The terracotta army of China's first emperor is an inspiring sight, but the old WRG 6th edition army list (Book 1, list 16, Publ 1981) looked awful - lots of poor quality "D" class infantry with odd weapons and a few chariots. Then a friend described a Chou dynasty army he had seen at a competition. I thought it sounded interesting, so started to look at the army list and actually calculate what the army could contain. This was interesting and there were some nice figures about (I picked Museum Miniatures), so I began painting.
My 1600 point 7th Edition Chou army comprised: 10 units each of 12 "D class" light infantry with bow or crossbow; 1 sub-unit of 8 guard crossbowmen; 1 unit of 6 heavy cavalry; 6 sub-units of 16 "D class" medium infantry (half each unit with pike, half with bow or crossbow); as many units as possible of two 4 horse heavy chariots; possibly some light chariots or light cavalry. If memory serves, you end up with almost every infantry figure the army list contains at 1600 points. The units are grouped into all arms commands.
The plan for use (or grand strategy) is to deploy chariots and medium infantry behind a screen of light infantry. The screen goes forward and probes for weaknesses which the chariots and medium infantry try to exploit (i.e. cavalry army tactics). A chariot unit and a medium infantry unit operate as a team (with each unit usually deployed on a 1 element frontage). In other words, depending on the immediate threat faced, one is pushed forward and the other hangs back: the aim is to provide successive shocks (with one unit engaging the enemy in melee and the other joining in on the next move).
The chariots provide shock power and the army has a lot of them, but must avoid wasteful charges (as it is very fatigue point intensive). Unfortunately, the infantry is not good at driving off good quality enemy skirmishers. Therefore, the army is not good as a point punch force.
Then the new 7th Edition lists (Vol 2, Publ 1993) came out and the army (list 78) changed radically, losing almost all the light infantry. However, the Ch'in army (list 83) now looked rather interesting with a mass of fanatic (Irregular "A") foot, good quality regular foot and chariots. So I painted a few more figures (and retired a lot of light infantry to a box) and, hey-presto, a Ch'in army emerged.
The Ch'in army had a number of 2 model chariot units (but far fewer than the Chou), some 24 man fanatic foot units (medium infantry, half each unit with 2HCT, Sh and half with bow or crossbow), one to two 16 man elite/chariot support (light heavy) infantry units and some light cavalry. My army had changed totally from a large number of chariots with a huge mass of poor quality infantry supports (Chou), to a high morale, good quality infantry army with chariot supports (Ch'in).
The grand strategy had also changed. My Ch'in army was a point punch force, which needed a solid target. The aim was to use the supports to clear the way for the fanatic foot, who would then punch their way through the enemy: the remainder of the army tried to keep the rest of the enemy army's attention.
The shock power now resided with the 24 man fanatic foot units, who went in shoulder to shoulder (or with small gaps for the chariots). The rest of the army supported this by clearing the way and holding the flanks.
DBM arrived together with various domestic upheavals (moving from UK to US and back, followed by twins), so the army still awaits an outing under these rules. It will probably revert to being a Chou army (as I like the chariots), but requires some more figures and rebasing. The Chou list (Bk 1, List 32) can give rise to two very different armies. The first option is based around massed Chariots (as Irr Kn(O)), with everyone else in a supporting role: a typical irregular charging knight army. The second option is based around regular spearmen/swordsmen and archers, with a minimum of chariots (and all the non-regular chariots under the command of an Ally): a regular foot army with a few chariots (knights). These two very different options should give a regular opponent pause for thought. Alternatively, pursuing the second option to a logical conclusion probably leads to a warring states period army (Bk 2, List 4) with improved firepower, and command and control: see Slingshot 205 for an example.
Final point - the army is very colourful; see Nicholas Elsden's comments in Slingshot 205 and 197. My only book on the subject (The First Emperor of China, R Guisso, C Pagani & D Miller, 1989, ISBN 0 283 99973 X) mentions two groups of soldiers (from one pit). The first group has green robes, lavender collars & cuffs and black armour. The second group has red tunics, pale blue collars & cuffs and dark brown armour. Both groups have dark blue shoes, white stockings and black shoes with red laces.
| Last revised: January 13, 2000. | |
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