This Battle was fought beneath the walls of the Shubra Khit Fortress as the Fortress garrison commander Pasha Shubra refused to aid the Ottomans defending the seaport, because of a long standing feud between the Ottoman Army commander and the Egyptian Garrison Pasha. The LOAK rule for the Ottomans wasn't quite as restrictive as I thought it should be. Perhaps I was applying the regular C in C order restrictions when it should have been applied at a lower level - ie - failed command rolls end the Ottoman command phase.
Ottomans whipped the piecemeal attacks of the French - Also had too much infantry and 1 unnecessary heavy cannon for the Ottomans. (Even though I had the extra cannon roll each turn to " artillery piece see if it was loaded as it was a "levy: The Ottoman camel guns were a pesky lot.
The three French regular battalions swept away the outlying Ottoman skirmishers fairly easily. But the initial attack on the village failed even though it was a weakly held area. Withering fire from the 2 Ottoman Heavy Cannon was sufficient to drive off one battalion and then the second battalion lost the melee. A steep hill not in the original scenario would have been removed for any subsequent followup games. Although given its height this should have served as a blind spot for the attack given the inability of the gun to depress / fire at targets inside 12 to 15 inches.
Ottomans won the only cavalry melee and used a sweeping advance to catch the French Horse artillery standing limbered, not sure about this outcome because in past games it seems French artillery should have been able to evade maybe after a breaktest before contact because the Mameluke cavalry had to use their entire movement to get to them. The command level of 7 for the Ottomans was just right. I had the French rated rather high which I thing was good given that they were trained Europeans fighting Ottoman rabble.
Having blundered almost off the table the regular Brigade of French infantry, 2 turns later the French infantry Brigade audaciously advanced to confront the Mameluke Cavalry with heavy musketry fire.
Also the Veteran Brigade lost two battalions which broke this Brigade (under the broken brigade rule the third battalion can no longer advance - I would modify this to follow me orders of the brigade commander) which finally allowed French reinforcements to appear, but too late to have any real effect on the battle.
The Miniature Building Authority Mosque at the center of my battlefield minus the minaret
The pics from the actual game
Shubra Khit
The French Division poised to attack
French Cavalry Brigade
Assaulting the ottoman village and its defenders
The camel guns poke at the French cavalry while the Mameluke sit disorganized and unmoving
Having routed one unit earlier the French troops press forward their advantage
Fantastic the only blunder move causing the French division and its artillery to retreat "away" from the enemy - some dispute over which direction is "away" left to the rear or to the right. I suppose I could have diced for it in all fairness, but since when are the French fair especially against Ottomans!
The extra Ottoman gun that really should have been left off and but for a unit not responding would have been overrun - next time maybe gun crews exposed and unsupported by infantry not in a BUA have to retreat like skirmishers?
The blunder move with attached artillery
The unfortunate horse artillery caught napping on a sweeping advance by Mameluke cavalry that had forced the french cavalry to retire
The brigade of french Infantry advancing to poor fir into the flanks and front of Ottoman cavalry a charge would have been nice but they would have just evaded
the pesky Ottoman Camel guns before deployment
