Goat Jalfrezi

After the rather poor showing in the last battle, no-one in the Sassanid army was keen to return to Persia, and answer awkward questions such as "what happened to the old king", so the newly anointed (and imaginatively named), King Bobroes II decided to lead the army for some RnR in India. Consulting his Horsebacker's Guide to the Subcontinent, he found a little place that was rated 5 stars for its goat jalfrezi, and decided that a good meal would be just the thing to revive the mens' spirits.

Not expecting any trouble, Bobroes rode up and politely requested a table for 50,000, only to be met with the surly passive-aggressive response "Do you have a reservation ?", Suppressing the urge to answer "Do I look like a *#@**## Red Indian", Bobroes drew himself up to his full height and inquired "Do you know who I am ?", only to be met with the rejoinder, "I don't care if you're the Shah of Persia, you're not getting in without a reservation." Of course the only suitable response to such insolence was to draw his sword, and remove the greeterwallah's head with a single stroke.

Now perhaps it's a cultural thing, but this totally justified act seemed to annoy the Indians greatly, and there was a great deal of shouting, finger pointing and probably some bad language. More and more angry Indians started to arrive, and after a while an ugly chick on an elephant turned up (apparently her name was Anne-Toni Gupta), and the Indians squared up for a full on battle.

Resolving to instruct his scribes to send in a one star review (rude staff, unable to handle large parties), Bobroes took stock of the situation, and drew up his army to meet the insolent Indians. Their army was formidably large, and drawn up in a strong position with their left protected by a wood and a village, and their right by a large area of scrub. The open ground between was filled with two commands, combining their SpI to make a central infantry block, that was flanked on each side by BwI and HdO. Each side also had some elephants behind, and one had a large block of 8 CvO held back in reserve*. Some psiloi and horde held the the wood on the left, and the third command lead by Anne-Toni herself occupied the scrub on the left with elephants, fast blades and archers.

The armies square up

Bobroes plan was to ignore the Indians in the scrub, unhinge their position by seizing the wood on their left, and then ride down their infantry and cavalry frontally with the Asavaran, while trying to avoid engaging the elephants. A force of psiloi occupied a wood in the center of the Persian position, with the task of engaging any elephants who ventured forwards, before they could engage the Persian horse.

Once again, many of the Indians were overawed by the magnificent sight of the Persian army, and the central Indian command was unreliable, and only agreed to fight after several turns of cajoling by Anne-Toni. Meanwhile Bobroes moved up his crack Dailami infantry to seize the wood, forcing the Indian cavalry reserve to cover them off. This cleared the way for a frontal attack by the Persian heavy cavalry, who make short work of the Indian archers and horde, and on their right broke through and started attacking the Indian reserve cavalry.

Persians storm through the wood

Having already taken losses attempting to defend the wood, the Indian left, collapsed, but the center held firm, and with support from Anne-Toni's elephants that had moved across from the scrub, counter-attacked the Persian left. The light infantry in the center, who had been supposed to counter any elephants, never got enough pips to get into position, and were masked by Indian infantry. Since the Persian left was the low pip command, it was unable to disengage quickly enough, and its horsemen were trampled underfoot by the Indian pachyderms.

The Persian center now engaged with spearmen of the Indian central command, while each side endeavored to intervene with their victorious flank. While the Persian center took considerable losses, eventually their regular C and C prevailed, and they were able to break the Indian center before losing their own, and win the game 19-6.

The battle unfolds

Once again, the Indian cavalry and foot were vulnerable in the open to Persian CvS and they had no answer to the Persians AxS seizing key terrain. Having to deploy first, and with an unreliable central command, the initial Indian play seemed a bit passive, but it turns out this was a cunning plan, and a flank march was expected on their left, whose mission was to intercept the Persian thrust through the wood. Had it arrived in time, it would have caused considerable difficulty, but in the event it didn't arrive at all.**

Still craving goat jalfrazie, rumours reached Bobroes that the annoying Tibetan shopkeeper (the Deli Llama) was now heading for Persia. Reluctantly he prepared to march the army back home, hoping to get their in time before the whole place started to reek of yak's milk.



* This was an exaggerated size stratagem, and there were actually only four.
** Of the three flank marches attempted that night, only one showed up. The following day, the local news carried a story about a contractor hired to repair a canal bridge, who'd removed said bridge, but neglected to leave any warning signs, resulting in three cars and a motorbike ending up in the water. Perhaps the missing flank marches suffered a similar fate.