The Very Mogul Civil War continues, with a few delays because I’ve been a tad unwell. The unfinished business from the last wargame was the fate of Prince Dara, the Emperor’s eldest and favourite son. Well, the Emperor might have favoured him, but the die did not, and he was honourably killed in action against his younger brother Murad. That means, of course, that one prince is down in the demolition derby to become the next Emperor of the Mogul state.
Things were also interesting in the Deccan, where Aurungaeb had been wounded and captured by Mir Jumla, the Golcondan chief minister. There, it got confusing, and in a series of diplomatic moves, rank subversion and threats, Aurungazeb has taken over Mir Jumla’s army, and the gentleman himself has fled back to Goldconda, army-less, while the newly reconstituted Bijar army seems to be bearing down upon him.
The Deccan events were the results of quite a few diplomacy and subversion cards being played by the Princes, Bijapur and the Marathas. On the face of it Aurungazeb has come out of it rather well, but not, in fact, as well as the Marathas who have plundered more cities. Attention now, however, has switched to the north-east, and the long-awaited confrontation between Shah Suja, the Emperor’s second son, and the Rajput army of Jia Singh. These two started the game as enemies but Jia Singh has been subverted from the cause of Dara a while ago and then was further subverted to become an enemy of the Prince. So, after a bit more looting and movement, the two clashed.
In terms of these armies, the Rajputs have 5 bases of lancer cavalry, but no elephants (What? No elephants! Shame). Shah Suja, of course, leads a standard Mogul army, and so has himself and a base of nellies, so the basic idea of getting my elephants onto the table is achieved. They clashed on a fairly open area, both wanting to deploy their cavalry with ease.
The picture shows the deployments. To the left, Jia Singh has deployed his cavalry echeloned back, with the bows and shot behind. His militia and swordsmen are behind the village, the idea being to ambush the Mogul elephants from the flank. Shah Suja has deployed his cavalry on his right to face the Rajput lancers, supported by the elephants and firepower. Nearest the camera, to the right, are the militia, aimed at taking the village, and the rocketeers.
As you might expect, things got a bit ‘swirl-y’ on the cavalry flank. A lot depends, in the rules, on who gets to move first on the turn that the cavalry are in charge range. This turned out to be the Moguls, and the consequences were, well, a bit mixed. Mogul dice rolling seemed to be a bit hit-and-miss, to say the least.
In the top left of the picture, you can see some Rajput cavalry fleeing, pursued by some Mogul cavalry. So far, so according to plan. Slightly more towards the top centre, however, you can see a Mogul cavalry base that charged, shaken up the enemy but has then been recoiled. Not according to plan. Further right still you can see that the middle echelon Rajput cavalry, under the leadership of Jia Singh himself, have counter-charged the Moguls. They have routed one base of cavalry, which has swept away a base of archers. The other base is reeling under the impact. In the village on the near-side, the militias have clashed, to the Mogul advantage.
The action developed. The Mogul centre advanced steadily, and the militia captured most of the village, sending one of the Rajput bases fleeing. On the other side, the Rajputs routed the other base of Mogul cavalry (the other one is rallying top left). It got a bit complicated here, as the Rajput bows worked out they were in range of the bounced Mogul cavalry, and opened up on it, inflicting considerable casualties. It was also vulnerable to being charged by the lead Rajput cavalry, which duly happened with predictable results. That was not the end of the exploits of the Rajput bows, however, as they then turned on the rallying Moguls and prevented them from completing their recovery, at least immediately.
The end of the game is shown above. The rallied Rajput lancers under their general have charged some Mogul shot from behind and routed them (centre) while the Rajput swordsmen have seen off a speculative flank attack from the Mogul militia in the village and then turned to face the Prince and his elephants. Unfortunately for the Moguls, fire from the Rajput musketeers (you can just see the base edge on the left of the photograph) has caused the elephant base to recoil, and the Prince’s base has just refused to charge the reformed swordsmen.
At this point, casualties meant that the Mogul morale check had become a bit tricky, and they got a second fallback result. After some contemplation, Shah Suja decided to call it a day and withdraw. His casualties were heavy (3 cavalry bases and a shot, as opposed to one cavalry and a militia for the Rajputs) and, more to the point, his own person was in some danger of being surrounded. On the other hand, both armies were becoming rather scattered, which meant that his escape should be unimpeded.
In reality, of course, I did not fancy Shah Suja’s changes on his own against the Rajput swordsmen, particularly as there were lurking bases of lancers and musketeers around the place who could have spoilt his whole day. Discretion was the better part of valour, I suspected, and so Shah Suja lived to fight another day.
Strategically, this means that one Prince is still bottled up in the eastern part of India, without, at present, much hope of getting out and making himself emperor. In the south, the victorious Murad has not moved since defeating and killing Dara, while what Aurungaeb might do next is anybody’s guess.
Overall this is turning into a nice, active campaign with many twists and turns, and very limited bookkeeping (always a relief in a campaign). Mind you, my diplomatic table is getting very messy, and it might need to be redrawn. Onwards! The campaign is not over yet.
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