Southern Han vs Khmer

Late Tang is a list that I like because the history of the Tang empire and its fall is very interesting. Southern Han has a combination of troops that is unique and unlike any other chinese army, it has an elephant corps. I have always organized the army around the three IElS, but this time I tested the infantry upgraded to regular. Being a costly modification, I had to reduce the elephants to a single model. An important change, that needed a new tactical approach.

My opponent too was testing a new army: Khmer in the third period, so no IElX. An almost historical mattch up.

As attacker I tried to protect the flanks with a couple of small marshes and a rocky hill. My opponent had the same idea, so the battlefield was quite cluttered. My deployment was quite standard, with pikes in the center.

We had an inversion in set up, so I deployed and moved first. The right wing had the higher pip die, and this let me to manouver the troops there, to send the small cavalry detachment to the flank to try to roll the enemy line

The manouver seemed promising. In the meantime the pike phalanx attacked the enemy elephants, supported by the archers shooting against enemy IAxO

Khmer reacted revealing an ambush of IPsI that moved to protect the threatened flank.

In the meantime, Khmer attacked on the left to exploit its superiority in the village sector

Khmer attack was successful and han lost many elements, being forced to send in almost all the reserves avalaible

On the right the khmer IPsI didn't last long facing in the open IAxS and CvO. Soon the khmer corps was broken

Khmer tried several desperate assaults to break the mauled han left wing, but the chinese troops resisted

Khmer center, handicapped by the lower pip die, was now attacked from three direction and fell. 23-2 to Souther han.

A tough game, as often is the case when using infantry armies. The battle was decided more by flank attacks than by frontal breakthrough. Khmer was handicapped in the center having the lower pip die and being targeted by RBwO that disordered the formation to a point that it was never able to launch a coordinated attack. RCvI was too close to the front line and could not help once the right flank was exposed. This time RBdF lost badly to RAxS in good going.

I like this version for the good control on the infantry, but use just 1 IElS is a pain. I will try to develop a new version with both regular infantry and 3 IElS, but it seems quite hard to have a balanced army.