1600 Something: The Big Crunch

 The Spring 1606 turn continues, as it will for some time to come. Fortunately, it continues to generate interesting matchups for my forces. This time, we journey to Dai Viet, in northern Vietnam, as a rogue Burmese army has invaded.

How can this be? You might ask, given that Vietnam and Burma have nothing much in the way of a common frontier. Well, early modern borders were porous, of course, and the dice were commanding and certain. The Burmese, as a random event, invaded Vietnam.

Now, the Vietnamese army is further south, busy invading Laos, as it happens (next wargame). So the local forces rallied to provide a random army to resist the random invaders. I think this is a first for the campaign, two random armies having at each other. Those of you who have read the blog before will know what is coming next: I was hoping for elephants.

Well, the Burmese, as invaders, drew first. A cavalry base, seven tribal foot bases, a bow base, and, wait for it, three bases of elephants. Excellent. The usual list for the Burmese has a magnificent total of one base, and that is the general. The Vietnamese drew. A cavalry base, four archers (crossbow and longbow), two skirmishers, a rocket, another cavalry base, and, again, wait for it, three bases of elephants. I started to imagine pachyderm pandemonium.

I rolled up a fair bit of terrain for this encounter, but no hills. The Vietnamese are to the left, with their skirmishers about to occupy the central village (complete with Aztec temple, those Aztecs got around) and their cavalry (top) and elephants deployed in front of the stream, while the archers were safely behind it.

The Burmese have their archer and cavalry bases on their right (top) while the elephants cover the tribal foot. The plan was for the cavalry and archers to incommode the Vietnamese cavalry, while the elephants took on the Vietnamese nellies. The tribal foot would sneak past and cross the stream, crushing the archers and claiming a glorious victory. At least, that was the plan. I did reckon that four deep tribal foot should be able to see off some archers, even with the terrain disruption penalty of crossing the stream.

The battle developed rather slowly. Neither side could manage a decent tempo roll, and so, about all that has happened is that the elephants have got moving, and the Vietnamese skirmishers have occupied the village. They are now shooting, without effect, at the passing Burmese elephants. Actually, the plan was to use them as flank supports for when the elephants clashed. You can also see the Vietnamese rocket in action. It hit nothing all game.

A lot happened in a short space of time as both sides managed to obtain a few tempo points. At the top, the Vietnamese cavalry has charged the Burmese cavalry and archers. The archers are routing; the Vietnamese cavalry, although inflicting damage on their opposite numbers, has been driven off. In the centre, the elephant lines have clashed, the Vietnamese charging their neighbours. Things have not gone entirely to plan. One Vietnamese base has been driven off in confusion, while another has been flanked by some tribal foot and vaporised. Only in the centre, the Vietnamese elephant, with the general attached, is driving off the Burmese general’s elephant base.

Of course, with all those archers in support, the driven off Vietnamese elephant base should have been fine. However, as with their rocket, the archers failed to hit anything all day, and the elephants are now in significant trouble. However, the general and his base of elephants have routed the Burmese general. Meanwhile, in the foreground, some tribal foot, fed up of being sniped at, have deployed to deal with the village. Possibly the Burmese general sensed some easy wins here….

There were indeed some easy wins. The Burmese cavalry got the drop on their opponents and routed them under the nose of the victorious Vietnamese general. One tribal foot base is driving back some skirmishers in the village, the other has been recoiled. Finally, in the centre, the other Vietnamese elephant base has been routed. This left the archers free to fire at the Burmese elephant, which they did, without effect again.

It really could not last that much longer. Casualties were mounting on both sides. The tribal foot in the village routed the skirmishers. The archers managed a hit on the Burmese elephant, finally. On the far side, the victorious Burmese cavalry’s pursuit was stopped by the stream, and they started to rally. However, the Vietnamese general and his rallying elephants were there, just in charge range, to their rear. Dice were rolled. Necks were craned. Fingers were used for the calculation…..

The elephants refused to charge after all that, and, at the end of the move, the Vietnamese were required to make a morale roll, which they failed, and so they were forced to withdraw. They had suffered more casualties (4 bases against 2), but then the Burmese had lost their general. So it was fairly close.

It think that is the first time that an army which has lost its general managed to win the battle. The elephant action could have gone either way, admittedly, and it did go, just, to the Burmese. The killer for the Vietnamese was their skirmishers. I thought I had hatched a cunning plan by hiding them in the village, in cover. But they were still vulnerable to an attack by the tribal foot. Possibly, like light cavalry, they need their moves to be increased, and to have some more input from the general during their skirmishing activities. This is not the first time, after all, that the skirmishers have proved to be a vulnerability rather than an asset.

Things to ponder, I suppose, but I had better ponder fairly quickly. The next battle is, after all, as mentioned, the Vietnamese invasion of Laos. The Laotians have the same list as the Burmese, and both armies are regular this time. Fewer elephants….

1600 – Something: Like China in Your Hands

The next action, working from east to west, in the Spring 1606 move in the campaign, is a Mongol incursion into China. The Mongols had the ability to cross the wall and be a nuisance, I think, and that is what has happened here. Unfortunately for the White Sheep Mongols (for it is they who are having a go), they ran into one of the Chinese regular armies, which had just moved from the environs of Peking to the Shanxi province. It is not clear why, presumably, the emperor had some intuition.

The initial positions are above, with the White Sheep to the left. The Chinese position centred on a hill on their right, which is occupied by some infantry, with more on the lower slopes and near environs. The cavalry is in the centre, ready to respond to Mongol attacks, while on the left are more archers, looking to stave off the inevitable light cavalry probes.

The Mongols are, in fact, my newly painted horde, or most of them. I have been threatening these for a while, and the Easter break enabled me to finish them off and base them, along with a number of other odds and ends. The army was card drawn, as they are raiders, and so they have 5 bases of light cavalry, 6 of heavier cavalry, and one base of militia. I did wonder if the stream would cause problems, but they had enough room to deploy in front of it. The bulk of the army is in three waves: the first of light cavalry, the next two of the heavies. On their right, nearest the camera, is a couple of bases of light horse. On the far side is the militia.

I pondered the Chinese deployment quite hard. Evidently, they cannot go head-to-head in a cavalry battle, and the hill gave them a chance to deploy the foot in a little more safety than usual. I also needed to secure the baggage, especially after the problems the Japanese had last game. Except for the infantry on the hill, the rest of them are combinations of a firepower base (archers or shot) and a blade base. The exceptions are two sets of two bases of archers on the flanks.

The Mongol plan was, of course, to disrupt and wear down the enemy with the light cavalry, and then go in for the killer punch with the heavies. The terrain rolling had not been particularly kind, of course, and nor had the card drawing for the army composition. I felt a few extra light cavalry would not have gone amiss.

Still, the Mongols got on with it. The light cavalry started doing what they know best, skirmishing. On the right, they had an immediate impact, as seen, but not much else is happening. The Chinese have actually pushed their right flank archers up a bit, in the hope of flanking the Mongol centre as it goes in, while the Mongols have sent the militia forward to try to stop that.

A few moves later, and Chinese firepower has shredded the first wave of Mongols. Nothing has been routed, but two bases of light horse have had to be pulled back to try to recover, covered by the advancing second wave of heavier cavalry.

The second Mongol wave did not prosper. Again, Chinese firepower whittled it down a couple of bases, and the final base, which did charge home, while it shook the Chinese blades it charged, recoiled and took some terrain shaken. Meanwhile, the Chinese archers on the flanks have stopped the Mongol flanking moves, and the shaken Mongol light horse just do not seem to wish to rally.

Chinese shooting rolls got fluky on their right, with two good rolls seeing the Mongol militia reduced to a rout. On the left, the Mongol light cavalry is starting to suffer. In the centre, the repelled Mongol heavy cavalry was shot up by some Chinese arquebus fire, and the general had to intervene to pull them back out of trouble. The third wave of Mongol cavalry is now front and centre, and, if things had gone to plan, would have charged in to sweep away the enemy, rather than covering the attempt to reorganize. Still, only one Mongol base had been lost, so I was still hopeful that some reorganization and rallying could save the day.

Alas, it was not to be. With impeccable timing and a darn good dice roll, the Chinese general led his cavalry forward. The roll was out of this world good, and two bases of Mongol heavy cavalry took to their heels, sweeping another, from the second wave, along with them. Ouch.

While the Mongol general tried to rally some sort of line, a poor morale roll for the army finished the job, and the Mongol raiders were routed. The curse of the newly painted army has clearly struck again.

That was a good wargame, I thought. The Mongols were a bit restricted by having more heavy cavalry and fewer light cavalry. I could not work the flanks as effectively as I wanted to. The Chinese position was strong, however, with the infantry posted on the hill. Chinese dice rolling was also good when it counted. The routing of the militia base through firepower alone was unusual, especially as it occurred within a single bound. The coup de grace of the Chinese cavalry charging in was actually, I thought, well timed as well as having a phenomenal combat dice roll. The Chinese cavalry had, in fact, previously refused to charge the Mongol second wave, which beat itself against the infantry.

Did the Mongols have a chance? I think a little more luck and the day could have been much closer. The first and second waves were disrupted by Chinese firepower. The Mongols do not really have an answer to that, except on an open field with lots of light cavalry to get around the flanks. But the waves could have been less disrupted and caused more damage to the Chinese position.

Still, it was nice to get the new army onto the table, even though they lost. And next we come to some action in and around Vietnam, while my new Southeast Asians are still sitting on the shelf in undercoat.

1600 – Something: Heroes of the Baggage Train

The first action of the Spring 1606 campaign move was, moving from east to west, the Japanese invasion of Kyushu. If this seems a little odd to you, a while ago the Koreans invaded Japan to prevent the Japanese from raising a fleet, and are still there. As the Japanese now have a fleet, they have decided to counterattack. A little dice rolling concluded that they landed safely and are attempting to move inland from a port.

The battlefield and deployment are shown above. The Koreans are to the right, with their baggage safely stowed behind the river. Mind you, fighting with your back to a river is not necessarily a good thing. In the centre foreground, incidentally, is a hill which everyone ignored. The Korean plan was to hold the centre, while the bow-armed troops nearest the camera tried to get on the flank of the advancing Japanese. If you look closely at the top right of the shot, you can see some Korean cavalry right over on their right. These were to work the other flank.

After the last outing, the Japanese learnt that their main power was in their heavy foot, and so these were deployed up front this time. They were supported by more heavy foot (ashigaru), and two sleeves of shot. The Japanese did not roll any cavalry (it is extra bows of horse, and they got bows). This was going to be a problem, it turned out. The Japanese baggage was deployed, reasonably enough, on the baseline.

As seen above, the plans developed. The Samurai foot are getting close to the Korean line, while the Korean flanks are starting to cause issues, particularly the cavalry of the Korean right. Four bases of Japanese, including the general, have been detached to contain them. Still, with the heavy foot about to make contact, what, really, could go wrong?

As you can see above, it did go a bit wrong. While the leftmost Samurai routed their musket-armed opponents easily, the overlap on the other side was recoiled by shot, and the Samurai only managed to push back the bowmen. The Samurai attacking the block of spear came off second best, and the Koreans easily survived the morale test. Meanwhile, the problem of the Korean cavalry on the Japanese left is not improving.

A few moves later, and it is going a little pear-shaped for the Japanese. In the centre, the semi-successful Samurai base did not manage to rout the bowmen, and was taken in flank by some musketeers led by the Korean general and destroyed. A counterattack in the centre by the Korean spears has routed another Samurai base. On the near flank, the Japanese shot are suffering a bit from Korean shooting, and in the top left corner of the picture, the Korean cavalry is looking like they are slipping past the Japanese to wreak havoc in the rear.

Well, the Japanese general decided that he was needed in the centre, and set off at high speed. You can see him on his own in the middle of the field, desperately hoping that he can get there before things get much worse. In fact, they just have because the Korean general has split the spear block and led one half against the hitherto successful Samurai by the wood, and the other half against the supporting ashigaru. Honours are even in the latter, but going the Korean’s way in the former. On the shooting flank nearest the camera, the Koreans are coming out on top. Meanwhile, in the Japanese rear, a serious situation is developing. The Japanese shot have managed to halt one of the Korean cavalry bases, but the other is now within striking distance of the Japanese baggage. Now, baggage bases are lost, of course, just as ordinary ones are, and count against morale. So this could be the routing of the Japanese army.

That it was not was due entirely to the Japanese baggage train. While the Koreans could not count  charge or advancing factors in combat against the train, it still looked bad. Baggage gets a factor of 0 (zero) in combat, cavalry gets 4. While the other baggage gave the base attacked a plus 1, even so, what would you have expected to happen?

Quite so. The Korean cavalry was bounced by the heroes of the baggage train. When the songs and ballads of the action are recorded, it will be these camp followers who are lauded, for they saved the army. After all, in the top left, you can see that another Samurai base has been routed, and the Japanese general has pulled the ashigaru base back. In fact, all the Japanese bases have been pulled back, because their morale went to fall back as a consequence of the morale check resulting from the latest Samurai base routing.

Now the Japanese general had a decision to make. He could fight on. After all, the Samurai base and ashigaru with him were still pretty potent as a fighting force, and the archers on the far side had one base of cavalry pinned. On the other hand, the Koreans could well launch the recoiled cavalry against the baggage again, and it was still highly likely to be lost, which may well rout the army. Also, with three bases lost against one, it could not really be said that he was winning the argument.

Reluctantly, then, the Japanese general ordered a withdrawal. As they had not been routed or even got a withdraw morale result, they could get off the field intact, and would now hunker down in the captured port, hoping for reinforcements or the Koreans simply to get bored and go home.

That was a somewhat unexpected result, I confess. I suspected that the Japanese, when they rolled no cavalry, might struggle a bit, but I did expect the Samurai bases to cut through the Korean infantry quickly. That it was not to be was a result of good Korean dice rolling, poor Japanese tempo rolling, and the fact that the Japanese general got distracted by the left flank when I could have done with him in the centre. Perhaps the dispositions were faulty. I should have deployed the baggage closer to the rear of the army so it could have been more easily protected.

Still, next up, the Mongols are raiding China, and have run into the regular army. Loads of cavalry, this time. Let’s see what happens.