Heron River
Hoonhavagoyamug sat on his heels, frowning. His mount let forth a mighty *Fphrooomph*, and the air was perfumed by his efforts, again. All the good Prince could see, was a patchwork of strangely armoured carts and wagons, and a scattering of footmen. Where was the rest of this insidious foe? obviously, the hill to his front must be bristling with mighty-thewed hillmen, and by peering at the far left, he could espy some very relaxed-seeming bowmen, but where were the serious threats, the elephants, the cavalry even? There were only rank after rank of those strange cart-things.
He summoned his sons, Kavaphilitup and Beengonalongtim, and his brother in law Hun Do Bop, the Sultan of the Malays. "Kava, my son, I bid you take your footmen, and all the cavalry of the army, and 2 companies of elephants, and deploy them to the left of this stream. Drive the length of the field, then crush those archers idling on the banks. Once you've done that, you should be able to cross the hill and sack his camp." Kava beamed his ever-cheery smile and bounced off, crying "We're off again, we're off again, lets kill someones".
Prince Hoon paused, inhaling the exotics fumes arising from the Malay pipes, then shook his head. "Been, you form up on the right of the river. You have the Maiden Guard, and your own elephants, and half the remaining infantry. Advance through that scrub, and wait at the edge. Once you've seen Kava cross the river, start pushing forward to pin the Hebrews back onto him." "Sure thing, daddio" Beengonalongtim replied, laying back on his pillow.
"Sultan, I entrust you to the far right - form your men up and press through the gap in the hills there. I shall be assaulting that central hill from three sides, and covering the middle of the field with my elephants, so I rely on you to press the gap, and stop any reinforcements reaching the Hebrew garrison on the hill. Once I have cleared the hill, we should be able to attack the Hebrew line in unison". "Cool, cool, what you say, m'boy. We be laying a heavy drumbeat on de heads of dem Hebrews, an' de color of de True God be holding dem tight - we rattle dem up and roll dem over".
Prince Hoon paused, nonplussed, and looked to his son, hoping for a translation. "He said thats fine, but if you dont hurry his boys will do the whole job before you get there." Hoon grinned, and waved his royal fan, sending a wave of eau d'elephant to combat the thick resiny smoke of the Malay.
Heron River
The day dawned bright, with nary a shimmer of rain to be seen for once. Prince Hoon gathered his elephantry in the centre of the field, and sent forward the waves of tribesmen to assault the Hill of Frogs. Far to the right, the Malays were lurching forward, spreading out from a narrow column of foot, with their elephants hanging back. To his left, Prince Been's troops were advancing carefully, keeping pace with his own troops, while Prince Kava, across the river, had spurred his troops to great efforts - the cavalry had ridden the length of the field already, pinning down the Hebrew scouts, while the foot were already making strides to catch up.
As his men strode forward, they espied a line of defenders on the leafy hilltops, and, in the shadow of the hill, another column of infantry, ready to move out to either side. These reserves started deploying and wheeling to face the elephants of Prince Hoon, while off to his left, the war-carts of the Hebrews swept towards the slowly advancing infantry of Prince Been.
Prince Hoon stopped his elephantry, bringing forward a line of his own Guards to shield them, while the first assault on the Hill of Frogs was launched, and repelled with little loss. The Guards, complaining mightily about the hills of elephant ordure they'd already had to attack, delivered a short sharp charge to drive the Hebrew column back. Meantime, the Hebrew war-carts had approached closer to the scrub on the left, and some strange humped monstrosities had followed them, turning to try and shore up the flank of the Hebrew archers.
Prince Kava's troops, inspired by his ferocious singing (or perhaps desirous of escaping it) had progressed by leaps and bounds. The Cavalry, having driven the Hebrew scouts across the desultory creek, drew back, and allowed the long column of infantry behind them to execute a simple turn, becoming an attack-line aimed straight at the outnumbered Hebrew archers. Meanwhile, Kava's elephants had espied a more tempting target - the flank of the Hebrew war-carts, and trotted over to the rivers' edge, ready to assault them.
At this point, with the Malays advancing boldly, the second assault on the hill was launched, and started to make a little headway at both ends - the outnumbered Gibborim fighting valiantly, but to little effect. At this point, a single war-cart approached, bearing palm leaves held on high. Prince Hoon received the embassy curiously, and was flabbergasted to find that the Hebrews were suing for peace - as their lands had been invaded from the west, they needed their army intact to face this peril. After negotiating the withdrawal, and the ceding of these worthless hills to enlarge the Kingdom of the Free, Prince Hoon granted their request.
Blair realised that things were pretty hopeless, before our main lines
clashed, as his Kn chariots were facing Aux in RGO, and too close to manouevre,
while his garrison was outflanked and outnumbered, as were the BwI on the
river bank - as he said, there wasn't any point on the field where he had
a favourable match-up, so he elected to resign, leaving us time for a 2nd
game that day.
For the Siamese:
1. Elephants are *damned* unwieldy
2. WbS should stick to the middle of the field, where
they have some chance of seeing an enemy at some stage ...
For the Hebrews:
1. BwI are not terribly useful if your opponent doesnt
have much mounted
2. Kn do not dare trying to charge infantry with
even a toe in RGO/DGO
3. Posting a garrison far forward in ambush can easily
turn into a trap for the ambusher
4. Too much terrain does not help the Hebrews, who
need plenty of clear space for their mounted.