After the excitement died away after the last two battles (in the same month) a little breathing space was due. Firstly, I had to sort out the fate of Aurungazeb, whose elephant was seen to fall in the last battle A short table was drawn up of possible outcomes, and die rolled, and it transpired that the Prince was wounded and captured by his former ally Mir Jumla. This could be an interesting scenario for the Deccan in the next few turns,. We shall have to see. Mir Jumla, after all, now has both a Prince of the blood and the chief minister of Bijapur in his possession.
Further north, there was still the confrontation between Dara and Murad going on. Dara, a turn or two later, received a ‘move’ card, as did Murad. However, Dara had a choice, as he was aware that Jia Singh in the northeast had betrayed him. He could either assume that Murad would cease to be a problem at least until he had re-secured Agra and the emperor, or he could have another go at his youngest brother. A quick dice roll indicated that Murad would be the target again. After all, an enemy next door is probably more of a risk than the one about 3 months march away.
Thus, the scene was set for the second part of the Dara versus Murad action. Again, Dara was the aggressor, so Murad had the space to set up. Under the rules for this (based, I think, on DBA, but I could be wrong), the defender sets up in their half of the table, while the attacker has their first third. This can mean the armies are quite close together initially, which is not my usual style but which does work.
The picture shows deployment, Murad to the left, and Dara to the right. Slightly alarmingly, Murad has deployed with his rear to a river. This might make escape difficult, but on the other hand, it might convince his brother that he is desperate and that attacking is a great idea. Murad’s plan was to take and hold the village towards the centre of the field with his archers, backed by the militia, while acting defensively across the rest of the field, hoping Dara would come to him.
Dara, on the other hand, decided that crushing Murad’s right and ignoring and masking the village was the best idea. To that end, he deployed his cavalry to the left, with the elephants on the left centre in support. Dara’s musketeers and bowmen, with the militia, will ensure that Murad’s infantry cannot intervene.
The above picture shows the action well underway. The rocket batteries have opened up, not to a great deal of purpose, but Murad’s have clobbered Dara’s elephant base somewhat, which, coupled with effective fire from his archers in the village, meant that the elephant is rendered somewhat hors d’combat, at least a present, and, given that the rockets keep firing at it, even if ineffectively, it is likely to stay that way.
In the foreground, you can see the cavalry confrontation on Dara’s left. I say confrontation rather than anything else because the lead elements of Dara’s army have been reluctant to get to grips, for reasons that historians will ponder over for decades. Actually, it was bad dice rolling – the cavalry simply refused to charge.
Eventually, Dara got fed up with the failure of his cavalry and ordered them simply to advance into the enemy. While obviously they did not receive that plus two for a charge striking home, and any potential disorder that that might cause, the plus one should have been sufficient for them. That this was not the case is amply demonstrated in the above picture, which shows two of Dara’s cavalry fleeing from the apparently unperturbed, cavalry of Murad. This was, to say the least, vexing for Dara, and he has ordered his infantry forward to show the mounted army how it is done.
Meanwhile, at the village, the militia have tried to assault Murad’s archers. One unit has been stopped by bow fire, the other is failing to make any headway. Things went from bad to worse for Dara as his army failed its morale test and was forced to fall back a move, opening the remaining militia base to further damage from Murad’s bows, which they duly obliged with.
It was all going badly wrong for Dara. In the centre, Murad’s cavalry have charged his infantry. The base Dara himself was not supporting has been routed, and Murad’s cavalry has marauded into another base of musketeers. The base Dara was supporting was made of sterner stuff and had only recoiled, but that still triggered a leader check on Dara’s well-being, which was failed. Another army morale test was required. This time Dara’s dice were not too bad – the army could have routed, but in this case, chose to only withdraw.
From Dara’s point of view, of course, that did not go at all how it was planned. On the other hand, I suppose every losing general can say that. But his dice rolls really were awful at crucial times, although letting his elephant stray unnecessarily into the range of the archers in the village was a mistake, especially as the rocket fire hit it at the same time, turning a minor inconvenience into a major problem.
On the other hand, Murad’s plan worked perfectly. He took the village, turned it into a firebase for the archers and held it against attack while the rest of Dara’s assault was blunted, or, should I say, blunted itself. The final straw came when having failed to throw much above a 3 all morning, Dara managed a 6 on his general’s risk roll, meaning he was down. That really was the end of the effort of his army and, to be fair to my rules, that would have been the case historically, as the general was the paymaster.
So, that was fun, but now I have to work out what happens to Dara. The road to Agra could well be open for Murad, but will he take it?
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