Double Elephants! at BHGS Teams 2022
Delhi Sultanate vs Timurid
Game 1 Delhi Sultanate vs Timurid
Game 2 Delhi Sultanate vs Alexander The Great
Game 3 Delhi Sultanate vs Classical Indian
Game 4 Delhi Sultanate vs Seleucid
Game 5 Delhi Sultanate vs Timurid
The final round, after a peruse of the SELWG show at lunchtime during which a little light shopping managed to be done too. The last game was against the MKWS/CLWC combo team pitting me against Harrison Pearce and his well-used Timurid army which had come agonizingly close to winning the Worlds in Rome a few years ago - not the idea opponent when we needed a few big wins in order to climb up the table !
Views of the Great Fort in Agra (taken in 2006)
Timurid is ostensibly pretty similar to the Delhi Sultanate army, but with harder-hitting cavalry and fewer infantry, allowing it to be played very aggressively indeed. The Hapless Captives (Mediocre Levy) are a handy expendable terrain piece that the Timurids can move around the table to block and delay any enemy for a couple of turns or more - often enough to take them out of the game entirely is the army is fast enough to attack elsewhere too
With a clear table and two broadly similar armies, no-one was mucking about here at all - the two forces lined up opposite one another ready for a full-on scrap
The right wing of the Sultanate forces pressed on, keen to get into shooting range of the Timurid cavalry and their allies (who were making up the Timurid left)
This was a tricky matchup, as the hard-charging Timurids rather outclassed the more vanilla horse archers of the Sultanate Jagirs, but the presence of the Elephant and its supporting archers rebalanced things considerably too
It could soon come down to a question of who was the boldest.
Sachin Tendulkar! The Timurids had clearly decided that the Sultanates elephants were best avoided, and the Mamluk and Jagir cavalry were a far better target. Their rapid advance was already making it tricky for the Indians to shuffle their elephants into the line of fire.
Month by Month Timurids
The two lines of troops closed to horse archery range at some speed and a storm of arrows crossed the narrow distance between them to darken the tabletop skies
The well armoured Timurids seemed almost immune to the Indian archery, shrugging off everything the men of Delhi could hurl at them
Suddenly, they were in.
Sourav Ganguly! The allied Khitan contingent of the Timurids launched itself at the Mamluks and Jagirs, even taking on the infantry bowmen next to the Pachyderm as well. This would be a painful and decisive early clash of empires of the East !
Views of the Fort in Jaipur (taken in 2006)
As their right flank was checked by this aggressive Timurid assault, the Indian centre had carried on advancing and had become somewhat detached from what should have been their supporting wingmen
This was an opportunity the Timurids could not resist - they crashed into the end of the Indian line, heedless of the risk this might draw them into conflict with the well-padded elephants
Catastrophe! The Khitan troops had smashed the Indian flank in double-short order, bursting through and inflicting horrific casualties along the way to boot. With everything committed to the front line, the Delhi forces had no reserves and this entire wing was now effectively a complete write-off after just a couple of rounds of brutal combat!
The Timurids Sack Delhi
Shikhar Dhawan! The rampant Timurid and Khitan cavalry swiftly finished the job of removing from play all of the Indian infantry and cavalry on almost half of the table in a trice
Now only a handful of well-upholstered Sultanate elephants remained, wandering aimlessly around like so many hand-painted cockroaches waiting to be stomped upon by whatever forces the Timurids gleefully chose for the task
The game was afoot, and an early defeat was inevitable. The Indian elephants charged at anything they thought they might reach, their only hope to try and knock some points off the enemy army to boost their score before they fell to total ruin
Views of the Taj at dusk (taken in 2006)
You know things are bad when the artillery park is hit in the flank by enemy strike cavalry..
The last elephant of the once-mighty Sultanate Dynasty was crushed by Timurid horsemen. The game was over, and the result is a crushing defeat
Read On for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal
Post Match Summary from the Delhi Sultanate Commander
Oh dear oh dear, that was a mercifully short outing for my Corps d'Elephant wasn't it? I suspect my men were tired after 4 consecutive victories for India in the previous 4 rounds of the tournament and at th efinal hurdle they just ran out of steam for their chaiwallahs to use to infuse the sweetened condensed milk for their pre-battle tea
The upside though is that the padded armour of the elephants themselves meant that they survived to feature in almost every photograph of the battle such as it was, making a colourful splash that will no doubt inspire a new generations of Delhi Sultanate armies to take the field
If only there was a way of replaying the game and ensuring that I had better shooting and combat dice and a different opponent using a different army, then I am sure that it would have been a different result entirely
Anyways, back to Delhi and my enormous palace - assuming these pesky Timurids haven't gotten there first to sack it or some other such unpleasantness
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
You numerically inept numpty from Nippani, how can you start this embarassing debacle by yet again glossing over your defeat to the ancient Indians in game 3? At least this time you managed to play out the historical role expected of you by falling under Timur's yoke with such speed I suspected you may be greaded up with the finest of ghees!
They say that when an elephant is in trouble, even a frog will kick him, and you and your hapless army list got a right good Kermitting in this game as your weaknesses were ruthlessly exploited and you got your just desserts. Spreading your elephants around, leaving your sub-par cavalry exposed to a swift attack, failing to deploy enough terrain, everything that you could choose to do badly here you grasped with both hands
I must admit the elephants looked cool, but that barely made up for the burning pit of disaster that the rest of your army dived right into from the very start
When you have an ass for a friend, expect nothing but kicks - but in your case the ass is yourself and the kicks are all self-administered. I hope to see a different outcome next time out - but I think I will be let down again for sure.
That's the end - so why not go back to the Match Reports Index and read some more reports?
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That's the end - so why not go back to the Match Reports Index and read some more reports?
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Game 1 Delhi Sultanate vs Timurid
Game 2 Delhi Sultanate vs Alexander The Great
Game 3 Delhi Sultanate vs Classical Indian
Game 4 Delhi Sultanate vs Seleucid
Game 5 Delhi Sultanate vs Timurid
