Moldavia 1475.

The year is 1475 and Stephen The Great of Moldavia is feeling the pressure of a full blown Ottoman invasion. Crops have been burned, wells poisoned and livestock driven off, but still they come.

Sections of the Ottoman army are tasked with protecting the flanks of the main army, near a small village they chance upon some Moldavian stragglers, fancying their chances the Moldavians form up and battle commences.

The Ottomans immediately start the advance, the Moldavians send their archers and handgunners to the front and opening shots are fired.

The Ottoman cavalry thunders forward supported by their infantry, the Moldavian cavalry, although very much outnumbered, charge onwards to meet the Ottoman threat. Several of the Ottomans have succumbed to the arrows of their enemies.

The fighting is savage with both side causing great harm, the greater number of Ottoman cavalry began to pay off, the Moldavian survivors then had to deal with the Ottoman infantry and Janissaries, things were not looking good for the Moldavians.

Casualties on both sides were high, it was touch and go as to which side would buckle first, as it happened the Moldavians saw their chance to disengage and fight another day, some of them disappearing into the forest where the Ottomans dare not go.

Some Moldavians were captured, the lowly soldiers were butchered, one high ranking knight was executed, his head placed on a spike to warn other Moldavians not to anger the mighty Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman army carried on it's campaign moving slowly towards Vaslui.

Transylvanian Nightmare 1459 - A Table Top Game in 28mm.

While Vlad Dracula is camped outside the walls of Brasov he sends out his captains to burn towns and villages and bring in more captives to add to his growing forest of impaled victims on Tapma Hill.

One such walled village proves a tough nut to crack, the Wallachians had been seen and shadowed by a troop of Transylvanian cavalry. Far too small to attack, the troop head to the village and prepare for a battle.

For the most part the villagers are peasants, but they have prepared and they mean business. To bolster their defence the village also boasts the local landowners retinue of knights, all good men and women, but will it be enough as the Wallachian host comes into view.

As arrows began to fly and several men drop the Wallachians immediately sound the attack, horses surge forward towards the defensive spikes and the infantry run into the fray, the sight of Vlad's men hurtling forward was terrifying, but the villagers held their nerve.

The villagers put up a stout resistance but the Wallachians break through, inside the village walls the Transylvanians have hatched a plan. When the Wallachians are bogged down in combat they will rush out of the gate and surprise them, hopefully driving them back enough to rout them completely.

With the villagers under severe strain outside the village walls it is now deemed to be the right time to spring the trap. The gates are opened and the Transylvanian cavalry pore out with the rest of the villagers behind them. The fighting is vicious, the Wallachians are forced back but they do not break. 

Whether it was the fear of Vlad Dracula or their captain, but the Wallachians didn't run, they withdrew in good order and made a fresh defensive position. With the shock of a fresh attack by the villagers now over it was time to counterattack, the Wallachian cavalry outflanked and drove the villagers into the waiting infantry.

Wallachian cavalry rode over the broken and bloody bodies hacking anyone down who got in their way, they were soon inside the village. The remnants of the village force was rounded up and taken as captives for Vlad's spectacle on Tampa Hill, some escaped.

As per orders the village was burned and those found within impaled as a warning, as the captain handed over his captives and reported the village destroyed another captain was being impaled on a higher stake, he had lost his battle with the population of Bod and was now paying the price for failing in his duty to the Impaler Prince.

Ottoman Cavalry Ambushed! - A Table Top Game in 28mm.

Northern Bulgaria can be a dangerous place, even under the protection of the Ottoman Sultan, or the watchful gaze of a Christian Prince, it is an uneasy place to live.

A band of Ottoman cavalry have been raiding near the Danube, I would say pillaging, but there's nothing really to pillage, the peasants are angry. A Boyar from a nearby province has come up with a do or die solution, an ambush in the hamlet, it's a bit suicidal but it might work with his small retinue involved.

As the horsemen approach the ever hopeful Brother Jacob approaches them to try and avoid bloodshed, the locals hide, notching arrows.

 

With a cry Brother Jacob falls, a spear found his chest. The cavalry see some sport, peasants are going to fight for a change, this should be easy! The horsemen thunder into the hamet.

At first lady luck smiles on the peasants, in fact one woman manages to unhorse two Ottomans with a flail and finish them off with her knife, before she is dispatched by an incoming spear. Two more horsemen are taken down with bow and handgunners, but they forge on killing as they go, the peasant losses are piling up.

As the raiders skirt around a building the ambush is sprung, already surprised at the tenacity of the peasant defenders, they did not expect this. Riding into a hail of arrows, they also has professional men at arms waiting for them, it really wasn't their day.

Thundering off into the distance with arrows whizzing past them, the raiders knew when it was time to go, the losses had been fairly equal in the end, each side losing around half their force, the villagers won, their morale was high. I'm sure the Ottomans will be back and the hamlet turned to ashes.