Winter 1702
In the last six months our empire has been bombarded with assaulting forces from Venice but no longer! In the winter of ’02 we will fight back and show them our true strength, beginning with the recapture of the Greek port! The garrison is sent from Athens to release the port from it’s captors, a small band of men comprising cannons and pikemen. Our troops are deployed far out of sight of the Venetian cannons, too far it seems, once the battle proper starts.
Just to the right of that church you can barely see.
However, this distance allows our troop of Bashi-Bazouks to remain hidden in the forests and shrubbery until they are within charging distance of the cannon squad, thankfully the Venetian pikemen have wandered towards our stationary gunmen who now proceed towards the cannons themselves. The blow is quick and the enemy morale is broken swiftly.
With the cannons down, the pikemen are easily taken down by musketfire and an attack on their flank. A decisive victory for the Ottoman Empire!
Further afield, our trade route blocking fleet (consisting of a light galley and trade ship, possibly not the best of ideas really) is attacked by a fully armed Venetian galley. Our boats attempt a pincer movement but with the galley having cannons firing broadside and ours from the front it’s a poor choice and unfortunately one of our ships is lost. The galleys built around the empire have been assembled though and they are sent to the closest point at which they can all meet together, just off the tip of the Greek peninsula (currently split between Venice and ourselves).
Additionally, our bumbling hashashin (I really should find out his name) has once again proved himself worthy of praise and successfully infiltrated the capital of Chechnya, providing us with information on the region. Georgia has somewhat recovered from recent activities and is no longer tax exempt, along with the rest of the Empire, as funds are running low at the moment taxes have actually been increased slightly (for both nobles and lower classes). Our not-as-newsworthy second hashashin is sent to the great city of Venice for what I imagine to be several highly important missions soon in the future. In contrast to the diplomatic treaties offered last season, this time we are met with an offer from our long time friends, Sweden, a trade proposal with a donation of cash from them to us. I couldn’t possibly refuse, especially with our current financial situation.
Look out Venice, the Turks are coming!
