Cham vs Navarrese

Still experimenting with Khmer and Cham armies, I tried a Cham version, that is usually overlooked because of the compulsory ally generals. Apart the unreliability problem, I found using irregular dice with SE armies not an issue, mainly because I'm not confident with the low pip dice corps in regular armies. The Cham army list is here

In this game I faced a Navarrese army, a nasty opponent in medieval period.

I was the defender, and tried to set up the terrain features to have a limited good going area where to attack with my elephants. I needed a target.

The right sector was cluttered with a large wood and a village, so I deployed in line intespersing elephants and auxilia. Navarrese deployed second and was scaried by the elephants. He tried to avoid the frontal clash, using the wood to manouver around my right wing. The english corps was isolated by the way, and was a perfect target for my auxilia superior. The picture is taken after my first bound, with luckily both Cham allies being reliable.

The english bowfire was uneffective, also due the ElX fire that killed some enemy elements. More had to recoil weakening the english line, pushing the second rank in the marshy ground were they did not give any support.

With the english bowmen hard pressed, the navarrese tried to spring the outflank manouver. This was uneffective, being slow and pip intensive. The Cham elephants were faster to charge Navarrese knights.

The lack of the psiloi screen now was felt badly

English archers were pushed back in the marsh, with the men at arms arriving in the combat line too late to help them

Once the elephants engaged the knights, the game ended quickly. The navarrese army was crushed in few combat rounds.

The battle was one sided, because of some navarrese mistakes: the corps were isolated and did not help each other, the main tool to stop elephants, foot skirmishers, were not used. IAxS proved again unwieldy in difficult going, expecially if part of an irregular command structure. Last but not least, deploying back will not slow enemy without troops that physically engage the enemy. Navarrese is a good army but need to be coordinated to be successful. These kind of games are very useful to tune the use of an army, next time Navarrese will be much tougher to face.