L'Art de la Guerre - DWG Tournament Battle 1

At Durham Wargames Group (DWG) this year we're doing a club ADLG tournament and tonight I played my first battle against Mal.

Our tournament is as follows:

200pts armies
Single player
Any army 500BC - 500AD.

I bought a new army from Xyston specifically for the tournament: Tamil Indians, and painted it up in 22 hours over last weekend.

The Tamil List

ARMY	Tamil India		List 121		Terrain	Plains
Pts	199		Units	25		Forest
					Initiative	1
Corps I	7				Pts	Pts Total
Cmdr	1	Ordinary			0	0
	2	Elephants			13	26
	2	Medium swordsmen impetuous			7	14
	1	Medium swordsmen impact elite			10	10
	2	Light infantry bow			4	8
Corps II	9				Pts	Pts Total
Cmdr	1	Ordinary			0	0
	2	Elephants			13	26
	3	Medium swordsmen impetuous			7	21
	2	Light infantry javelins			4	8
	2	Bowmen			7	14
Corps III	9				Pts	Pts Total
Cmdr	1	Competent			3	3
	2	Elephants			13	26
	3	Medium swordsmen impetuous			7	21
	2	Light infantry javelins			4	8
	2	Bowmen			7	14

So anyway, I took the Tamils against Mal's Achaemenid Persians.

Mal won the initiative, chose to attack in the plains.  I wanted to narrow the battlefield so tried and failed to get a waterway, but did manage a maximum size village which I put on a gentle hill.  Fields and plantations dotted around elsewhere.

We began deploying and the huge Achaemenid force of mixed heavy and medium infantry lined up next to a large cavalry wing.

Although the looked splendid, the cavalry was mediocre, being Indian horsemen.

My Tamils were unconcerned so far and the impetuous foot lined up among the magnificent elephants.  

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/painted-elephants/freger-photography#/08-india-elephant-painted-yellow-blue-florets-580v.jpg

Everyone was itching to go... 

Deployment finished, the Persians only had two commands down, and with no ambushed, it was clear a flank march was coming.  The early moves saw the Persian cavalry push forwards.  I rushed the Tamil centre forwards, angled my left flank to take on the approaching cavalry and dropped a few units off on my right to meet the flank march which i presumed would come on there.

With an unmaneouverable army like the Tamils, I'll struggle to fully react to the flank attack so my plan is to destroy the Acheamenids I can see in front of me.

And with the opening clashes, they go my way and the impact melee sees the Achemenids suffer immediate losses.

And then the flank march arrived!  My flank archers really don't fancy their chances, but I did manage to peel off a unit of swordsmen to help out.

I'm resigned to losing this flank, but I'm not too concerned as I'm happy to trade a few units to hold things up here while my elephant line gets stuck in elsewhere.

And up front things are going really rather well as the Tamil swordsmen and elephants completely destroy the Achaemenid infantry.  

We're not really sure what to do now!

By now, things are looking very shaky for the Persians and the army's break point is getting dangerously close.  The Tamils have lost only a couple of units. 

But there's a chance for Mal to turn the game around with his flank attack.  Surprisingly, the Tamil archers make a fight of it and hold up the cavalry.

Meanwhile, over on the other flank, the elephants chase off the Indian cavalry.

But its all over, and the Achaemenids break.

The final tally is:

Tamils - 14 lost from 25 pts.
Achaemenids - 28 lost from 28pts.

It was a good game that was over in 1 hour 15 mins.