The Death Throes of Bobroes 

or

 'Oh, for the love of goat!'

The following is a passage from the diary of Dyfyd Llewllyn, the legendary Victorian explorer, who left Wales in 1871 on an expedition to survey the Silk Road routes of Central Asia and subsequently never returned to his native Dinas Powys:

2^nd March 1873

Today was a tough day. We tried to find one of the old burial mounds as was left by the Hepthalites (or White Huns, as they are known to the natives) back in the 6^th century AD, but there it was, gone! We camped overnight on a hill overlooking a curving river. Lovely it was. And, it was here that our old guide, Gerupta Singh spun us a wonderful yarn, as he does every night as we sit around the camp fire. Particularly good was this one, so I have taken the time to write it down as best I can recall. About a famous battle it is, and if what he says is true, we are camped right in the thick of the battle ground, we are!

The old Indian man told it like this:

It had been a bad year for Ganasha of the White Huns. Although he was a son of the old king Toramana, he was a bastard, and as such he had had to fight to win his place at the head of the White Huns. He was used to victory but Shiva had not been with him recently. His last two battles had gone badly and he had been direly wounded in both of them. First the Persians and then the Tibetans had twisted fate to get the better of him. But he was not deterred and on this day he was planning his revenge on the Persian pretender Bobroes the Herder.

The White Hun army had seen an opportunity and invaded the Kush in winter. The Persians had been caught tending their goats (1). The two armies manoeuvred but the Huns got the upper hand. The terrain was mostly good for their horse archers although the wily Persians had secured their left flank with a river (or so they were thinking!).

The two armies faced each other with a gentle slope separating them. It is this very slope on which we are encamping this night, and it is this river upon which we see the stars reflect that ran with blood on that day. To the west, the marshes still call out with the ghostly voices of the slain.

(As I look around from this hill I can clearly survey this land for miles around. While not a patch on South Glamorgan, a wonderful pasture it is, and perfect for horses. Other than some scrub and two small patches of marshland it is quite flat really.)

Ah but I must be hastening my story. As dawn was rising and the mists were clearing on a fine morning, it is said that Bobroes himself was slow to leave the warm embrace of his favourite goat. While he was distracted, the glorious Ganasha’s Huns, arrayed with allies from Nepal and the Tibetan steppes at the fore, leaped forward like a magnificent tiger and, good gracious me, caught the goat lover with his trousers down! (2)

Rushing forward the Nepalese cavalry rode up this hill while their infantry swarmed across the river to harry the Persian flank. Meanwhile, the Zhang-Zhung horse archers swept to the opposite flank, and the Huns moved towards the centre. Well, as you can be imagining, the Persians were quite taken-aback. And goodness gracious me, Bobroes himself having finally stopped mounting his goat and mounted a horse, ran around in circles like a monkey with brass nuts.

But Shiva be praised, there is another hero of whom we have not be hearing of yet. This is the great Hun general Fagash the Heroic, brother of Ganasha. Oh deary me, he was the very best horseman in the world. He and a few brave warriors had been riding through the night facing great perils and dangers to come around to the Persian right flank and strike like a cobra!  (3)

The goat-herding Persians were not being prepared for this, and Bobroes was mightily angered. The battle was bloody and there was much killing. In the centre, Ganasha’s command, although fighting like wild elephants, were beaten back. But, by Khali’s loin cloth,  they had killed many of the Persian Asavaran cavalry. On the Hunnic left Fagash the Bold with the help of the nomad horse archers had wiped out the Dailami foot.

Both sides had taken many casualties and the dance of death was a bloody spectacle. The two armies were teetering on the edge of doom. Now it came to pass that in desperation, and maybe because he wanted to impress his favourite goat, Bobroes himself and his royal escort joined the fray. His heavy cavalry charged the light horse archers, but I have to be telling you that this day it was not meant to be. Blessed Shiva shone her light upon Fagash the Brave and this light was like a blazing beacon shining into the hearts of the White Huns and their allies. First, they pushed the Asavaran back in to the marsh, then they darkened its waters with the blood of Persia’s finest warriors. Many goats were saddened by this.  

*(The fight gets messy)

*(Meanwhile, on the other flank, the Nepalese psiloi finally get accroos th eriver to the rear of the Persians.)

Bobroes suddenly found himself surrounded on 3 sides by horsemen. And I am telling you, it was Fagash the Mighty himself that charged straight at the Persian pretender. He raised his sword high in the air and goodness gracious me his cut went through the Iranian King faster than a spicy mutton curry! (4) As Bobroes fell his gaze flickered toward his tent and the four-legged lover inside and then he died. A ripple of panic flashed across the Persian army and a faint bleating was heard from the King’s tent, but his army stood firm.

The Persian retaliation was swift and cunning. Bobroe’s brother Bobadh the Effete launched himself against the flank of Fagash the Isolated with a passion and virility much like that which had been seen in Bobroes tent earlier that morning. It was now Fagash the Surrounded’s turn to be in the direst of straits! The whole battle was hinging on this encounter.

Bobadh the Effete brandished his weapon, but it was small and by this time quite bent from over use. Fagash the Blessed raised his sword again, striking back at many opponents slaying all those to his front with much ferocity. Bobadh the Effete was pushed back in humiliation and quavered as he realised his rash act of passion (the second today, but goats don’t tell tales) had left his rear exposed to the enemy.

Emboldened by the heroic deeds of Fagash the Unstoppable and following his lead, the remaining horse archers surrounded the enemy leader like vultures to a corpse. Bobadh the Effete, gave one last longing look to the herd as Fagash the Unstoppable screamed his war cry of ‘Bum Shanka’ and hacked his foe from his saddle. (5) With that the Persian’s turned tail and fled the field, not even pausing to take their goats with them.  

                                                         *(Final positions)
That my friends is how this hill came to be known as Hunavasaha and those marshes to be haunted by the ghosts of Bobroes and Bobadh and to this day the villagers report of goats going missing in the night never to be being seen again!  Now Pot-Wolla, how is that goat curry coming along?

As we sat and ate our evening meal of curried goat atop this hill, I looked out across the plain. All was still, it was; accept for a mysterious glow and a ghostly howling sound coming from the marshes to the west, punctuated at irregular intervals by an alarming bleating. Needless to say, it was not a good night’s rest and we were happy to move on the following day.

Later in our expedition, I was able to quiz Gerupta Singh again about this battle. Together we managed to piece together some illustrations to accompany his tale.   

1. The holder of the top table has the option of choosing to defend or 'Minding the goats'.

2. The Huns were invading but doubled the Persians time of day dice-roll and thus gained the opportunity to move first.

3. A successful flank march (on a roll of a 6)

4. Fagash, rolled a 1 to Bobroes' 3. The result was a draw. However, as Fagash was Superior Light Horse he gains a +1 on a draw. Bobroes having been flanked could not recoil and was destroyed.

5. Fagash rolled up this time 5-1 against the enemy LH and killed it outright. This left him free to manouvre and the Persian general greatly exposed. Rolling high for pips in the next bound meant that we were able to surround the enemy general.

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The final result was 15-10 to the Huns. The game was so close and I was fortunate that Fagash stood his ground or my army would have collapsed. I now how full access to the goats and will face Wayne's Tibetan's again next week.

1. Fagash's flank march came on in the 3rd turn but had to skirmish before moving back in for the coup de grace. 

2. Allied fast light horse controlled the left flank and successfully assaulted the enemy foot.  

3. The CiC's command of superior LH and 1 elephant did a lot of damage to the enemy before it was broken.

4. The Nepalese cavalry spent most of the game dominating the centre by remaining uphill. They eventually did charge and achieved nothing. 

5. I had hope Nepalese psiloi would distract Bob and get around the flank more quickly. Unfortunately, 4 turns of low pip dice held them in check.

6. The Persian dead pile 

7.  Asavaran charge the centre and do damage but not as quickly as one would expect.

8. Bob's reserve was committed quite early but struggled to get  into contact for a few turns.

9. Bobroes and his cavalry escort zig-zagged around the marsh and held the flank march back.

10. Persian fast light horse lurking and trying to tempt Fagrash in to contact and into the range of the cavalry.