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.