disasters in their battles, however they've always managed to win them in the end due to their cavalry superiority. (makes a note for later aar part ) The Poles lose 60% of their forces dead and wounded however. Still, due to this action, Ismail is not re-captured by the Turks. This, in the end doesn't make any difference.
April 1498. Both the Poles and Turks are exhausted after this exceptionally bloody war.
A status quo is signed with the Polish alliance. The Poles may been unable to win the war, but they've certainly showed the Turks that they will not tolerate border raids on their territories! It took a lot of lives to put the point across though
End of Part 1.
Sapura
PS. In actuality both the Poles and the Turks fought many times, historically, due to their vassals incursions and raids within their own territories.
The Polish cossacks used to raid deep into the Black Sea staging surprise (and successful) assaults on cities across the water. The Crimean Tatars used to raid Polish souther borders, especially into Podolia killing, maiming, raping and taking 'jassyr' or human slaves.