Battle of Ankara, July 1402, Timur vs Bayezid.

At last the Sultan Bayezid must turn and face me, Timur, and I will prove who is the true greatest general of the age.

An hamlet on the outskirts of Ankara nestles to my left, whilst the sultan deploys with a large wood on his left flank, with a small rocky area to his right and a large steep hill behind his right.

My forces have arrived in marching order in the centre of the field. Sabadar archers (4Bw) central and fore with Tajik militia archers(3Bw) and hillmen (3Ax) to their right.
Behind and to their left, six units of cavalry, three wide, with my own unit rear right, with our war elephants on my right. Two units of Turkoman horse archers arrive at the rear.

The Ottoman has deployed bombards next to the woods, with azabs (Ps) on the left in the woods. To the artillery’s right are janissaries (4Bw) in their tall white bulbous hats and then, sipahis (3Cv). The Sultan and his qapukulu lancers (3Cv) are stationed centrally behind the guns. More sipahis are ready to squeeze right, between rocks and hill, whilst akinji horse archers lurk behind the hill on the right and behind the woods on the left.

I send my Tajiks and hillmen off diagonally right towards the woods; the Ottomans move the azabs left to counter. The Tajiks suffer from the bombards’ firepower, but eventually make it the woods’ edge, out of firing arc.

In the meantime both armies start massing mounted troops to my left between the hamlet and the rocks and hill. I send my Sabadars to assist, but they are countered by the janissaries.

Early honours go to our enemy as a unit of our cavalry are destroyed, but my Turkomen have now rounded the back of the hamlet to shore up the left flank.
The fighting is fierce and ebbs and flows. Both sides’ archers snipe away, the janissaries briefly being pushed back into the rocks, but neither side has significant effect. Meanwhile, the Ottoman guns are creeping over to turn the tide...

Before that happens, the enemy loses a unit of akinji and the left flank appears ours to exploit, but their sipahis prove resilient and another unit of our cavalry is destroyed. The sultan chooses this moment to launch his attack, linking up with swift moving akinji from behind the woods he faces off against my unit and the elephants. I will take his challenge, sound the charge!

The elephants charge into the akinji horse archers, whilst I charge Bayezid’s qapukulu, aided by another of my units charging his flank. I choose this moment for my Turkmen to close on the exposed enemy right flank too.

The elephants pursue the wheeling horse archers and I break the qapukulu (2g-2 up!). Again the sipahis prove resilient.

The akinji continue to back off from the elephants, whilst the bombards, firing onto the rear of the unit of our cavalry that supported my victory over my opposite number, cause them to turn and back in front of me.

The elephants continue to push on, whilst, once our steeds are settled, our cavalry charge the janissaries and I charge the bombards. Fighting remains fierce everywhere. Eventually the elephants are worn down chasing the wheeling akinji and are destroyed (2g-3...). At the second time of asking the janissaries again repel my cavalry, but the bombards’ defenders are unable to repel me a second time and the field is ours...the Anatolian peninsula lies open to us.

I have proven Sultan Bayezid’s sour letters are but words; I am the true master of war!

An exciting 3G-3 victory. For once, massed cavalry proving entertainingly resilient and missiles having little real effect other than to alter the odds before a few combats. My opponent claimed his bombards had been firing rubber balls all battle!
An historically accurate result, oh, and did I mention I won (that might explain why the reports had dried up for a bit 😊)?