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    • Part 6 - Mission accomplished
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    • Part 8 - Hollerton Field
    • Part 9 - Out of the frying-pan
    • Part 10 - How few remain
  • Five Men in Ukraine
    • Five Men in Ukraine: 30 October 1943
    • Five Men in Ukraine: 05 November 1943
    • Five Men in Ukraine: 14 November 1943
    • Five Men in Ukraine: 29 November 1943
    • Five Men in Ukraine: 13 December 1943
  • First Bishops' War
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    • Mongols v Georgians
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  • SF
    • Sladden >
      • Sladden - chapter 0
      • Sladden - chapter 1
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      • Sladden - interlude I
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      • Sladden - chapter 5
      • Sladden - interlude II
      • Sladden - chapter 6
    • Dunhold >
      • Dunhold I - the raid
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      • Dunhold III - a walk in the country
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      • Dunhold V - assault on precinct XIII
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      • Dunhold VII - the gun
      • Dunhold VIII - tank shock
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      • Dunhold X - firebase Ragnhild
      • Dunhold XI - hit and run
      • Dunhold XII - just-in-time logistics
      • Dunhold XIII - infiltration
      • Dunhold XIV - Applewhite & Nettles
      • Dunhold XV - 'They've got a cave troll!'
      • Dunhold XVI - The bridges at Itrook
    • Dalek Invasion >
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 1
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 2
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 3
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 4
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 5: Bob's story
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 6: Bob's story (2)
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 7: Dalek hunters
      • Dalek invasion - cast
    • Voyage of the USS Minotaur
    • Mutants & Death Ray Guns >
      • From Dust: Introduction >
        • From Dust: Prologue
        • From Dust: Chapter 1 - the Trademaster
        • From Dust: Chapter 2 - the Wretched
        • From Dust: Chapter 3 - the Device
        • From Dust: Chapter 4 - Tucamari
      • Big Dode in the wastelands >
        • 1 - The ordeal
        • 2 - The rats
        • 3 - An ally
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        • 5 - Water! Water!
        • 6 - Cornered rats
        • 7 - The river
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        • 9 - The pilgrims
        • 10 Hostile contacts
        • Appendix 1 - Bestiary
      • Don Chimpanzino
      • Therianthropes are go!
      • Against the Wretched >
        • Against the Wretched - 1
        • Against the Wretched - 2
        • Against the Wretched - 3
      • Rangers of the wasteland >
        • RotW scene I
        • RotW scene II
    • Five Parsecs from Home: The Independent Scout part 1
    • Five Parsecs from Home: The Independent Scout part 2
    • Five Parsecs from Home: Squall's Legacy
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    • Five Parsecs from Home - Arcadian Phoenix
    • Schar's World
    • Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Goats, Rats and Pigs >
      • Chapter 1
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    • Fallout >
      • Fallout - part 1
      • Fallout - part 2
      • Fallout - Resistance part 1
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    • England Invaded! >
      • Ottoman airship raiders
      • A sharp action at Fawkham
      • On the road to Canterbury
    • Gangs of New Neasden >
      • Gangs of New Neasden part 2
    • Post-Brexit Gangs of Middlesborough
    • Operation Last Train
    • Silver Thorn
    • Goblin Civil War
  • Dark Ages skirmish
    • Dark Ages skirmish: Chapter 1
    • Dark Ages skirmish: Chapter 2
    • Dark Ages skirmish: Chapter 3
  • Douglas of the 92nd.
    • Douglas of the 92nd. - the supply column
    • Douglas of the 92nd. - the heliograph station
  • The First World War
    • Mesopotamia
    • Trench raiding
    • Panzer Angst September 15th 1916
    • Freikorps
    • Biplane Barmy
    • 1914
    • 1914 - Opening Moves
    • Night falls over Jutland
    • 1919
    • Zeppelin L33 over England
    • Journey's End
  • Horse & Musket
    • Meyvaci Ali and the British invasion
    • Meyvaci Ali and the troublesome dervish
    • Meyvaci Ali and the Albanian raiders
    • Meyvaci Ali and the caravan
    • Meyvaci Ali and the tax collector
    • Meyvaci Ali and the customs-house
    • Meyvaci Ali and the revolting Martolos
    • Meyvaci Ali and the Albanian menace
    • Napoleonic Ottomans
    • Late 17th century >
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    • Altdorf April 23rd 1813
    • Alcuesta
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    • And quiet flows the Dee
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    • Covid-19 lockdown
    • One tree, one year
    • The trees
  • Fantasy
    • Song of Blades & Heroes >
      • A cautionary tale
      • Song of Arthur & Merlin
      • Succession
      • The short-lived adventures of Yark the kobold
      • Gondor v Orcs
      • Cormyr - introduction >
        • Cormyr - the watchtower
        • Cormyr - the ambush
        • Cormyr - the outpost
      • The adventures of Zou Kov >
        • The palace of Covidius I
        • The palace of Covidius II
        • The palace of Covidius III
        • The palace of Covidius IV
        • The howling
        • The beacon
        • The castle
        • Assassination
        • Run out of town
        • A new start
        • Kobold caves
      • The Dark Company
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      • The Young Kingdoms
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    • Lord of the Rings >
      • Mahud & Haradrim v Gondor
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      • Gondor v Dunlendings
      • Faramir at Osgiliath
    • Five Leagues from the Borderlands
  • Second World War
    • Atlantic Convoy SC41
    • Burma 1943
    • Martelange
    • Dzyatlava
    • Monopoly Blitz
    • Ten minutes on a Burmese afternoon
    • Neil Thomas
    • Manchuria
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    • Bolt Action >
      • Encounter at Villages Pas Vrai
      • Manhunt
      • The secret agent
      • Envelopment
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  • All Under One Banner
    • All Under One Banner 03 June 2017
    • All Under One Banner 05 May 2018
    • All Under One Banner 04 May 2019
    • All Under One Banner 17 August 2019
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    • All Under One Banner 11 January 2020
    • All Under One Banner 02 April 2022
  • China 1937
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  • Fear & Faith
Picture

As the independent-minded governor of Janina, Tepedelenli Ali Paşa, continued to expand his territory forces loyal to the Sublime Porte resisted.  Meyvaci Ali and his janissaries were assigned to reinforce the garrison of a strategically-important bridge in Thessaly.  On arrival they found a handful of men under Kara Ibrahim already there, comfortably located in the customs-house overlooking the bridge.  Meyvaci Ali outranked Kara Ibrahim, who gratefully relinquished command to him, and the janissaries settled into their cosy, if rather cramped, billet.  However advanced parties of the Lion of Janina's forces were not far away and one Autumn morning a band of Ali Pasha's Albanians attempted to seize the bridge.


Picture
Two Albanians enjoy a seat and a smoke before the daring raid on the customs-house begins.

1. Early morning with janissary sentries around the bridge & customs house at Tunari.
2. The peace of dawn is broken by shouts of alarm and Albanian war-cries.
3. Some Albanians rush to attack the sentries while their second in command Besnick leads a daring charge across the bridge.
4. Although the sentries north of the river are overwhelmed Ali the Bird Seller downs Besnick with his first shot.
5. The Albanians storm past the wounded Besnick to attack Ali the Bird Seller.
6. Ali's heroic delaying action allows Meyvaci Ali crucial seconds to deploy his men behind the wall.
7. The janissaries, sheltered behind their stone wall, whittle down the attacking Albanians.
8. A violent fire-fight ensues with the defenders under fire from two directions.
9. The embattled janissaries, urged on by Meyvaci Ali & Kara Ibrahim, keep up a steady fire on the Albanians.
10. The steady musketry of the janissaries finally tells on the Albanians and their leader calls a retreat.



The Istanbul Intelligencer



Price 1 akce

7th day of Haziran





Meyvaci Ali and the Customs House.

The quiet township of Tunari in Thessaly was to see another stirring episode in the career of Istanbul's own Meyvaci Ali as he successfully defended the strategic bridge and Customs House there against an incursion by Ali Pasha’s Albanians.

The Tunari Customs House garrison, a handful of men under Mülâzım-ı Sani Kara Ibrahim, was pleased to see the Hero of The Hour Binbashi Meyvaci Ali and his troops arrive yesterday following rumours of Albanian raids across the border all week. Upon his arrival Meyvaci Ali posted sentries after which he and the rest of his men took themselves off to the Customs House for a convivial evening around the cauldron and the nargile.

The following dawn [picture 1], while the inhabitants of the Customs House slept, a force of Albanians crept stealthily to the edge of the forest and then threw themselves on the unsuspecting sentries [picture 2]. The two unfortunates north of the bridge were quickly overwhelmed [picture 3] but one sentry, Ali the Bird Seller, was able to down the Albanians' second in command with a well placed shot as he crossed the bridge [picture 4] . The shot and the resultant hubbub sufficed to galvanise the sentries beside the Custom House and the sleeping inhabitants into action. The surviving sentries fled into the courtyard, sensibly placing some stone walls in between themselves and the Albanians, while Binbashi Ali and his lieutenant Kara Ibrahim urged the thoroughly alarmed janissaries outside the Custom House.

Seeing the dreadful fate of his four unfortunate sentries [picture 5] Binbashi Ali, remembering an important dictum of the Janissary code, decided 'never to reinforce failure' but gathered his forces behind the walls of the courtyard and prepared to do battle [picture 6]. It was in this entrenched position, the men closely overseen by both leaders, that the Janissaries proceeded to give fire to any Albanians that came within range.

The Albanians split into two groups with the smaller sniping at the Janissaries from over the river while the main assault attempted to storm the courtyard from the east.

A fierce exchange of fire resulted in the killing of both a Janissary and a forward charging Albanian. Urged on by Binbashi Ali and Mülâzım Ibrahim the defenders reloaded frantically and a further volley wounded two Albanians;  two more threw themselves down to avoid the fire.

The throroughly shaken Albanian assault force hesitated [picture 7] and a further Albanian was killed outright causing the others to look around fearfully. From the other side of the river, however, the undeterred sniping group continued to fire at the defenders and wounded Janissary Mujdat the Carpenter [picture 8].

The next exchange of fire [picture 9] was to prove decisive with a further Albanian wounded upon which Shaqiri Pasha, seeing the hopelessness of any further attacks took himself off and fled, crying for his hapless minions to do the same [picture 10]. Two of his remaining men did just that with the remainder of the Albanians following a few seconds later.

Binbashi Ali then led his victorious troops forward to capture the four wounded raiders, to attend to his own wounded sentry,  Huseyin the Tailor, and lay out the four dead Janissaries for the traditional immediate burial. 



Picture

Janissaries
Meyvaci Ali Q4+ C2 Leader, sword, pistol @ 45
Kara Ibrahim Q4+ C2 NCO, sword, pistol @ 35
15 x janissaries Q4+ C2 Individualistic, Unreliable, musket, sword @ 23
Total 425

Albanians
Officer Q4+ C2 Leader, Light, sword, pistol @ 53
NCO Q4+ C2 NCO, Light, musket, sword @ 50
11 x men Q4+ C2 Individualistic, Light, musket, sword @ 35
Total 488

Janissaries are Unreliable. The effect of this would seem to be:
No Leader or NCO within 1 Long: Q = 5+
Leader within 1 Long: Q = 4+
Leader within 1 Medium: Q = 3+
NCO within 1 Short: Q = 3+
This was intended to produce a comical 'look busy the boss is coming' effect with their leaders.
In the scenario below, for French read janissaries and for Austrians read Albanians.





The adventures of Meyvaci Ali:
http://www.spodilicious.com/meyvaci-ali-and-the-british-invasion.html
http://www.spodilicious.com/meyvaci-ali-and-the-troublesome-dervish.html
http://www.spodilicious.com/meyvaci-ali-and-the-albanian-raiders.html
http://www.spodilicious.com/meyvaci-ali-and-the-caravan.html
http://www.spodilicious.com/meyvaci-ali-and-the-tax-collector.html
http://www.spodilicious.com/meyvaci-ali-and-the-customs-house.html
http://www.spodilicious.com/meyvaci-ali-and-the-revolting-martolos.html
http://www.spodilicious.com/meyvaci-ali-and-the-albanian-menace.html
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