There's a new KoK in town.

A little while back, old king Bobevodeo of the Kushans fell off his elephant in unfortunate circumstances, and was succeeded by King Bobu Deva who was forced to temporarily bend the knee to the evil King of Kings Whatagasses. However, as recounted in the previous entry, Whatagasses was grief stricken by the death of his favorite eunuch, and send Prince Whatisface to defend against the revolt by Nashur II of Persia. Whatisface was defeated and killed, as was Nashur II, so with the Persians narrowly winning the battle, the infant Nashur III became the King of Kings.

It thus seemed a good time for Bobu Deva to assert Kushan dominance over Iran and seize the title from little Nashur.  The Persian and Kushan armies drew up for battle in a plain somewhere in the East of Iran. The Persians had hills to defend in their centre and right, and an orchard to their left. The Kushans had a hill to their left rear.

Wayne had recently completed a gully terrain piece which we were excited to try, but it ended up in the rear of the Persian deployment area, where it seemed destined to play no part except to protect the Persian baggage. However, it had a surprise cameo right at the end.

The opening moves

For this campaign the Kushan King had the full backing of his nobles, and brought a strong force of elephants and cataphracts, together with some fierce Chionite Hun allies. While the cataphracts and elephants could certainly win a straight up fight, the difficulty looked likely to be pinning the more mobile Persians down.  Therefore the plan was to seize the orchard on the Persian left (Kushan right) and attack between this and the central hill with the elephant corp lead by Bobu Deva in person. A large force of cataphracts was kept back to either support this thrust, or fend off any Persian outflanking move. On the left a force of cataphracts and horse archers were placed in ambush behind the hill, and the allies and more horse archers were assigned to demonstrate against the Persian right and center, and lure them forward into the ambush.

The Persians had once again hired a bunch of Sabir Huns as allies, but this they were lead not by the fearless Bobzilla, but instead by his retarded cousin Plodzilla. They were all deployed on foot as Wb (O) on the central hill. Behind was a strong force of Persian Asavan with a couple of auxillia and psiloi. The Persians held the hill to their right with a large horde of peasant levies, and a few Asavan in support. The largest force of Asavan was on the left behind the orchard.

The battle opened with Kushan auxillia moving swiftly to occupy the orchard on the Persian left, with the elephant corps advancing along side. On the left the Chionites and Kushan horse archers advanced and threatened the gap between the hordes and Sabir warband.

The Persians responded by advancing the cavalry behind the Sabir to in front of them, where they stayed strangely stationary. The large force of Asavan on their left split in two, with one part facing off against the elephants and masking the orchard, while the other part moved across to the gap between the hills and came out to engage the Chionites. The force on the right came out to chase away the Kushan horse archers.

On the Kushan right, the auxillia occupied the orchard, and the elephant corp advanced into the gap between the hill and the orchard. A couple of Daylami Ax(S) slowed down the elephant's advance. Attempting to push on, the elephant corps commander made a dangerous mistake, allowing the elephant next to that of king Bobu Deva to be turned and attacked by psiloi. With the C in C in the death zone, the situation was critical for the Kushans, and with a one on the dice it seemed for a moment, that the king's reign would be as brief and inglorious as his predecessor's had been. Luckily the Persians also rolled a one, and the lucky elephant proceeded to rampage up the hill defying many attempts to kill it, and destroyed the Sabir baggage before finally going down.

Almost a big mistake

 After this the elephants continued to push on killing several of the Cv(S) opposing them, while Kushan Ax and LH infiltrated into the orchard forcing the Persians to dangerously thin their line to mask them. Another elephant came up and began stomping Sabir warband, eventually disheartening them since they'd also lost their baggage.

On the Kushan left, the Chinoites initially fell back before the newly arrived Asavan, but a bad pip roll forced them to engage in a brief bloody fight, in which they killed several Asavan, but were eventually broken. One of them charged impetuously into the strangely immobile cavalry at the base of the hill. The reason for this immobility then became clear, as a line of hidden obstacles were revealed. Had the Kushan plan called for an assault on the hill, these would have been devastating, but more by luck than judgement, they decided to mask it and attack next to it.

Hidden Obstacles

 Despite breaking the Chionites the large command of Persian Asavan that had started behind the orchard had been in action on two fronts, and taken several casualties, causing it to become technically disheartened (since all its elements were 2ME this had no effect).

On the far left of the Kushan line, several horse archers had been lost, but they had eventrually lured the Persian right into the ambush, although this ultimately had little effect on the game.

Meanwhile, on the right Kushan forces had moved into and then out of the orchard, and a small group of light horse came around the outside, and the dangerously fragmented Persian line was force to fall back. One Asavan engaged an Auxillia, lost the die roll, and was forced to repulse into the gully at the rear of the table. One of the outflanking LH then attacked and killed it, breaking that command. The knock on effect then broke the Sabir and thus the army.

The Persians had a cunning plan with their hidden obstacles, and while they didn't suspect them at all, the Kushan thrust was fortunate to avoid them. The static centre then rather pinned the Persians in place causing them to lose the advantage of their mobility,  and they were ground down by the heavier Kushan forces.

So Nashur III was sent back to the nursery, and Bobu Deva is the new, and rightful King of Kings. Long may he reign.