Better Late Than Never

We've done quite a few South East Asian games, but they've always been my Burmese vs one of Wayne's collection, so for a change I borrowed some of Wayne's troops to do an historical match up that we haven't tried yet: Siamese vs Khmer. This time I took the Siamese.

Khmer El(X) are invaluable against elephant armies

It's a tricky match up for the Siamese as the Khmer El(X) relegate your elephants to the role of fat boys hanging out at the back. This leaves two options; take regular generals and fight a war of maneuver, or try a frontal assault with irregular fast blades. The Khmers have lots of tough auxillia superior, but I figured not having to follow up would give Siamese regular guards an edge, so my first attempt at an army list featured regular generals, and all eighteen permitted regular fast blades. This yielded a very small army though, and with a list stipulation that there can only be six guards per command, the three commands all came out quite similar, and not really looking like they'd make good use of a regular structure.

So for the actual game I decided to go for the blunt force trauma approach with massed irregular blades charging straight up the middle. A command of auxillia and Ps(S) would protect one flank, and the C in C the other, the latter also having some blades and some light troops. The fat boys were split between the two flank commands to disused any Khmer cavalry from stealing round the ends.

Actually I didn't think such an obvious plan would work on an open field, but if it could be sprung with an element of surprise, there might be a chance of overwhelming the Khmer centre while other troops were out of position, and before reserves could be brought up. My plan then was to ambush as many of the blades as possible in a central position, let the Khmer come to me, then spring out in a mad impetuous rush.

Initial Deployment

 Sadly the terrain didn't fall as I'd intended, my side of the table being an open plain, with the only useful terrain being a wooded hill on the far right. Wayne's side of the table was by contrast, replete with all sorts of useful hidey holes, so much so in fact that he forgot that, as the attacker, he was only allowed one ambush. Not wanting to reveal my hand too early, I therefore decided to delay the main blade command, while carefully deploying the other two commands to leave a big enough gap for it to come on. The C in C command went on the left where his extra pip would help protecting the open flank, and the light command was set well back on the right, in the hope that any assault on it would be delayed by the need to clear the wooded hill where four Ps(S) handgunners waited in ambush.

The battle unfolds

Khmer elephants redeploy from left to right

 With two widely separated  commands and many troops obviously absent, I expected Wayne to attack me pretty aggresively, however his center and left stayed put pretty much, while he shuffled his elephants across to his right to face of the few blades he could see. Meanwhile his CinC on his right advanced rapidly around my left flank. When my first pip rolls gave a one and a two for the on table commands, I figured it was going to be one of those days.

Khmer C in C in chariot

 Over the next bounds Wayne continued lining up his elephants, and pushed his CinC and column of auxillia further round my flank, encircling but being strangely reluctant to close. The general and a couple of blades made a half-hearted adavance from the center, but otherwise this stayed put. I split my C in C's command to face off the outflankers, while holding the rest of the command.

Didn't expect that!

Seeing his left was weak, and wanting to sap pips from the elephants that had switched flanks, I advanced tentatively with my right, and moved my handgunners out of ambush to investigate what was in the wood on Wayne's left. As they advanced towards it, five Khmer cavalry elements sprang out and attempted to run them down, but the lead psiloi outrolled the opposing cavalry 6 - 1 twice in a row to push it back into the wood. Eventually the cavalry prevailed, killing three of the four psiloi, while one made it into the wood and beat up several elements of Ps(I). Trying desperately to command his elephants on one flank, and his cavalry from the other, the commander of the Khmer left spent most of the battle camped in the center circle.

Eventually Wayne got everything arranged to his liking on his right, and began closing in on my left, but then at long last (bound 6) my central command arrived. The general and some psiloi were detached to shore up the left against the impending elephant attack, while 20 elements of blades stormed up the center.

Reinforcements finally arrive

Siamese blades about to crash into Khmer center

Meanwhile on my right, I'd moved up my auxillia and elephants to apply pressure. I foolishly allowed the Khmer bolt shooter a couple of shots on the general, but fortunately he survived, and my foot closed in and killed it, precipitating a fight there. Khmer quality and numbers were beginning to give them the edge, when my center command arrived, and quickly carved up the disorganized Khmers, while my right rallied killing two more elements with successive 6-1 rolls, effectively crushing that end of the Khmer line.

Khmer general in a bit of a pickle

On the left I managed to fend of the outflankers, while putting together enough of a reception commitee to stall Wayne's elephant attack. The later then came under heavy pressure as my center stormed past their exposed flank, and detached a few elements to turn it. Another unlucky roll killed an elephant leaving a gap that allowed the Khmer central general to be outflanked and killed,  and my El(S) C in C attacked another Khmer El(O) killing it and the one behind, leaving only some mopping up needed to complete the battle.

So was nice to get a win with my first attempt at Siamese. I do think Wayne let me off the hook a bit though by doing too much maneuvering on my left, and not pressing the attack quickly before my center arrived. I definitely had much the better of the combat dice though, as on another day the Khmer cavalry would have swept away my psiloi, and the artillery would have killed at least one elephant general. OTOH maybe they owed me for the unfavorable terrain, and long delay in my central command arriving.

Siamese Short-time Hospitality

The Burmese pass through the Kingdom of Ayutthaya.

The Pre-Amble

After our last disaster I had a modified plan which comes in several parts.

*  We (the models and I) are persevering with using regular commands and as many regular troops as possible to out manoeuvre the irregular enemy.  Thus we hoped to avoid having a ElS on ElS slogging match.

*  We are taking impetuous blades to hunt, on a aim and release basis, enemy foot as the blade are the local elite foot.  Being in groups of eight they can be put in ambush to hold their impetuous nature until required.

*  We have psiloi, including superior, plus the auxillia to run interference against the Burmese elephants looking to tie them up rather than take risks of death by attempting to destroy them.  That will be done with ‘flank-locks’.

*  Terrain is important in the above.  We will look to keep terrain away from the Burmese and on our side so they have nowhere to hide inferior troops and protect their flanks while we’ll obtain ambush positions for ourselves. 

Simple plans, maybe, but sure to be modified on the day once the battlefield and enemy dispositions are known.  Once contact is made then it’s no doubt they’ll be discarded!!

[Please note that Burmese Bob has posted a splendid rendition of this battle on this blog titled “The General Who Couldn't Afford An Elephant” so this is just a shorter perspective from the other side.]

The Game

Last night* the Burmese hordes invaded.  The terrain didn’t get set according to the plans with Bob having to discard his river (brought to avoid using area terrain?) and of my three ambush points, one was lost to Bob’s table edge** and the other two were very wide and unlikely to be of much use.  We used them anyway and one came into play but too late to do the required damage. 

With Bob having a split deployment zone my CinC, with high PiPs, and the elephants were placed centre and away from the front so that he could manoeuvre his regular troops either way to do the damage.  The elephants were to create a flank threat to any Burmese general advance.  Ambushes were to be sprung on passing enemy if I could draw then in and therefore we were to hold our line to receive the Burmese advance with only the CinC advancing.

Deployment Plans

Well the Burmese advanced alright.  A massive wave swept forward and threatened to swamp us from the word “go”.  They clearly had business to attend to much closer to the Mekong away past our rear.

We attempted to cut the Burmese in half and draw them as close as possible to the left hand ambush.

Their elephants are in fear of a lone ArtI plus, maybe, also of our elephants to their flank.  They stall.

“We are going to be needing that ambush any time now!!”

A great slogging match develops where we aren’t going to hold out in the long run with some unfavourable matchups (Bd on Ax, Bw on Ps) and being outnumbered.  The CinC gets bogged down with random Burmese running interference.

There is some elephant on elephant combats with foot running around the edges.  Casualties mount on both sides.  Burmese CinC disheartens, Siamese CinC gets dangerously close as well after a ElO manages to block our own foot into a bad situation.

Ambushes are launched.  The left one makes contact and starts to chew its way through the Burmese foot.  Unfortunately an impoverished Burmese general (on CvO instead of ElS) uses longer movement, tricky repulse outcomes and a mud covered SH to escape it’s BdF assailant and get behind the Siamese line. 

“Left wing looking good now – just one small issue that's about to go seriously bad ......”

Having broken free of his pursers the low class Burmese general turns and fatally rear ends a combat engaged Siamese ElS general.  In the same bound the Siamese elephant corps is decimated by a PiP flood induced series of hard flanks.  The Siamese break and flee the field.

The Burmese have now passed through the Kingdom of Ayutthaya and were last seen heading eastward towards the Mekong .......

A Note

To clarify Bob’s blog’s comment about artillery target selection.  I hadn’t forgotten per se, initially I was forced to continually engage the interspersed rBdF in front of his iElS CinC because the general was actually out of range.  Not by much but having measured it I knew it was enough that I couldn’t justify it.  Maybe in the end-game when the CinC moved I may have missed one opportunity but I think he was usually combat engaged.

The After-Match Round-Up

I don’t like playing the Siamese much.  It’s frustrating.  And as I’m buried in the history, I want to play the strong versions, not the average, bland, “could be any nation” ElO & Ax versions.  But the strong versions are difficult to get workable, remarkably small for an irregular troop army due to super-expensive but required rElS generals plus (semi-)compulsory ElS and high warrior minimums.  To make it work in the local environment it needs to also maximise its regular troops (in my opinion anyway)

But it’s the wife’s (rWfF***) home team, I’m largely responsible for the list (see no special pleadings – I can’t win with it!!), Bob likes the historical match up with his Burmese and now it’s a damn challenge to overcome my generalship deficiencies and finally win with it.

So it’s a love/hate relationship which means I’ll keep playing with it, I suppose. 

A Further Note

Bob Forgetting the Axioms (or Suicide by Elephant)

 See the 14 August Post.  The axiom is “don’t stand infront of the guns or behind the elephants” for obvious reasons.  So how does Bob deploy??

Spot the Dubious Deployment

One slip of the draw rope, one elephant shot in the rear thus one artillery piece turned to splintered matchsticks in the ensuing stampede.  I really laughed when I say this and insisted on the photo.  Of course it was a non-event, the artillery piece never moved nor fired and the elephant charged off with the Burmese masses to die elsewhere on the field.

The Irrelevant(?) Stuff

* = Not quite.  While I wrote the 90% of this the morning after, my fantasy world (the one with wives, employment, house construction and assorted responsibilities) got in the way of my real world (the one with DBMM games, models and terrain construction) and delayed me for almost a week before I could match up the photos.  Of course in the interim Bob’s done an outstanding job of detailing the game.

** = Having lost the terrain piece (a Wooded Hill) to the dice roll it was of course placed in the most annoying place, centre of his deployment zone cutting it in half.  The elongated WH was placed end-on rather than laterally as I’d have used it on any other edge to provide ambush launching stations. 

In our Kushan/Parthian/Aramenian/Steppe encounters Bob is often annoyed by a stray (diced to his side) marsh messing up the centre of his deployment zone.  The early terrain choices are usually always usable on any side except the opponent’s long side when they are used as an annoyance.

*** = Old story.  See 24 July post for the details.

The General Who Counldn't Afford An Elephant

Well there was a slight hiatus in the gaming routine due to sickness and schedule changes, but play resumed shortly after teatime last Wednesday. After the recent visit by the Siamese to Burma, the former kindly agreed to play host, and let my Burmese invade them. We agreed that the the year was 1962 * .

I always enjoy the Burmese vs Siamese fights, they tend to be fairly straightforward affairs without too much maneuvering, and are often very close games. They're also generally have lots of flavor with elephants clashing amid hordes of expendable foot. The fact that the Burmese always seem to shade the games, sometimes by the odd half ME does nothing to diminish my enjoyment.

I elected to invade in the wet season (as they wouldn't expect that) which meant selecting spring in DBMM although in SE Asia that's the hot season and the rainy is.. well now. Anyway it appeared that the rains came late in 1962 since the river I had elected to invade along was nowhere to be found. They did arrive shortly before the battle though, giving us mud which affected all of one combat roll. Otherwise the terrain was a wooded hill cutting my deployment area in two, and a wood on Wayne's right, and a scrubby hill to his left.

Deployment

I didn't have much of a plan for the battle (selecting a river for my terrain was just an attempt to bluff Wayne that I did), so I decided to line up my elephants to the right of the hill and charge. The command to the left of the hill would hide behind its barricades and defend, but the good troops in it were formed into a flying column to go elsewhere if Wayne tried to ignore it. However as the defender Wayne deployed first, and seeing his set up I placed my guard blades between the elephants of the center and right hand commands, as there were some juicy auxillia standing in the open waiting to be beaten up. My rightmost command was lead by a third cousin of a minor wife who was so much of a nobody, he couldn't even afford an elephant like a proper general, and was instead classified as Cv(O).

Deploy not in front of the artillery, nor behind the elephants. Hmm...

Wayne deployed with a big column of elephants in the center opposite the wooded hill, which were accompanied by foot guards (regular blade F) and the CinC. On his right (my left) was a small command with a cannon, a general, and a couple of guards. It wasn't too hard to guess that there were more of them lurking in the woods nearby. On the other wing was another cannon. some auxillia and hand gunners (Ps(S)) (How come the Siamese can have 4 of these while the Burmese only get 2) and not much else besides an elephant general.

Siamese advance their centre, Burmese advance their right

On the first move, Wayne's central column advanced and the elephant general and guards from his right advanced to support them. His army was obviously missing quite a few troops, but I didn't worry too much about where they might be, and just pushed my right two commands forwards as fast as possible. It wasn't long before we came to blows all the way along the line right of the hill with Wayne charging in first with some elephants from his center and the hand gunners from his right. His initial hit went well, killing two elephants quickly (one from the center and one from the right), but I got lucky when one of his elephants attacking the head of a column of auxilla that had come off the hill, was recoiled. This allowed me to move elements out of the column to flank lock a couple of his guards and level the score. This attack also pretty much blunted his central thrust as his CinC turned 90 degrees toexact some revenge, relieving the pressure on my left.

Although I'd lost two elephants already, the situation was looking good for me at this point. The center was pretty even, there were only a handful of elements attacking my left. and Wayne's line of psiloi and auxillia on the right was pretty thin, and looking like it would be outflanked too. At this point though. he unleashed his ambushes. On my left 8 irregular blade F stormed impetuously out of the woods, and on the right a similar force did the same from behind the hill. The force on the left was no surprise and wouldn't arrive in time to affect the outcome, but the force on the right was a diiferent matter as it would quickly crash into my deep columns of Ax(O) and Bw(I), which would be unlikely to end well for me.

Ambush!!!

But the man on a horse has a plan

 Now up until this point, the minor wife's third cousin (who had been studying some Parthian battle manuals) was hanging out at the back of the infantry column as close to the table edge as possible. Seeing that with his general already engaged, Wayne would struggle to find pips to turn any of his impetus horde round, he stepped out to the flank and advanced boldly behind then, while my foot stepped up make sure all of Waynes troops behind my SG were ZOCed. On his next turn Wayne did find the 3 pips to move his one free element up and attack my SG in the flank, and forcing him to turn. However, the latter won the combat and elected not to purse. In my bound he moved backwards up the muddy scrubby hill. While I would get a -1 for the rough terrain, Wayne would get a -1 for attacking up the muddy slope, increasing my chances of a kill if I won the combat, but more importantly, if I lost it, allowing me to repulse right along the rear of his line.

Confused Fighting in the center

 Meanwhile in the center, the fight had broken up with lots flank and rear attacks. In one bound I was able to kill two elephants with rear attacks, but failed to kill another which I'd hard flanked. Wayne demonstrated the principle that he who attacks from the rear, shall himself he attacked from the rear, and downed another of my pachyderms, demoralizing my central command. Luckily my CinC was able to resume the attack on the previosuly hard flanked elephant, and return the favor. Both centres were now close to breaking, but I had a bunch of 1/2 ME Auxillia in the fight, which meant Wayne needed to kill more elements than I did to win, so I was able to survive his turn with my center half an element off breaking. Wayne also forgot that artillery can choose their targets and neglected to fire his cannon at my C in C ( I do feel a little bit bad for not pointing this out at the time).

The final bound

So my center would collapse if breathed on, and my right was being carved up by an impetuous horde of Siamese men with big choppers. Luckily Wayne's center was no better off, and the man on the horse had managed to (obviously on purpose) lose his combat on the muddy hill, and was now standing close to the rear of Wayne's elephant general who was distracted by the huge column of Burmese levy archers he was busy stomping through. He made the obvious move, and in the middle I had enough pips to move an elephant into one of Wayne's blades, and move up my CinC to attack the sole Siamese elephant (O) next to it. As it happened, the CinC rolled well killing the elephant (O) and moving up to help dispatch the blade too, and break the Siamese center. The only thing that could spoil things now would be Wayne's elephant (S) C in C killing the demoralized auxillia he was fighting, and breaking my center too. Luckily we held on, and the man on the horse got the job done on the right flank, breaking the Siamese army.

Man on a horse is a pain in the butt.

 So another fun and tense game, with Burmese again just coming out ahead. The man on the horse really saved the day, as my center was almost done for, and my right flank wasn't going to hold up too long under the assault of the Siamese swordsmen.

*1962 in the Buddhist calender that starts 543 years before the Gregorian one.