Turnu 1462
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Turnu 1462
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Battle of Turnu 1462
A scenario for Warhammer Ancient Battles
On 17 May 1462 Sultan Mehmed set out
from Constantinople with an army of about 90,000 men to punish his
unfaithful vassal Vlad Dracula, Prince of Wallachia. An initial attempt to
cross the Danube at Vidin failed. Vlad’s 30,000 strong army kept a close
watch on the Danube and all ports on the Wallachian side had been destroyed.
In the first week of June the Sultan
sent his elite Janissaries across the river at Turnu. They entrenched with
artillery to cover the landing of the whole army. Vlad was caught by
surprise but reacted quickly sending his horse to attack the Janissaries.
An eyewitness the Serbian born Janissary Constantin of Ostrovitza described the battle:
“When the entire infantry had crossed over, then we prepared and set
out gradually against Dracula’s army, together with the artillery and other
equipment that we had brought with us. Having halted we set up the cannon,
but not in time to stop 300 janissaries from being killed. The Sultan was
very upset by this set of circumstances, as he witnessed the battle from the
other side of the Danube and was unable to come across himself. He was
afraid that all the janissaries might be killed…. Seeing that our side was
greatly weakened, we defended ourselves with the 120 guns which we had
brought over and fired so often that we repelled the prince’s army and
greatly strengthened our position.”
So victory for the Ottoman army – but it was a close run thing.
For the refight the Ottoman infantry deployed first in mostly marshy
terrain. Dracula’s cavalry arrived in the first move followed by his mounted
infantry. Wallachian foot and Ottoman cavalry arrived in following moves a
unit at a time determined by dice roll.
Warhammer Ancient Battles rules were used with army lists from the Armies of Chivalry supplement.
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