A MEETING OF MONGOLS

The following report was the improvised product of combining two ingredients, if one accepts the proposition that historical wargaming can be likened to puttering around in the kitchen, to preparing a meal. First, there was the reading and enjoyment of Professor Kenneth W. Harl’s well researched book, EMPIRES OF THE STEPPES - A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilization. Extending the analogy, let us say that one and two-thirds cups of this at times challenging text was sifted into a large mixing bowl. Second, while randomly looking through old copies of Slingshot (courtesy of the thumb/flash drive, or memory stick which contains 330 pdfs - electronic issues from 1965 to 2020), I stumbled across a one-page battle summary titled “Liegnitz Revenged!” Regarding this random ingredient, let us say that a carefully measured five ounces was poured into that same, albeit figurative, bowl.  

This to-the-point narrative, which appeared in the May 1981 issue, was written by a Derek O’Callaghan, who resided in Dublin at the time. It provided the curious reader with orders of battle, a clear diagram showing terrain, deployment, as well as the movements of various formations, along with a four paragraph summary of the tabletop action fought with, I presume, a version of the WRG rules. Each section took up about a third of the page.  The miniature armies (my guess is 28mm, though this information was not included in the very short but enjoyable brief) employed were Mongols and Norman-Welsh. The author commanded the Mongols. He was convincingly thrashed by his fellow player-general, Michael Cleary. 

Initially, the idea was to replicate this wargame from more than four decades ago, but I could not find a matching Norman-Welsh army list when I searched the MeshWesh database. (Please see https://meshwesh.wgcwar.com/home.) I briefly considered cobbling together Normans and Dark Ages Welsh or North Welsh, but worried about problems with compatible chronology as well as fielding an allied contingent. Thinking that it might prove more interesting to throw two forces of Mongols at one another and see what happened, the original idea was revised.  

To the extent that I was able, the terrain of the “Liegnitz Revenged!” battlefield was copied. The opposing armies would represent factions of Mongols that were engaged in a struggle for power. This was a civil war of sorts, caused by a variety of disagreements over who would or should become the new leader of the numerous and wide-ranging tribes. Specifically, these competing forces were drawn from the Mongol Conquest (1206 AD to 1266 AD) army list found on the aforementioned site. As to rules, I would make use of GRAND TRIUMPH! However, given the unusual size and scale of this fictional engagement, perhaps a better name would be “Grandiose Triumph!”

Map A shows the terrain of the comparatively large tabletop as well as the initial disposition of the all-mounted armies. Subsequent maps show the progress of the battle, of the fighting. 

Comments

This certainly counts as one of the shorter if not shortest wargame reports posted to this out of the way, little known, and possibly quaint blog. However, I have not quite figured out how to match Derek’s brevity while still informing and entertaining the reader. On further review, this goal seems quite impossible, as there were just 10 units per side in the friendly game played in Dublin so many years ago. Considering just the Blue Mongols, their army had three sub-commands, each of which contained 36 units. The leader of the Blue Mongols had 108 bases, stands or units under his direction. This non-28mm army was ten times the size of the one employed by Derek. Adding in the numbers represented by the Gray Mongols, well, we are at 216 units, a little more than 11 times the number of all the units present on that traditional tabletop way back in 1981.

Distracting myself with a consideration of possible unit scale, it occurred to me that 108 bases or stands could represent 10,800 men on horseback with a simple 1:100 scale. This size and depiction could be increased, obviously, by bumping up the representative unit scale. The Blue or Gray Mongols could have fielded 27,000, 54,000, 86,400, or even 108,000 cavalry for this fictional contest.  

This solo wargame certainly counts as one of the largest TRIUMPH! battles that I have ever attempted. There were three 144-point contingents on each side, which means that 432-point armies faced off against each other. (On my infrequent visits to the dedicated blog, please see https://forum.wgcwar.com/, I have not stumbled across any descriptions of very large battles.)

Initially, it did seem a little odd that with so many units of Horse Bow and Elite Cavalry on my tabletop there was no actual missile fire. These exchanges were abstracted in the melee phase of each side’s turn. Reviewing the Appendix in the rules which describes the variety of troop types, Mongols were named in the paragraph about Horse Bow as well as the paragraph about Elite Cavalry. Though different in name, both of these unit types were classed as Open Order and both were valued at 4 points per stand. I confess that I found it a little curious that the melee value against mounted was the same for both types. Given the presumed preference for close combat and given that Elite Cavlary might have better armor than Horse Bow, it seemed reasonable that Elite Cavalry would have a slightly better melee value. A careful review of the QRS informed that this was not the case, that melees between the two troop types would be even contests. A check of the “results” table explained that there were no advantages or special provisions enjoyed by either type. In fact, fairly early on in the scenario, I was reminded of the two-part instructional video which showed an extended example of Elite Foot (i.e., Romans) engaging Pike (i.e., Macedonians). To the extent that pushing and shoving is possible while mounted on a horse, the various melees between the Blue and Gray Mongols were quite similar to the fighting demonstrated by legionaries and phalangites. (For more on this, please see: Triumph Pike Vs Elite Foot.)

In the first sentence of this report, I compared historical wargaming to puttering around in the kitchen. I equated two rather different sources to ingredients. I am not certain that the analogy works or worked. I am not sure if the resulting “mixing in a bowl” qualifies as a recipe. However, for the sake of argument or example, let us continue with the idea. Was the “recipe” a success? Was my hunger satisfied? More importantly, was the reader happy with this particular meal, or was the final product half-baked?

Answering two of the three questions, as I cannot and will not speak for the reader: Yes, I think the scenario was a qualified success, and yes, my sudden craving for something resembling Mongolian beef was satisfied.