** MC POV
walking into the main tent in the camp where I host my commanders for meetings. As soon as I came into the tent I noticed a spy waiting in the corner of the tent, and when I walked in the commanders all saluted me in some way.
But once the spy noticed me, he walked forward and said "My sultan, I have important information. I hauled myself here as quickly as possible to tell you the Germiyanids, Hamidids, and Menteşe Beylics have joined the Aydin alliance! They claim they all came from the same Germiyanids tribe and will fight to keep their freedom."
Hearing this information I had to ask "When was this information obtained and did you get a look at their numbers and what are the units they sent in this army?"
He replied "Yes I got this information when the alliance was made... This was when you conquered Izmir, they have communicated and made agreements since then, the problem is getting away to give you the information I gathered, as important information like this is impossible to send through an intermediary, as my partner was killed, I was forced to arrive myself.
-From what I saw on the march over with this army, the Germiyanids have led over 10k troops all light tribal cavalry. Once we met the next two allies outside the Aydin lands, they both brought 5k troops each... both bringing only tribal cavalry as well."
Shit, their number of horsemen is just outrageous! I honestly wanted to defeat all these beylics later. I had no time to focus on western Anatolia this long, I should've attacked the Germiyanids by now and moved on to help Suleyman clean up the east...
I am now forced to fight such a coalition... This campaign is turning into a sticky situation, honestly, I hoped to leave the east after taking Saruhan. But now I have to defeat this coalition or at least deal them a heavy blow and force a peace deal upon them. Leaving me no choice in the matter if I leave such a hostile army in the area they will for sure move against my lands as soon as I remove my army.
I must indeed swiftly remove these forces, and in thinking this I asked the spy "Have the two armies formed up yet? and if not, how long do we have before they march their way here?"
He responded "My sultan this is hard to say... But I can say they were only a few hours away from the Aydin forces when I left, so if I were to guess based on what I have seen already I would say, you could see battle tomorrow at the fastest or the day after at the slowest!"
Well, I like that, I am indeed confident enough to defeat such a force what worries me is my loss in this battle, I have enough enemies and even more lands I want to control! I cannot lose many men, and if I lose men, it must be system recruits who can replenish quickly...
Looking forward to battle I instructed my commanders to speed up the process of preparing the battlefield. They have already been working on the field for a day, but this could take the rest of today as well. Looking at the battlefield I began to imagine how the enemies will attack with their cavalry forces on such a battlefield!
Now we just wait, I notice I wait a lot. This is very weird to me, as I am used to moving about constantly... But now I have unlimited people willing to complete any task I assign, just this is a giant change in lifestyle for me, I am still adjusting to such a thing...
After this day passed in the night, I was awoken by one of my commanders. It is 1 am and he is telling me the enemies have just arrived within attacking range, clearly stating the scouts explained that the enemies marched throughout the night. This is a very idiotic thing to do, as the battlefield is already chosen, they cannot pass into my lands without passing through me or treacherous lands.
Why would they force march their light skirmisher heavy army tiring them out, then forcing them to build a camp a few hours before battle and try to sleep? This is dumb, but not my problem maybe they will not choose to attack until later in the afternoon making this a smart choice I guess.
Though I plan to wait for them to launch the main attack, I will not wait for them to start the mental battle. I will attack first in this manner I guess, I walked out of my tent and called a small squad of sipahi about 100 men. Then I said to them "Listen, men, I want you to make your way over to the enemy camp, I will have the scouts escort you to avoid any problems.
-But your job is to launch a volley of our special arrows into their under-constriction camp and supplies if you see them. I want these explosive arrows to land in an area where it will cause them the most damage if possible. But remember your main order is to remain secret, not get close enough to get seen or caught, and just fire and leave. "
These men half asleep nodded and said yes sir. These men clearly will wake up on the ride... I have confidence this will cause the enemies to have mental demons when it comes to explosions. Imagine working in the dark is already distressing when your enemies are nearby, then whilst you are focused on your work suddenly *BOOOM* the men you are working with suddenly lose a limb, head, etc... Then a fire breaks out this is all very exciting to anxious soldiers, this may even cause great confusion routing a few enemies in the process.
After the night passed by once more I awoke to more commanders, spies, and scouts outside my tent. *Sigh* then I said "Listen I know what you have to say this morning, today is the day of war! But I say this will be the last war ever brought to our doorstep without my consent! We must expand our hands into every king, lord, duke, count... I do not care what they call themselves, but I know we must ensure that we move every one of our neighbors like pieces on a chessboard from today forward!"
Then a commander stepped forward and said "My sultan I support your sentiments and I wish to achieve your goals. But today we are outside your tent to tell you the enemies are organizing for battle and we must do the same.
-Also, the raid last night was successful in its efforts to rouse the enemy and make them uncomfortable in their camp... We believe this is why they lined up for a battle so early because they feel anxious."
Now it is finally time for battle, I never thought I would want to rush a battle so much. I feel overconfident, but at the same time level-headed, it is a very strange mindset I have been in of late. Watching my army assemble for battle, I began to send orders moving certain groups here and there, until finally the formation was finished, I must say this is my best work yet.
I lined up my army in three rows, the first row is cannons. They lined up in a straight line, located behind barricades made to stop cavalry from successfully charging my cannons. The second line was made of janissary infantry all men with shields of some sort, and heavy armor able to block and withstand the arrows from their tribal horsemen. The third row is my Janissary pike squares, made to douse heated cavalry charges with water and then drown them in spear tips.
My heavy Cavalry shall stand with me in the rear, not engaged in battle until the time is right. My other Kapikulu cavalry and sipahis will be located a little behind the infantry and cannon formation but out on the wings, meant to guard the center infantry's flanks against any charges.
As you can see my battle plan initially consists of withstanding the horde of horsemen, then after that we can move forward with the second phase of the plan. But as I am thinking through this the enemy appears on the field, arrayed fully for battle.
They broke their army into 3 formations, clearly the result of an alliance not showing any true capability of working together. One formation on the left was mostly Christian armored horsemen numbering about 4000 men. The right formation was made up of lightly armored and riding small and fast horses, wielding lances as the primary weapon they numbered around 10-15k men.
The last part of their formation was the center. This was a mess, from what I could see there are 2-3 lines in the center. The first two lines are host to mainly tribal horse archers and their number is around 15-20k men. Whilst the last line is the Turkmen beys themselves surrounded by their retinue guards, heavily armored horse archers, and lancers mixed, in a rather chaotic formation.
As soon as they arrived on the field I had my cannons across the river, the larger 15 siege cannons began to shell the enemy's center formation as they are the most numerous and compact. *Boom Boom Boom* They launched an explosive shot toward the enemies, 15 of these cannon balls soon landed on the enemy's center.
*Boom Splash* These 15 large cannonballs couldn't cover the entire line of the enemy's formation. But the damage done mentally and physically will begin to take its toll eventually. Seeing their horse archers readying to charge I ordered my archers, field cannons, and musketeers to ready themselves to fire.
I said to the army "Ready yourselves! The enemy may be rather numerous, but they do have not the experience and skill we possess. We do not need a numerical advantage to face such a rabble of so-called soldiers. We will crush this army and then claim their lands as our own, and all men who kill 2 or more men will receive a reward!"
Watching my ranged units in the first line hiding behind their barricades, ready themselves I felt satisfied to watch the results of this strategy. Hearing the horn blown from the enemy side, their center formation began to slowly run forward in a rather loose formation, but still, around 20k mounted archers is a rather scary sight well in the right hands that is.
I screamed, "Hold, do not fire wait..." The enemies continued to approach now moving much faster trying to get in range of our army to use their bows. But this is what I hoped for... Once I saw a good bit of their number enter within my cannon range I ordered "All Field cannons fire!!"
*BOOOM BOOOM x60* The smoke began to cloud the battlefield from my view after that cannon valley. But I had no time to think that they are going to fire their bows soon, I said "All musketeers ready your weapons, aim, and FIRE!"
*Bam bam bam* After firing this volley, my army's vision is now nearly covered with gun smoke. But I do not care, I counted to four, then said to the archers "Loose your arrows upon the rabble." Leaving these horse archers, no quarter, I cannot be soft on the battlefield.
Once the smoke cleared, I could now see the hundreds of dead spread about in front of our lines, the horse archers still have not retreated. Even though the losses for their first skirmish were terrible it is far from enough to sway a formation of this size.
Screaming "Load the cannon! All archers are ready to loose arrows on the enemies giving our cannon and muskets time to reload!" Watching the archers get themselves ready I was thankful at this moment, that I was not blinded by the musket's power as there are many downsides the main one being speed.
Muskets just aren't that important in a battle against lightly armored men using bows. Well not right now as I do not have enough musketeers and I do not have flintlocks just yet. So, the recruiting of archers was crucial for me still as these heavily armored foot archers will be the bane of these horse archers and many other tribal forces in the future.
We will whittle them down with arrows and deal massive damage with the cannon and muskets when we can. Watching the mounted archer's turnabout and charge toward my army lines, these men started firing upon my lines when they were in range, but they did not make it out unscathed as many enemy men or horses were struck down by my archers.