Timurids v Golden Horde

[Westbury]

It's been nigh on a year since the Timurids and friends had an outing so we set to last week.

[Westbury]

Terrain was a flat plain broken up by 3 low hills and a stream. Two of the low hills had a wooded valley between them and the other was covered on it's one side by a wood, all woods were open and the stream was fordable.
The Golden Horde formed up between the one hill in it's deployment area and across the plain to behind one of the hills that formed the valley. On the hill, Tokhtamysh sat with his guard, then stretch away to his left Edigey commanded an advance guard of skirmish cavalry that screened the commands of Mamai, Begich and a Russian contingent under Boris of Suzdal; out on the extreme left, hidden by the hill was Ali Beg and the Cumans.
Tamerlane deployed on the other hill of the valley with his guard, to his right were the White Sheep Turks under Quara Yusuf, on the left, between him and the stream were Muhammad Sultan & Jahangir Sultan with their commands and over the stream was Safal din Barlas, each of the heavy cavalry commands had an elephant.
The Cumans had the same orders, advance through the wood and turn the enemy flank, everyone else was ordered to advance steadily using their bows and once within range to get stuck in, this obviously didn't apply to the Russian Boyars who were the only unit without bows.
 

[MaleGriffin]

Lovely looking game!

[Westbury]

The battle was one of quality v quantity. The Golden Horde outnumbered the Timurids but had no Elite troops and were less well armoured.
On the Timurid right the Turks bumped into the Cumans and both spent the bulk of the game shooting disorganised in the wood - ultimately the Cumans gave ground and retired from the battle leaving the Turks sitting on the Horde left flank.
On the hill, Tamerlane realised that the Horde four centre commands could easily overwhelm his two commands so he committed the Guard early which drew the Boyars like a magnet and over the course of the battle they managed to see off all three bodies, although they themselves were quite the worse for wear by the end. The better armoured and better quality Timurids then had a hard fought battle in the centre which finally tipped their way with the arrival of Barlas from over the stream.
On his hill, Tokhtamysh remained quiet until Barlas crossed the stream and then committed his Guard in a flank attack which stopped the lead unit but didn't prevent the others getting through.

[Westbury]

Alleged file size problems again 

[Westbury]

It was nice to this collection of oldies out again, some must be 30 years old  but still give a good game.
The new additions were the Guard.
Still some more castings sitting around that might get a lick of paint in between other projects, but for now we've got more than enough for a large game.

[Codsticker]

Impressive armies!