1600 Something: The Big Crunch

 The Spring 1606 turn continues, as it will for some time to come. Fortunately, it continues to generate interesting matchups for my forces. This time, we journey to Dai Viet, in northern Vietnam, as a rogue Burmese army has invaded.

How can this be? You might ask, given that Vietnam and Burma have nothing much in the way of a common frontier. Well, early modern borders were porous, of course, and the dice were commanding and certain. The Burmese, as a random event, invaded Vietnam.

Now, the Vietnamese army is further south, busy invading Laos, as it happens (next wargame). So the local forces rallied to provide a random army to resist the random invaders. I think this is a first for the campaign, two random armies having at each other. Those of you who have read the blog before will know what is coming next: I was hoping for elephants.

Well, the Burmese, as invaders, drew first. A cavalry base, seven tribal foot bases, a bow base, and, wait for it, three bases of elephants. Excellent. The usual list for the Burmese has a magnificent total of one base, and that is the general. The Vietnamese drew. A cavalry base, four archers (crossbow and longbow), two skirmishers, a rocket, another cavalry base, and, again, wait for it, three bases of elephants. I started to imagine pachyderm pandemonium.

I rolled up a fair bit of terrain for this encounter, but no hills. The Vietnamese are to the left, with their skirmishers about to occupy the central village (complete with Aztec temple, those Aztecs got around) and their cavalry (top) and elephants deployed in front of the stream, while the archers were safely behind it.

The Burmese have their archer and cavalry bases on their right (top) while the elephants cover the tribal foot. The plan was for the cavalry and archers to incommode the Vietnamese cavalry, while the elephants took on the Vietnamese nellies. The tribal foot would sneak past and cross the stream, crushing the archers and claiming a glorious victory. At least, that was the plan. I did reckon that four deep tribal foot should be able to see off some archers, even with the terrain disruption penalty of crossing the stream.

The battle developed rather slowly. Neither side could manage a decent tempo roll, and so, about all that has happened is that the elephants have got moving, and the Vietnamese skirmishers have occupied the village. They are now shooting, without effect, at the passing Burmese elephants. Actually, the plan was to use them as flank supports for when the elephants clashed. You can also see the Vietnamese rocket in action. It hit nothing all game.

A lot happened in a short space of time as both sides managed to obtain a few tempo points. At the top, the Vietnamese cavalry has charged the Burmese cavalry and archers. The archers are routing; the Vietnamese cavalry, although inflicting damage on their opposite numbers, has been driven off. In the centre, the elephant lines have clashed, the Vietnamese charging their neighbours. Things have not gone entirely to plan. One Vietnamese base has been driven off in confusion, while another has been flanked by some tribal foot and vaporised. Only in the centre, the Vietnamese elephant, with the general attached, is driving off the Burmese general’s elephant base.

Of course, with all those archers in support, the driven off Vietnamese elephant base should have been fine. However, as with their rocket, the archers failed to hit anything all day, and the elephants are now in significant trouble. However, the general and his base of elephants have routed the Burmese general. Meanwhile, in the foreground, some tribal foot, fed up of being sniped at, have deployed to deal with the village. Possibly the Burmese general sensed some easy wins here….

There were indeed some easy wins. The Burmese cavalry got the drop on their opponents and routed them under the nose of the victorious Vietnamese general. One tribal foot base is driving back some skirmishers in the village, the other has been recoiled. Finally, in the centre, the other Vietnamese elephant base has been routed. This left the archers free to fire at the Burmese elephant, which they did, without effect again.

It really could not last that much longer. Casualties were mounting on both sides. The tribal foot in the village routed the skirmishers. The archers managed a hit on the Burmese elephant, finally. On the far side, the victorious Burmese cavalry’s pursuit was stopped by the stream, and they started to rally. However, the Vietnamese general and his rallying elephants were there, just in charge range, to their rear. Dice were rolled. Necks were craned. Fingers were used for the calculation…..

The elephants refused to charge after all that, and, at the end of the move, the Vietnamese were required to make a morale roll, which they failed, and so they were forced to withdraw. They had suffered more casualties (4 bases against 2), but then the Burmese had lost their general. So it was fairly close.

It think that is the first time that an army which has lost its general managed to win the battle. The elephant action could have gone either way, admittedly, and it did go, just, to the Burmese. The killer for the Vietnamese was their skirmishers. I thought I had hatched a cunning plan by hiding them in the village, in cover. But they were still vulnerable to an attack by the tribal foot. Possibly, like light cavalry, they need their moves to be increased, and to have some more input from the general during their skirmishing activities. This is not the first time, after all, that the skirmishers have proved to be a vulnerability rather than an asset.

Things to ponder, I suppose, but I had better ponder fairly quickly. The next battle is, after all, as mentioned, the Vietnamese invasion of Laos. The Laotians have the same list as the Burmese, and both armies are regular this time. Fewer elephants….