For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath for the first installment of the Mogul campaign, as outlined last week, here it is. The non-Mogul battle between Bijapur and Golconda, in the south of India beyond the empire. The Bijapur-ains consist of a general on an elephant (of course!), an elephant, three bases of cavalry, three militia levy, two archers, two swordsmen bases, and a base of musket-armed skirmishers. The Golcondans have the inevitable elephant-mounted general, an elephant base, a base of guard lancers, a base of light horse, 4 bases of archers, three levy militia, and two bases of swordsmen. Different, slightly, but fairly balanced, I think.
The terrain turned out to be fairly simple. A stream marks the near-side of the battlefield. The Bijapurians are to the left, their cavalry and elephants furthest from the stream. The infantry and militia are ordered to advance on the enemy archers and militia, while the elephants and cavalry try to defeat the Golcondan right. That right-wing is held by the guard cavalry and elephant, while the left is screened by the light horse. The idea was to hold off whatever Bijapur threw at the line with firepower and disruptive skirmishing, while the general and swordsmen are in reserve.
The above picture shows the Bijapur attack developing. The cavalry on the far side has charged in, with reasonable success, aside from the Golcondan elephant, a charge at which was declined. The Golcondans have brought up their swordsmen to stiffen the line, as well as the general. Elsewhere the Golcondan light horse are doing a good job in delaying the Bijapur militia, but the archers and swordsmen are getting into position.
Most battles I have run in these eastern settings have tended to the chaotic after the opening exchanges, and this one was no different. The next picture shows this increasing chaos rather nicely, I think, from behind Golcondan lines.
Working our way from right to left, you can see that the Golcondan elephant has charged the lagging Bijapur cavalry base and has the upper hand in combat. Next along, the Golcondan guard cavalry have snuck into position to flank the Bijapur centre, including their elephants, who have got stuck in front of the Golcondan swordsmen. Nearest the camera, a base of Golcondan archers are fleeing from some pursuing cavalry. On the Golcondan left contact, at least between some of the infantry is about to happen. It was tight, as you can also see a base of Bijapur cavalry fleeing back right-ish.
The guard cavalry turned out to be the Golcondan ace-in-the-hole. With the supporting cavalry for the Bijapur elephants gone, they had a clear run at the flank of the nellies locked in combat with the Golcondan swordsmen. Charge home they did indeed, and they caused much human head-scratching when they recoiled the base into the general next door. This situation is not explicitly covered in my rules – elephants can recoil while war wagons cannot – so I had to be a bit careful. I decided that the elephants recoiled and pushed the general along half a base width rather than get themselves eliminated or even eliminate themselves and the general’s base.
The results of the battle can be seen above. The Golcondan cavalry charge, supported by an advancing base of swordsmen, eliminated the Bijapur elephant. However, before the end of the move, the Bijapur general had decided to get out of the firing line and advanced on a stray base of Golcondan bowmen, who are now fleeing. Behind that the Golcondan general has advanced on the base of Bijapur cavalry that was rallying from their earlier charge and routed them as well. On the far side, incidentally, the Golcondan elephant base has routed the opposing cavalry.
In the centre, the infantry battle has been a bit mixed. You can see a severely damaged base of Golcondan archers, but also that the rest of the Golcondan infantry has been stalled (nearest camera) or is fleeing (next across). This was probably my mistake because the Bijapur swordsmen were behind their bowmen in the assault. If it had been the other way around (or rather, if the bowmen had been somewhere else) the results might have been different. On the near-side, the light horse are still delaying the Bijapur militia, just about, although the room for the light horse to manoeuvre is becoming limited.
At this point, morale rolls were called for on both sides. Having lost two bases the Golcondans went to ‘fall back’ on an admittedly bad roll. The Bijapur army, however, had been more severely reduced and was hanging on with a base morale of 1. A negative roll for them as well ensured that the whole army was routed and, looking at the situation, who can blame them?
That, then was the first wargame of the campaign, and a lot of fun it was as well, with interest all the way through. Reflecting on the battle seems to suggest that in this sort of action when the initial shock is over, the armies break up into smaller packets, and the action of a single base, such as the Golcondan guard lancers, can make a big difference. In a similar way the Golcondan light horse really did delay the enemy militia, while the Bijapur’s jezail-toting skirmishers faced the Golcondan bows and were lucky not to get routed as a result.
In this game, I did expect that the Bijapur cavalry would be decisive, and they were important, but cavalry charges are one-shot weapons in tight situations such as this game. Here, they managed to stop pursuing at the table edge but were kept from rallying by a base of Golcondan bows until the general was ready to see them on their way. On the other hand, the Golcondan elephant did charge home but as there were no other enemy units near got away with it, and did not, in fact, rally.
All good fun, anyway, and apart from pondering the recoil rules a bit, it is on to the next campaign turn.
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