Elephants of fury
Turin 2014 tournament is reserved to fourth period armies, from 1071 to 1515 AD. The last tournament attended, I played Cham and I enjoyed a lot Elephants. I have decided to field nellys again, choosing Siamese.
Waiting for Eureka 300 club to release Siamese, I looked around for the correct figures. At the moment Irregular produces a code for Siamese infantry and an elephant mounted general, while Timeline, that had a complete range, is no more in production. This is a problem. So I decided to morph my Khmer. After all it seems that Khmer influenced a lot Siamese culture, so I had a reasonable justification.
The last late medieval tournaments, I saw a lot of pikes, BdS and BwS used. So I organized the army to be able to face all these threats.
The army doctrine was to be able to deliver a powerful attack. To achieve that, I wanted to use all the elephants and field them as superior. In addition, the behemots would be supported by IWbF, to help against pikes and bowmen. I had to use an ally general but my options were limited.
This is the list:
C1- CiC IElS, 4 IElS, 4 IBdF, 4 IPsO, 2 IBgI - 20ME
C2- SG IElS, 2 IElS, 12 IWbF, 3 IAxO, 5 IPsO - 20ME
C3- AG IElS, 2 IElS, 12 IWbF, 3 IAxO, 5 IPsO - 20ME
C4- 1 IBgO, 3 BgI - 4ME
Stratagem: False reinforcement
The Elephants could be screened by the infantry in case I would face artillery, and I had few light troops for the flanks. Low aggressivity should let me set up the battlefield with some difficult going on the flanks, to protect the army from outflanking, and an avenue to launch my attack. Moving first would be important to pin the enemy and engage it as fast as possible. My normal terrain pick up would be 2 x1FE SH, a 1/2 FE Bua, 1 FE Wood and a 1/2 FE wood or scrub.
The disadvantage of letting the opponent deploy on my troops would be partly compensated by interspersing the wbf blocks with elephants, to enjoy mutual support from these troops types.
The army is very small and fragile, so I could not withstand a prolonged fight. The plan is to try to use at the best the destructiveness of the elephants superior and of warband fast. The presence of impetorus troops was an advantage imho, because let me keep on an aggressive action even with low pips.
To help to destroy the enemy quickly, I took the false reinforcement stratagem. This could deliver a decisive blow to break the enemy. Being a stratagem that I never saw used, I hoped that the surprise factor would help me.
The army seemed to be quite good but I did not test it before sending the list to the checker, so I was ready for glorious victories or spectacular defeats.
The Siamese proved a good army, and surely it was important the surprise factor. No one had experience dealing with them. I hope Eureka will release soon the Siamese range, so I could buy it. This is an army fun to use and worth to have.