TTS AAR: Timurids versus Siamese (Thai)
/Time for my Timurids to take the field again, bolstered by my latest spot of painting: some “flaming oxen” courtesy of Ten Kingdoms prints from Micks Bits via Etsy. Their opponents would be the Siamese (Thai) army of good friend Rob.
Unsurprisingly, the Timurids won the scouting, and I used the opportunity to stack most of my cavalry on the left flank, looking to advance quickly, turn and then roll up the enemy line. My main worries were the Thai elephants lurking opposite my cavalry on the right flank - I’d have to keep well away from them - and the massed infantry facing my largely empty centre: if my flank attacks didn’t go in as planned, I could see my camps overrun for a hefty loss of coin.
Once the game began, I advanced quickly across my entire front, and was happy to see at least some of my left-hand flanking force get into position before an unfortunate Ace stopped the rest from following.
On the other flank, I send my Turkoman light cavalry in to harrass the advancing Thai horse, but no arrows found their mark. No worries: all I wanted to do here was to pin the enemy in place whilst my flank attack went in.
But where was the flank attack?
Yes, I now had four units of cavalry behind the right flank of the advancing Thais, but they seemed to have disappeared from view: the rapid Thai advance leaving my outflanking horsemen too far from the action to immediately intervene.
And that rapid Thai advance was now causing me some problems: more elephants pushed some of my lancers backwards; the “flaming cattle” were sent flying from the field without achieving a thing as his infantry pushed forward; and even my right flank was now fully engaged and foundering!
Finally my flanking force appeared but, again, the rapid advance of the Thais meant that had, so far, little effect.
The main melee across the centre of the field continued with the Timurds, despite being somewhat on the back foot, proving that they still had teeth…particularly on my right, where the enemy elephants had been shot down and more lancers had won a duel with their Thai equivalents and returned to smash into the enemy flank.
My flanking force still hadn’t intervened, but my third cavalry command (the one that had started just to the right of the flanking force) finally dealt with the threat of the Thai cavalry and elephants in front of them, turned, and managed to crash into the flank of the still-advancing Thai infantry.
You can see them in the bottom half of the picture below…and, yes, that’s the flanking force above them, still desperately trying to get into position to have some effect on the battle!
Their intervention meant the end of the left-hand Thai infantry command, and my flanking force finally got into contact, hitting the rear of the other Thai infantry command and causing one measely disorder!
The writing was now on the wall for the Thai, but their guard infantry still managed to dispose of the last of the Kharash (driven slaves) and then crash into one of the Timurid camps.
This was, however, too little too late: the lead unit from the outflanking force finally got its act together and crashed into the back of some unfortunate Thai archers sending them, and Rob’s last three coins, reeling from the field.
So, a commanding 14–3 victory for the Timurids in the end, despite how long it took for the flanking attack to make any meaningful impact on the battle. Credit also to Rob: the scoreline hardly reflects just how close he came to turning defeat into victory. His decision to drive his battle line forward so aggressively very nearly neutralised my flank attack altogether, and the single camp he captured could easily have become three — especially if the Kharash hadn’t held out for as long as they did.
