Upheaval

I am averse to retroactive changes, but the idea of a huge Turkish Army (we're talking nearly twice the Madejski Stadium in number, with thousands of them on horses and guns requiring caissons and supplies) ambushing anything in hostile territory (were no Moravians aware of the massive Turkish force?)... especially when the ambushed force had c. 10,000 cavalry (of which c. 5,000 dragoons with a 'bonus to recon') under a capable cavalry commander forming a vanguard under clear orders to the reconnoiter the route of the march (we were aware that something untoward was going on).

Perhaps the rapid march would allow the Turks to force a battle, but the idea of an ambush at that scale given the situation just seems game breaking...

EDIT: And assuming the reconnaissance actually did their job, then there should be the option to at least attempt disengagement (there is a reason huge battles are rare relative to skirmishes and such).

My response to spotting the army would have been to stop, take up a defensive position (I'm not precisely sure where the cation took place) and see what the Turks did next, using Sieniawski's Corps. to keep an eye on the force, harrying foragers and skirmishing with the cavalry... Certainly I would feel to compunction to engage the force if Vienna is not under direct threat.

I don't really agree with peoples opposition to decisiveness (without somebody losing, no one can ever win, so we end up with eternal war) in future engagements. The benefit of these loose interpretive games is that you don't have to give up when things go badly as Admins always tend to allow dedicated players to turn their fortunes around quite rapidly.

I do however see that people are upset with it being treated as an ambush. The game rules are a bit black and white, and I'd put effort into not being seen to monitor the movements of the Polish army, and only springing into action at short notice, so Admin probably felt the classification was deserving to represent a 'mildly unforseen interception'. Portraying it as a huge army appearing out of nowhere is rather different, and makes me wonder whether having ambush mechanisms at all is very useful in a game about large-scale warfare. Perhaps The ambush bonus should only have been applied to the suicidal woodland Azabs, which numbered 5 or 10 thousand, rather than to the whole army. Of course, if the review moves the battle to the open road, then no ambush bonus may be present at all.

I planned for an interception, and wanted to use my Azab irregulars to full efficiency so orders were placed to send some of them through the woods if the Poles were indeed encountered crossing over into Austria.

If the Poles keep the same course, then they'd either be encountered as they have to cross along a limited path into Austria, which should hold them up long enough for an engagement, or the Ottomans will come out ahead of the army and the Poles will do as specified, namely line up defensively and try to figure out what is going on. In the second case, my army will still engage, and follow the plans specified for open battle.

If the Poles had been suspicious enough of the borderlands to attempt a more indirect northerly route, Admin also had my plans for that eventuality.

To clarify, I still bow to the will of Allahdmin. I am happy for this battle to be rerun and rewritten. While, of course, I still expect victory, the fact that I'm fighting all of eastern Europe, much of central Europe, and many of the Italian powers, means that I have long since come to terms with the possibility of failure.

It is out of my hands. Inshallahdmin.

You have my consent, and my good will.

Indeed, my objection was not to battle itself (we were marching to battle after all), but rather the fact that it was an ambush, and that all Polish reconnaissance had counted for nothing.

Very well. You have my consent to rerun if August is still happy with all that's been said.