The next wargame in Spring 1605 is still in the east, being the Laotian invasion of Burma. Those of you with long memories, or not much else to do, will recall that the Laotians invaded Luang Prabang. In part, this was because the Laotians only have one province, and now have two armies, a garrison and an army in Laos proper. Thus, expansion was important. An extra province would provide the income to support the armies. The same, in fact, is true of the Swedes in the west. See how the logic of imperialism works!
The Laotians failed their GOOS roll and thus had to fight their way in. They had a general on an elephant, a base of cavalry, eight bases of tribal foot infantry, and two bases of bows. The Burmese did not draw an elephant card for their army, but had one cavalry base, nine tribal foot bases and two bows. The terrain rolling favoured the defending Burmese, with a large central hill.
The Laotians are to the left in the above picture, with the Burmese defenders mostly on the central hill. Given the strategic situation outlined above, the Laotians really needed to go for a win. This led to some initial jockeying for position. Originally, the Burmese had deployed their foot in two blocks of four, one on the hill and one behind it. The Laotians had also deployed four deep, looking for a mass charge up the hill in overwhelming depth. The Burmese took advantage of their ability to redeploy one troop block and closed up on the hill. The Laotians then split their tribal foot, as seen above.
The Laotian plan was to assault the hill frontally with the archers and demonstrate with the nearest block of tribal foot, until such time as the rest, led by the general, were in position to flank the troops on the hill. I knew the timing would be tricky, but previous experience suggests that a position on a hill is strong, and the Laotians, as I said, really needed a win.
The game opened predictably enough, with the Laotian archers advancing, and the flanking tribal foot led by the general heading into the valley between the hills (there is another hill on the far side of the table, by the way). The Laotian archers also got going, while the central tribal foot and the cavalry have hung back. I am afraid you will have to put up with the slightly iffy quality of the picture (even by my standards), however, and the camera battery decided to go on strike at this point.
Still, the absence of the camera did not mean that the reader is going to miss much of the action, as the Estimable Mrs P. returned at this point, and the action had to be resumed the next day. I was concerned for the Laotians, as their plan depended on the timing of the frontal and flank attacks. It turned out I was right to be worried.
It turned out badly for the Laotians. In my anxiety, I moved the Laotian foot facing the hill towards their enemy on the hill. I was hoping to win the next tempo round, and so I could bring, at least, the general on his elephant crashing into the wing of the pinned Burmese infantry. Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men….
The Laotians lost the next tempo round, and their infantry got charged by the Burmese downhill, as you can see above. The tribal foot on the far side has been routed; those on the near side have been badly shaken. The chargers have swept past the Laotian general who was carefully lining himself up for a flank attack, and are now (or will be after following up) out of range.
Incidentally, in the foreground, you can see the Laotian cavalry advancing. They were hoping to get to the Burmese baggage and cause some disruption and despair. You can also see the Burmese cavalry countering them. On the top of the hill, you can see the Laotian bowmen have successfully routed their opponents, somewhat against the odds.
It was nearly, but not quite, all over for the Laotians. The remaining infantry facing the hill were duly routed, while the general tried to turn his forces back to face the rest of the Burmese foot on the hill. In the centre, the Laotian bowmen fought off a rear attack on them by some Burmese archers. It just goes to show that not all the Laotian dice rolling was bad. In the foreground, the Burmese cavalry has charged and routed their Laotian equivalents. Getting caught downhill and in flank was never going to be viable.
With that, the Laotian losses got to 5 bases, and a so-so morale roll indicated that it was time to withdraw. I suppose they were lucky not to do worse. The spare Burmese tribal foot base on the hill had refused to charge (albeit uphill) the hitherto victorious Laotian bowmen. If they had, and the other Burmese bowmen had hit them in the rear, then, most likely, the Laotians would have routed.
This was another interesting wargame, wherein the elephants did not make much impact. I think it has been remarked on before that tribal foot-based armies either win big or go home in a hurry, and the Burmese certainly did the winning big thing. The game also threw up some other points, such as the difficulty of assaulting hills which are held in strength, and the need to get the timing right, which the Laotians failed in.
The other real lesson is not to use isolated bases to try to get to the enemy’s baggage. The Muscovite cossacks failed a few games ago, and the Laotian cavalry did here. I suppose with a 12- or 18-base army, using one base to go after a speculative win is probably a waste of resources. I must school myself not to do it again, especially as the Muscovites and Swedes are next up.
