Battle of Dandanaquan 1040AD

[ZeaBed]

A numerically unequal battle between the leaders of the emergent, expanding Seljuk empire and the larger but declining Ghaznavid empire, fought in eastern Persia in 1040 AD.

I understand that this battle has been modeled in boardgames, with figurines, etc., but I've found no evidence of a FoG Digital version. As the battle is of interest to me, I decided to go ahead and build the scenario. I've found that it's a hard battle for both sides if there is some equality of gaming skills. The terrain is fairly rough and uneven. And it's constricted, as the frontline narrows when the Ghaznavids approach the Seljuk lines, yet mobility and flexibility remain essential for both.

Update: Version 1.3 uploaded on 15 July 2014.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/405 ... 20v1.3.zip

[amenofi64]

Great work thanks.

[Micha63]

Thank you.

[ZeaBed]

You're both welcome. The moderately revised update will tone down the size of the individual elephant units, which are probably too large (no pun intended). One source I consulted listed the number of mercenary-led Ghaznavid elephants as 300, which is a much smaller number.

[ZeaBed]

Updated to version 1.1.

[stockwellpete]

Paired game finished now. Results . . .

Ghazanavids 13/62 beat Seljuk Turks 47/44
Seljuk Turks 14/44 beat Ghazanavids 64/62

Well, I enjoyed these two games immensely (even though my opponent may not have done). The two results suggest that the scenario is very well-balanced. What is most striking about it (and it is very good to look at) is that the size of the battlefield is a tiny 30x20. At first it is a bit like having a punch-up in a phone box because there is just no room but very quickly important spaces open up and there are a lot of important decisions to make. I reckon that a lot of our other scenarios would work very well at 30x20 too so I hope there are a few more made of this size. Excellent.

[ZeaBed]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed. There's nothing like winning on each side of a scenario.

[ZeaBed]

Scenario version 1.2 has is now linked in the original post to this thread.

[ZeaBed]

Download link to version 1.3 available in the original post. Minor changes to correct a couple of inaccuracies in design and modeling.