Battle Report - Early T'ang vs Later Hungarian

Lo Fat sniffed suspiciously at the pot, and dabbled his little finger into the nauseating mixture. "What is it they call this muck?" he asked, licking cautiously at his finger. "Goulash, was what they said - unless that's the local lingo for 'Please Dont Cut Me In Half'" replied his aide. Lo Fat coughed, then spat the muck out and swilled his mouth out with fresh tea. "No wonder all the natives look so startled all the time" he said. "Those round eyes quite put me off my lunch".

Pu Ki entered the tent, munching on a length of sausage. "What is the word from our Lord and Master?" he asked. Lo Fat looked at him in surprise, and ignored the question. "I thought you'd be more cautious about eating the local foods, with your delicate digestion?" "Oh, this is not bad - a bit like wolves' intestines stuffed with garlic prawns and duck, like the street vendors in Xiuang make. Anyway, I had a long interview with a local medicine man. After I stopped him from bleeding me with his razors, he told me that I must be allergic to rice, and that my digestion would be fine if I avoided rice, and certain food colourings".

Lo Fat shuddered. "Avoid rice? that's like avoiding breathing, or ignoring the Emperor - a shortcut to joining your ancestors, surely?" Pu Ki merely shrugged, and said, "Well, so far so good. Anyway, what is the pleasure of our new Prince - the enemy looks like they're ready to fight tomorrow, to defend that scrubby little village of theirs."

Tossing the goulash aside, Lo Fat sipped his jasmine tea and considered. "Prince Dum Gai has suggested that we launch the allies on a full frontal assault at midnight, while our forces remain in reserve until the morning. I believe he has acquired this pearl of wisdom from his scholarly attendants: with an eye to eliminating our allies, I presume."
Ignoring Pu Ki's startled look, he continued, "Unfortunately, the Prince is currently indisposed, and I fear that, lacking his inspirational presence at the head of the army, this plan is doomed to fail."

"Indisposed? what ails the boy?" "I fear he overdid his enthusiasm for foreign foods, eating rather too much of this .. Goulash .. rubbish". Pu Ki looked uncertainly at the salami in his hand, and asked, "How much is too much?" and Lo Fat grinned, "About 3 cauldrons' full, once the guards had him properly pinned down." Pu Ki laughed in comprehension, "Well, boys will be boys I suppose. So what have you planned instead?"

Lo Fat crouched and scratched his plan in the dirt. "Look, there is the village away on the right. They will almost certainly deploy their infantry around that, and I expect the knights in the centre, with their right wing facing this wood, and mostly of light horse I expect. Our answer will be to ignore the infantry, and aim to crush their light horse - once we have killed most of them, the campaign will go much smoother, if nothing else. So, the Turks are to circle around the lefthand edge of this wood, while my skirmishers push through it to ensure it's safe. I'll take the bulk of the Pu Hai cavalry, and drive straight up the field - between the Turks and I, we should be able to catch his light cavalry & Hussars. You take the Pu Ping archers, and face the centre - they should keep his Knights properly terrified, while the Turfan will start facing his infantry in the village. Once he has the Hungarian infantry pinned down, he can march the bulk of his forces across the field to support me, and give protection to your left flank if the knights get too frisky."

The battle opened much as Lo Fat expected. Under a clear blue sky, the Turks threatened the Hungarian right flank, drawing the bulk of their light horse that way, then Lo Fat marched his cavalry up beside the woods, penning the Hungarian light horse between him and the Turks. Lo Fat was surprised to see the Hungarian knights commence the battle in a long unwieldy column, and hid a smile as he rode past them, watching them struggling vainly to manouevre.

Under the threat of the slowly advancing Pu Ping archers, these Knights spread out, then broke into sections trying to wheel - obviously itching to assail Lo Fat's flank. However, the Turfan allies had marched their cavalry behind the Pu Ping, and moved up to counter the ragged column of knights, leaving a few horse archers to keep the Hungarian infantry amused.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian light horse, pressed from two fronts, dashed in to attack the Turks, but made little headway. With their reserves drawn off to try and slow down Lo Fat, the Hungarian line was split, and bands of Turkish horse archers started encircling them. Lo Fat kept driving his mass of cavalry forward, eventually snapping up some of the enemy horse, and catching the enemy general, with his bodyguard of knights.

While Lo Fat and the Turks ground the Hungarian hussars into chow mein, the Turfan squared up to fight the disorderly mob of knights. However, as the knights advanced,they exposed their flank to Pu Ki, who seized the opportunity, throwing his small reserve of horse archers against their flank, further disordering them, and slaying many. A final despairing charge by the Hungarian king and his bodyguard, trying to ride down the Pu Ping, was met with a such a blizzard of arrows that none of the Hungarians swords tasted blood, and ended the uneven struggle.
 

For the Chinese:
1.    Put some LH in front of the mounted BwX, so they dont get forced into dismounting too early (duh!)

For the Hungarians:
1.    Irregular Kn manouevre like dead cows - don't try to get fancy with them.
2.    If you invest a lot of points in a foot command, you need to use it forcefully to get the enemy to engage it -
        otherwise a few skirmishers can tie up a third of your army.
3.    Dont try fancy manouevres with LH in the face of approaching Cav!