A Very Mogul Civil War Battle 3

We are still in October 1658, but several hundred miles south of the last action in the VMCW campaign. Here, former allies Aurangzeb and Mir Jumla are squaring up to each other over the plunder of Bijapur. As related last time, the new leader of Bijapur had managed to subvert the old alliance and make the two hostile to each other. The fact that a newly raised although rag-tag Bijapur army is also in the offing is also of interest, although they are trying not to get involved, at least yet.

The terrain was rolled up and it turned out the Mir Jumla had a great big hill near his baseline, and so he immediately did the obvious and occupied it with all his strength. He needed something, I felt, to offset Aurungazeb’s advantage in cavalry – the Mogul prince had 4 bases of cavalry against Mir Jumla’s one guard lancer base and one light horse.

The initial deployments are in the photograph.

First things first. If you look in the top right of the photo you will see the outline of our household feline, waiting to be let out of the snug in which I wargame. I am fortunate to have a picture at all because shortly before I took it she was using my general’s armchair to admire the view out of the window. Fortunately, the lure of her food bowl was too much for her to take permanent residency.

Back to less important matters. Mir Jumla is deployed on the right of the shot, with his command elephant on top of the hill, as you do if you are an Indian commander. The rest of the troops are deployed on the hill itself, aside from the light horse who are on the right, thrown forward to disrupt whatever Aurungzeb might try.

Aurungzeb’s plan was to outflank the hill on both sides with the cavalry and lock up the centre with his firepower, keeping the elephants in reserve for the final breakthrough. The rockets were held back to lob little parcels of joy onto the hill, hopefully disrupting command and control if nothing else.

The picture above shows the plan developing, as the cavalry advances to left and right, with the central infantry units advancing and the rockets in full flight (they only had one hit all game, and that was ineffective). Mir Jumla has deployed his levies on the hill on his left to ward off the Mogul cavalry. For the rest the Golcondans are waiting for the hammer blow of the attacks. A lot will depend on whether Aurungzeb can coordinate his attacks.

The above shows the problems that the Moguls ran into. The cavalry have become disrupted on both wings. The light horse have done their job on Mir Jumla’s right, splitting the Mogul cavalry and opening one of the bases to being charged by the guard lancers while the other is still entertained by the lights. On the flank nearest the cavalry, the disruption was caused by Mir Jumla’s archers. The other base is about to advance too far unless Aurungzeb stops them. In the centre, the firefight has developed, slightly in the Mogul’s favour.

The picture above shows the crisis on Mir Jumla’s right, from behind his lines. The guard lancers have done their job in the distance and are now pursuing one of the Mogul cavalry bases. Nearer to the camera, the remaining Mogul cavalry charged the light horse and both have been recoiled. The Moguls, having charged and been repulsed now pick up two terrain-shaken levels, with a base of elephants bearing down the hill at them. On the other flank, Aurungzeb’s cavalry has deployed facing the Golcondan levies. However, they have refused to charge uphill and overlapped.

To say Aurungzeb was getting a bit frustrated would be an understatement. You can see he is pushing himself and the elephant base up. This will have, shall we say, consequences.

The crisis in the centre was a bit messy. Aurungzeb attacked the archers up the hill, and the other Mogul elephants attacked the other one. They put the archers to flight but at the cost of their mutual support. Mir Jumla then led his swordsmen downhill into the general’s elephant base. In fact, the swordsmen at first refused to charge so Mir Jumla had to take command and move them down the slope. A couple of rounds of combat led to the Mogul general’s base being routed, as you can see above, and that routing base also swept away a base of archers – you can that about to see.

This was catastrophic for the Mogul army command. They lost the general and two bases of troops (the general’s elephant counting as well as a base for morale purposes) in one move. The army went to ‘withdraw’ status, and so it did.

That was a quite short but fun action. Aurungzeb’s coordination was very poor because at crucial times he rolled really badly for tempo. I did wonder if his plan was over-ambitious, but then it worked for Hopton at Stratton, so I let it be implemented. The terrain on Mir Jumla’s left was a bit constrained for the cavalry, which led to one base being stopped before it got into a flanking position, so that was one disruption. On the other flank, the Golcondan light horse did its job magnificently disrupting the advancing Moguls and opening them to being charged by the guard lancers downhill. The Golcondan elephants then arrived to finish the job.

In the centre Aurungzeb’s assault was a bit ‘do or die’, it has to be admitted. He could have withdrawn, I suppose, but for someone who wanted to be Emperor that might be viewed as being a bit wimp. He had a chance, but Mir Jumla’s reserve swordsmen finished the job. I do not know yet whether Aurungzeb is alive or dead, wounded or carried off by his guards to a place of safety. If one brother is down, that could well affect the development of the campaign. We shall see.