A Bad Day to Go Camping - Western Han vs. Mongols

Who stands between the Mongol horde and the Han camp?

The Han overrun the Mongol camp.

By coincidence, the gaming day started with Lance, Andrew and me meeting for lunch at a Chinese buffet/Mongolian BBQ joint a stone’s throw from the FLGS. The day ended with both the Mongol and Han camps being overrun.

This was the first outing of my Western Han since I finished painting them a month ago. I had an idea how to run them and figured they could hold their own against Lance's Mongol army. My plan was to set up my TuGs of combined  close fighters and missile troops, with deployed caltrops, in the center and my dependent state bow armed cavalry and heavy cavalry armed with crossbows and pole arms on either flank. In total I had four TuGs of combined pole arm and cross bow infantry, one TuG of conscript long spear armed infantry, three TuGs of dependent state cavalry and three TuGs of heavy cavalry (10,503 points)

Hordes of Mongols

Lance split his force of nine TuGs, all mounted with a strong force of superior, melee expert cavalry, with four TuGs on his left flank and five TuGs on his right.   (10,500 points). Clearly he intended to avoid my infantry and overwhelm my flanks.

The fight was very close the whole game. The Mongols overran the Han left flank and the Han returned the favor by routing the Mongol left flank.  This meant both camps were left exposed and unprotected. The Mongols hit the Han camp first but failed to destroy in in one turn. The next turn the Han hit the Mongol camp and they too failed to cause the inhabitants to flee. After the game we realized we did the camp combat incorrectly - but at least we were consistent in our inconsistency.

It was very close at the end. On the last turn the Mongols had the initiative and needed to destroy two TuGs (including the camp) while the Han just needed to break the camp to force the Mongol breakpoint. In the end, the Mongols destroyed the Han camp but couldn't put enough hits on an infantry unit to break, allowing the Han to win the day (15 - 10) when they pulled up the Mongol tent pegs.

Shout out to Andrew for leading the successful attack against the Mongol left flank and to Brian for reminding me to take pictures.

Close up of the Han Dependent State Cavalry.  Their bows were useless in melee against the Mongol cavalry. But typical of all things Han, they would shoot first.

More hordes of Mongols

View of the cavalry battle on the Han left flank. The Han used their numbers to overwhelm the Mongols.

High-level view of the cavalry battle on the Han right flank

Han conscript long spearmen create a hole in the line when they push forward toward the Mongol camp.

Han infantry come off the hill and pick up their caltrops to get within crossbow range.

Han cavalry prepare to charge

Caltrops proved useless in this battle.

One Mongol cavalry unit vs. two Han conscript units. Charge and they get stuck on the pole arms; trade shots and they're outnumbered. The Mongols decided to charge. 

Two units of dependent state cavalry. They would last two turns in combat before breaking.

A look at the Han heavy cavalry. The pole armed figures up front and the crossbow armed in back.

The last Mongol unit on their left flank were merely speed bumps.