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.