AYN JALUT 1260

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Under the command of Genghis Khan's grandson Hulegu, the last great Mongol conquest army to take to the field, up to 150,000 men, burst out of Persia and presented itself before Baghdad in 1258. The mythic capital of the Abbasids fell and so was most of the Levant by early 1260. With the coastal Crusader cities cowed, only Mamluk Egypt stood in the way of Mongol domination of the Islamic heartland. At this critical juncture however, Hulegu was recalled to Mongolia upon the death of his cousin the great Khan Mongke, leaving a 20,000 strong force behind. With the odds evening up, Sultan Qutuz marched out of Egypt to seek battle. It came at Ayn Jalut, south east of the Sea of Galilee, on 8 September 1260.

Designer's notes:

Of the two main medieval sources, one speaks of the Mongols being lured into a trap by a feigned retreat and outflanked, and the other of a straight up fight with one wing of the Mamluks (interpreted as their left wing) near collapse until sultan Qutuz entered the fray to save it and reverse the situation. The design incorporates both views, with the Mongols being exposed initially on their left by a Mamluk counterattack and being in superior numbers on their right, and with sultan Qutuz held back with the Mamluk reserve. With objective counters mostly on the Mamluk left, the Mongols will have to push hard there before the Mamluk reserve can intervene. Care is taken so that the battle doesn't degenerate into an "aerial dogfight" because even with cavalry battles, there are frontlines in the big picture.

Main source: John Masson Smith, Jr. "Ayn Jālūt: Mamlūk Success or Mongol Failure?", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 44, no 2 (Dec 1984), pp 307-345.

66 moving units, 12 turns

[Micha63]

Thank you for your work.