As mentioned last time, I had overlooked the Vietnamese move, which was deferred from the Winter turn to Spring 1605. So, to recompense, I turned my attention to what the Vietnamese were up to. It turned out that they had invaded Southern China, possibly detecting a slight weakness in the Ming regime, and an opportunity to remove the suzerainty of the overlord state. Well, maybe, or, given that China thought it had an ally in Vietnam, while the Vietnamese were hostile to China, perhaps it was a local general taking advantage. We will see.
Anyway, a Vietnamese army of 2 bases of elephants (including the general), 2 cavalry, 3 bows, 2 skirmishers and 3 assorted pole-arm bases were to take on a Chinese local force. This turned out to be 3 bows, 6 blades, 2 cavalry and a shot base. I admit to having a bitof a problem in putting these forces together, especially as the same day I had just undercoated a bunch of Chinese figures. But if I had delayed until I finished them, the whole campaign would stall, probably for weeks. So I pressed on.
The Vietnamese army is to the left in the above picture. The elephants and cavalry, including the general, are to the left centre, with the skirmishers up front on the right, nearest the camera. On the right of the shot, the Chinese have deployed archers on a hill, backed up by the shot and some blades (actually, spearmen, but the effect in the game is of blades). On their right, they have more blades, cavalry and a base of archers waiting, rather hopefully, to fill the elephants full of arrows.
I confess, I was not confident for either side. The Chinese position on the hill was fairly strong, but the other flank looked rather weak, especially against elephants. On the other hand, for the Vietnamese, the elephant/cavalry combination could be potent, but take a lot of coordination. While an assault up the hill was rather uninviting, albeit practical.
In an attempt to wrong-foot the Chinese, the Vietnamese decided to divert their blades and bows to the attack on the hill. The skirmishers, however, were getting a bit of a pasting from the firepower on the hill. Perhaps I should have smelt the coffee there and then, but the Vietnamese pressed on. The Chinese, recognising the threat, have started to move some more blades towards the hill as well.
The fight for the hill started to suck in more resources from both sides. The Vietnamese managed to get the skirmishers out of the way before they were destroyed by Chinese firepower. They have also, remarkably managed to rally them, and one base is being sent back into the marsh to have another go. The Vietnamese bows, nearest the camera, and the blades, next along, are about to make their assault. The blades, however, have had to drop a base due to the constraints of the terrain. The Chinese have moved up their blades from their right to by the wood, and the general has arrived to take control. The blades from the back of the hill are also advancing into line on the hill top. The Vietnamese general has also arrived; a general on an elephant is always a bit of a threat. On the far side, the remaining Vietnamese elephant and the cavalry have been ordered to advance.
It went a bit pear-shaped for the Vietnamese. The attack of the blades was, at best, a partial success, driving back one Chinese base but losing the other to a freak rout result. The attack up the hill was an equal failure, the Chinese blades driving back to bows and routing one base, while the Chinese bows held, or better, their Vietnamese opposites. A poor morale roll for the Vietnamese army meant that they went into ‘fall back’ mode, which is why no one has any move order markers anymore.
It was not the end for the Vietnamese, however. They regained their tempo point mojo, which had deserted them, and attempted to press on.
It was not to be, however, before the general could strike home on his elephant, another base of bows routed, and that was followed by the one you can see in the foreground, just about clinging on to existence. At this point, the Vietnamese conceded the game, being 4 bases down and with few resources to stop the inevitable advance of the Chinese infantry.
The Chinese, in fact, were happy to see them go, as their foot around the hill would take some reorganising to get back into a fighting force again. The game, therefore, counts as a defeat for the Vietnamese, but not as bad a loss as it could have been.
Well, it was nice, after a bit of a hiatus, to get the elephants out again, even if they had minimal impact on this game. The threat of elephants is enough to tie up some units, I find. In this case, two elephants and two cavalry started by holding 7 Chinese bases in front of them. But, as the Chinese realised that the main effort was to be an assault on the hill, they managed to move some resources around.
Could I have done more with the Vietnamese? Possibly the elephants could have been used more usefully against the hill, but I do have memories of a Mogul elephant assault on a hill that ended badly. The nature of the terrain was really against the offensive, I think, and they were channelled into one side or the other of the central wood. But deploying the elephants on the hill side of the wood would have signalled the assault even more, and made it more cramped. I could probably have used the skirmishers better in the terrain, rather than waltzing up to the enemy firepower, hopefully, and nearly getting blown away.
I suppose the last comment is that the Vietnamese tempo deserted them in the middle of the game, which did not help in coordinating the attack. Still, I think I could have done better, and I am considering increasing the foot skirmisher’s offensive capacity. Maybe another time I’ll actually get the elephants into combat. And so to Burma and Laos….
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