Mongol v Korean

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Paul K
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Mongol v Korean

Post by Paul K »

This club game pitted a medieval Mongol army against a Korean army both to a 266 points value.
The dice dictated that Tony and James had the Mongols and Chris, Tim and I the Koreans. The terrain was chosen and set out before the armies were known by the players and the scattering of small areas of woodland would present a challenge to the very mobile Mongol army which would favour a more open terrain.
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The Mongols deployed first, centrally four hexes in from their table edge and moved second. We decided to deploy all our Korean infantry on the left and all the cavalry on the right. This would make the Korean infantry very vulnerable to the bows of the Mongol light cavalry, but at the same time give the massed Korean cavalry a chance to directly confront the Mongol heavy units in more equal numbers on the right of the field.
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Opening moves saw James quickly launched his Mongol light units around the left flank of Chris’s Korean infantry, their bows inflicting early casualties and disrupting and recoiling many of these ‘C’ class units. Tim held the central 3 hex escarpment while I advanced the entire Korean cavalry in a line wheeling towards Tony’s Mongol cavalry. In response, Tony slowly pulled his Mongol back in an unbroken line – both opposing cavalry forces were searching for an exposed flank to attack!
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While the cavalry forces continued to shadow each other, the Korean infantry were being steadily whittled away. Because James’s Mongol horsemen had to circumnavigate a 4 hex forest area, this gave some protection but the Korean militia units were being slowly shot to pieces. However, their sacrifice bought time for me to position my cavalry ready for an all or nothing charge. Tony, again pulled his Mongol cavalry back, dismounting 2 units of light cavalry to take up position in the woodland. I followed-up once more but this did mean that my right flank became exposed.
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Tony, took his opportunity and attacked the right flank of my cavalry with heavy and light units. At the same time James’s Mongols had pushed the Korean infantry back to the 3 hex escarpment. The Korean hand-gunners put up a stiffer resistance than the militia but the infantry losses were quickly mounting. The Mongol cavalry attack failed to turn the flank of the Korean cavalry which enabled me in the next tactical move to commit all of remainder of the cavalry into hand-to-hand combat supported by Tim’s infantry advancing in the centre. Good Korean cavalry shooting combined with better hand-to-hand combat results than the Mongols had squeezed the Mongols territorially and in doing so severely restricted their movement options.
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The loss of a Mongol general in the mass cavalry engagement on the right turned the game in favour of the Koreans. At last, the hard pressed Korean infantry were able to exact some revenge on their Mongol opponents as they were trapped into engaging in hand-to-hand combat. However, 4 of the Mongol heavy cavalry units were still not committed to the fight and there was only one place where they were going to charge – directly into the centre of the Korean force funnelled between 2 areas of woodland. The scene was set for the deciding encounter. The heavy Mongol units smashed their way through the Korean infantry and light and Heavy Korean cavalry in front, but in doing so found themselves exposed on either flank.
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The next Korean tactical move was going to decide the game which by now had seen both armies whittled down to barely a third of their original strength. The Mongol heavies were attacked on three sides and the Koreans committed 2 of the 3 remaining generals into this final all or nothing engagement. With hand-to-hand combat results again favouring the Koreans, the recoiling Mongol heavy units had nowhere to go and they were removed from the table along with their last general. Game over!
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Game Analysis

The sacrifice of the Korean infantry of the left wing gave the Korean cavalry on the opposite wing time to force back and eventually defeat the Mongol cavalry facing them, before then moving to support the hard pressed Korean infantry in the centre. The shooting and combat dice did favour the Koreans at pivotal points and this combined with territorial dominance delivered the Korean victory.
Kind regards
Paul

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