The Autumn 1605 move in the campaign yielded four wargames. In the West, the French invaded Luxembourg. No one seemed particularly minded to aid the Luxembourgers, but the French failed their GOOS roll and so would have to fight their way in. Further east, the situation in Courland got ever more perilous. The Danes, to avenge the loss of their force supporting the Courlanders in the last action there, landed a full-scale army. They then failed their GOOS roll, and so will face the wrath of the Muscovite army already there.
In the east, the Moguls made a critical initiative roll, which indicated that an advantageous dynastic marriage had taken place. In the north, the White Sheep Mongols carried on their campaign, and so another wargame is to happen there. In South-East Asia, the Siamese are not taking being invaded by the Khmer lying down and have counter-invaded. The nature of the geography (or, in the case of my map, I suppose, geometry) means that the two forces are of equal, 12-base, armies. The Siamese cannot support the invasion, but made their GOOS roll, so the remaining Khmer army is resisting without any local help.
There were, of course, the usual rounds of diplomacy, which did not really achieve much. The Chinese managed to persuade the Japanese to disband their fleet, which the Koreans had chased off in the last move. However, the Japanese drew a 'raise military force' card and promptly gathered another. As in real life, sometimes things move slowly, even in a crisis.
Still, moving as ever from east to west in the wargames, the first action is the Siamese invasion of Cambodia. Both armies consist of 12 bases: 8 of tribal foot, a general on an elephant, a cavalry base, and two archer bases. I do not, of course, have sufficient tribal foot for both sides to have their full complement of appropriate figures. The appropriate figures are, in fact, in the house, but rather far back in the painting queue. As the Estimable Mrs P. will not permit unpainted figures to be used, and I do not want to lose the momentum of the campaign, I have raided the Chinese box for their blade-armed figures and shall use those. Incidentally, the same will be true, I should think, of the Mongols, in that I have a second Mongol horse, but they are not painted and are unlikely to be in time.
I rolled up really quite a dense terrain for this wargame, as seen above. The Siamese are to the right, and behind their right is, in fact, a hill. The plan is to use the bulk of the tribal foot, in the centre, to assault the Khmer-held hill in the centre (where the Khmer elephant general is), while the archers (in the field on their right) and the rest of the tribal foot secure that flank, and the cavalry and general secure the left. Well, that was the plan.
The Khmer plan was, essentially, to stay on the defensive, enticing the Siamese into range and then charging downhill at them, with the advantage, of course, of the slope. The nearest tribal foot and the Khmer archers on the far side are on hills, and the rest of the Khmer tribal foot that is not with the general are in valleys, securing the flanks of the central hill.
This was one of those wargames that was a bit slow to start, due to a lack of available tempo points. However, eventually the Siamese go moving, as seen. On the near side, the cavalry is facing the right flank Khmer tribal foot (who are still, just about, on their hill). The rest of the Khmer tribal foot, which is not actually on the central hill, is heading in that direction, while the archers are causing disruption to the advancing Siamese on the left.
The Khmer cavalry launched a charge, downhill, at the leftmost Siamese tribal foot in the centre. Initially successful, they were eventually routed (by some lucky dice rolls, it has to be admitted), and the Siamese line held. In fact, the Siamese pulled back a bit, not wishing to be charged downhill by the assembling Khmer foot.
The Khmer cavalry can be seen above, exiting stage left. On the Khmer left, the Siamese tribal foot are still suffering from archery fire and subsequent disruption, while on the right, nearest the camera, the Siamese cavalry and some Khmer foot are engaged in a stand off where neither managed a charge.
At this point, the battle could have rather petered out in a draw, but the Siamese tempo rolling improved a bit, and they got their right flank advancing up the hill. While the Khmer bowmen resisted manfully, one base was routed, while the other managed to stave off its opponents. On the other wing, the Khmer foot managed to get a charge in against the Siamese cavalry and pushed them back in disorder, but the Siamese general with some tribal foot is rushing to the rescue.
The end came when the Siamese general charged his attached tribal foot into the flank of the hitherto winning Khmer foot on the Siamese left. This was more than the troops could put up with and was a straight rout. The Khmer morale roll indicated a ‘withdraw’ result, which, at 4 bases down, was probably reasonable. The Khmer did have the option to try re-rolling to stabilise the lines, but with one flank gone, the other nearly gone, and only a slight advantage in the centre, they decided that prudence was the better part, particularly as they had the only Khmer army in the country, and really withdrew.
That was a surprisingly slow wargame, as it happened. Neither side threw particularly well for tempo, and the Siamese were very wary of getting too close to the central hill, especially when the Khmer had concentrated their foot there. The Siamese were left trying to nibble away at the flanks, eventually emerging victorious, but without the decisive defeat of the Khmer, which they were seeking.
And so, on to Mongols!
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