Glasgow & District Wargaming Society

Night of Terror 

As written by the Boyar Hyalm to King Matthias of Hungary, June 26^th 1462:-

 “Know, oh King, that in the year of Our Lord 1462, my Prince Vlad Basarab III, known to the Turk as Kazikulu Bey, and to his people as The Son of the Dragon – Dracula – did many great and terrible things.

After the failure of the Mantuan Crusade, the fall of Serbia and the capture and death of Mihály Szilágyi, the Sultan Mehemed II demanded of my Prince tribute and our best sons for castration and service as Janissaries. My Prince, true to his people, refused, and when the Turk dared to cross the Danube to seize our children, he had them impaled – a most astute and reasonable response.

The Sultan then, finding that my Prince had entered alliance with your most noble Majesty, sent his lackey, Hamza Pasha, the Bey of Nicopolis, to treat with my Prince at Giurgiu. My Prince discovered that he was to be cruelly ambushed during this parley, and instead surprised the Turk and cut them down in the passes. Hamza was taken. He took Giurgiu by magnificent ruse – dressing as a Turk and demanding that the gates be open. He then brought sword and flame to the Turk in Wallachia and Bulgaria.

Finding all his captains beaten, Mehemed at last roused himself, and gathering a vast army, came to our land to murder My Prince and enslave my People. My Prince called on all the common folk of Wallachia, and made his army of the people, for the people. He rallied them saying “Those who think of Death should not follow me”. Neither noble nor commoner faltered.

 As the Turk advanced, so my Prince withdrew, scorching the earth before them so that they would find neither food nor shelter. He took those with terrible illnesses, and dressing them as Turks, set them among the enemy. Thus did the Turk know the plaugue, and many fell.

 At last, the Turk was before the gates of my Princes capital, Târgovişte. My Prince, disguised again as a Turk, went into their camp and found the Sultans tent. My prince split his army into two, one under the Boyar Gales. We lit our torches. We fell upon the Turk in his camp, screaming and killing. Great was the slaughter, we owned the night.

Mighty were the deeds of my Prince that night, and long did he strive for the Sultans tent. He slew two viziers, Ishak Pasha and Mahmud Pasha, and would have taken the Sultan, had he not fled in a most disgraceful manner most unbecoming a King. Finding the Sultan gone, my Prince withdrew.

Shaken by the Terror of the Night, the Turk would not thereafter encamp save that he surrounded his camp with a mighty Ditch. Mehemed found the city open and abandoned, and worse, a mighty forest made by the bodies of those Turkish captives, raised high upon stakes, surrounded the road and the city. 20,000 captives, and raised above them all, as befitted his station, the treacherous Hamza Pasha.

Mehemed knew that a man with the will of my Prince could not be defeated.

The Turks fled.”


The Game is being played at Skelp 2007 in Forfar using Warhammer Ancient Battles rules, and the Night Attack Scenario from the Vlad the Impaler supplement. Figures are overwhelmingly Old Glory.

 

Send mail to balkandave@ntlworld.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2004 Glasgow & District Wargaming Society
Last modified: 07/27/07