A TakeOut too Far
After midnight, the night was pierced with the sound of galloping hooves, as a messenger approached from the west. Lo Fat was gleefully woken by his aides, at which point the rest of the army commenced their slumbers. Lo Fat strode out of the tent, carefully clad in the latest Pei Sh`ao robe (with the label unobtrusively visible, of course), and watched the approaching courier curiously. "Another strange Persian I see - I believe these ones claim descent from some hairy barbarians from Mongolia?" Fei Tei, the only aide still awake, grunted assent, and rested his head against the tent pole.
Lo Fat accepted the scrip that the courier proffered, and paused to sniff the scented paper. "Ahh, delicate rose water - is this some Persian lady succumbed to my charms?" He opened it and frowned - the paper was stamped "From the Desk of the Il Khan". Reading on, his scowl deepened, until he screamed out ".. and two dishes of chicken fried rice????" Disembowelling the courier for emphasis, he roused his officers, who awoke the grumbling, bleary-eyed troopers, and the whole force reluctantly resumed the saddle.
After hours of stumbling bad-temperedly through the hills of Persia, a heavy mist descended on the lands. Pu Ki, looking wan, hurriedly thumbed through his scrolls. "That's passing strange, this mist should not be descending til an hour before dawn, or so sayeth the Imperial Weather Report". "Bah, they've got it wrong again - onwards!" grunted Lo Fat. Scouts soon came scurrying back with word of the Persians and their Il-Khan, deployed in a vast flat valley ahead.
Lo Fat gave the signal to form "The Anvil falls on the Foot", and the army stumbled through the dark, banging into each other and cursing, until the Turfan had extended a long line to the right, with the Turks formed in a column beside the baggage, while the Cavalry of Lo Fat occupied the centre, and that of Pu Ki the left - with horse archers extending his line 'til it met the hills adjoining this valley. Peering short-sightedly into the mist, Lo Fat muttered "I'll tattoo 'Pork with Black Bean Sauce' on his chest", and ordered a careful advance.
A TakeOut too Far
The army proceeded to probe forward cautiously, keeping each command in sight of the next, except for the Turks, who Lo Fat sent slanting to the left, to support Pu Ki's horse archers. After half an hour of groping through the night and mist, the first Persian scouts were sighted, all along the front. Ko Dali, the Turfan commander, pushed his cavalry cautiously forward, and directed his horse archers to probe around behind the Persian scouts. The scouts started falling back in alarm, but were caught by the Turfan cavalry, and driven back, although with little loss.
Meanwhile, Lo Fat and Pu Ki pressed forward with their cavalry, en masse. Pu Ki was unable to catch the scouts he had seen, but Lo Fat found that the enemy scouts, in falling back, had gotten entangled with a supporting column of Light Horse, and a swift charge wreaked much damage amongst both scouts and supports - the tangle of remnants fell back on their supporting cavalry lines. Lo Fat looked to press on eagerly, but Pu Ki was being held up in his advance - his horse archers had suffered badly at the hands of the Persian light horse, and only the arrival of the Turks to sustain them protected Pu Ki's flank.
A messenger galloped up from the rear, announcing that a flanking column of Persian light horse had arrived and was menacing the camp, at which Lo Fat sent him back with orders to pack up the camp and steal away into the mists. This worked successfully, with only the Turfan baggage being caught and sacked. This did not seem to deter the Turfan, who had pressed forward and caught the rest of the Persian skirmishers, only to be pressed back by a charge of Knights and cavalry. They accepted this charge, falling back in good order in front of them, and encircling the headlong assault as they did.
Lo Fat urged his men on, smashing aside the main body of Persian cavalry in a single decisive charge, while Pu Ki guarded his flank. At the same time, the Turkish light horse caught and broke the Persians they had been chasing, while the Turfan, having enclosed the Knights and the enemy Commander in an iron ring, crushed them - Ko Dali personally slaying the Persian general in the melee, with a brave knife blow to the spine.
The shattered remnants of the Persians, hearing desolation and despair
from all sides, abandoned the battlefield, and fled into the mist. Lo Fat,
well-satisfied that his honour was restored, ordered his troops back to
their blankets for a well-earned rest.
For the Chinese:
1. Dont put LhF out to play with LhS in the
mist!
2. A couple of Baggage guards might be a good idea
occasionally ...
For the Ilkhanids:
1. Dont put lines of LH out to stop Cv when you're
in the mist
2. Dont put LH into column in mist - with the loss
of movement, you'll never get out of column.
3. Dont expect CvS to stand up to CvS backed by CvO
4. 2 elements of KnS arent enough to make a difference
if used against CvS
5. A flank-march in night mist has great difficulty
intervening in the battle, except to threaten baggage.