A busy weekend for half the Chez Polemarch team has left the wargaming section with enough time to undertake the next action from Summer 1605. As my reader might recall, this was a Jurchen raid on northern Korea. Presumably, Nurhaci had heard that the Korean army was otherwise occupied and decided to chance his arm. However, the Jurchen failed their GOOS roll and were opposed by a card-drawn Korean army.
The Jurchen deployed their usual seven bases of light horse and five of heavier cavalry. The Koreans drew a more random mix of 3 spear bases, 3 bow bases, a shot base, and five bases of cavalry. I imagine that the local commanders are used to facing Mongol raiders and bulked up on cavalry just in case.
The picture above shows the terrain and deployments. The Koreans are to the right, and have deployed the bulk of their infantry on the hill in the centre of the shot. The infantry reserve is in front of the baggage, about which some thought was given, as a major consideration was to keep it out of the hands of the Jurchen light cavalry. The Korean position on the hill is strong, but is certainly exposed to a flank attack on the Korean right, through the gap between the two lots of rough ground. Thus, most of the cavalry has been deployed covering this, with the rest in reserve under the general.
The Jurchen plan was, obviously, to move the heavy cavalry along the road at top speed, deploy and trounce the Koreans, supported by the light horse. The rest of the light horse was deployed to keep the Korean infantry amused and interested to their front. The Jurchen goal was, of course, the Korean baggage, which does look vulnerable.
The opening moves were innocent enough. As you can see above, the Jurchen cavalry has moved along the road and deployed. A bit of a lack of tempo points has meant that the supporting light horse is a bit delayed, and has only just forded the stream. In the foreground, the Korean infantry has traded shots with the Jurchen light cavalry, and the lights have come off a bit worse.
The scene was set for an extensive game of chicken on the Korean right. The light cavalry arrived and has set about trying to disrupt the Koreans, but themselves have suffered casualties from the cunningly concealed (not) Korean archers by the rough going. Meanwhile, the skirmish on the left is going slowly, and the Koreans have decided to pull their shot (which was shaken earlier in the game, but rallied) across to the other flank for some extra firepower support.
Things, as they say, happen. The Jurchen had to drop one of their cavalry off (it is behind the main line) in order to fit through the gap. That left the rightmost base to trot gently into the Korean archers. They recoiled the same easily, but then the Korean spearmen got a tempo point and turned onto their flank. Messy. The cavalry base is no more, and now the Jurchen have equal numbers of heavy cavalry to the Koreans, and a base of spearmen on the flank.
The slightly blurred image shows the cavalry confrontation. The Koreans advanced into the Jurchen light cavalry screen and threw it back, while the Korean infantry lurked menacingly on the flank. As Jurchen commander, there seemed little alternative but to put on his big boy pants and charge….
Well, that sort of worked. The Jurchen charge has driven back most of the Korean cavalry, but the shaken light cavalry has come under fire from the Korean infantry and, flanked, they have ceased to exist. Never mind, thought the Jurchen general, we’ve got the cavalry on the run.
Again, the Jurchen general was sort of right, and then again, wrong. Part of the Korean cavalry has broken and is exiting stage right. The next base along is being badly battered by their foes and surely won’t last much longer. But where, I hear you cry, is our hero, the nearly victorious Jurchen general?
If you look closely, dear reader, in the centre-ish of the picture, you will see a base of Korean cavalry with the general, and the Korean reserve cavalry at right angles to it. That is where the Jurchen general was. The Koreans got the drop on him again, and his base was destroyed. He had survived a previous dodgy moment, but his luck had run out. The Jurchen fought on for a move or two, but lost another base of light cavalry to the Korean bow and spear combination, and the army routed.
That was a good wargame, and it took me longer than I expected. Usually, cavalry-heavy games are quite quick, but the jockeying for position took a while, especially when it was combined with the light cavalry against the infantry on the hill activities. I think, in the long run, the terrain was against the Jurchen, as they could only get at the Korean flank through a four-base-wide gap. That should have been enough, but encountering the Korean infantry further narrowed the formation until it was only as strong as the Korean front line, and when the reserve cavalry intervened, it did so decisively.
On the other hand, the Jurchen were unlucky, as they lost the tempo at crucial points in the combat. I also still cannot see what other approach they could have used against the Koreans. Cavalry charging uphill against infantry with pointy sticks is not a long-term solution, so they had to try to turn the flank. Perhaps if the light cavalry had got into action a bit earlier, things might have been different. And then again, perhaps not.
Anyway, the Summer 1605 turn moves on, with a Mongol civil war as the next action, so I will have to scrape together two sides, both randomly drawn Mongols, this time. I wonder if there will be any infantry on the table at all.
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