Alexander in Italy

‘Now Alex, I have got you a nice, shiny, new army to play with.’

‘Thank you, mummy.’

‘But you must understand, dear, that I’m not made of armies, and if you break this one, I won’t give you another one. You’ve had two already, so you need to be really careful with this one.’

‘Yes, mummy.’

‘Now, I understand the local Greeks are not happy about us being here, especially with an army, so they are gathering to fight us. So you must lead the army bravely into action, but not damage it at all.’

‘No, mummy.’

‘Hm, well, I’m not sure about this at all. I suppose I had better come with you and make sure you do it properly this time.’

‘Yes, mummy. Thank you, mummy.’

*

I seem to have been revisiting some of my more narrative campaigns recently. This indicates either desperation orthe rekindling of my imagination after writing a book. I am not sure which. But the dialogue above indicates the rebirth of the Anabasis of Alexander IV. You can catch up with the detail from the link to the right, but briefly Alexander II of Macedonia’s son, Alex IV, is furthering his father’s plans for the conquest of the Western Mediterranean. Having managed to land at Carthage he defeated a Carthaginian army, and moved on to the Moors, but lost. He then retreated to Ibiza where a relief expedition was defeated by the local Spanish cities. The only option then was a retreat to Italy where he was reunited with his mother, Roxane, after another bit of a sea battle. Now, the locals have banded together to resist the unwelcome intruders, and so we have the next battle in the tale, Macedonians against Italian Greeks.

The photograph shows the battlefield. The Greeks are at the far end, with their hoplites drawn up on a low ridge. I thought that would give them a good defensive bonus against the pikes. Between the ridge and the sea, their light forces are deployed, except a base of peltasts on their left. In reserve are another 4 bases of hoplites and the cavalry.

In the foreground the Macedonians are in two columns, on, on the left, led by Alex IV, while the right hand one is led by his mother. They have to cross the river by the ford, so the plan is that Alex with cross first with the cavalry, while Roxanne follows with the light troops and then the phalanx. While Alex secures the crossing and makes room, Roxanne will order the phalanx. Then, when everything is ready, Alex will take the Companion cavalry to the left, sweep around the flank between the wood and the sea, and triumphantly win the battle, while Roxanne has tied up the rest of the Greeks with the pike phalanx.

There was the awful possibility of the Macedonians getting pinned against the river and destroyed, but I decided that it was better, for the Greeks, to hold their defensive position. Some frantic calculation and consultation of the rules suggested that two deep and uphill, and in a broader formation than the pikes, the hoplites should be able to hold. Meanwhile, the light troops can dispute and disrupt the advancing Macedonians.

The picture above shows the Macedonian plan unfolding. Alex has crossed the river and deployed the light cavalry and some supporting light infantry from Roxanne’s column to cover the Companions and phalanx deploying once they have crossed the river. Roxanne has started to deploy her own troops and has taken control of Alexander’s pikemen as well, the last of the army to ford the river. The skirmishing has damaged some of the light cavalry on each side, but the Macedonian slingers have just started to hit the Tarantine light horse quite hard in the foreground. On the right of the picture, just in front of the phalanx, the Macedonian peltasts have been redirected to the right wing by Roxanne, which will become a little bit more significant than it appears at the moment.

What happened next is reasonably hard to describe, even with pictures. Alex led the Companions forward, aiming to outflank the Greeks. He personally led a base in a charge against the interfering light horse and routed them. I thought he had lost it at that point, but he managed to rally the Companions quickly. Meanwhile, the watchful Greek commander had moved their cavalry into the gap between the end of the phalanx (now reinforced by the reserve hoplites) and the wood and, when opportunity offered, charged the Companions. This was not good, in my view, as Alex had squandered his cavalry advantage and had to fight 2 bases against 2, rather than 4-2 which had been the plan. Still, after the initial shock, the Companions actually prevailed, routing their foes. On the other wing, Roxanne’s peltasts stormed the hill at its steepest part and routed, with the help of a base of light horse, the Greek wing protection. The Greeks had redirected their other base of peltasts to reinforce their left, but they were only halfway there when their compatriots routed.

And then the pike phalanx arrived. Roxanne had kept Alex’s pikemen in a four-deep formation and they ploughed into the Greek hoplites on the ridge. The shock was massive and the dice rolling impressive, and they routed their opponents, including one of the Greek generals. On the Macedonian right edge of the phalanx, a two-deep block of pike hit the end of the hoplites on the hill and, again with impressive dice rolling, routed them.

With both flanks gone and the phalanx penetrated, the Greeks had had enough and decided to withdraw. The picture shows the final position. On the far right the Companions are actually behind the line of the phalanx, although they have, as yet, refused to charge its flank. You can see the hole ripped in the hoplites a bit further left, and at the far left you can see the vaporisation of the Greek right.

I enjoyed that – it was interesting having to deploy the pikes into a phalanx after crossing the river, and actually the timings did not really work as the different components did not hit the Greek lines at the same time. The decent dice rolling and Roxanne’s generalship meant that it did not matter too much. Similarly, Alex got lucky with the Companions on the Macedonian left – they managed to withstand the Greek cavalry charge and then defeat them, so Alex achieved his part of the plan although without the broad flanking maneuver. Overall, as well, the Macedonians did not lose a base in the process. They were, as the scribes recorded, a bit lucky.

*

‘We won, mummy.’

‘You did very well, Alex, dear. Just don’t run off like that again.’

‘But we did win, mummy.’

‘Yes, we did.’

‘And look at this town mummy! Its got an agora, a gymnasium, and baths and everything. It’s civilized! I shall call it Alexville.’

‘Yes, dear. Now go and have a bath. The day’s exertions have made you a bit… rich. Run along, dear.’

The Cataphract Operation

‘Brother, you must give me my money back.’

‘Cousin, it is not your money. You gave it to me.’

‘But the Romans had given it to me, so it is my money.’

‘They gave it to you so you would fight me. Then you changed sides and gave it to me to apologise for attempting to oppose your brethren, so it is not your money at all. You cannot decide what happens to a gift you gave.’

‘It is my money, and the Romans want it back, so you need to give it to me before we both get in trouble.’

‘Ah, cousin, I cannot. I paid the Dacians with it. The money is safe in their stronghold of Temeshvekovar, and not even the Romans can extract it.’

‘Then you must retrieve it.’

‘I cannot and I will not. My allies the Dacians fought hard for it. Doublwhiskos is an honourable man. I will not do the dirty on him.’

‘Unless you are forced, brother. I will make you.’

‘You and whose army, cousin?’

‘Mine.’

*

It is quite nice to pick up an old, unresolved, campaign again, I have found. The Sarmatian Nation campaign can be found on the page listed on the right, which has been updated to include the most recent action, which seems to have been in February 2023. There was still an outstanding wargame to go, however, which is hinted at above. Vodkaschanapps, the Sarmatian leader, has, indeed, paid off the Dacians for assisting him in storming a Roman fort, using the money he got from the other Sarmatian leader, Vodkaredbull, who is probably related somehow, but who, really, knows. Anyway, Vodkaredbull got the money from the Romans who had realised that they needed some heavy cavalry to assist their armies against Sarmatian cavalry, and who better than some more Sarmatians. Unfortunately, Vodkaredbull changed sides when the Dacians and Vodkaschnapps’ troops attacked the fort. Vodkaschnapps used the money given to him by Vodkaredbull to pay the Dacians. The Romans, being Romans, have decided that the money is still theirs, but have failed twice to capture the Dacian stronghold. But now Vodkaredbull has decided that he needs to reclaim the money and return it to the Romans, or find himself at the tail end of a triumph in Rome. Vodkaschnapps has refused, and the battle lines are drawn.

In the picture Vodkaschnapps’ troops (Sarmatians A in game speak) are on the right, while Vodkaredbull is to the left. The terrain has not been kind to Sarmatian B with a stream and a rive bisecting the field, which they need to cross before facing Sarmatian A, who are, of course, the defenders. There is quite a lot of heavy cavalry on the table, as you can see. Each side has 18 bases of cataphracts and two light horse.

Vodkaredbull’s plan is to cross the stream as quickly as possible with one column and reorganise it to hold off the enemy, while crossing the river at the ford with another. This column will be less disorganised and hopefully manage to deploy before Vodkaschnapps’ men approach. The third column will cross the stream further up and hope to outflank to opposition.

The Sarmatian B plan nearly worked. The picture shows the central column has crossed the stream, disorganised but well out of range of any opposition. Their right column (under Vodkaredbull himself) has crossed the river and turned sharp right to try to avoid the oncoming cataphracts. Meanwhile the outflanking column, nearest the camera, is crossing the stream itself, although the attempt to outflank seems to have failed and the Sarmatian A reserve is moving up to counter them.

This being a cavalry battle it all moved quite quickly. The picture shows that Vodkaredbull’s troops have been forced to deploy with their backs to the river and slightly disorganised still from the ford. The central column, however, has rallied from their recursion in aquatic warfare and are ready to deploy, while the outflankers have also crossed the stream and deployed, hoping to rally from the disorganisation before the enemy arrive.

Alas, it was not to be. Vodkaschnapps led his men in a wild charge against Vodkaredbull’s column before they had a chance to rally properly. While the light horse on Vodkaredbull’s left held up some of the opposition briefly, the result of the charge was disastrous for Sarmatian B.

The picture shows the remnants of Vodkaredbull’s command fleeing in the top left. In the foreground the outflanking command has successfully fended off their opposition, but at some cost, while the central column is facing off the rest of Sarmatian A. It got complicated, as the casualties inflicted on Vodkaredbull’s command meant that Sarmantian B’s morale dropped to fall back. This meant that the remaining troops there, unable to fall back due to an impassable river, simply picked up more terrain shaken and hence lost all the remaining combats. In the foreground, the outflanking column fell back to and across the stream, picking up more terrain shaken disorder (I ran out of markers for it at this point) and leaving some troops exposed on the far side of the water. This did not end well, of course, and the Sarmatian B army was soon fleeing.

Well, that was an interesting, unusual and rather quick battle. I do not think I have had so many cavalry bases on the table at once, and I miscalculated the distances they could travel more than once, which led to some of the debacles of getting trapped against water features which the above tries to describe. Still, Vodkaschnapps lives to fight again.

*

‘Brother.’

‘Now, cousin, do you accept that the money is mine?’

‘You have earned it, cousin. I will let you enjoy it in peace.’

‘Just as well. You hardly have an army to reclaim it with now.’

‘Peace, brother. I declare eternal peace between us.’

‘And no sneaking off to the Romans to complain now and try to get them to attack me.’

‘Brother! The very thought of it! That had never crossed my mind. How dare you impute such ideas to me!’

‘Hm. We will see, won’t we?’

A Dragon’s Head and a Serpent’s Tail

As the regular reader of the blog might have worked out after all this time, I do like to do the research as well as as I can. As you might also have noticed, if you have cared to look, it is rather hard to find much in English on the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592. That said, there is quite a lot more than there used to be, which was practically nothing when I first stated looking.

What there was was a few scraps in some of Turnbull’s books on the Samurai and the odd mention in some of the books of wider scope, such as Parker’s The Military Revolution. But, really, there was very little indeed. Not that that stopped your correspondent, of course, but it did slow him down a little.

Still, things have improved rather for those interested. There are a number of Ospreys which deal with the subject – one, a Campaign series is specifically about the invasion, while there are also titles about the later Chinese Empire, including the Ming, and, of course, lots about the Samurai. I have not seen anything much about the Koreans, admittedly, except what is in the campaign Osprey. Still, it is an awful lot more than there used to be.

So far as I can see, the final word on the subject in English is this book, which I have just read:

Swope, K. M., A Dragon’s Head and a Serpent's Tail: Ming China and the First Great Asian War 1592-1598, (2009, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman).

Swope, it would seem, is a scholar of Ming China and the book is something of a reworking of his research work as a graduate student on the three campaigns of the Ming in the 1590s. Two were against internal rebels, and the third campaign was the rescue of Korea from the barbarian pirates (such is how they were viewed by the Ming, anyway). The campaigns were all successful and Swope uses this fact to argue that the later Ming Empire was not so decadent and weak as previous historiography had suggested. After all, it did not really start to suffer until 1619.

Being modern military history we do not get a great deal about the actual battles and armies, certainly not blow-by-blow accounts of the actions or the weapons and deployment of the armies. There is considerable consideration of the strategies adopted by the sides and also of the logistical nightmare fighting in Korea turned into.

I suppose that the overall trajectory of the war is known to many if not most, wargamers. The Japanese landed near Pusan and ran through Korea like a hot knife through butter. Pusan fell on 14 April, Seoul on 5^th May and Pyongyang on 15 June. The defence was, sadly, marred by incompetence and cowardice by some commanders and huge bravery, death and defeat by others. But by their arrival at Pyongyang in June, the Japanese commanders were actually rather worried as they were already overstretched and their supply lines were tenuous.

The situation was made worse by the Korean navy which attacked the Japanese fleet, sinking loads of ships and winning victories, to which the Japanese did not have too much of an answer. The other problem was that the Korean navy also denied the Japanese access to the western coast of Korea, which they could have used to supply and reinforce their forces. The Japanese had to hold their ships back to keep supply lines to Japan open.

Korea was under the hegemony of China, and it was to the Ming court that they appealed for aid. It was a bit slow in getting going, because of the other campaigns mentioned above, and the Ming initially underestimated the problem. However, when they did get moving it was in large numbers and with a decent logistical provision, and rolled the Japanese quite quickly back to the environs of Pusan.

There then followed a period of negotiations. To be honest, this was a bit confusing as everyone in the negotiating teams, on all sides, seemed to have their own agendas. Various agreements were put forward and all were rejected by someone along the line. Eventually, the Ming offered to recognise Hideyoshi as king of Japan, which did not go down at all well and caused the war to resume. The Japanese tried to be a bit more careful this time but had not quite reached Seoul when the Ming hit back and pushed them back towards Pusan. The Japanese seem to have decided and begun to evacuate when Hideyoshi died, and that was pretty well the end of the matter, militarily at least.

The Japanese also had to deal with a mass revolt of the Koreans, led mainly by Buddhist monks, which caused no end of problems to their lines of communication, and I should mention that both sides carried out rather hideous atrocities against the civilian population, although the Japanese generally get the blame (probably correctly) for a good number of them.

It is a good book, a nice summary of the war and probably as good as we are going to get in English. If you read Japanese, Chinese or Korean the bibliography suggests that there is a feast of both primary and secondary literature to enjoy, however.

Swope finishes with a consideration of the impact of the war on relations in the Far East, observing that the Japanese occupied Korea between 1910 and 1945, which was regarded by some as the extension, or final victory, in the war. It still is an issue in the diplomacy of the region, as are, of course, more recent catastrophic wars.

The wargaming possibilities are rife, I feel. A Japanese army got as far as the Manchu lands north-west of Korea and skirmished with Jurchen tribes. Some captured or surrendered Japanese units served the Ming in south-west China. Hideyoshi, of course, aimed not just at capturing Korea, but invading China, overthrowing the Ming, becoming emperor and, it was reported, aiming at capturing India as well. Now that would be some campaign. I am considering it, but China had, apparently, 400 provinces, so he may have slightly underestimated the task.

Stomp!

As the long-term reader of the blog might recall, every once in a while I get what can only be termed a strange desire, and that is to get some elephants onto the wargame table. What you probably do not know, because I do not think I have ever mentioned it here, is that a long time ago I started a campaign based around the Burmese city-states (more or less) of the late Sixteenth Century. I had got as far as the first clash, between the cities of Toungoo and Sandowy, and there the matter rested, and I moved on to other projects.

Nevertheless the battle remained on my mind, even if the campaign turned out to be too complex and underdeveloped for me. I shall return to the idea some time, I hope. The original concept was all right, I think, along the lines of the Aztec campaign or, indeed, more recently, the Siena campaign. I particularly liked the system for drawing up the armies, which relied on drawing twelve cards and cross-referencing to a table. Given the motivation for the game was to get elephants onto the table, I was a bit worried that I would land up with two armies of 12 tribal foot bases each. The cards, however, were merciful.

The army of Toungoo, the one on the defensive, consisted of three bases of elephants, one of artillery, a cavalry base, a base of arquebus, and six tribal foot bases. The attacker, Sandowy, have two elephant bases, one artillery, one cavalry, one arquebus and seven tribal foot bases. Add to this the two generals, both mounted on elephants, obviously, and you have a fair number of nellies on the table. Hence the title.

The terrain rolled was a bit dis-concerting for an open battlefield, as it had a hill with rough ground on the top right in the middle. There were a few other features – some more hills, a stream, and some more rough ground, which you can see in the picture.

To the left is the army of Toungoo, with elephants to the rear and foot to the front. On the hill on their right the gun, covered by the cavalry, has deployed. However, due to the central hill the only Sandowy base it can actually see is their cavalry, who are at the far end of their army. To the right the Sandowy army, with a compact block of tribal foot, flanked to their left by the gun and the base of sot, while the elephants form the left wing, under the general.

The Toungoo plan was fairly simple and defensive. The shot was to advance into the rough ground and entertain the elephants, while the tribal foot pushed forward and angled themselves slightly to fill in the gap between the fat hill with the gun on it, and the rough ground. The elephants would stay in reserve, crushing any breakthroughs and hopefully counter-attacking when possible.

Sandowy had an attacking plan. The tribal foot would advance over the central hill, while the elephants would sweep forward, size the hill nearest to the camera (left front), and outflank the Toungoo foot with a trumpeting mass of dangerous wild beasts. The gun would advance to the central hill and deploy, to try to prevent, with the shot, any elephants running amok in the rear.

Under the rules, incidentally, elephants get a -1 if under fire from firearms. Apparently, historically, the use of elephants in battle declined once gunpowder appeared in large quantities on the battlefield, as they do not like the loud noises, and cannot be trained out of it. Very sensible your average elephant, it seems.

It all got rather interesting, shall we say. The Sandowy advance went to plan. The infantry crossed the hill and started to threaten the Toungoo defensive line while the artillery deployed and started shooting at whatever presented itself. On the other hand, the Toungoo plan was also executed, with the defensive line established, the arquebusiers in place, and the elephants looming ominously in the rear. The Toungoo artillery also hit the Sandowy cavalry hard, leading to their exclusion from the battle (they did eventually recover, but too late to intervene).

The picture shows the mess at the end of the game. On the left of the picture, the victorious Sandowy elephants have turned the Toungoo flank, destroying the shot in the rough ground and taking out some tribal foot along the way. The Sandowy general is slightly detached from them having been dealing with some pesky foot himself. On the other side, you can see that the Toungoo elephants have also charged (in the centre). The remnants of the Sandowy tribal infantry are fleeing back across the hill, apart from one or two bases on the far side who are counterattacking.

Losses on both sides were significant. The above picture was the end of the game when the army of Sanowy, poised, possibly, on the brink of victory, collapsed in rout. They had lost five bases of tribal foot and one of shot and rolled badly on the morale track. Toungoo was not unscathed, having lost three tribal foot bases and one of shot. Another move or two could have seen Toungoo collapse in the same way; you can see one of their tribal foot bases near the gun on the brink of rout, and another one about to be charged by the Sandowy general, in flank.

That was, as the bard says, a lot of fun as a battle. Elephants are fairly difficult to deal with on the battlefield, especially when, as here, there are plenty of them. In fact, I do not think they lost a combat all game. Neither side tried to get at the enemy elephants with their own – Sandowy because they were outnumbered and Toungoo because the plan was to counterattack in the centre with them.

In terms of planning, both side’s plans were successful. It all came down to the dice, in the end. Toungoo was just slightly luckier, that is all. That really was an enjoyable battle, and maybe I will revive the campaign if only to get the elephants out again.

The Korean Campaign Advances

After the debacle on the beaches, a second Japanese fleet was deployed on the map, and the two Japanese fleets transported an army each to Gyeonsung province left and Gyeonsung province right. Incidentally, in case you are wondering, the left and right designation are of the provinces as seen from Seoul, on on the map Gyeonsung Left is to the right. Confused?

The Korean army in Gyeonsung Left passed its initiative roll, but did not beat the incoming imitative of JA2, and so could not meet the Japanese on the beach. Therefore a battle inland between the slightly reduced KA1, which was a base of cavalry down, and the full strength JA2 was decided upon.

The Koreans are to the left above, with their infantry aiming to block the crossing of the stream and the cavalry to oppose the Japanese who were already across it. I confess I totally messed up the Japanese deployment. I meant to have the left as the Ashigaru yari-armed heavy infantry, but instead plonked down the missile (arquebus and bow) troops instead, leaving the Samurai and Ashigaru heavies on the far side of the stream. The plan had been to shoot a hole in the Koreans to get the Samurai heavies across the stream, while the Ashigaru heavies held off the Korean cavalry.

It got, shall we say, complicated. Above you can see the Japanese heavy troops approaching the stream, with Korean missile troops opposing them. In the foreground you can see that the Japanese shooters, plus one base of Ashigaru heavy troops, are causing the Korean cavalry some difficulty. They have struggled to charge because of the presence of the heavy blade troops, but are getting shot to bits by some lucky Japanese shooting. Some of the Korean cavalry did eventually manage to close in, but the charge was ill-coordinated and the remaining base found itself held and heavily outnumbered.

The Korean cavalry base in contact soon fled, but on the far side you can see the Korean infantry is having a successful time in delaying the Samurai heavy foot. The Ashigaru are closing in to cross the stream, something which they, in fact, struggled to do. It got a bit worse after they struggled to cross the stream, as well.

You might have noticed in the previous shot the Korean cavalry base under direct command of the general. This was withdrawn from the action on the Korean right (nearest the camera) and charged the Ashigaru heavy foot as they attempted, for the second time, to cross the stream. This was too much for the Ashigaru, who promptly fled, taking their supporting Samurai heavy foot with them. Pursued by the Korean cavalry, as you can see above.

On the Korean right flank a confusing infantry fight developed, with casualties on both sides. The Japanese had the advantage of their general in this action, as he could direct one of the bases at whim, to wit, in this case, onto the flank of Korean foot. Mind you, the Koreans also did the same to Japanese foot, resulting in losses, but the Japanese just about prevailed, and a poor morale roll saw the Korean army flee.

My notes for the battle declare this one to have been a tough fight. The Koreans lost a cavalry, two shot and a spear unit, while the Japanese lost a Samurai blade, and Ashigaru blade and an Ashigaru shot base. It was pretty close, and the Korean dice deserted them at a critical point.

The lesson so far from the campaign is that I probably need more Japanese cavalry. Korea was not, in fact, good cavalry country, being hilly, but the relatively low numbers of Korean cavalry present are causing the Japanese all sorts of problems, although their tactics in this game rather blunted the potency of the horse.

Strategically, of course, what has happened, due to the loss of KA1, is that the road to Seoul is open, and it is down to KA2 to stop the advance. However, JA2 is a bit low on strength for the moment, and I suppose I should reinforce it with the remains of JA1 defeated on the beaches last game. There is also the question of the Korean fleet to consider, and whether it will intervene.

So a good, tense, close game, and the campaign, after a stuttering start, is now well underway.

The Governor’s Treasure

‘Why don’t you have a bigger battle? I’ve not seen your sandy cloth out for a while?’

Wargame spouses, for the above quote was from the Estimable Mrs P., have a lot of responsibility for what happens on the table. After that, what could I do but think of some sort of scenario to put on the table, using the full length and my desert sand cloth.

For some reason, my thoughts turned to the British activity in Tangier in the later part of the 17^th Century. Now, from my days as a younger, more foolish (and, apparently, much richer) wargamer, I do have a bunch of North African troops from the period, craftily assembled from various ranges by Irregular. Of course, I do not have any suitable post-Restoration British (actually, that is not true. I do have a few, but insufficient), but I reckoned that I could assemble something from the ECW troops that would look the part, sort of, at least.

So, a scenario. Having just started the Japanese in Korea stuff, I was not really looking to a new campaign but needed something to get the armies moving with a purpose. By means that I cannot describe, a scenario was invented.

The British governor of Tangier (or somewhere close by) has been waiting supplies and some civilian guests arriving by sea on the frigate We Are Loyal to the King, Honest, recently renamed to that from Speaker. Unfortunately, the frigate has run aground half a day’s march from the port on an uncharted sand bar. In order to try to refloat the vessel, the cargo and passengers, as well as some guns, have been unloaded. This has aroused the interest of the locals, who are lurking to both defeat the British intruders and grab the loot. As the passengers include the governor’s ‘niece’, he has a very personal reason to rescue them.

The picture shows the set-up. In the far distance is the port, with fortifications, from where the governor and his men will sally forth. In the left foreground is the ship with a landing party, some naval guns, stores and the civilians offloaded,. The guns are behind some temporary fortifications. The playing cards you can see around are potential ambushes, in or behind woods, behind hills and rough going. The mosque in the middle distance is on a hill, and there is a hill in the far distance on the right.

This was a bigger scenario than I am used to. 25 British bases faced 26 Moorish. The former had 12 bases of foot, 8 of horse, two dragoons, 2 guns and the naval landing party. The Moors had 10 tribal foot, 7 cavalry, 3 Janissary shot and 7 light cavalry. On the table, the Hearts playing cards were keyed to the forces. These would be turned up either by the British gaining line of sight or getting within 3 base widths of the stack of cards, or could be revealed by the Moorish general if he wished, at the cost of a tempo point. Each side also had 2 generals, as previous experience with armies of 20+ bases suggests that the extra command is necessary.

This was quite a complex action, and I cannot do a blow by blow account of it. The British used a base of dragoons to ‘spring’ the first ambush at the hill, which was of light and heavy cavalry, and a complicated action ensued with some British horse and foot mixing it with the Moors there. Meanwhile the rest of the British emerged from the port and headed along the road, deploying as opposition mounted as more ambushes were revealed.

I thought I had learnt from the Spanish problems with the Romans a few games ago, in a similar situation. The tribal foot in the wood on the right of the picture are in trouble and I have tried to withdraw them. One base is getting away, the other in under heavy fire from the British foot there. Meanwhile the horse face each other off, while the British infantry advance astride to road. I had thought that if I were the Moorish general, I would defend the mosque complex the most strongly. That is, indeed, what the cards revealed.

However, it all went a bit pear-shaped for the Moors before the ambush at the mosque could be triggered. On the Moorish left the British infantry and cavalry combined to beat the tribal foot in the wood. The Moorish cavalry charged, broke through the British infantry but were stopped and routed by the cavalry. The Moorish light horse could only pick away at the advancing British, while the firefight between the Janissaries and British foot was indecisive. What was decisive was British cavalry, under the governor himself, infiltrating along the shore and then taking the Moorish infantry at the Mosque in flank and routing them. With that the Moorish army ran away, leaving the British in peace to collect their supplies, refloat the frigate and, of course, observe the joyful reunion between the governor and his niece.

The picture shows the final positions. To the top left you can see the governor and his victorious cavalry. Next to them, the Janissaries are coming under pressure, while in the foreground the Moorish light cavalry are forming a semblance of a wing against the advancing British.

That was quite a lot of fun. The card system for the ambush worked well, and the scenario seemed quite nicely balanced. The charge of the Moorish horse on their left was a bit desperate. I had made a mistake with the rest of their cavalry earlier, and they had wandered into the line of fire of the advancing British infantry and cavalry on the road, with disastrous consequences. The Moors were really on the back foot then.

The other thing I could have tried was revealing the ambushes nearer the ship sooner, and attacking the gun and landing party. These cards revealed 4 bases of tribal foot, so it might have worked against a gun and a tribal foot equivalent naval landing party, it might not. But the British could probably have got cavalry there if they had been desperate enough.

It was a nice game, played out over three sessions. The only problem is that now I am wondering about a ‘proper’ Restoration army.

Fighting on the Beaches

Those of you who follow me in another place, or even those of you who have kept awake long enough here to read the posts here and here, will know that something Far Eastern and naval is brewing. Well, sort of. In a flurry of ‘I can’t possibly do that’ the whole of the invasion of Korea was dismissed as being impossible, the overblown concept of a tired and hyperactive wargaming mind. A much smaller campaign was envisaged, with the Channel Islands as the map.

However, megalomania will out. The whole project was delayed while I assembled and painted a Chinese fleet. I confess, as, again, followers of Facebook will know, that assembling the ships was a task the likes of which I do not intend to attempt again (I say that with every naval project). Still, they are done but, critically, I started to read Kenneth Swope’s book on the invasion. A full review of the work will follow (promise) but my eye lighted on a map of the eight provinces of Choson Korea.

My wargamer synapse twinged a bit at that. Obviously, my subconscious was ringing bells and waving flags. It looked rather familiar, and I was not quite sure why. Eventually, I twigged. I could use my Machiavelli rules ideas in this different context. Hmmm….

A bit of Googling and some manipulation of a map landed me up with this.

This is a slightly redrawn map of Korea in 1592, pinched off the Internet with extra bits drawn on by yours truly. If you look really closely you can see vertical lines from the printer, which has still not quite recovered from its sojourn in the wargames room while recarpeting operations were in progress. The extra bits I added were the sea regions and the border between the Ming Chinese and the Jurchen (who, united, will become the Manchus shortly.).

I also bunged in a staging zone for the Japanese forces. Historically, Tsushima was the final jumping off point for the Japanese forces, with other islands behind them back to mainland Japan. Rather than laboriously add these to the map, I just put in a staging area, coloured it a fetching shade of red, and called the job a good one.

As the assiduous reader of the blog will know, I have had a few ventures into the Japanese Invasion of Korea. I have three small Japanese armies, a Korean army and some Ming Chinese, as well as sufficient Mongol types to make up a Jurchen army if required. I thus already have Japanese commanders – Clemmy, Mango, Satty, and Tango. Tango got command of the fleet, and the other three got armies. There is also, on the map, two Korean armies and a fleet, with a Ming army and fleet, and a Jurchen army, inactive in the north. I need to work out what activates them.

April 1592 proved to be a damp squib, as the Japanese fleet failed it initiative roll. May was a bit better, with the Japanese fleet setting forth on a critical initiative roll, followed by a successful initiative from Clemmy with army 1 (JA1). JA1 was therefore transported to left Gyeongsang province, near Daegi. The Korean army in right Gyeongsang province managed to react, again on a critical initiative roll and, in my reckoning, got to a defensive position to block Clemmy. Here we go, first battle.

The Japanese fleet is, evidently, to the right. The dice rolling for terrain did not favour the invaders. Aside from the village on the coast, a river bisected the board lengthways, and two streams added to the defensive capability across the battlefield. Not only that, but the Koreans are drawn up on substantial high ground. This was going to be tough for Clemmy, I though.

Japanese dice rolling did them no favours, either. The first initiative roll gave them precisely no tempo points to get their landing boats away, and so the general set out, alone. This was to dog them throughout the game, as they could just not get their landings coordinated.

The picture shows the problem compounded by the Koreans having sent their cavalry forward to fight on the beaches. On the right you can see Clemmy and his first landers struggling against the might of Korea and coming off distinctly second best. To their left another newly landed base of Samurai is not supporting them nor drawing off their foes. Further left stillmore troops are arriving but are also threatened by Korean cavalry. In the centre you can see a puff of smoke. This was where the Korean rockets hit some incoming boats and destroyed them – this required a roll of six and then a six-one result on the combat dice. I told you it was not the Japanese’s day.

It did not really get any better for Clemmy, or Tango when he arrived to take over command after Clemmy bit the sand. More Japanese arrived to be overwhelmed by Korean cavalry. Even two organised bases of Samurai lost when they advanced into the Korean horse on the left, on what should have been even rolls the Samurai lost one base and had the other driven back. The only slight glimmer of hope was when an Asigaru base managed to dispose of a Korean cavalry base in the centre, but it was small compensation.

Japanese casualties were mounting, and it was evident that it was unlikely to be turned around. Before Tango could give the decision to withdraw, however, more casualties on the left took it out of his hands. The Japanese lost seven bases, mostly Samurai, and a general (Clemmy), plus a bow unit abandoned on the beach. I am not sure whether Clemmy survived or not at this point, but his army has been pretty well destroyed.

As I mentioned above, lack of coordination was a problem with this, plus the Korean willingness to get stuck in on the beach before the invaders had time to organise. Coupled with some dismal Japanese dice rolling at critical points (and some fluky Korean rolls) and the combat could appear to be a bit one sided.

As it is, one Japanese army is destroyed, or nearly so. In a one off game, or a campaign where that was the only invading army, the game would be over. As it is, I need to be a bit more careful, and the Japanese a bit luckier, with the next landing effort.