SUDAN 1898 (120-140AP)

THRACE AND MACEDONIA 1912-13

(1^st & 2^nd Balkan Wars)

BULGARIAN ARMY - Aggression 4.

0-1 x HQ @ 20AP, 0-1 x Laager @ 4AP, 0-1 x Aeronauts (Bleriot) @ 25AP, 0-1 x Pontooneers @ 2AP, 0-1 x Steamer (Cruiser) @ 8AP, 0-1 x Flotilla (Torpedo Boats) @ 3AP.

0-1 Cavalry Division, of: 1 x subordinate CP @ 15AP, 4 x Inferior Repeaters @ 4AP, 1 x Rifled Horse Artillery @ 24AP.

1-3 x Corps, each of: 1 x subordinate CP @ 15AP, 32-58 x Rifles @ 7AP, 8-12 x Rifled Field Artillery @ 12AP.

In 2^nd BW only, add: 0-6 x Entrenchments @ 15AP.

SERBIAN – Aggression: 2

1 x HQ @ 20AP, 1 x Rifled Heavy Artillery @ 18AP, 1 x Aeronauts (Balloon) @ 25AP, 0-1 x Pontooneers @ 2AP, 0-1 x Supply Base @ 8AP.

1 x Cavalry Division, of: 1 x CP @ 15AP, 2 x Mounted Rifles @ 8AP, 2 x Rifles @ 7AP, 1 x Rifled Horse Artillery @ 24AP.

5 x Corps, each of: 24 x BL @ 6AP, 2 x Rifled Field Artillery @ 12AP.

0-1 x Bulgarian Division (1^st BW only) of: 1 x allied CP @ 15AP, 16-24 x Rifles @ 7AP, 4 x Rifled Field Artillery @ 12AP.

0-1 x Montenegrin Division (2^nd BW only) of: 1 x allied CP @ 15AP, 12-15 x Rifles @ 7AP, 1 x Mixed Artillery (Mountain guns and Maxims) @ 10AP

GREEK ARMY OF THESSALY – Aggression: 3

1 x Brilliant HQ (Konstantinos) @ 40AP or HQ @ 20AP, 0-1 x Inferior Rifle Cavalry @ 7AP, 2 x Elite Rifles (Evzones) @ 8AP, 0-2 x Rifles (Garibaldi Brigade) @ 7AP, 0-1 x Elite Marksmen (Proskopoi) @ 3AP, 4 x Rifled Field Artillery @ 12AP, 1-2 x Rifled Heavy Artillery @ 18AP, 0-1 x Aeronauts (Farman) @ 25AP, 0-1 x Pontooneers @ 2AP, 0-1 x Supply Base @ 8AP, 0-1 x Ironclad Flagship (Armoured Cruiser) @ 30AP, 0-3 x Inferior Ironclads @ 15AP, 0-3 x Flotilla (Destroyers) @ 3AP, 0-1 x Submarine @ 20AP, 0-1 x Concealed Position @ 10AP.

4-9 x Divisions, each of: 1 x subordinate CP @ 15AP, 9 x Rifles @ 7AP, 1 x Rifled Field Artillery @ 12AP.

GREEK ARMY OF EPIROS – Aggression: 3

0-1 x Brilliant HQ (Konstantinos – only if 4 divisions) @ 40AP, 0-1 x Pontooneers @ 2AP, 0-1 x Supply Base @ 8AP, 0-1 x Aeronauts (Farman) @ 25AP.

1 x Division of: 1 x CP @ 15AP or subordinate CP @ 15AP, 4 x Elite Rifles (Evzones) @ 8AP, 4 x Rifles @ 7AP, 0-1 x Elite Marksmen (Proskopoi) @ 3AP, 1 x Rifled Field Artillery @ 12AP.

0-3 x Divisions, each of: 1 x subordinate CP @ 15AP, 9 x Rifles @ 7AP, 1 x Rifled Field Artillery @ 12AP.

MONTENEGRO (1^st BW only) – Aggression: 4

1 x HQ @ 20AP, 0-1 x Inferior Light Horse (Mounted Scouts) @ 1AP, 3 x Rifled Field Artillery @ 12AP.

1-3 x Divisions, each of: 1 x subordinate CP @ 15AP, 12-15 x Rifles @ 7AP, 1 x Mixed Artillery (Mountain guns and Maxims) @ 10AP.

0-1 x Serbian Division, of: 1 x allied CP @ 15AP, 12 x BL @ 6AP, 1 x Rifled Field Artillery @ 12AP.

ROMANIA (2^nd BW only) – Aggression: 3

1 x HQ @ 20AP, 1 x Rifled Heavy Artillery @ 18AP, 0-1 x Pontooneers @ 2AP, 0-1 x Supply Base @ 8AP.

1 x Cavalry Division of: 1 x subordinate CP @ 15AP, 5 x Light Cavalry @ 5AP, 1 x Rifled Horse Artillery @ 24AP.

5 x Corps, each of 1 x subordinate CP @ 15AP, 28-42 x Rifles @ 7AP, 6 x Rifled Field Artillery @ 12AP, 1 x Inferior Light Cavalry @ 3AP.

TURKISH

1 x Inert HQ @ 10AP, 0-5 x subordinate CP @ 15AP, 1 per CP x Inferior Light Cavalry @ 3AP, 2 per CP x Rifles @ 7AP, 1-2 x Rifled Heavy Artillery @ 18AP, 0-1 x Rifled Horse Artillery @ 24AP. 1 x Aeronauts (Farman) @ 25AP, 0-6 x Entrenchments @ 15AP, 0-1 x Supply Base @ 8AP.

1-12 x Divisions, each of: 9 x Rifles (Nizams) @ 7AP, 2 x Rifled Field Artillery @ 12AP.

1-8 x Divisions, each of: 3-9 x Inferior Rifles (Redifs) @ 5AP, 1-2 x Rifled Field Artillery @ 12AP.

TURKISH FLEET (Available only against Greek Army of Thessaly or Bulgarians).

0-1 x Ironclad Flagship @ 30AP, 0-1 x Ironclad @ 20AP, 0-2 x Inferior Ironclad @ 15AP, 0-2 x Steamer (Cruiser) @ 8AP, 0-1 x Flotilla (Destroyers etc.) @ 3AP.

Notes: In the 1^st Balkan War, Bulgaria, Serbia Montenegro and Greece separately invaded Turkish-held Macedonia and Thrace. In the 2^nd, Bulgaria, dissatisfied with her share of the loot, unsuccessfully invaded Serbia and Greece, but was invaded by Romania from the north and Turkey from the east, losing nearly all her gains. Serbians and Greeks had previously lost badly to Turkey, in 1875 and 1897 respectively. The Romanians were convinced they had saved the Russian army from defeat by the Turks in 1877-88, so their morale was high. The Bulgarian army was extremely efficient in battle, but in a long campaign suffered from their appalling level of hygiene and the inability of their supply system to cope.

Weather in Thrace during the fighting season was very hot and drinkable water scarce, the countryside khaki, drab and bare with hardly a bush, the hills bare, yellow, gloomy and grassless, all stones rounded, and the roads all bad and incredibly deep in mud when it did rain. Occasional ravines were choked with a jungle of vines and almond trees. Ethnically Turkish and ethnically Bulgarian villages were intermixed. Bulgarian villages had houses with red tile roofs, whitewashed walls and shutters, but the street an unpaved sewer. The main crop was cabbage. Turkish villages were described as a garbage-ridden chaos of reed-thatched houses, straw stacks, thorn fences, cur dogs and prolifically flowering roses, often with cemeteries of small un-inscribed pointy-topped obelisks leaning at all angles under poplars and willows.

Turkish cavalry were useless, badly led, unwilling to dismount and poor at scouting. They were under orders to avoid enemy cavalry. Bulgarian cavalry were poor horsemen on mediocre horses, poor at scouting and pursued by dismounting and shooting. Serbian cavalry were good horsemen on good Hungarian horses but only fought dismounted. They did little scouting until they realised the Turkish cavalry would always try to avoid them. Their cavalry division was slow because it included an infantry regiment. Greek cavalry were few, efficient both mounted and dismounted, but incompetently led. Regular (Rosiori) Romanian cavalry carried lances. Romanian militia (Kalarasi) cavalry did not. All cavalry in this war had magazine carbines. Classification as Repeater or Mounted Rifle or Light Cavalry and as BL or Rifle depends on national doctrine rather than on weapon ballistics. All nations had very similar artillery pieces. The Turks used only direct fire, the Greeks tried indirect but gave it up, and others used mostly indirect fire. Bulgarian logistics were based entirely on carts with 4 very large wheels and a rounded hood of woven reeds hauled by 2 greyish-white oxen. The option for laager is to provide a role for a few 12-oxen wagons carrying a machine gun in a “beehive” armoured turret! These were intended for a more active role but bogged down before they got to the front.

Because of her ascendancy over the Turkish fleet, only recently reinforced by the ex-German Brandenburg-class battleships Heireddin Barbarossa and Torgut Reis, and her great superiority over all the lesser ships of the 2 navies, the famous Greek heavy armoured cruiser “Georgios Averoff” is not classed as inferior despite the start of the Dreadnaught era elsewhere. The Turkish Messoudieh (an old centre battery ship whose impressive fore and aft turrets still housed only wooden dummy 9.2” guns) and Assari Tewfik, and the Greek Hydra, Spetses and Psara are classed as Inferior Ironclads. The Turkish protected cruisers Medjidieh and Hamidieh are classed as Steamers.