Goat Jalfrezi, Home Delivery

Things hadn't been going so well since king Bobroes II inherited the throne after a disastrous battle against the Huns in the Kush. His expedition to India had yielded a military victory, but failed to produce the culinary delights needed to revive his army's flagging morale, and on returning to Persia he'd found an annoying Tibetan shopkeeper and his entourage (too small for an army, too large for a delivery service) hawking his Himalayan cuisine. Bobroes had a plan to defeat him so cunning, that you could pin a tail on it and call it a goat, but due to an unfortunate turn of events, and some tactical errors, was defeated, and forced to buy copious quantities of Tibetan delicacies such as lamb kebabs slow roasted over an open fire of camel dung, and fermented yaks milk lassies. Feeding this fare to his army had clearly done nothing for them, since on the next expedition to the Kush, they had broken and fled just as victory over the Huns seemed certain.

The meal we imagined

Still Bobroes believed that a really good meal or two would restore the elan of his fighting force. Word came to him that renowned eatery in India was now offering a delivery service, so  Bobroes at once dispatched an envoy, asking that they let bygones be bygones, and asking them to send a camel train of their finest goat jalfrezi, a hundred thousand poppadoms, and a few barrels of mango chutney. He and his men laid in the ale, booked the dancing girls, and eagerly awaited the feast.

Now while the Indians were to be congratulated on the forward looking ideas in the F & B business, since they'd neglected to invent high speed transport or refrigeration, their food hadn't traveled well. The Indians claimed that the maggots added both texture and flavor, but the Persian were having none of it, and refused to pay. A furious argument ensued that soon got of hand, and the Indian delivery people transformed into a rather large army (apparently they had previous experience with disgruntled customers). Anna-Toni Gupta appeared from nowhere to lead them.

Now while Bobroes had hoped for the best, he had planned for the worst, and had another cunning plan should the Indians prove troublesome. He had observed in previous battles that the Indian elephants gave his heavy cavalry a great deal of trouble, but that Indians tended to disperse them to protect their infantry against the Persian horse. Bobroes thus saw that if he had his own force of elephants, they would be able to charge through the Indian's center, trampling their foot and overwhelming any local elephant reserves. The Persian cavalry could pin the Indian wings without becoming too heavily engaged, while the elephants won the battle in the center. The key was to make sure that no word of the Persian elephant core reached the Indians, or they'd concentrate their more numerous elephants and win by weight of numbers.

The battlefield was open on the left, with the main feature being a gentle hill on the Persian side, and on the right were a scattering of orchards and enclosed fields. The Indians drew up in three commands. Their center consisted of a line of fast swordsmen (IBdF) backed by 3 elephants and a  general on another elephant. Their flank was supported by some bows and light infantry in the orchard. The Indian left was held by an allied force of well drilled spearmen (RSpI) and many light troops hiding in the terrain. Anna-Toni Gupta herself commanded the reserve command, consisting of archers and cavalry.

The Persian forces consisted of a large command of heavy cavalry in the center, with a few supporting light infantry, and a smaller force of cavalry on the right. However, to keep the elephant corps concealed, Bobroes and the largest command delayed their arrival on the battlefield.

Not the starting PIPs Anthony was looking for

As in previous battles, Indians were initially over-awed by the splendid sight of the Persians. The allied command refused to fight at all (although they did go on a long march around the battlefield) and rest of the army was less than enthusiastic. Anna-Toni needed all her wiles to keep her own forces motivated, and no time to persuade her allies to join the fray.

Nevertheless, the Indians advanced steadily forwards in the center. The Persians held station for a while to lure them on, before the central command turned and moved off to the left (carefully passing behind the hill to give the impression that there might be an ambush behind it), and the small command on the right was able to ignore the unreliable Indian ally, and move towards the center.

In the nick of time, a hero arrives

The Indians continued to advance, and then with impeccable timing, Bobroes and main force of elephants and cavalry arrived. Most of the later moved towards the hill on the left, while the elephants and other cavalry moved directly against the the Indian swordsmen in the center. The Persians who had started on the battlefield moved further around the left flank, while Anna-Toni herself, together with her corps of archers moved to counter them. The large Indian cavalry reserve moved to support the right of their sword line and face off the Persians on the hill.

As the battle line closed, things opened brightly for the Indians, with their archers shooting down an element of Persian Asavaran, and their swordsmen killing an elephant in the first charge. Thereafter, things went less well, with the surviving Indian elephants tearing a huge hole in the swordsmens line, and Persian cavalry applying heavy pressure on the rest of their line.

The lines face off

Don't stand behind the elephants silly

The Indian elephants charged into their opposite numbers to fill the breach, but they were overlapped on their right. Their commander moved across behind the line to fill the gap, but the overlapped elephant on the end of the line was pushed back, leaving the commander right behind it. In the next bound, the Persians turned the unguarded flank, stampeding the elephants there, who in turn carried away the Indian commander. This series of misfortunes broke the Indian center.

On the left, the Persian cavalry had been slowly moving around the flank, slowed down by Indian light troops, and the need to form a line against the Indian cavalry reserve. Indian archers from the the rear came up to oppose them, supported by the CinC on an elephant. The Persians charged into the Indian bows, but to no avail. Then Anna-Toni herself charged into the fray, crashing into the end of the Persian line. Now an Indian queen* on an elephant is a fine sight to see, and this could have been very dangerous, but on home soil, the Persian heavy cavalry found some of the fighting spirit that had been lacking in previous battles.

An Indian queen goes down!\

Though slowly forced back, the Persian cavalry resisted the elephant borne assault for several bounds, even when attacked in flank by archers, keeping the Indian commander locked in combat, until eventually she advanced far enough to be surrounded and cut down herself. At the same time the victorious elephants from the Persian center crashed into the rear of the Indian cavalry, breaking their army.

So all in all the Persian plan worked brilliantly, but luck was certainly on their side. The Indian ally being unreliable was their first misfortune, and their pip dice were poor throughout the game, whereas the Persian ones were excellent, and the delayed command arrived at exactly the right time. The Indian combat dice weren't bad per se, but again, all the important combats went against them. Still all wins count, and the Persians bagged another 23 BP for later use in the campaign.



* And don't think we're talking about royalty here.