1600 – Something: Koreans in Japan

Summer 1605 has rolled around in the campaign, and it is starting to get busy. In the West, most of the moves were diplomatic. Among the normal diplomatic channels was also some subversion, with the French persuading the Bavarians to invade Austria, even though they would be heavily outnumbered. The Palatine finally thought of defending the ancestral homelands and raised an army in Lower Palatine (rather than Upper, where I thought it would be more useful), and the Poles raised another army, this time in Lithuania. Danish diplomacy had been at work, and the Poles were now at war with Muscovy. In the mean time the Muscovites had invaded Courland, only to face irate locals.

In the east, the Moguls and Pegu both raised forces, while the Cambodians invaded Siam. The Japanese raised a fleet in Kyushu, which incited the Koreans to invade. Presumably, memories of the horrors of the 1590s wars indicated that the Koreans were not prepared to let the Japanese raise a war fleet. Random events indicated a Jurchen raid on Northern Korea, and the Mongol disturbances resolved as a civil war in Khalkha.

So, lots going on then, six wargames to come, in fact. Starting in the extreme east, we have the Korean invasion of Kyushu. A bit of dice rolling indicated that the Koreans got ashore successfully, and were opposed by a locally raised Japanese force, the army being on Honshu. The Koreans consisted of 4 cavalry, 3 bows, 2 shot and 3 spear bases. The Japanese were randomly drawn, and got 2 cavalry, 1 shot, 1 bow, 5 ashigaru blades and 3 Samurai blades.

This seemed to be an interesting match-up. The Koreans were firepower and cavalry heavy, while the Japanese were heavy foot with garnishes of cavalry and a little firepower. The terrain was quite hilly, with some woods and a random marsh in the middle.

The above picture shows the Japanese to the right, with the Samurai and archers covering the left (far side) on a hill, while the ashigaru blades fill in the middle, with the bows thrown forward onto the top of another hill. The Japanese cavalry is atop the third hill on the left.

The Koreans deployed with the idea of seizing the hill in the centre, which seemed lightly held, and breaking through with the cavalry to menace the flanks of the Japanese infantry. The Japanese plan was to hold the hilltops and let the Koreans come to them. After a few moves, however, it was clear that this was not going to happen on the left, and the samurai and left-centre foot advanced themselves.

Above, the situation on the near-side hill is shown. The Korean foot has reached the top of the hill, driving off the ashigaru musketeers. The Japanese have diverted some blades from the centre to support them, and they are just arriving, being menaced by Korean cavalry. In the foreground, the generals, with their cavalry, are squaring up to each other. On the far side, out of shot, the rest of the Japanese foot are advancing.

Things got complicated on the hill quite quickly. The Koreans drove off the Japanese shot easily, but were then struck by the blades, as the Korean cavalry had refused to charge. The Korean bows can be seen fleeing in the centre left. Meanwhile, the Korean cavalry has charged the Japanese and routed one base, while the other has been held and repulsed in confusion. At the top of the picture, the Japanese foot is still advancing. The Koreans have not moved, meaning it is a long walk.

The fighting on the hill continued, with the ashigaru advancing up the hill, to be met by the remaining Korean spear base. They managed to bounce the Japanese and then followed up, rolling impressive combat dice and seeing off a Japanese base, which can be seen fleeing in the centre. The victorious Korean cavalry is rallying on the left of the shot, while the Japanese cavalry has charged into the defeated Koreans, further shaking them. On the far side, the Koreans and Japanese bows are exchanging fire.

A move or two later, and the Japanese cavalry on the hill has routed their opponents and is now rallying, while the Korean spears managed to turn the flank of the ashigaru blades on the hill and, with another good combat roll, rout them. On the Korean right, the Japanese are getting close to the Korean lines, but one samurai base has been badly damaged by shooting.

The picture shows the end of the wargame. On the Korean right, the pressure on their infantry is growing, and the samurai are starting to prevail. Slightly nearer, however, the Koreans have fallen back to give the ashigaru blades longer in the firing zone. Nearest the camera, some extra tempo has allowed the Korean cavalry to corner the remaining Japanese cavalry along with the general. Decisively, however, the heroic spear element on the hill has advanced on the Japanese shot and routed them. This pushed the Japanese morale to withdraw, which they duly did.

That was a very interesting wargame and could, I think, have gone either way. The Japanese did not get their heavy infantry moving soon enough. I suspect that, as they were the defenders, I thought they should defend. On the other hand, the Koreans did not make the most of their cavalry advantage, with two bases hanging around rather redundantly in the centre. The main difference was the heroic activities (or good dice rolling, if you want to be prosaic) of the Korean spearmen on the hill, who accounted for three Japanese bases.

Strategically, this is a win for Korea, of course. I will have to decide whether the new Japanese fleet managed to get away from the invaders and is available to transport the northern army to regain Kyushu, and whether the Koreans, having made their strategic point about Japanese navies, will simply go home.

Next up, however, the Jurchen, no doubt having noticed the departure of the Korean army from the north, have raided, and so the Koreans are in action again.

1600 – Something: Deja Vu in Estonia

The last action in the Spring 1605 move sees attention turn back to Estonia. My reader might remember a clash between the Muscovites and Swedes here, where the Swedes won by a narrow margin. The resulting retreat led to two Muscovite armies being merged into one army and a train. Now, the way the campaign works is that trains (and siege trains, but no one has got one of them yet) are of 6 bases in strength. Two of those bases are artillery (siege artillery for a siege train, naturally), while the rest can be selected from the usual army list. A train, incidentally, costs the same as an army, following Charles I’s quip about the cost of artillery.

So, the Swedes still not having any pike, they deployed nine bases of cavalry and nine of shot. It would seem that historically the Swedes did not reintroduce pike until after the Battle of Kircholm, at which they were bested by Polish cavalry. So they have none here.

The Muscovites were a bit more complex, fielding seven bases of cavalry, three of Cossack light horse, three bases of Streltsi shot, two of Cossack shot and one of Cossack spears, alongside two medium guns. It has been a long time since I have deployed significant artillery assets in a wargame (for a variety of reasons, mostly probably laziness), and I was reminded of one of those early Seventeenth Century manuals which debated where to put the guns, so they were both protected and had an open field of fire. Tricky.

This being me, of course, I forget, again, the sub-generals. No matter, as it affected both sides. I did remember to deploy baggage, though, in proportion with the number of bases. The terrain was quite nice and open, a boon for cavalry-heavy armies, although the Swedes were very grateful to have a hill upon which to deploy their shot.

In the picture, the Swedes, on their hill, are to the left. They had initially deployed two cavalry bases ‘up front’, that is, on the centre line of the board, with the idea of rushing the Muscovite guns. However, the latter’s deployment of a significant wing of cavalry caused me to redeploy the Swedish cavalry back to their own lines. Still, the idea persisted. I was less sure about the Muscovite tactics and plan. The idea was to bombard the Swedish infantry to prevent an attack like last time, while tying up the Swedish cavalry. All right, maybe it was not much of a plan.

The action opened fairly predictably. Both sides were a bit cautious. The Muscovite artillery opened up on the infantry on the hill, without hitting anything. The Swedes, though, conscious that it was a matter of time before the artillery did cause some disruption, inched their right wing cavalry forward, covering the options both of stopping the Muscovite left and being able to rush the guns. The Muscovites responded by sending the Cossacks in to cover the guns.

The plans began to work. The Muscovites dispatched the rest of the Cossack light horse to delay any approach by the Swedish left, while the artillery fire started to disrupt the infantry on the hill. However, the Cossack light horse on the Muscovite left was caught between the duty to cover the guns and their heavy cavalry opposites, charged, and, as you can see above, more or less broken. The victorious Swedish cavalry, led by the general, has smashed into the gun line and disposed of one of the pieces.

The photograph shows the carnage in the Muscovite centre. The second Cossack light horse base has been disposed of, and the second artillery base has similarly gone. The Swedes have pursued on into the left flank of the Streltsi, while the Muscovite general has led his reserve cavalry into the other victorious Swedish base. And I am sure you can see the problem.

I actually made a mistake favouring the Muscovites, here, and counted the shot as having pike support (which they do not). The Streltsi base then recoiled, and it could have been worse. However, if you look closely at the picture, you can see that the Muscovite reserve cavalry has been recoiled, which led by the general, led to a ‘general at risk’ roll. As with the last game, a six was duly rolled and the Muscovite general bit the dust. That was not part of the plan.

The Muscovites, however, managed to stave off disaster in the centre by some lucky combat dice rolling. Both Swedish cavalry bases were recoiled and, being chargers, were thrown into disorder. They were a long way from any support, but the Swedish general was able to pull them back out of harm’s way while calling up the rest of the cavalry. The advancing left wing trotted into the remaining Cossacks and routed them easily. This was because the light horse had lost its orders when the Muscovites wavered when their guns were overrun, and the general was killed.

The loss of yet another base was too much for the Muscovites, and they rolled a withdraw on their morale dice. They had lost six bases, including the general, and, while still a pretty formidable fighting force, were going to struggle against hordes of Swedish cavalry, let alone the shot.

That was interesting. Two Swedish bases and the general more or less did for the Muscovite army. I need to think again about the use of cannon, and possibly, revisit the rules for them. The Muscovite artillery was only ever going to disrupt the Swedes and was very vulnerable. Probably, I should have deployed the foot with them, rather than leave covering duties to the Cossacks.

It does have to be admitted, however, that the Swedes had a plan and stuck to it, and it was a plan of attack which threw the Muscovites off balance and required the intervention of the reserves and the general to recover from. The Muscovites were unlucky, as this cost them the general, and it was all pretty well downhill from there.

1600 – Something: Burma

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.