Podcast Reminder

 Just to remind you, the podcast is at 7 PM BST this evening on Zoom.

If you have not already done so, sign up for free here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1280556742689?aff=oddtdtcreator

The War of Stuart Succession

On 24^th March 1603 Queen Elizabeth of England died. In real history, of course, she was succeeded fairly seamlessly by James VI of Scotland, and propaganda would have us believe that it was seamless and James was simply acclaimed King. It was not that straightforward, of course. There were at least three other claimants to the throne, including Isabella of Austria, the Hapsburg governor of the Low Countries, Arbella Stuart, whose claim to the throne was more or less as strong as James’, and Edward Seymour, who sprang from the Grey branch of the English royal family and whose aunt was Lady Jane Grey.

Other interested parties were also around, of course, including the Spanish, French and Dutch, all of whom had ideas about who should succeed. Nevertheless, in real life no-one did. Isabella was not interested, and no other claimant even tried. It was reported that the claims of others aside from James were raised at the Privy Council meeting held on the morning of the Queen’s death. It was also reported that the Earl of Northumberland had 50 armed men nearby to ensure the succession of James.

With that background, I started a ‘what if….’ What if the Privy Council had come to no conclusion and each of the claimants had decided to press, or try to, their rights. With that in mind I tried to find a map of the Atlantic Islands suitable to my purposes. I failed, so I had to draw my own (which took a while), which those of you who follow me in another place will already have seen. I cobbled together some campaign rules, including the intriguingly named GOOS score (God On Our Side) which controls the momentum of each campaign to be ruler.

The situation in April 1603 is above. James VI has moved into Northumberland with an army. He failed his GOOS roll and is therefore opposed by the trained bands. In the Channel a complicated sequence of moves and diplomacy have landed up with a French army, transported in Spanish ships, attempting a landing in Hampshire, also opposed by the trained bands (another failed GOOS roll). In other news, Arballa has raised an army in Derbyshire, while Seymour fumbled his initiative roll and hit a military disaster. As he did not have any military force at the time, I ruled that the Wiltshire trained bands failed to support him and he took a GOOS hit. He has just failed to raise the trained bands of Berkshire.

Still, the point of the campaign is to have wargames and the first one in Northumberland. I rolled up the terrain using my normal rules – it was understandably hilly, and the ground was split up a bit by streams. James had 4 pike and 4 shot, 2 light horse, and 2 demi-lancer bases. The Northumberland trained bands had 5 shot, 5 pike, and 2 light horse.

James deployed his demi-lancers across the stream with orders to outflank the English and cross the stream. Otherwise, the infantry were to press forward, covered by the light horse, and crush the English foot in detail, as they looked a little spread out.

The battle started slowly, as tempo was in short supply, but the Scots eventually got moving. The opening exchanges between the light horse took a while, but the Scots gained the upper hand, while their left-wing musketeers eventually routed a base of English light horse.

Above you can also see that the English have turned a block of foot to prevent the Scots cavalry from crossing the stream, while they have advanced some foot on their left. As the action developed, James forgot to withdraw his light horse now they had seen off the opposition, with the result that they suffered a bit from English musketry. On the other hand, his right-wing infantry were bearing down on an outnumbered English regiment, and the English have had to turn their stream covering infantry back towards the centre as the Scottish foot’s advance develops, while one of the reserve regiments has taken their place further to the rear.

The Scottish attacks went in with mixed results. The Scot’s musketry has clearly deteriorated since the Armada campaign and they struggled to make an impact. On the other hand, two deep pike blocks against single depth should have been a walk-over. But it was not. The English defended themselves manfully, in fact, counter-attacking with some effect.

In the foreground you can see that the nearest regiment of Scots has been suffering quite badly at the hands of the English. While they have routed one base of English pike (fleeing on the far right of the picture) they have lost a base of musketeers (fleeing far left) and the pike and shot remaining are shaken. On the Scot’s right, their musketeers are making little headway against the English, while the King is locked in combat next to them with his pikes being held by the English including the general. On the far side, the Scottish cavalry has crossed the stream, charged home and, while they have driven the English back, have not exactly blown them away.

The English luck could not hold. Eventually, the odds got the better of them. On the far side, the Scottish cavalry are starting to prevail – the musketeers have fled, and the pike are shaken. In the centre, while the musketeers are still held up by their foes, James and his pikemen have prevailed against the English general, although the central English regiment is advancing against the Scottish light horse. On the near flank, the shaken base of Scottish musketeers has now routed and the English pikemen are locked in combat with the shaken Scots. Both sides had to throw for morale, as James had lost another musketeer base and the English their general and a pike base.

James got a ‘withdraw’ result, but the English got a ‘rout’. So James had won. Just about. His dice rolling had not been great throughout. The outflanking manoeuvrer, while it had worked, had not been as decisive as he hoped, and it turned out that two deep pike are not automatic winners against one deep. Still, he won and his GOOS score will be adjusted accordingly. The march south continues.

Reminder - Interview Next Week

 Thank you to all of you who have signed up so far for the On the Line Podcast, interviewing me next Tuesday.

This is just a reminder to sign up if you have not done so already - it is free:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1280556742689?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

I have never thought of myself as an author before, I have to confess. 

Now, just for fun, a close-up of the latest action from the next campaign - more details on Saturday. Any guesses as to what is going on?

VMCW – With a Whimper, not a Bang

The result of the last action was, of course, the rout of the Maratha army, and that was removed from play. It has to be noted that the Marathas proved to be a potent force in the Deccan for a campaign concept which was of a disruptor. They plundered a significant number of cities before the army of Bijapur got them.

That action was in April 1660, turn 24 of the campaign. The next move the Bijapurians decided to plunder the nearest city. I guess that the troops requested some pay. No-one else moved at that point, however. In June Aurungazeb moved north finally, as did the Bijapurians. I am not sure quite what the latter were trying to achieve by doing so, except that in the next move, September, they resorted to plundering again. In October, Aurungazeb attempted to subvert the Bijapurian army, and failed, while Jia Singh attempted subversion on Shah Suja (who had been immobile since fleeing without an army). This was successful and resulted in the murder of the prince.

Aurungazeb was now the last prince standing, and he moved north again to Ajmer in Rajasthan. Both Bijapur and Jia Singh attempted to achieve some subversion against him but failed. In December 1660, turn 29, Aurungazeb and Bijapur both attempted some diplomacy (without much result, it has to be said) while Jia Singh fumbled his initiative roll. A die roll concluded that he had been murdered. Historians will, no doubt argue as to whether it was supporters of Shah Suja or on Aurungazeb’s order that this happened. It was highly convenient for Aurungazeb, however, as it removed the last opposition in the north-east.

In January 1661 Aurungaeb plundered Ajmer, while Bijapur fumbled their initiative roll. The dice again came up with murder, and the last potential opposition to Aurungazeb was removed. I had envisaged the game lasting 30 turns, and, right at the last, Aurungazeb was the last prince standing, within striking distance of the Emperor in Agra, and the only army remaining on the map.

As with the historical civil war, Aurungazeb was the victor, and could now crown himself Emperor. The campaign was really rather enjoyable, with 8 wargames and a great deal of skulduggery going on. You might wonder how, as a solo player, I managed to create skulduggery, but it was mainly through the diplomatic table (see that book) with a few additions of a card draw for each active player, which could be move, engage in diplomacy, subvert or plunder. The short green pins in the map show the plundered cities, incidentally.

I did miss a few tricks. I decided not to fill in the diagonals of the diplomatic table but should have as the opportunities arose to subvert armies from their leaders. I occasionally lost track of whether the row or the column represented someone’s view of someone else, but usually managed to sort that out. I also had to quickly invent rules for rocket fire and for camel guns in action, as they appeared in the army lists but not in my rules as such. The camel guns were not particularly useful (and only appeared in the Maratha army anyway) while the rockets could give an account of themselves, particularly in firing at already shaken troops preventing them from reforming.

One thing that the campaign has shown me is that complexity can be created and handled fairly simply. There were eight sides in the game initially – four princes, the Rajputs, Bijapur, Golconda, and the Marathas. I was a little apprehensive that it might get confusing, but it turned out to be quite straightforward, although my diplomatic table is so scribbled upon as to be heading into illegibility.

Was I biased in favour of Aurungazeb? After he was captured by Mir Jumla I thought he was finished, but Mir Jumla decided to try to use him as a figurehead. However, a few initiative rolls and two subversion cards flipped that on its head and it was Mir Jumla who fled, to be mopped up by Bijapur. So I think that Aurungazeb was lucky there. On the other hand, true to historical form, he had Murad murdered.

So, that was a lot of fun. The campaign is summarised from the page link on the right, which gives you links to all the wargames and gives a narrative. Some time I will write the campaign and its rules up, possibly for publication in Lone Warrior (if they’ll have it). I think the basic system could be used to cover other warfare, civil or not.

Which brings me to my next problem of course. The Very Mogul Civil War has taken up most of my wargaming time for the past couple of months. Towards the end I started to wonder what I was going to do next, and now the problem faces me in spade-loads. I think that I have, for the moment, had a sufficient number of elephants on the table, so something different calls. But what, I ponder.

A few options present themselves. Something ancient possibly, after all those early-modern campaigns and games. The system (both this one and the Aztec one modified for Burma) would work for ancient Greeks, I think, without much modification. Another possibility that occurs is something like the Roman invasion of Britain in the First Century AD, with various tribes declaring their allegiance or not. On the other hand, I do have a slight hankering for war wagons, so Hussites or Poles might be part of the next activity.

It might come down to maps. The map of India was scanned in from a book, and then the main roads were added from another one, by hand. The result was then ‘hexed’ and printed out. The process was not quite as straightforward as it sounds, but the result worked. On the other hand, a pure narrative campaign like the Armada Abbeys also works. So many choices, so little time.

Any suggestions?

Advanced Warning

A while ago, I was contacted, via my publisher, by Steve from the Company of Makers. The Company of Makers, it turns out, is a social enterprise supporting veterans and their families on their return to civilian life. A worthy cause, I think, and I hope that you agree.

Anyway, the upshot is that Steve would like to interview me for their On the Line podcast, and I agreed.

The podcast will be broadcast (technology permitting, I presume) on 29^th April 2025, 19:00 – 20:00 BST, and will thereafter be immortalised on YouTube. Tickets are free and available from Eventbrite:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1280556742689?aff=oddtdtcreator

The format is that I will be interviewed about that book for about 40 minutes, and there is room for about 20 minutes of questions. I suppose that how many questions get answered depends on how much I get to waffle. Still, book in if you are free.

The End of the Marathas – VMCW Battle 8

I have commented before that one of the unexpected outcomes of this campaign has been the number of wargames which have not involved the Moguls. Here, we have another case in point. The Maratha have been merrily plundering the south of India for a couple of years or so now, and no-one has tried to stop them. Aurungzeb, the nearest of the Princes, has, in fact, been allowed to march through them on his way north to confront Murad, while the raiders continue their depredations.

Now, however, the army of Bijapur, fresh from the conquest of Golconda, has decided to take a hand. Marching north, they have encountered the Maratha army and decided to end the looting. Mind you, the Bijapurians are by no means averse to a bit of plundering, have looted three cities on the coast. On the other hand, their home city has also been a target. So, maybe, they just want to go home.

Learning from the last time the Marathas took to the field, I elected to have a more open battlefield, so the light horse could, hopefully, play. The Marathas also went for a second militia base instead of a second cavalry. Whether this was wise is a bit moot, but that is what happened. The Marathas are deployed to the left, above, with their light horse echeloned forward, the militia in the central village, the rockets on a hill, and the camel guns in the village nearest the camera. The idea was to skirmish the life out of the Bijapur hordes and, hopefully, turn their near flank.

The as yet unnamed Bijapur general also learned from the last time and kept his forces in a compact formation. The aim was to get the militia (in column on the far side) onto the hill where the Maratha rockets are, while advancing the infantry through the Maratha centre, supported by the elephants.

In the photograph, you can also see a rather nice cheese scone, ready for the sustenance of the wargamer, along with a cup of coffee which is out of shot. These things are important, even if they slightly delay the game.

Above you can see the plans developing. The Maratha skirmish line has swept forward and has, in fact, inflicted a fair amount of damage on the Bijapur militia, so much so that the skirmishers have routed and another base has been shaken. The Bijapur infantry have moved up, however, and have inflicted damage on the centre of the Maratha line with wickedly accurate bow fire. The Maratha rockets, meanwhile, have hit the elephants, but without inflicting any damage.

The crunch, or the first one, came when the left wing Maratha light horse were caught flat-footed (flat hoofed?) by the Bijapur swordsmen, who charged in and after a harder fight than expected put them to flight (in process above). The Maratha right (nearest the camera) is bogged down against the Bijapur cavalry. The light cavalry can disrupt the cavalry but are struggling to damage them.

The second crunch came as the Bijapur swordsmen pursued the fleeing light horse. One of the swordsmen bases was countercharged and routed by the charging Maratha cavalry and the general. Meanwhile the Bijapur militia, on the far side, are closing in on a base of light horse who have been shooting at them for ages and not made any impact at all. On this side of the central confrontation, the Bijapur archers have put one base of light horse to flight, while another is looking very rocky indeed, so much so that the Maratha militia has sallied forth to try to give them, at least, a safe place to hide.

The final position is above. The pursuing Maratha cavalry and general ran splat into the Bijapur elephants. Meanwhile, the Bijapur militia walked into their opposing light horse (the Marathas had a tempo point dearth) and routed them, while the archers finished off the other base of light horse facing them. The cavalry and general held on for half a turn against the elephants, but the Maratha morale had sunk the ‘withdraw’. I decided to fight on for a turn, largely because the Maratha general was in close combat. However, he was routed in the next bound, and fled himself to the nearest Maratha force (the militia by the village) while the cavalry fled. At this point, Maratha morale had to be rolled again, and the army routed.

That was a lot of fun as a wargame. I think I got the Bijapur tactics right, using the swords and bows to confront the central light horse, while facing off the flanking movement with the cavalry. While the Maratha light horse did disrupt the militia column greatly, the rest of the infantry did their job and the back up of the elephants administered the coup de grace, as it were.

As for the Marathas, I still have not got the hang of the army. I am sure that outflanking is the way forward – how could it not be with that quantity of light cavalry? - but making the skirmishing count is the problem. They did disrupt the Bijapur militia, but had very few other strikes indeed. The other thing about light horse armies is that the ranges need very close watching – it can be easy to let the lights stray into charge range, and then they can easily become toast. However, when in front of terrain there sometimes is not much option except to allow the ranges to close. More practice is required, I think. I know that light horse armies can win under these rules, it is just that the Marathas have not done so, partly because of poor dice rolling from time to time.

Still, this is now the eight wargame from the campaign, and some clarity is emerging from the chaos of civil war. Dara and Murad are dead (Aurungazeb decided to execute his brother), as is Mir Jumla. It is really now Aurungazeb’s war to lose – all he really needs to do at this point is to march to Agra, secure the person of the Emperor, and job done.

Incidentally, if this is getting all too confusing, I have created a campaign page for this war – see the VMCW link on the right.

The Brother’s Battle – VMCW 7

With due apologies to those who are bored by this sequence of campaign battles, I now turn to the next one, between Aurungzeb and Murad, respectively the third and fourth sons of the Emperor Shah Jahan. Murad, in the campaign as those of you who have been paying attention will know, has a track record in having his brothers killed in battle. The question arises as to whether Aurungzeb will be the next one.

Both sides had actually moved into contact, so there was no formal defender in this game. Therefore, both are deployed 10 inches from their base lines, Murad to the right, Aurungzeb to the left. I did dice to see whether Aurungzeb had replaced his Hindu army inherited (sort of) from Mir Jumla with a Mogul one. He had, and so the two brothers faced off with identical forces.

There is a tendency in me to deploy identical forces identically. I decided to try to change things here, so Aurungzeb has split his cavalry hoping to storm the hill upon which Murad has placed his rocketeers and outflank the enemy, while holding the left (on a hill) and centre with cavalry, elephants, and infantry. Murad, on the other hand, aimed to smash the depleted cavalry in the center with his own, and then send in the elephants and infantry.

This was a tough battle (one might say ‘epic’) for both sides. Tempo dice rolling was awful, and some of the combat dice were poor too, especially for Aurungzeb who several times, I thought, had the battle sewn up only for poor dice rolling to undo it. It was also another case of the splintering effect of longer actions, where bases, particularly of cavalry, land up all over the table, which can be an advantage and can render them useless.

The results of the initial cavalry clash are above. One base of Murad’s has routed its opponent and is now rallying on Aurungzeb’s baseline. Another of Murad’s is now chasing some routing shot. Meanwhile, two bases of Murad’s cavalry are now fleeing, one on the far side of Murad’s command elephant, and one in the centre of the table. Nearest the camera, you can see that Aurungzeb’s right wing has destroyed the enemy rocketeers, but is now rapidly retreating in the face of oncoming infantry.

Aurungzeb’s retreating right wing cavalry landed up chasing Murad’s remaining successful horse who were attempting to rally. There was some terrible dice rolling, and this landed up being a sort of stand off until Murad’s foot arrived and started to pound Aurungazeb’s horse. In a desperate attempt to rectify matters, Aurungzeb led his elephants into Murad’s. This was supposed to be the final, climatic act of the action, a duel to the death between the two rival brothers and princes. The stuff of which Hollywood (or, in this case I suppose, Bollywood) memories are made.

The battle of the elephants was hard and close. Aurungzeb managed, eventually, to beat his opposition, putting the elephant base to flight. His own elephants, however, had a hard fight against a grimly determined Murad. While Murad took two lots of shaken levels, a lucky roll meant that Aurungzeb’s elephant base had a recoil which, as a charger, also added two levels of terrain shaken to it, rendering it hor d’combat, at least for the moment. However, Aurungzeb’s rocket battery then opened up on Murad’s shaken command base. It did not, as it happened, do much damage, but it meant that Murad could not attempt to rally the shakenness.

Meanwhile, in Aurungzeb’s centre rear his cavalry and shot were under great pressure from Murad’s remaining cavalry and newly advancing infantry. Aurungzeb’s cavalry kept refusing to charge the enemy, and he never seemed to roll sufficient tempo to do anything much with his infantry on the hill protecting the rockets. On the other hand, Murad is looking rather weak and isolated on his elephant. The shot does not show another of Aurungzeb’s cavalry bases on Murad’s base line. If only Aurungzeb could get it moving!

It all came down to a bit of chance. Aurungzeb’s elephant command base, in full pursuit of the fleeing elephants, managed to pull itself together and start rallying. Murad was trying to move his elephant towards his infantry, for a bit of protection if nothing else, while Augungzeb’s cavalry and remaining shot were just about clinging on. Murad’s movement meant that he was in front of Aurungzeb’s command elephant, and, actually, open to being charged in flank by Aurungzeb’s other nellie. On the other hand, the general being seen to retreat in these armies is not great, as the army tended to assume that the paymaster was dead and run away. So sideways it had to be.

The final crunch came when Aurungzeb’s nearly rallied elephant command base charged Murad’s doubly shaken base from behind, while Aurungzeb’s other elephant base attempted a flank charge. Meanwhile, Aurungzeb’s cavalry finally got a charge in on the flank of some of Murad’s shot. While the shot rather miraculously survived, Murad’s base was routed. This led to a drop of 4 morale points for Murad’s army (2 for the general, 2 for a base) and led his army to a -3 morale score, which was not improved by rolling a pair of threes on the morale dice.

Murad’s army fled. Whether the man himself is alive or dead I am not yet sure. That surely was an epic battle – you can tell roughly how long it was by the distance Murad’s foot has advanced. On the other hand, Aurungzeb rather won against the run of the dice, and is quite likely to claim personal responsibility for the victory. However, he might be out to execute a few cavalry commanders, among others, for cowardice. They could have won the battle for him if they had charged home earlier.

At present, pending the dead or alive roll on Murad, Aurungzeb is the only brother both alive and with an army. Shah Suja, you remember, is fleeing Jia Singh in the east having mislaid his army, while Dara is already dead. Things could change, of course, but Aurungzeb looks possibly on course to become emperor.