DBA - Mongols v Il-khanids

Once again against Mr G- P- but using my figures for a change. In an evening we managed to get two twelve-element games done, and both followed a very similar course. They used the same terrain, which we rationalised as being a two-day battle fought over the same field and with each side being topped-up with reinforcements during the night. Plausible and quite fun.

Day One.

Here are the Ik-khan's chaps formed up (below).

This is how the two lined up - Mongols at the top.

Things are heating up. The Ilkhanids took one element of 3Ax as an option. They could've had that or 3Kn or 2LH but luckily - by shrewd tactical choice, I mean - they selected the 3Ax. The infantry occupied the central rough ground and by so doing broke the Mongol line up nicely (below).

Below - There was a bit of a set-to in the centre, and the Mongol right swept down on the enemy left.

The Mongols got slightly the worst of the fight in the centre and adopted a strange echelon formation. On the Il-khan left the Mongols gave the rough ground and the Kurds occupying it a wide berth, allowing the Ilkhanids crucial overlaps (below). Two Ilkhanid light horse elements hared off down their right heading for the Mongol camp where, embarrassingly, the camp followers later caused them to flee off the table.

The decisive fighting was on the Mongol left, as seen below. The threat posed by the 3Ax constrained their movement in that area and allowed the Il-khan's lads to manoeuvre freely against their flank and destroy that game-winning fourth element.

One nil to the Il-khan. However the Mongols weren't finished yet and as it was only nine o'clock we decided to do another game.

Day two.

The battle resumed with both sides having been topped-up overnight with reinforcements. The Mongols had brought in some artillery intended to winkle the troublesome Kurds out of the bad going. As before the Ilkhanids sent some light horse round their right to get behind the Mongols (below). And as before this turned out to be a waste of time and they got nowhere due to a lack of pips and their distance from the general.

In the centre the Ilkhanid commander's idea was to attack the artillery, which should have been vulnerable in close combat, and its escorting light horse before the scary-looking Mongol right of heavy cavalry could be brough to bear (below).

That went more or less to plan and the Mongol centre was split, with enough losses caused to win the game for the Persians. Some of the Mongol confusion was almost certainly due to the unpleasant tablecloth under the carpet tiles which formed the battlefield.

Once again a close and exciting game, and the first ones played with my equally exciting new set of DBA rules - well, the same DBA rules really, but in a different cover and laid out not-so-well as the original.